The vineyard: a novel by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Large type books, Fiction - General, Contemporary, General, Romance, Sagas, Large print books, Romance - Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743204262
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, c2000.
Published: 2010-03-07T06:00:00+00:00

THE VINEYARD

189

My parents had been discussing my future between themselves, though. In the months leading up to Pearl Harbor, while I was dreaming my girlish dreams about marrying Carl, they were nurturing other thoughts. Alexander Seebring was the son of a successful businessman. His family had spent their summers in Newport way back when we did, so I knew who Al was. We hadn't been friends, though. He was ten years older than me.

That fall before Pearl Harbor, our families started getting together. I remember the preparations-the cleaning and polishing and sprucing up designed to impress guests. Page 91

The vineyard_ a novel - Barbara Delinsky

I was stunned that things could look so nice. My mother had been sick on and off, and hadn't put any effort into appearances, so I was accustomed to something simpler. When everything was done up, though, we didn't look quite so poor. Even then, I didn't think anything of it when the Seebrings came to visit. Alexander was giving my father a hand. The Seebring business was shoes, which meant that Al made regular trips to Europe. He was helping my father in his quest for the perfect grape.

I used to ask Al about those trips. He could talk for hours and be totally enchanting. It didn't occur to me that our parents were encouraging those talks for anything deeper.

I did know that my father was better when the Seebrings were around. As soon as they left, he would sink back into depression, and that was before war had been declared. After Pearl, after Brad died, the depression deepened. He would go for days without saying a word, leaving the work in the fields to Jeremiah and us while he sat and withered alongside his vines.

My mother was in a panic. She couldn't talk about Brad, because his death was painful and fresh, and my father was getting worse by the day. So was she. We later found out that what we had thought was chronic indigestion was a tumor. All I knew at the time was that she was painfully thin and growing more frail by the day. Carl had barely been gone a month when my mother suggested I marry Alexander. She was so desperate that she didn't even dress up the reasons. We needed money, she said. Alexander had it. She claimed that if I married him, he would pour untold resources into the vineyard. My father would be able to buy 190

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