Read Online Roses by Leila Meacham - Free Book Online Page A

vowed that no matter what pain it cost her to keep it, she would never give
     up the plantation. Not ever. She would make it up to her mother somehow… work hard to make Somerset pay to keep her in the
     silks and satins of which she was so fond. Somerset would grow so big and powerful, the Toliver name so strong, that no one
     would dare risk a remark against her mother. And, after a while, everyone would forget Vernon Toliver’s betrayal and realize
     how right he’d been to dispense the estate as he had. They would all see in what esteem Darla Toliver was held by her children
     and grandchildren, and the pain would go away.
    “Mama?”
    “I’m here, Mary.”
    But she wasn’t, a deep wrench of her instinct told her. She’d never again be the mother that she and Miles had known. Mary
     would have given anything in the world to see her on her feet, normal and familiar, beautiful and happy, even in her grief.
     Anything but Somerset, Mary modified her thought, and was shocked at the amendment, at the line beyond which she could not
     force her love to go.
    Exactly as her father had not been able to do.
    A sense of loss pierced her to her soul, as great as the moment her father’s hand had slipped from hers forever.
“Mama! Mama! Don’t leave us, don’t leave us!”
she sobbed, feeling the rise of hysteria as she shook the inert form in the lavender satin.
    That evening, sitting in the twilight gloom of the front parlor, Mary became aware of someone watching her from the black-draped
     doorway. It was Percy Warwick. He was wearing the still, serious expression that she’d come to interpret as disapproval. By
     now, Miles would have told him and Ollie about the will, and doubtless they shared her brother’s opinion of it.
    They were a fraternity of three—Miles Toliver and Percy Warwick and Ollie DuMont. They’d been inseparable since they were
     infants, perpetuating the friendships their grandfathers had begun and their fathers had continued. At the graveside service,
     her attention had been drawn to the three standing together. How different each was from the other. Ollie, short, pudgy, and
     jolly, the eternal optimist. Miles, tall, thin, earnest, a crusader desperate for a cause. And Percy, the tallest and most
     handsome of the three, prudent and reasonable… the Apollo who watched over them all. She’d known a moment’s envy. How comforting
     it would be to enjoy the kind of friendship they shared. Her father and grandfather had been her only friends.
    “Mind if I come in?” Percy asked, his voice deep and resonant in the close summer dusk.
    “That will depend on what you’ve come to say.”
    That brought the familiar, amused flicker to his lips. She and Percy never conversed. They sparred. It had been that way for
     the last couple of summers and during holidays when the boys were home from Princeton. Like Miles and Ollie, he had graduated
     in June, and he had then joined his father’s lumber company.
    He chuckled and moved into the room. “Ever the little firebrand when it comes to me. I’m assuming you don’t want a lamp?”
    “You assume correctly.”
    How handsome he is, she thought grudgingly. The dusk seemed to intensify the sheen of his blond hair and the deep bronze of
     his skin. He’d worked outdoors all summer with the other lumbermen, and the results showed in his lean, hard form. There had
     been lots of girls back east, so she understood… Dresden blue-bloods. She had heard Miles and Ollie laughing over his conquests.
    She returned to her original position, head resting on the back of the chair, eyes closed. “Is Miles back?” Her voice was
     hoarse with grief and fatigue.
    “Yes. He’s gone upstairs with Ollie to see your mother.”
    “I suppose he told you about the will. You disapprove, of course.”
    “Of course. Your father should have left the house and plantation to your mother.”
    Mary lifted her head in anger and surprise. Percy was noted for withholding