Common Suppliesâ and closed the
Textbook of Surgical Nursing
.
âLet me read the letter.â
âNo. Shh, donât wake Sadie.â She cast a look at her sleeping daughter on Carolineâs bed, her little mouth open, drooling into her rabbit.
Carolineâs expression softened and she cut her voice to a whisper. âI love her curly hair.â She touched her own, tied into silky brown rag curls around her head.
âShe can already read. Iâm telling you, I gave birth to a genius.â
âOf course you did. Nowâlet me see the letter.â
Esther made a face.
âItâs only fairâI tell you about my dates with Teddy.â
âI can assure you, your dates are far more exciting. It says nothing, just an encouragement to continue my studies, and a quote from
Huckleberry Finn
.â
âA quote from
Huckleberry Finn
? Are you sure heâs a doctor?â
âHeâs also a farm boy from Iowa. One who seems to have seen the world.â
Caroline raised an eyebrow.
âOkay, fine. Here you go.â She slid out the aerogram then got up to pour herself a cup of sludge from the coffeepot on the stove. The afternoon sun pressed through the window, creeping across the wooden floor, the rag rug. The July breeze tickled the eyelet curtains, tangy with the smells of fresh-cut grass and summer roses.
âThank you, by the way, for letting me study in your room.â She stood at the window of Carolineâs second-story boardinghouse and bit into a strawberry, captured by the sparkle of the sun on the limey grass, the way the peonies in the front yard exploded in pink and white, the daylilies, tall and sleek, the bleeding heart and its fragile pink blossoms weeping in the front lawn. And right outside her window, a yellow climbing rose, its heady scent meandering into the room. âNo more victory gardens?â
âAre you kidding me? Mrs. Delano spent last week planting a late crop of potatoes. And I weeded the strawberry bed for an hour to earn this paltry basket. Sheâs downstairs, sweat caught in the cracks in her neck, fanning herself as she stirs up strawberry jam. I fear victory gardens are here to stay.â Caroline began to untie the rags from her hair, the sun sweet on her face. âI hope the curls stay. My hair is taking forever to dry.â The hair fell out, one spiral curl at a time. âYour Peter sounds handsome. Just the way he describes himself.â
âI simply said that I wanted to picture him as he sat in the dark next to Linus, in my mind, and he assumed I wanted a description. Who knows what he must think of me.â
âI think heâs grateful for your letters. Why do you write to him?âShe ran her fingers through her curls. âDo you like him?â
Esther shot her a look. âOf course not.â Except, yes, maybe something stirred inside her this morning when she discovered his letter in her box, neat and crisp, like a gift.
But probably, simply the sense of someone wanting to know more about her dulled the blade of loneliness inside. At least for the few minutes it took for her to readâno, savor his letter.
Caroline held up her hand. âCalm down, itâs me. He seems smartâlike you. And what does he mean by the Elbe? Where is that? Ohio?â
âI donât know. Maybe itâs a place in the South. Or maybe in Europe. He did say theaterplatzâwhatâs that? Funny, his quoteâI actually remember that passage, âWe said there warnât no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft donât. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.ââ
She looked over her shoulder to catch Carolineâs smirk. âI donât do a Mississippi accent very well.â
âNo, you donât. But itâs sort of strange that you can both quote the same book.â
âMaybe itâs
Paige Cuccaro
Burt Neuborne
Highland Spirits
Charles Todd
Melinda Leigh
Brenda Hiatt
Eliza DeGaulle
Jamie Lake
Susan Howatch
Charlaine Harris