The Girls of Lighthouse Lane #2: Rose‘s Story by Thomas Kinkade

Author:Thomas Kinkade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

When the girls were gathered in the lighthouse tower that afternoon, Rose said, “Kat, about this morning after church. We were in a hurry because my father’s leaving for a few days.”

Kat shrugged. “You don’t have to explain.”

“But I want to,” Rose said. “I know I must have seemed rude, but Poppa had to pack and—”

“Rose, your father looked as surprised by your big hurry as I was,” Kat said. “I’m not mad at you. But either tell us the truth, please, or let’s forget about explanations altogether.”

Rose was taken aback. She’d felt so close to Kat. If Kat turned on her, she wouldn’t be able to stand it. Was she imagining that Amanda and Lizabeth exchanged looks? Had they all been talking about her?

“Kat? Is there something else? I mean, what’s wrong?” Rose asked.

“Well, it seems a little odd to all of us that you didn’t invite Kat to your party,” Lizabeth said.

“To my party?” For a moment, Rose was stunned. “Oh, my mother’s tea! But that was canceled, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Amanda said, “but Lizabeth and I were invited—and not Kat?”

“Oh, that’s because my mother hadn’t mailed the invitations yet! But she dropped a few off to houses she passed that day—yours, Amanda’s, and Lizabeth’s, and Joanna’s, that’s all.”

“Why did your mother cancel? The tea and the girls’ club and everything?” Kat asked.

Rose was dumbfounded. She had no idea what excuse Momma had made.

“That’s all right, Rose.” Kat looked almost sympathetic. “I’m not blaming you for your mother. My guess is it was canceled because you got into an argument about inviting me.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” Rose turned to Lizabeth and Amanda. “What did my mother tell you?”

“Just that she had a conflict with the dates,” Amanda said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kat said.

“But—” Rose started.

“I said it doesn’t matter,” Kat said. “Could we talk about something else?”

“But I don’t understand what—”

“Rose, you’re not ready to admit what’s going on with your mother and that’s fine. And I really don’t want to talk about it anymore!” Kat turned to Lizabeth. “So, do you have another good book to lend us?”

There was an awkward silence. Amanda finally broke it. “Lizabeth has an account at the Pelican Book Shop,” she told Rose, “and she passes her books on to us.”

What does Kat know about Momma, Rose wondered. She felt panicky.

“I’m reading the best book,” Lizabeth said, “but it’s really thick so I’ll take a while to finish. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. That’s French for ‘the wretched ones.’”

“Not too hard to figure out,” Kat smiled. “The miserables.”

“I didn’t like Jane Eyre that much,” Amanda said. “Rochester wasn’t nice at all, and I couldn’t see why she loved him.”

“I promise you’ll like this one,” Lizabeth said. “Anyway, Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread and he’s arrested, but he escapes and the policeman hunts him for years and years. He just won’t let go! Once you get into it, it’s very exciting. Do you think someone should be jailed for just a loaf of bread?”

“Stealing is stealing,” Amanda said.

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.