Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes

Author:Jojo Moyes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Christopher Ballantyne and his wife, Julia, looked so alike that according to Mrs. H, had they married thirty years earlier there would have been “serious talk” in the village. He had dark, wavy hair, matched exactly in shade by his wife’s own, and set springily atop a broad head, like the ill-fitting top of a sponge cake. Both had the same slightly beaky noses, the same lean physiques, similar strong views on most topics, especially hygiene and politics, and both talked in the same, explosive, braying tones, as if every sentence had been pumped out of them by bellows.

And both, Sabine noted, somewhat resentfully, treated her with that same air of indulgent detachment that they would any houseguest. Except in her case, she felt it was a deliberate attempt to let her know that she was not, despite her blood ties, a true part of the family. Not like they were. And that would be Kate’s fault, of course.

Christopher had marched into the place like he owned it on the night that her grandfather had fallen into the casserole, telling Joy, somewhat pointlessly, as far as Sabine could see, that “she would be fine now.” He and Julia had been at a hunt ball in Kilkenny, which had been “a stroke of luck” as he rather tactlessly put it, and they had immediately driven down and moved their things into the good guest room next to her grandmother. It had never occurred to Sabine up until then to question why she had not been given the good guest room, which had a far nicer carpet, and a big glowing chest of drawers of walnut veneer, but when she mentioned this to Mrs. H, Mrs. H had said that Christopher “liked to have a room of his own” to come home to. And that he and Julia “did come and visit a lot.” Not like me and my mum, in other words, thought Sabine. But she said nothing.

If Joy had noticed any of the resentment Sabine felt, she didn’t comment. But then she seemed awfully distracted, not having Edward in the house to look after. Wexford General Hospital had decided to keep him in for observation and while Sabine had not liked to ask her what exactly was the matter with him (there didn’t seem much left of him to observe), it was obvious that it was serious, not just because her grandmother looked pale and strained and seemed unnaturally quiet, but because Sabine had noticed that whenever she wasn’t in the room, Christopher would check the backs of furniture, and underneath the rugs for little handwritten stickers, to see if there had been any changes in the spoils that Joy had some months ago already begun to divide between her two children for after her and Edward’s deaths.

“Very sensible idea, Mother,” he had said to her. “Saves any confusion in the long run.” But Sabine had heard him mutter to Julia that he didn’t think it was right that

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.