Read Online The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Julie Berry
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I found boots and stockings and a coat and gloves, all somewhat faded and rumpled but still usable, and finer than anything I'd ever worn. I couldn't resist twisting my hair into an elegant coif and fastening on one of Mama's stylish little hats with hairpins.
I stood before Mama's dressing room mirror and spun around. In spite of everything, I laughed at the sheer joy of feeling clean and new. And fancy!
Maybe, even, almost pretty. I took a closer look. In a mirror grainy and yellow with age I saw a face I'd never seen before, except as a shadow in the glass of Uncle's shop cabinets.
That shadow girl looked nothing like this one. This girl in the mirror looked like one for whom anything was possible.
I sat upon the cushioned chair and opened the small dresser drawer where Mama had kept some of her jewelry. Empty, of course. Whoever disposed of Mama and Papa's estate would doubtless have found the jewels in this drawer 88
and sold them off long ago, to settle their debts, I supposed. Any fragments of value my parents left would have been picked over by vultures.
That was when the tears came. They rose from nowhere and waylaid me. The kind of tears I used to cry years ago, when their faces were still fresh in my mind and their loss was still something I believed might be a bad dream erased by sunrise.
Page 29
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My hand was still in the empty drawer. I slid it farther back, and the tip of my finger felt something hard and irregular in a corner. I yanked the drawer farther. Wedged in a crack where the wooden sides of the drawer joined was a cameo brooch. I brushed the dust away, revealing a serene figure, the delicately carved bust of a girl, immortally beautiful in her ivory stillness.
Just as Mama was immortally beautiful in my memories of her, in this very seat.
I pinned it to the lace at the throat of my gown, wiped my eyes, and went downstairs.
The house seemed empty. I searched through the kitchens for something to eat.
Sunlight poured in through large windows, illuminating the small red petals of dozens of potted flowers that blossomed on the sills. The air was warm and moist, sweet with their perfume.
But there wasn't a bite of food to be found. Every cupboard was empty, save for tarnished pots. Nothing in the dairy, nothing in the cellars. I wondered how Beryl conjured up the soup she'd fed me.
89
She entered the kitchen as I banged cupboard doors. I felt myself stiffen, full of shyness after all she'd revealed to me last night. She, too, took in my appearance and smiled, a little nervously.
"You look lovely."
I thought it better, at this early hour, to be brusque rather than intimate.
"Don't sound so surprised. Do you have any bread?"
She shook her head.
"Don't you eat?"
She gave a little hmph, half a laugh without the mirth. "I can eat," she said,
"but I don't need to. This way there are no mice."
I dropped the lid to the empty flour barrel. "Well, I need to eat," I said.
"Regularly."
She nodded. "I'll order some food."
"How?"
She gestured out the window and across a meadow. "A farmer and his wife live across the way. They help me keep up the property. I don't need the cooking or heating or washing that others do, nor do I keep animals, but the house and gardens need some tending."
I thought of the dozens of servants my parents had employed. Some tending indeed.
"Ben and Leda don't mind the pale color of my skin, and they like the color of my coins," Beryl said. "They'll find something to suit you."
"I'm not choosy," I said.
90
"In the meantime;' Beryl said, reaching under the front placket of her dress and pulling out a pouch, "you may need to buy back the stone from whoever now holds it. There's plenty there for you to buy today's food in the city."
I took the leather pouch. Inside was more gold than I'd ever seen in one place, and she'd given it to me as casually as if it were a bag of hazelnuts.
"Where did you
I found boots and stockings and a coat and gloves, all somewhat faded and rumpled but still usable, and finer than anything I'd ever worn. I couldn't resist twisting my hair into an elegant coif and fastening on one of Mama's stylish little hats with hairpins.
I stood before Mama's dressing room mirror and spun around. In spite of everything, I laughed at the sheer joy of feeling clean and new. And fancy!
Maybe, even, almost pretty. I took a closer look. In a mirror grainy and yellow with age I saw a face I'd never seen before, except as a shadow in the glass of Uncle's shop cabinets.
That shadow girl looked nothing like this one. This girl in the mirror looked like one for whom anything was possible.
I sat upon the cushioned chair and opened the small dresser drawer where Mama had kept some of her jewelry. Empty, of course. Whoever disposed of Mama and Papa's estate would doubtless have found the jewels in this drawer 88
and sold them off long ago, to settle their debts, I supposed. Any fragments of value my parents left would have been picked over by vultures.
That was when the tears came. They rose from nowhere and waylaid me. The kind of tears I used to cry years ago, when their faces were still fresh in my mind and their loss was still something I believed might be a bad dream erased by sunrise.
Page 29
ABC Amber Sony Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcsonylrf.html
My hand was still in the empty drawer. I slid it farther back, and the tip of my finger felt something hard and irregular in a corner. I yanked the drawer farther. Wedged in a crack where the wooden sides of the drawer joined was a cameo brooch. I brushed the dust away, revealing a serene figure, the delicately carved bust of a girl, immortally beautiful in her ivory stillness.
Just as Mama was immortally beautiful in my memories of her, in this very seat.
I pinned it to the lace at the throat of my gown, wiped my eyes, and went downstairs.
The house seemed empty. I searched through the kitchens for something to eat.
Sunlight poured in through large windows, illuminating the small red petals of dozens of potted flowers that blossomed on the sills. The air was warm and moist, sweet with their perfume.
But there wasn't a bite of food to be found. Every cupboard was empty, save for tarnished pots. Nothing in the dairy, nothing in the cellars. I wondered how Beryl conjured up the soup she'd fed me.
89
She entered the kitchen as I banged cupboard doors. I felt myself stiffen, full of shyness after all she'd revealed to me last night. She, too, took in my appearance and smiled, a little nervously.
"You look lovely."
I thought it better, at this early hour, to be brusque rather than intimate.
"Don't sound so surprised. Do you have any bread?"
She shook her head.
"Don't you eat?"
She gave a little hmph, half a laugh without the mirth. "I can eat," she said,
"but I don't need to. This way there are no mice."
I dropped the lid to the empty flour barrel. "Well, I need to eat," I said.
"Regularly."
She nodded. "I'll order some food."
"How?"
She gestured out the window and across a meadow. "A farmer and his wife live across the way. They help me keep up the property. I don't need the cooking or heating or washing that others do, nor do I keep animals, but the house and gardens need some tending."
I thought of the dozens of servants my parents had employed. Some tending indeed.
"Ben and Leda don't mind the pale color of my skin, and they like the color of my coins," Beryl said. "They'll find something to suit you."
"I'm not choosy," I said.
90
"In the meantime;' Beryl said, reaching under the front placket of her dress and pulling out a pouch, "you may need to buy back the stone from whoever now holds it. There's plenty there for you to buy today's food in the city."
I took the leather pouch. Inside was more gold than I'd ever seen in one place, and she'd given it to me as casually as if it were a bag of hazelnuts.
"Where did you
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