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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
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.Gaslight and amber globes now flickering electricity.Carved wooden sconces and pale white tapers that seldom were used despite power failures and storms.A muttering.Cyd slowed, and stopped at the corner.On the left were the closed dark doors of her father's rooms, on the far right the newly white paint that marked her mother's.In a decorative alcove that stretched straight ahead for less than ten feet an oval stained-glass window of peacocks and doves where, as a child, she'd tried for a harlequin tan.And between the alcove and her mother's rooms the family nursery.Evan had already gone inside, and Rob was standing stolidly at the open door.He was Evan's opposite in temperament and color, but just as handsome, just as tall, with most of his weight impressively in his chest.When he saw her he stepped back a pace right away, his tongue licking at his lips, his eyes squinting behind gold-rimmed wire glasses.He shrugged when her brows rose in silent question, pointed, and she moved past him to stand at the threshold.The room was smaller than it appeared from the hall, its toys long since jammed into two large closets, rocking horse cocked precariously on end in a far corner, a cedar chest beneath one of the curtained windows.The floor was littered with dropcloths and newsprint, strips and balls of Mother Goose wallpaper yellowed and stiff.She counted four red plastic buckets of warm water, a paste brush, half a dozen wastebaskets overflowing and shoved aside, and two paste containers open and drying.A short stepladder had been propped against the right-hand wall, and at its foot lay her mother.She was groaning softly and, at the same time, resisting Evan's efforts to slide a hand behind her back to help her sit up."For crying out loud, I'm not dead," she snapped at him in a voice that made sandpaper seem remarkably like velvet.She glared at him, glanced up and saw Cyd for the first time."Cynthia, will you tell him I'm not—" She groaned again, slapped once more at his hand and pushed at him until he sat back on his heels.Then, sighing and using her elbows awkwardly, she struggled to sit up, took a deep breath and sniffed as though searching for a foul odor to be damned.Her hair, an unashamed cloudgrey, was dotted with bits of plaster and paste and a few curling strands of brightly colored paper.Her face was the same, and the smock she wore carried medals of all the rooms she'd done herself, every shade, every design.It was, she often claimed, nearly as old as she was herself.Her lips were as thick as Rob's, and brighter; her eyes as blue as Cyd's, and softer.Only a faint delicate webbing about her mouth and blunted nose and carefully screened temples betrayed her to the fifty-five years she had already weathered."Mother," Evan protested in obvious resignation, "you could have broken your back.""I didn't, though, did I?" she said, grabbing his shoulder and hauling herself to her feet, brushing carefully at her smock and the plain slacks bagging at the knees.Cyd took a quick step forward, frowning, worried, but only Rob had the foresight to ask her what happened.Myrtle Yarrow shrugged."I was on that idiot ladder, see—that confounded paper must be older than your father—and I reached out to yank down a strip and my foot slipped." She glanced at the floor-worn slippers on her feet, shook one experimentally and nodded."No grip anymore, you see.I fell, that's all.""But you landed on your back," said Evan sternly."Yes," she said, nodding again."Yes, as a matter of fact I did.And no worse for the wear, I'll tell you.Now what's the matter with all of you?" she demanded abruptly."I'm not in my grave yet, you know.Honestly, you'd think I was—""Mother," Rob said quietly, "you should be careful."She blinked once, slowly, before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at them all.Then she took Evan's arm and led him back to the hallway."I need a drink," she announced to her sons."You boys will join me.Cyd," she said over her shoulder, "would you mind running to Bradford's? I have a bracelet waiting.For the party tomorrow.""Another one?""Don't know what happened to the last one," Myrtle said blithely."Must have lost it, I guess." She frowned, broke it and grinned as Evan moved toward the stairs."Must be getting old, my dear, must be getting old.Please don't forget, will you?""But Mother."Cyd stopped herself, content with just nodding.Evan's diamond ring, Rob's diamond stickpin, her father's.she scowled as she tried to remember, then shrugged and gave it up.It was as though there were a jinx against jewelry in the house, with her mother the worst victim.or the most absentminded offender.She heard their footsteps fading, their voices softening, and began a slow wandering around the room [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]