Summer Holiday by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirror Press
Published: 2017-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

By the end of her first week in Wilkington, Carina was exhausted. How her aunt maintained such a whirl of activity, she did not know. They had called upon any number of local ladies, taken tea at a small tea shop in company of a Mrs. Garold, with whom Aunt Chadwick appeared to have a friendly rivalry, and spent three of the seven nights at various events around town: soirees, musicales, and the like.

Carina could hardly keep pace with her hostess.

“Where are we bound this morning?” she asked as the carriage rolled down the cobbled streets toward the far end of the city.

“A meeting of the Ladies’ Aid Society, of which I am an original member.”

This, then, was not a social appointment. “What does your society do?”

“We advocate for the less fortunate here in Wilkington, be they orphans or widows or poverty-stricken workers.”

“And this is the kind of work your niece took up after leaving here?”

Aunt Chadwick nodded. “She saw that women can do a great deal of good in this world.”

“What of your other nieces, those who married? Are they doing good in the world as well?”

“Of course they are,” Aunt Chadwick said. “Their influence is felt in different ways, but it is real just the same.”

“You are not nearly as grumpy as my father led me to believe,” Carina said with a smile.

Aunt Chadwick’s eyes twinkled. “Wouldn’t he be disappointed to hear that.”

“He likely would have simply locked me in my room until I agreed to marry Mr. Baskon rather than send me here.”

The admission brought a return of Aunt Chadwick’s searching expression. “This is a complication I wasn’t aware of. Who is Mr. Baskon, and what is your objection to him?”

“He lives in Rafton on an admittedly grand estate. He is of an age with my father, recently buried his third wife, and wishes for me to be the fourth. My objection—”

“What you just told me is objection enough,” Aunt Chadwick said.

“There is more,” Carina told her. “He is cruel and cold and unkind. His most recent wife was an acquaintance of mine. I watched her wither in absolute misery after their marriage. It was more than a loss of happiness in her expression. She became increasingly hermitic and quiet. She physically changed as well, dwindling to little more than a shell of a person. The fact that no one in town was surprised told me his earlier wives endured similar agony in their life with him. I choose not to tread that particular path.”

“I should think not.” Aunt Chadwick appeared appropriately horrified—something Carina’s own parents had never managed.

“Perhaps at the end of the summer, you could explain that to my father, as I do not think he will have changed his mind.”

Aunt Chadwick leaned closer. “It is your mind and not his that matters, my dear. Until you fully embrace that, you will not know how strong you truly are.”

Carina had never thought of herself in those terms. Ladies did not have a great deal of say in their own lives, after all.

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