Read Online Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman - Free Book Online
Authors: Kimberley Freeman
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needle has pierced her palm. She gently removes it, and a perfectly round drop of blood forms. She findsherself transfixed by it, by the delicate patterns of lines on her palm. She presses just beside the tiny puncture and the ball turns to a drop, and runs down her wrist.
Escapes.
She is a long way from home. If she were to disappear while in Australia, how would he ever find her? She could find a passage to America, where Victoria lives. And now the plan crystallizes even more clearly. Her sister’s last letter told her she is expecting a baby. Isabella could take Daniel’s bracelet to her and, loath to give it up though she would be, his spirit could live again in her sister’s child. In that moment, seized by the sudden searing rightness of her idea, she wants nothing more than this.
Isabella feels light for the first time in years.
Six
I sabella sits on her bed. The door to the cabin is shut and held fast by a trunk full of clothes. She has a fountain pen and a scrap of paper, and on it she makes a list of the jewelry laid out in front of her.
1 ruby and diamond bracelet
1 gold pendant with sapphires
1 gold pendant with pearls
1 platinum pendant with pearls and amethysts
1 pair diamond and peridot earrings
1 pair French opal and gold earrings
1 Hungarian emerald brooch
1 enamel pansy brooch with diamond
1 ruby and pearl platinum brooch
1 moonstone and diamond ring
1 sapphire ring
This is everything valuable she owns. Shoes and dresses cannot be sold so easily, but this jewelry can. Each of these items was a present from her husband or his family, but she wears none of thisjewelry. When pressed, on a special occasion, she allows herself to be guided by Arthur on what will glitter most beautifully under candlelight, but for the most part the jewelry stays in its silk box, a hidden reminder that she is owned by the Winterbourne family, for every one of these pieces is a Winterbourne original. She has been owned by the Winterbournes since they bought out her father’s business at what Arthur’s mother always called “a vastly inflated cost.”
Every one of these pieces belongs to her too. There can be no accusation of theft. She is almost certain.
Once she has finished the list, Isabella packs the jewelry away in the bottom of her trunk, then folds the list and slides it under her pillow. She lies down with her hands behind her head and closes her eyes. There is no window in the cabin, so even though it is daylight outside the room is gray. The ship rolls on.
Over and over in her mind she turns the delicious thought that if she sells her jewelry in Sydney, she will easily have enough for a passage to New York to meet her sister. And not on a wretched sailing vessel like this one; on a nice, big, stable steamer. Her fantasy grows more detailed by the moment, and the more detailed it grows the more she convinces herself that it is meant to be, pre-ordained somehow. She is merely fulfilling her destiny. The Winterbournes think her unstable and mad, and perhaps she is. If so, then why shouldn’t she run away? Both her father and Arthur’s are dead, and they had arranged the union. Foolishly. What remains of her husband’s family doesn’t want her: she would be freeing him to marry another woman, perhaps one who can give him another child. Her womb refuses to quicken again. She believes it still longs for Daniel, as she does. Perhaps his new wife might even enjoy his weekly visits to her body. Though she can’t imagine that. She remembers being fifteen or sixteen and wondering about thesecrets of lovemaking, and thinking it all sounded very thrilling. Either she was mistaken or Arthur is very bad at it.
The weather has been growing worse. Perhaps she is feeling it is worse because she has been shut in her cabin for two days now. She could sit in the saloon where there are salt-splashed windows, but that would mean sitting with Meggy and Arthur. The seas are very stormy and the rain is unrelenting.
Escapes.
She is a long way from home. If she were to disappear while in Australia, how would he ever find her? She could find a passage to America, where Victoria lives. And now the plan crystallizes even more clearly. Her sister’s last letter told her she is expecting a baby. Isabella could take Daniel’s bracelet to her and, loath to give it up though she would be, his spirit could live again in her sister’s child. In that moment, seized by the sudden searing rightness of her idea, she wants nothing more than this.
Isabella feels light for the first time in years.
Six
I sabella sits on her bed. The door to the cabin is shut and held fast by a trunk full of clothes. She has a fountain pen and a scrap of paper, and on it she makes a list of the jewelry laid out in front of her.
1 ruby and diamond bracelet
1 gold pendant with sapphires
1 gold pendant with pearls
1 platinum pendant with pearls and amethysts
1 pair diamond and peridot earrings
1 pair French opal and gold earrings
1 Hungarian emerald brooch
1 enamel pansy brooch with diamond
1 ruby and pearl platinum brooch
1 moonstone and diamond ring
1 sapphire ring
This is everything valuable she owns. Shoes and dresses cannot be sold so easily, but this jewelry can. Each of these items was a present from her husband or his family, but she wears none of thisjewelry. When pressed, on a special occasion, she allows herself to be guided by Arthur on what will glitter most beautifully under candlelight, but for the most part the jewelry stays in its silk box, a hidden reminder that she is owned by the Winterbourne family, for every one of these pieces is a Winterbourne original. She has been owned by the Winterbournes since they bought out her father’s business at what Arthur’s mother always called “a vastly inflated cost.”
Every one of these pieces belongs to her too. There can be no accusation of theft. She is almost certain.
Once she has finished the list, Isabella packs the jewelry away in the bottom of her trunk, then folds the list and slides it under her pillow. She lies down with her hands behind her head and closes her eyes. There is no window in the cabin, so even though it is daylight outside the room is gray. The ship rolls on.
Over and over in her mind she turns the delicious thought that if she sells her jewelry in Sydney, she will easily have enough for a passage to New York to meet her sister. And not on a wretched sailing vessel like this one; on a nice, big, stable steamer. Her fantasy grows more detailed by the moment, and the more detailed it grows the more she convinces herself that it is meant to be, pre-ordained somehow. She is merely fulfilling her destiny. The Winterbournes think her unstable and mad, and perhaps she is. If so, then why shouldn’t she run away? Both her father and Arthur’s are dead, and they had arranged the union. Foolishly. What remains of her husband’s family doesn’t want her: she would be freeing him to marry another woman, perhaps one who can give him another child. Her womb refuses to quicken again. She believes it still longs for Daniel, as she does. Perhaps his new wife might even enjoy his weekly visits to her body. Though she can’t imagine that. She remembers being fifteen or sixteen and wondering about thesecrets of lovemaking, and thinking it all sounded very thrilling. Either she was mistaken or Arthur is very bad at it.
The weather has been growing worse. Perhaps she is feeling it is worse because she has been shut in her cabin for two days now. She could sit in the saloon where there are salt-splashed windows, but that would mean sitting with Meggy and Arthur. The seas are very stormy and the rain is unrelenting.
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