Murkmere by Patricia Elliott

Author:Patricia Elliott [ELLIOTT, PATRICIA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316088763
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

“Then there was Blanche.

“Eliza loved her, but Blanche was a strange mistress. She seemed to care nothing for company, scarcely knew how to behave. A restless soul, she was, staring out of windows, never settling to embroidery or books. The hems of her dresses were always muddy and torn, and Eliza was always mending the rents. Blanche brought wildflowers and grasses from the mere into the house, and wouldn’t allow them to be thrown away when they rotted. There was talk about her among the servants; the air was thick with rumor.”

I broke in at last. “What sort of rumor?”

“That she was unnatural. She was always down by the mere watching the swans. The servants said she talked to them in their own language.”

The wind rustled through the straw thatching above us and shook the little window. I shivered against my aunt.

“The whisper grew that Blanche Tunstall was one of the avia,” she said, quieter still.

“The avia! Did the Master hear the rumor?”

“He must have. But he loved her, was besotted with her. He wouldn’t stand for any criticism, and he had a temper. Eliza was too frightened to say anything to him. She knew he didn’t believe the old story of the avia, anyway. I should have been more support to her, but I was married, with a baby on the way.”

“A baby?” I said, startled. I’d always tried to find out my mother’s story; it had never occurred to me that my aunt had one of her own.

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