The Rose Girls by Connelly Victoria

Author:Connelly, Victoria [Connelly, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2015-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

17.

Evie had no idea how the job of looking after Esther Martin had fallen to her but, whenever anything needed doing, Celeste and Gertie just happened to be either at the far end of the walled garden or deeply engrossed in paperwork. Evie sighed as she took the vacuum cleaner into Esther’s quarters whilst their new tenant was safely out of the way in the kitchen.

Honestly, she really had enough to do without turning into Esther’s private housekeeper, she thought. For one thing, Gloria Temple was arriving to make the final choice of roses for her wedding. But, as Evie moved around the room, making sure everything was spick and span, her heart couldn’t help going out to the woman who’d been thrown out of the home she’d been promised only to be forced to live with a family whom she detested. She must be feeling pretty insecure, Evie thought.

‘A bit like me,’ she whispered, wondering what it would be like if Celeste followed through on her threat to sell the manor. Where would they all go? Evie couldn’t imagine a life outside its safe confines. She’d never known any other home and she knew her heart would break if she had to leave it. Was that how Esther was feeling now, she wondered?

Still, there was no need for the old woman to be so impossible all the time. There was never any excuse for rudeness, Evie decided.

She shook her head, trying – once again – to imagine what it was like to carry around so much hate in a human heart. It wasn’t as if she and her sisters were to directly blame for the death of her daughter, was it? Goodness, she thought, even her father wasn’t to blame. After all, you couldn’t be held personally responsible for whoever fell in love with you and then be held accountable if they went off to Africa and contracted some terrible disease.

Evie paused by a little mahogany table where Esther had placed a few silver framed photographs. There she was on her wedding day – younger and prettier, but still with that disgruntled sort of expression that seemed permanently fixed on her face. Evie peered at her husband, who had a kind of resigned look about him as if he knew he’d never be a hundred percent happy with his choice of bride. But perhaps Evie was reading too much into things. They’d probably had the most marvellous life together and had been happier than any couple had a right to be, although Evie found that hard to imagine.

Another photograph caught her eye.

‘Sally,’ Evie said, picking up the oval frame and gazing into the pale face of the much-missed daughter. She was standing under an odd-shaped tree that was the most African thing that Evie had ever seen – tall and thin with a very flat canopy. Sally was holding a large straw hat in her hands and was wearing a loose dress in blue and white, her long hair hanging over her shoulders.

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.