The Diary by Eileen Goudge

Author:Eileen Goudge
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504015646
Publisher: Open Road Media

Mildred was anything but stoic. If she’d been thrown for a loop when told of the breakup, Elizabeth’s subsequent announcement that she intended to go to the police on AJ’s behalf was the match that ignited the flame.

“It’s out of the question,” Mildred snapped. “I absolutely forbid it.”

She was seated at the dressing table in her room, her hair in curlers. She wore her favorite cucumber-green dressing gown. Her face, stripped of its makeup, plainly showed the fear beneath her fury, which made her seem vulnerable somehow. That vulnerability tugged at Elizabeth more than any threats or entreaties. In that moment, she hated her mother for making herself the victim. For causing her to question even for an instant what she knew was the right thing to do.

“You can’t forbid it!” Elizabeth, perched on the end of the bed, sat up straight and squared her shoulders. She could see her reflection in the mirror over the dressing table, juxtaposed with her mother’s, and hardly recognized the dark-haired young woman who stared back at her with such fierce determination. “If I’m old enough to vote, I’m old enough to do as I please.”

“Nonsense! You’ll do exactly as I tell you.”

There was a note of hysteria in her mother’s sharp command: Her control over her daughter was slipping, and she knew it. Wanting to reassure her that it wasn’t the end of the world, Elizabeth attempted to appeal to her better nature. More gently, she said, “I can’t just walk away from this. Didn’t you teach me to always do the right thing, even when it hurts?”

“I didn’t teach you to commit social suicide!” Mildred shrieked.

“This isn’t just about me.” For once Elizabeth held her ground.

“So you’d ruin your reputation for some … some miscreant who isn’t fit to breathe the same air as you?” The expression on her mother’s face was one of supreme outrage mixed with incredulity.

Ignoring the insult to AJ, Elizabeth replied as calmly as she could, “It isn’t just my reputation that’s at stake here.” She could feel a tightness in her temples signaling the onset of a headache.

“Who cares what anyone thinks of that boy? He’s made his bed; now let him lie in it. It’s you who has everything to lose.”

Elizabeth dug her heels in. “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, either.”

“Don’t be naive, Elizabeth. A woman’s reputation is everything!” Mildred spun around on her stool to scoop a glob of cold cream from the open jar on the dressing table, addressing her daughter’s reflection in the mirror as she began rubbing it over her face with quick, savage strokes. “Do you think Mr. Arno would have hired you if he’d thought you had loose morals? Do you think Bob’s parents would have wanted their son to marry such a person?”

Elizabeth shot to her feet, her cheeks stinging as though slapped. “It’s not up to them. It’s not up to Bob, either. I get to decide whom I’m going to marry,” she informed her mother.

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