Nothing Endures but Change by Gail Hamilton

Author:Gail Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: hamilton, road to avonlea, gail hamilton
Publisher: Davenport Press

Chapter Eight

When Olivia emerged from Sara’s room at Rose Cottage, her face was white as the piano keys in the parlor and her mouth quivering. Sara really was leaving. By this time tomorrow, the little room at the top of the stairs would be empty and silent. No youthful laughter would dance through the kitchen, no rushing steps would echo in the hail. Oh, if only she could have had some warning, just a little time to adjust to the jarring change about to befall her home.

Assaulted by a hundred disheartening thoughts, Olivia turned and all but ran into Hetty, who had finally come up the stairs too. After the scene inside Sara’s room, mild Olivia was ready to tackle even her formidable older sister. She stepped squarely in front of her in the upstairs hail, the lamp she was carrying trembling in her hand.

“Hetty, how could you have said all those things to Blair with Sara standing right there? The poor child was so upset I could barely get her settled down.”

When it came to handing out blame, Hetty was no slacker herself. She immediately bristled all over.

“If you’d listened to me, Olivia, this would never have happened. Give me that.” The oil lamp shook so alarmingly that it looked in danger of tumbling to the floor, and Hetty took it from Olivia. “But, as usual, you didn’t think before you opened your mouth.”

Usually a strong word or two from Hetty would put Olivia in her place, but not this time. Her shoulders quivered as her breath came faster. She didn’t see how failing to invite Blair inside would have changed anything.

“No, Hetty, you’re the one who didn’t think. You’ve done the very thing that will ensure Sara leaves the Island tomorrow.”

Hetty flung a glance at Sara’s door.

“Oh, shhh!” she ordered, very belatedly taking a care for what Sara overheard. “You’d no right to allow that man to set foot in my house.”

With Olivia blocking the hall, Hetty turned on her heel and started down the stairs again, signifying that the conversation was at an end. Olivia stared after her, let out a little gasp and set off in hot pursuit. This was one time when she was having none of Hetty’s head-of-the-household ways.

Behind them, Sara tiptoed out of her room and peered after their retreating backs. Now not only were her father and her Aunt Hetty fighting, but her Aunt Hetty and her Aunt Olivia were snarling at each other like cats on a barbed-wire fence. Her young face crumpled up as she tiptoed to the landing to watch.

There was plenty to see. Olivia, perfectly rigid, managed to contain herself only until they got to the bottom of the stairs.

“Your house?” she exploded when her foot hit the ground floor.

“Well, I’m the eldest,” Hetty shot back, caught completely off balance by Olivia’s outburst. What was worse, Olivia showed absolutely no sign of going back to her old, meek self.

“Oh,” Olivia seethed, pointing to the hail rug, “and is this your carpet? Is this your lamp? Is nothing mine? Then perhaps it would be best if I left, too.

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