Shadows of Love Boxset by Patricia Hagan

Author:Patricia Hagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2015-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

When Annalisa awoke the next morning, she had given in to the impulse to run to the windows and pull open the heavy draperies without a moment's hesitation. Somewhere, the sun was shining, but here, surrounded by the moss-draped cypress trees, there was an eternal shadow.

She looked out. The backyard was thick with trees, but at the end of the long span of grassy lawn, there was an almost junglelike denseness. That would be the edge of the swamp, she thought with a shiver, full of insects and reptiles. What a dreadful place, she thought. How could Steve want to live here? How could he want his child to grow up here? She could see that perhaps in the past when there were neighbors and people coming and going, the atmosphere must have been very different. But now it was a living death. And it was up to her to reach out to Steve and make him see that his life, and his son's, were far from over. He had to get away, not only from the grimness of the house, but also the memories that made him so morose.

There was a soft rap on the door, and before she could answer, Grace's voice called out. "Breakfast is being served, Miss Dubose. Mr. Fordham wants you to join him and his mother and son in the dining room."

She dressed quickly, deciding to wear the blue pants suit she had brought. Perhaps Steve would take her for a walk around the place. Surely there was something to see, she thought, a bit perplexed.

The dining room might have taken her breath away had it been in the days when the Fordhams probably entertained, giving dinner parties that were remembered long afterwards. Now, with its long mahogany table dominating the room, it looked like something that belonged in a tour of old homes.

"Annalisa, I would like you to meet my mother," Steve was standing, gesturing towards the woman seated at the head of the table.

Annalisa's eyes met Charlotte Fordham's eyes, and Annalisa sensed at once that she was not really welcomed by this woman. The eyes were cold. The lips were stretched tightly into a thin artificial smile. The old woman's chin quivered as though she were silently trying to keep from screaming at Annalisa to get out of her house, that she did not want strangers intruding on her well-planned life.

But then Annalisa was no longer thinking about the thin woman in the navy blue dress. She was turning her eyes to the left of Charlotte, where a little boy sat in silence, his eyes upon his breakfast plate. He made no move to look up.

Annalisa did not wait for the introductions. She hurried across the room to where he sat, and she knelt beside him. He turned his head slowly and looked at her, and she realized that he was trembling. He wore short cotton pants, a white shirt, and his hair was combed neatly into a Buster Brown style, with bangs straight across his forehead.

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