The Hope Chest of Arabella King by Linda Zwicker

Author:Linda Zwicker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: road to avonlea, linda zwicker, zwicker
Publisher: Davenport Press

Chapter Ten

Sara had persuaded Olivia to drop her at the King Farm, promising that she would be home before Hetty got back from school. It was all working out perfectly! Sara would get another chance to inspect the blue chest, while Olivia and Jasper would have some time alone.

Felicity expertly rolled out some cookie dough. “I thought you were supposed to be sick today, Sara Stanley.”

“I was. But I’m much better now. I bet I didn’t miss anything in school, anyway.”

“As a matter of fact, we studied a lovely poem, by Keats. And Sally Potts read it beautifully, quite beautifully.”

“As well as I would have?” challenged Sara, who was very proud of her reading abilities.

Felicity reached for her cookie cutter. “Well...” She wasn’t going to give in, unless she absolutely had to.

Sara took a deep breath. “Felicity, what’s that heavenly smell?”

“I’ve got a blackberry pie in the oven. And do you know what, Sara?”

“What?”

“I had a bit of extra pastry left over so I made a “K” to decorate the top of the pie. “K” for King. Wasn’t that imaginative of me?”

Sara was saved from having to respond, because just then Felix burst into the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. He grabbed a blob of raw cookie dough and plunked himself down on a kitchen chair.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Sara.

“Well, hallelujah!” bellowed Felix.

Felicity swatted Felix with a wooden baking spoon. “Stop eating my cookie dough, Felix, I mean it! And don’t make such an uproar!”

Felix grinned. “Your cookie dough is the best in the whole universe, Felicity. I swear—the best.” Felicity relented, slightly.

Sara walked over to the blue chest, an intense look on her face.

“I wonder what was really in here, what was so important to Arabella? What?”

Felicity sighed. “We’ve been through this, Sara. It was her wedding dress. She couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else seeing it.”

“No! It had to be something more important than her wedding dress.”

“For goodness sake, nothing’s more important than your very own wedding dress, especially if you never got to wear it because your fiancé shot himself!”

Felix’s eyes glinted. “That’s what I’m interested in—murder dark and evil. All this stuff about dresses is just sissy.”

“It wasn’t murder, Felix,” corrected Felicity. “Mother said it was thought to be suicide.”

“Mother doesn’t know everything,” Felix replied boldly.

Sara lifted the lid of the trunk. “There must be something else in here.”

Felicity looked exasperated. “Really, Sara, you’re never satisfied to let a story stop where it should stop. You’re always letting your imagination run away with you.”

Sara peered intently at the trunk, trying to see right through it, right into the very wood. She remembered reading a story in Leisure Hours about Malveen the Magnificent, a great magician, who had advised, “Sometimes mysteries are seen more clearly with eyes closed.” Sara stepped back from the chest and scrunched her eyes tightly shut, She concentrated, every muscle tensed.

“Look, Sara’s fallen asleep standing up,” laughed Felix. “I thought only horses could do that.”

“Shhhh,” instructed Felicity, “let her think.”

As Sara stood there, eyes shut tight, she started having an odd sensation.

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