Read Online Jewels by Danielle Steel - Free Book Online Page A

she was genuinely distraught, and hurt, and disappointed, and she was embarrassed about the scandal Freddie had caused. But you know, in the last six months I’ve gotten the feeling that she actually enjoys her life like this. I think she likes being alone, and being something of a recluse. I don’t know why, but she does. She was always very gregarious when she was young, and much more mischievous than Jane. But it’s as though she’s forgotten all that and become someone else now.”
    “Well, she’d better become the old Sarah again, and damn soon. This reclusive nonsense of hers just isn’t healthy.” He completely agreed with his wife. He, too, had the feeling that in the past few months she had come to enjoy it. There was something more peaceful about her than there had been, and she seemed more mature, but she certainly didn’t seem happy.
    As they went to lunch afterwards, Sarah was sitting quietly in her stateroom, writing a letter to Jane. She never ate lunch anymore. She usually went for a long walk on the beach instead, which is why she stayed so thin. But it was no real sacrifice to her, she was very seldom hungry.
    Her parents stopped by to see her after lunch, and found her stretched out on her bed, still in the black dress, but with her hat and shoes off. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t move, but her mother suspected that she wasn’t really sleeping. They left her alone, and came back to find her again an hour later, and she had changed into a gray sweater and slacks, and she was reading a book in a comfortable chair, oblivious of her surroundings.
    “Sarah? A walk on the promenade deck? The shops are fabulous.” Victoria Thompson was determined to be persistent.
    “Maybe later.” Sarah never took her eyes off her book, and when she heard the door close, she assumed her mother had left the cabin. She raised her eyes then with a sigh, and gave a start when she found herself looking right at her mother. “Oh … I thought you had gone.”
    “I know you did. Sarah, I want you to come outside for a walk with me. I am not going to spend this entire trip begging you to come out of your room. You’ve decided to come, now try and do it gracefully, or you’ll ruin it for everyone, particularly your father.” They were always so worried about each other, it amused Sarah sometimes, but right now it annoyed her.
    “Why? Why does my presence every moment of the day make any difference? I like being alone. Why does that upset everyone so much?”
    “Because it’s not normal. It’s not healthy for a girl your age to be alone all the time. You need people and life and excitement.”
    “Why? Who decided that for me? Who is it that said that if you are about to turn twenty-two, you need excitement? I don’t need excitement. I had excitement, and I don’t ever want it again. Why can’t all of you understand that?”
    “I do understand, dear. But what you had was not ’excitement,’ it was disappointment, it was a violation of everything that’s decent and good, everything you ever believed in. It was a terrible experience, and we never want you to go through that again. No one wants that to happen to you. But you must go out in the world again. You absolutely have to, or you’ll wither and die, spiritually, inside, where it matters.”
    “How do you know that?” Sarah looked distressed by what her mother was saying to her.
    “Because I see it in your eyes,” Victoria said wisely. “I see someone dying in there, someone aching and lonely and sad. Someone calling for help, and you won’t let her out so she can get it.” As Sarah listened, her eyes filled with tears, and her mother walked to where she sat and hugged her gently. “I love you very much, Sarah. Please try … please try to come out of yourself again. Trust us … we won’t let anyone hurt you.”
    “But you don’t know what it was like.” Sarah began to whimper like a child, ashamed of the emotions, and her inability to