All for a Sister by Allison Pittman

Author:Allison Pittman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Historical
ISBN: 9781414396088
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2014-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

THE WRITTEN CONFESSION OF MARGUERITE DUFRANE, PAGES 67–79

YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED to know that it was my idea to go to California. Arthur would have everybody believe otherwise, going on and on about how bringing color to film meant the fulfillment of a chemical engineer’s dream. Poppycock. I concur that his interest was piqued when he went to that first symposium the week you were born, and I also know by now that his desire to move to that godforsaken coastal village had little to do with making movies. Had I been privy to such future revelations, I might not have urged my husband in that direction. For example, I might not have made it a point, each and every winter, to complain about the bitter coldness or the exhaustion of bundling children up to play outside for an hour. I might not have peppered every dinner conversation about my growing dissatisfaction with our church, and our friends, and the haunted draftiness of our rambling family home.

Somehow I knew, from the day you were born, that I would have to secret you away to keep you to myself. I thought at first we would be hiding from your mother. But even after that fear was allayed, I knew it would be far too easy to simply keep you. You see, I learned when Mary died that we cannot decide what will and will not be our earthly treasures. Only God can keep those accounts. And so, in those first few years, when I had my beautiful baby girl, and a handsome son and husband, and a stately family home with all the privilege that such allows, and a church with my name on a brass plate, and a few friends still willing to adhere to the ever-more-archaic calling hours . . . well, how selfish it would be to think I would pass from this life into the next with all those blessings intact.

Above all, I wanted to keep you, my Celeste, because you had come at such a price. And the price grew and grew and grew.

It is good to remember that I pen this at our attorney’s behest, to shine the light on my guilt, my manipulations, my orchestration of the imprisonment of that poor girl, and I wonder if he will let it stand, given the chink it reveals in his own breastplate of righteousness. But it is so important to me, my dear, dear Celeste, that you not see me as some monstrous puppeteer, controlling erstwhile honorable men. Judge Stephens was more than willing to trade her freedom for his reputation, and Christopher Parker, Esquire, for all his nobility, allowed greed to temporarily stay his integrity. But unlike Job, who sat in the ash heap among three advisers who would urge him to look to his own sin, I employed three duplicitous men to absolve me of my own. I’ve already given full account of one and shall now tell you of the second. The third—Christopher Parker himself—I’m loath to unveil, knowing your affection for him.

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