A Darker Music by Maris Morton

Author:Maris Morton [Maris Morton]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781921640650
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2010-09-07T14:00:00+00:00

17

ON MOST DAYS NOW, CLIO WAS SITTING UP IN BED. Although she was still very thin, she was eating better; and instead of just listening to her CDs she was reading, and more ready to chat as Mary came and went from her room. Mary had set another of the chairs from Ellen’s room on the verandah outside the french doors: on sunny mornings, while Mary shook out the duvet and feather pillows, Clio sat contemplating her garden, with the rug over her knees. In the bright sunshine, her face was shockingly white.

‘You’ve done very well,’ Clio said one morning. ‘The garden’s looking lovely.’

The gnarled wisteria twining below the eaves was coming into bud. Out in the orchard the narcissus were still blooming, beneath a foam of prunus blossom. The lachenalias were showing colour, the Spanish bluebells lifting spires of green buds.

Mary paused on her way inside, the sunlight warm on her face. ‘You’re lucky, having an old garden like this. Ellen planted some nice things.’

After a thoughtful silence, Clio said, ‘Ellen! How I came to hate the sound of that name.’

Mary was startled. ‘Did you?’

Clio leant back and closed her eyes, basking in the sun. ‘I know it wasn’t fair. She never did me any harm. But all I seemed to hear from everyone here was what a wonderful woman Ellen had been, what a fabulous job she’d done. Later on, I realised that none of this was Ellen’s fault. Paul had only ever known her as a mature woman with a lifetime of achievement behind her. He never saw the struggles or disappointments. Or failures.’ Clio opened her eyes and covered her mouth with one hand. ‘Did I say that? Failures, indeed!’ She looked for Mary’s complicity, then went on with her story.

‘What Paul remembers is Ellen triumphant. And naturally I, a trembling virgin bride, could never hope to be that without years of the kind of effort Ellen had put into this place. And I’d never even been on a farm before. Are you still reading the diaries?’

‘Yes, on the weekends.’

‘Well, you’d know it wasn’t all beer and skittles. I don’t think Paul read them. He’s never been much of a reader.’

Mary thought of the lavishly stocked pantry. ‘You did manage pretty well, though?’

‘Yes, I think, really, I did.’ The shadow of the eave slowly descended over Clio’s face, taking the warmth away. Her left hand lay on the crocheted rug, the wedding ring loose on her finger. ‘I made this rug. There was an old one of Ellen’s but the moths had wrecked it, and I thought Paul would be pleased to have a nice new one, made by his little wife. Of course, he wasn’t pleased at all.’ She sighed. ‘This is old, now, too.’

She looked up at Mary again. ‘It’s funny, but I’ve let all of that go, all the resentment. Some days now I feel like a baby bird with mother-bird Mary bringing me tasty grubs, on Ellen’s pretty dishes — quite detached from the world.

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.