Read Online When the Splendor Falls by Laurie McBain - Free Book Online Page B

do a far superior job picking berries if we keep our strength up. And I do not intend to wander far even then. I’ll have you know this is my best pair of kid slippers,” she told the Travers sisters as she tried to settle herself as comfortably as possible on the outspread quilt. Her careful descent to the ground would have earned high marks and praise in Madame St. Juste’s proper deportment class, but when Julia’s shoulders and head disappeared beneath the rustling mound that had enveloped her, Leigh and Blythe started to laugh, at first softly, then loud enough even for the missing Julia to hear inside her silken cocoon.
    “La dee,” came the faint voice from inside the crinoline, “I swear this is one fashion I could do without,” Julia declared, a sheepish grin on her face as she peeped from the folds. “Very well, help me from this cage,” she pleaded, her hands reaching out for help.
    Blythe stared at Julia in surprise, pleased that their friend hadn’t completely lost her sense of humor in Charleston.
    “Never will I doubt your advice again, Leigh,” Julia admitted as she was pulled to her feet, looking like a giant flower opening its petals. “Unfasten me, dears,” she said, sounding like the grand dame she’d been playing for the last few weeks. “If it were not that I am half-starved for those stuffed eggs, which are just out of reach in my current predicament, then I would suffer this torture, however…since we aren’t in Charleston supping on the lawns of the Craigmores’ house overlooking the Ashley River, with my faithful beaus surrounding me, I will forgo fashion for the moment.”
    “Welcome home, Julayne,” Leigh said, unfastening Julia’s crinoline and smiling with satisfaction as the offending object rolled away and Julia’s skirts returned to an almost manageable size, and allowing room now for everyone to sit on the outspread quilt.
    “Except for Adam calling me that, and he does it to tease me, I don’t think I’ve heard that name in years, at least not since we went away to Charleston,” she stated, seating herself with far more ease this time. “La dee, but I’m so hungry I’m even looking forward to your mama’s chicken curry and rice tonight,” Julia said, digging into the basket from Royal Bay as she pulled out the stuffed eggs that had so tantalized her.
    “I thought you liked curry and rice,” Leigh said as she knelt down, the skirts of her plain muslin gown spreading out around her. She began to unload the basket, setting the china plates and silverware, napkins and goblets out on the blanket.
    “Oh, dear, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, truly I didn’t. But we had curry and rice all the time in Charleston, Leigh. It used to seem so exotic and foreign when I’d have it at Travers Hill, especially the way Jolie fixed it and with your mama being from Charleston, and descended from the French aristocracy. All we ever had, and still do, at Royal Bay are butter beans and plain ol’ ham. When I got to Charleston, though, it didn’t seem so wonderful anymore, especially since we seemed to have rice with everything! I declare, I thought we’d have it at breakfast even,” she said, watching as Leigh loaded her plate with an assortment of delectables. “Another biscuit with pâté, Leigh, please,” she entreated, smiling widely as another biscuit found its way onto her plate. “Of course, I do believe I really am looking forward to that curry and rice this eve, now that I’ve returned to Virginia.”
    “I put the jar of lemonade in the stream, it’ll be cool in a few minutes,” Blythe said as she dropped down beside them and accepted her plate with a wide grin of pleasure, forgetting about the final fitting for her ball gown on the morrow as she gave in to her healthy young appetite.
    “You are a sweet dear, Lucy,” Julia said, sounding as if she were far older than she was—but two years makes a big difference in a girl’s life, especially if