The Secret Book of Flora Lea: a Novel: A Novel by Patti Callahan Henry

Author:Patti Callahan Henry [Henry, Patti Callahan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

 CHAPTER 29

February 1, 1940

Hazel had never heard of St. Brigid’s Day or Imbolc, but it arrived at the beginning of February and most of the townspeople joined Bridie to celebrate.

The bonfire, set a distance away from the Aberdeen cottage in the wide pasture, lifted high, its sparks rising to reach the unseen stars they resembled. Bridie set out colored wool blankets about the lawn and upon each was a small pile of green rush. Harry dragged out an old barn table, scarred and lopsided where one leg had been chewed by some sharp-toothed animal. He set it nearby and placed a log beneath the left back leg to level it. On top were cheeses and fruits from the market, fresh baked bread, and a large jug of red wine.

Late afternoon rippled across the sky, the clouds torn scraps of gilt-edged fabric. A man in a dark coat played the fiddle and drank wine from a mug at his side.

Also present were the four nurses who lived behind the parish chapel: Frances was from America while Maeve, Imogene, and Lilly were from villages around England. They were young and eager to help heal the boys who arrived at hospital with war wounds that nothing could truly heal. Frances was shy and guarded, Imogene had a frenetic playful energy, while Maeve and Lilly seemed like twins to Hazel, both blond and quiet. Bridie had Imogene babysit Flora now and again when she took Hazel and Harry alone into town to shop and run her errands.

That day, the nurses all played with Flora more than they talked to the townspeople, as if their job was to guard the smallest of them.

Father Fenelly and Mr. Nolan stood together, laughing about something Mr. Nolan said. The twins, Ethan and Adam, kicked about a leather ball with Harry and another boy from town, whose name Hazel kept forgetting, a wild-eyed boy with greasy hair who’d come to Hazel and Flora and had quietly asked, “Are you orphans?”

“No,” Hazel had declared. “No, we are not!”

When he’d walked away, Flora had snuggled closer to Hazel, grasped Berry tighter, and asked with a tremor in her voice, “What is an orphan?”

“Don’t listen to him. Don’t listen to anyone but me and Bridie and Harry.”

“And Mum.”

“And Mum,” Hazel had said as she crouched down to hug her sister. “We are not orphans.”

But Hazel wondered, with a piercing pain—what would become of them if they suddenly became parentless? It happened in war.

Now the party grew as two of Bridie’s girlfriends from Oxford arrived without husbands, wearing flowered dresses under their thick coats and wool scarves.

The cold bit everyone’s exposed faces, and most noses were red as cardinals.

Hazel and Flora had been living with the Aberdeens for four months now, through Christmas and New Year’s when Mum came to visit with her gifts. Father Fenelly sometimes visited and Harry drew sketches that he slipped under the door every morning. Hazel learned Latin when Bridie noticed she was finishing her schoolwork too quickly with nothing to do.

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.