The Light Before Day by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Author:Suzanne Woods Fisher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance;Young women—­Fiction;Quakers—­Fiction;Christian—­fiction;Love stories;FIC042040;FIC042030;FIC027050
ISBN: 9781493415090
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

On chilly days, Hitty and Marie-Claire ate the noon meal together in the parlor, in front of the fire, as soon as Hitty returned home from the Cent School. “I know it sounds petty,” she said, carrying her plate into the room, “but one reason I like to eat in here is because I know it would annoy my grandmother.”

Marie-Claire smiled. “What was she like, thy grandmother?”

“Disapproving. Severe. Daphne says that she was quite beautiful as a young maiden, considered even by Friends to be the most beautiful woman on Nantucket . . . and thee knows as well as I do that Friends do not encourage such prideful assessments. But I remember Grandmother Lillian as always wearing a sour expression.”

“How curious. Surrounded by all this.” Marie-Claire glanced around the room. “All these frills and ornamentation. And yet she sounds rather unpleasant. Mayhap . . . she was lonely.”

“Lonely? If she was, ’twas her own fault. Daphne tried to include her in everything.” Hitty lifted her palm in a circle. “All this only gave her the sense that she had the right to control the destiny of others. Like she’s trying to do with Henry and me.”

“Did. She tried to. Thee is not letting her.”

Someone cleared his throat.

The two women turned their heads to find Benjamin at the doorjamb. “Marie-Claire, might I speak privately with thee?”

Hitty noticed an irritated expression cross Benjamin’s face, then disappear so quickly, she thought she’d imagined it.

Marie-Claire excused herself and the two went outside. Waiting until the front door clicked shut, Hitty hurried to peek out the window. Benjamin was clearly upset, speaking animatedly to Marie-Claire. Although she couldn’t hear what he was saying, she could read his emotions in the rigid set of his body. Hitty never imagined he had a temper. What could have caused Benjamin such upset?

Hitty leaned closer to the window to try to open it, but her elbow tipped over one of her grandmother’s prized Ming vases. The vase exploded on the floor. Benjamin heard—everybody heard!—and stopped talking to Marie-Claire to tilt his head toward the house. Had he seen Hitty? She jumped back from the window, tiptoeing around the broken shards. Benjamin and Marie-Claire came back inside, just as Philemon walked into the foyer.

“What in the world happened?” Benjamin said, eyeing the shattered vase.

“The cat!” Hitty blurted out. “It tipped over the vase.” It was a bold-faced lie, Hitty’s first. They had no cat. She was surely going straight to Hades. Hot with shame, she bent down to pick up some large shards.

Philemon returned with a broom. “Allow me, Miss Hitty.”

“That was an extremely valuable vase.” Benjamin sounded distressed, then confused. “I didn’t even know there was a cat in this house.”

“Oh, he’s an awful cat,” Marie-Claire said quickly, picking up some broken shards. “He’s always getting into things. Then, poof!” She snapped her fingers. “He disappears.”

From that moment on, Marie-Claire earned Hitty’s heartfelt devotion. Here was the sister she’d always wanted.

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