Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
I also didn’t know they had horses because I hadn’t had a complete tour of the grounds. Thus, I had to carve time out to ask Prue if she’d take me, and more time just to do that.
But for the now, I had to eat breakfast then I had crates of history awaiting me.
“Can I get up?” I asked Baby Blue.
She purred and didn’t bother opening her eyes.
I gave her time.
Then I gave her more time.
Then she got done with me and jumped off.
So I was free to get up.
I’d jumped ahead because I couldn’t wait.
I was reading Marie’s journals.
And yes, as Prue said, they were dry as a bone.
If there was ever a more boring woman in history, I did not know.
Discussions with the housekeeper. Lists of invitees to dinner parties. Complaints of rain ending picnics. An endless recitation of the meals she ate.
Ho-hum.
Though it finally got juicier when Harmony started pushing for the duchy to do its part in the war effort.
But this engendered not much more than things like, Harmony is being troublesome again about that whole war business, and the like.
I kept reading while sipping the tea Mary brought out for me, and the fire in the stove that Harry started making the studio downright balmy and seriously cozy, especially with the gray outside and the fine mist that had been hanging around all day.
God’s honest truth?
I could work in this studio happily on this book and any book I wrote in the future.
That was how much I loved it.
On misty days, gray days, sunny days, I didn’t care.
This place was everything.
The cottage I’d rented was quaint, but small and cramped. It had an amazing view of the sea (if the pictures could be believed), but right now I had a view to a beautiful garden.
And tea on demand.
It sucked, but I was going to miss the studio when I left.
And The Downs.
I turned a page after reading how offended Marie was that,
that captain has requested we turn over the pink salon for some planning they need to do for some important operation or other. Operation planning! In my pink salon! I don’t even know what that means. Bother! It’s good he’s pleasing to look at, but now I’ve lost yet another room! Dreadfully tough beef and boiled potatoes and cabbage for dinner. Will there be no end to this rationing?!
I was dying to know what WWII “operations” were planned at The Downs. I’d thought it just a convalescent hospital, but from the number of military staff cordoned there (that Marie bitched about), it stood to reason that it was more.
Though, since Marie didn’t care, I doubted I’d ever find out.
But I would forget all about it when I read,
It is as feared. Bishop warned me it was more than harmless flirting. Harmony has actual feelings for that American! She stated this directly to me and her father! I was appalled. The duke is incensed! Oh, what a headstrong girl! We had chicken for dinner, and again, no pudding. Will I never eat a pudding again?
I devoured the next passages, which didn’t have much to say about Harmony and “that American” until,
She’s gone and done it. Harmony says she intends to marry that young man. An American, of all things. American! Obviously, that means no title, and certainly no money. He told the duke that they take “real good” care of the boys returning home and they should be on their feet “in no time.” Balderdash! My daughter will not struggle to ever be on her feet. The nerve. The duke refused his suit, obviously. Harmony refused to come to dinner and sobbed very loudly for all to hear. Humiliating, for all involved. I would sell my soul for a well-seared duck, but alas, it was chicken and potatoes again. I’m not certain whether I hate Hitler or whoever runs the Ministry of Food more.
And then more reading, where things seemed to get worse and worse for Harmony and Charlie, however, in the journal prose of Marie’s hand, this was reduced to a few irritable sentences.
Until,
That American boy is finally gone. Good riddance. Harmony is in tatters. She’ll soon see. Lamb for dinner tonight, and miracle of miracles, it was actually tasty.
Of course, if Charlie hadn’t left without Harmony, I wouldn’t be sitting where I was.
I still stared daggers at Marie’s throwaway comments about their love affair.
What an empty-headed, pretentious, thoughtless woman, and an unconscionably terrible mom.
Annoyed, I kept going, and although there were hints of Harmony’s heartbreak, clearly Marie didn’t give much thought to it. At least, not nearly as much as she gave to cataloging the food she put in her mouth.
I was about to give up, especially since I’d gotten to a good six months after the war was over.
But then I read,
It doesn’t bear… I cannot even… The deeds that were done in this house. My husband’s house. Oh, our beautiful girl! Oh, my beloved Harmony! The only good of it is that it is done. It is well and truly buried. No one will speak of it again. And no one will ever know.