Gold as the Morning Sun by Sylvia Halliday

Author:Sylvia Halliday
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626815445
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2015-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

“Hurry up, Callie! I see the lantern on the wagon already. It’s Jace, with our company.” Beth stood in the doorway of Callie’s bedroom, shaking her hands with excitement.

“In a minute.” Callie licked closed the envelope of her letter and picked up her pen again. She didn’t know why she’d even bothered to answer Anabelle’s last, acid-dipped letter. It was clear her ladies’ group in Boston had merely been fair-weather friends.

She wondered why she hadn’t realized it before. All that brave talk about emancipation! Bosh! All they’d been was just a bunch of frightened women, railing against the opposite sex because they were ignorant of men. Afraid to venture into the world. And now that she was married, they viewed her as a traitor.

Since she’d begun to write about Jace—even before the wedding—there had been fewer and fewer letters coming from back East. And the ones that arrived were filled with reproaches and thinly disguised scorn.

What do I care? she thought. Let them try maintaining their independence within a marriage. That was the real challenge. And she’d acquitted herself rather well on that score, she thought.

Still, she felt an emptiness, a loneliness she hadn’t felt in years. Deluded or not, she had enjoyed the first circle of friends she’d ever known.

Beth stamped her foot. “Come on, Callie!”

She put the letter aside. She’d address it later. She followed Beth down the stairs, arriving in the vestibule just in time to meet Jace coming in with Mrs. Watts.

The sight of the woman, so nervous and uncomfortable in her surroundings, touched a chord in Callie’s heart. She limped forward and held out her hand. “Mrs. Watts. So glad you could come.”

“Please. Call me Dora,” she said shyly.

Dora had clearly taken great care with her toilette. Her black serge gown, though shiny with long usage, had been neatly pressed, and she had fashioned her dark brown hair into a smooth, if severe, coil at her nape. Her eardrops were of inexpensive cut steel, but she had fastened a sprig of reddish gold cone flowers to her bodice, which lent a bit of color to her sallow complexion.

“It was so kind of you to invite me through Mr. Perkins,” she added.

That took Callie by surprise. She looked questioningly at Jace.

He smiled, his eyes wide and innocent. “Just as you said, honey, I told Dora you were pining for companionship, and would be honored to receive her. As a worthy substitute for your absent Boston friends.”

The black-hearted devil. He would twist the knife! “Thank you,” she said sweetly.

He glanced around the vestibule. “Where’s Big Jim?”

“Right here, son.” Big Jim came in from the kitchen, waving a large bottle. “I thought it would be fitting to open a bottle of good French wine, in honor of the first company we’ve had in this house.”

“No she’s not,” Beth piped up. “What about the wedding guests?”

While Mrs. Watts turned red with embarrassment, Callie glared at her sister. Then she smiled apologetically to the other woman. “I…don’t know how we could have neglected to invite you,” she said.

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