Gracie's Sin by Freda Lightfoot Read Free Book Online

protest, thumping her tail hard on the ground as Rose explained the situation. ‘You know how he is when he’s in one of his moods. Stay here, there’s a good girl. Just till he’s found somebody else to bully.’ She bent down and rested her cheek against the dog’s face while Tizz snuffled a cold but sympathetic nose into her ear. Rose chuckled softly, fondled the dog’s floppy ears then bolted the door and went back to the kitchen.
    Eddie was still there, waiting for her, prowling around the kitchen, opening cupboard doors, telling her which dinner service to use, which cruet, reminding her to polish the wine glasses, to clean the silver as he’d noticed it looked stained when they’d used it the other day. It clearly didn’t occur to him, Rose thought, to pick up a cloth and do it himself.
    Cooking in this vast kitchen was a nightmare, with nothing ever where she needed it. She much preferred the tiny lodge house but Eddie always insisted on holding his lunches in the dining room of the main house, using it very much as his own, just as if he had every right to do so. She rather suspected there were times when he and Gertie actually slept in the Master bedroom. Gracie always hoped someone would notice and complain but nobody ever did. The Timber Corps was far too busy with its own affairs to bother, and inspectors from government offices rarely ventured this far west.
    She had the sudden, frightening, thought that she’d no flour left for the apple dumpling and ran to the larder to check. The familiar white bag sat on the top shelf and Rose clambered up on a stool to pull it down, sighing with relief to find it almost full. But in getting down from the stool, she somehow managed to drop it and lose almost half of its contents all over the floor.
    ‘For goodness sake, what are you doing now? Do you have to be so completely clumsy and incompetent?’
    Rose snatched up the dustpan and brush and began to sweep, flour billowing everywhere, covering her hair, face and arms in a fine white dust. She could feel the tension mounting inside, tears pricking her eyes. She’d be in need of an Aspirin herself in a moment. Or a double brandy. She went back to peeling the potatoes, hands shaking.
    ‘You should use the potato peeler, a knife is wasteful.’
    ‘Why don’t you use the potato peeler.’ Making no attempt now to hide her distress and annoyance, Rose thrust the potato into his hand and, snatching up a pan, crossed the vast flag-floored kitchen to the low stone sink, filled it with cold water then brought it back to the table to toss in the rest of the peeled potatoes. He trailed after her, there and back, still clasping the unpeeled potato.
    ‘Are you sure you’ve done enough. I said six for lunch.’
    ‘For heavens sake! You’ve got a potato in your hand. Why don’t you peel that, if you’re not satisfied?’
    He stared at it as if it were an alien produce that had dropped from another planet. He looked so utterly helpless and forlorn, so boyishly perplexed, that she was filled suddenly with a great wash of love and pity for him. Hadn’t he cared for her almost half her life? Hadn’t he suffered the loss of their parents too? Despite his odd moods, meanness and temper, he was her dear brother after all. The only family she possessed.
    True, he’d exhibited some jealousy at the way her parents had spoiled her but then Eddie must have been the age she was now when she’d been born. Just turned seventeen. It must have come as rather a shock to him to be presented with this unexpected sister after being an only child for so long. Rose always took this into account whenever she felt aggrieved by his lack of patience in her.
    More importantly, ever since Rose was ten years old, he’d been the only father she’d ever known. She’d depended upon him entirely. So of course she loved him, penny-pinching, selfish, unpredictable and lazy though he might be, she greatly appreciated his care of her, as well as