Patience & Sarah (Little Sister's Classics) by Isabel Miller

Author:Isabel Miller [Miller, Isabel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781551521916
Amazon: 1551521911
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Published: 1972-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

There has been a storm all day. This morning it woke me, howling and pelting my windows with snow and sleet. It’s still going on, late afternoon, as strong as ever. Maybe stronger.

In the still-new pleasure of cozy solitude, I am sewing. How lovely to sew without a nag of guilt. (Edward has hired a girl, and I am simply Martha’s neighbor now, not her servant.) I am making firpins for you, which I measured you for from memory – one hand here and the other here is how far? The firpins will be bolder than I and touch you where I have not. They will caress your body all day, as my lucky ambassador – lieutenant – proxy – and at unexpected, inconvenient times you will remember to feel their touch, which is my touch, and your heart will pound. My heart is pounding at the thought. It is the sort of problem I like for us to have.

And you are in your father’s house, thinking of me, and damnation! You are thinking the storm’s so bad you won’t come tonight. You are thinking, in fact, that I wouldn’t want you to come, that I don’t expect you.

Now listen! Now listen here!

But you won’t listen. I’m like a fly in a bottle, buzz buzz. You don’t hear a thought I’m sending you. You are smug in my love and your belief that I care only for your comfort.

Oh what a maddening girl you are! You have the boots for it, the breeches, the long strong legs, everything but plain common sense and the ears to hear me.

I sigh. No use waiting till it’s even darker and even harder. Sigh. Put on extra woolen stockings. Knot the tops. Put shoes back on. Sigh. Put more stockings on over the shoes. Knot the tops. Extra petticoat. Oh, unkind Sarah! You could leap here, on your wonderful legs. And I’ll be trudging and toiling. Well. Scarf over chin and nose-end. Round and round. Shawl. Cloak. Hood up. Another scarf. Mittens. Lantern.

Trudge and toil, yes! This is an ice storm. The sky is falling. Fences are glazed, trees glazed. In short order, I am glazed. No traction for my glazed stockings. And now not even dim light from the sky. The tiny worthless dots my lantern sheds don’t even show my feet. Toil on, poor wayfarer, buffeted, tossed, a lonely fragile bark, whose only crime is a heart too loving.

No thanks to you, I gain your door. Your worthless dogs, asleep for the winter I suppose, don’t challenge me. I pound your door. No one inside can believe, of course, the testimony of mere ears. A knock on a night like this? Yes, you ninnies! I pound again. Who do you think it is? Who else could it be? Didn’t I tell you, I have to see you every day? I suppose you’re all huddled together in wonderment, preparing to delegate Big Ira to go see what that unaccountable noise is, that sounds so much like somebody at the door.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.