Beauty From Ashes by Eugenia Price Read Free Book Online

she happens to be our tutor,
    she thinks she’s smarter than anybody,” 57 Fanny said.
    “No grumbling today, Fanny,” Anne said, keeping her voice pleasant. “Just be glad you have such a brainy sister.”
    “I don’t see anything wrong with my brain,” Fanny said. “I just don’t talk a lot. At least not compared with Pete.” With a short laugh, Fanny patted her older sister on the shoulder. “The truth is, Pete, I wish I had your gift of gab sometimes. No matter what anyone says to you, you always seem to think of something to say back. Don’t you ever feel shy? I do.”
    With a grin, Pete answered, “Being a shy young lady becomes you, Sister dear. I must say, though, you just made quite an impressive speech. Don’t you think so, Mama?”
    “I do indeed,” Anne replied, then added, “I will also say I’ve rather enjoyed not having to scold Fanny because she yelled during the years she was growing up.”
    Pete’s grin widened. “I know I yelled when I was a young squirt. Sometimes I miss getting by with it now that I’m an old woman.”
    “I don’t think it matters at all how old
    any of us may be,” Selina said in her newly mature manner. “Nothing else is important now but that our Grandpapa Couper is going to be ninety. Isn’t that so, Mama?”
    On a long sigh, Anne said, “Yes, Selina. Grandpapa Couper is the star on this trip. Along with little Rebecca Isabella, of course. She’ll be six on the same day. But all of us must find ways to make Grandpapa laugh and enjoy himself the whole time we’re at Hopeton. I’m sure birthdays get to be very important at ninety.”
    “I wish my papa had lived to be ninety,” Selina said, her face as wistful as her voice. “Pete, you did tell me, didn’t you, that Papa sometimes called me Eena?”
    “Yes, I told you that.”
    “I wish I remembered how he sounded when he said Eena,” the girl said to no one in particular.
    “I—I know it’s ridiculous, Selina,” Anne said softly, “but it’s still so, so hard for me to believe you don’t remember more about your father.”
    “Should I try harder?” Selina asked.
    “No, dear. There are times, though, when I— I almost wish I didn’t remember him quite
    so—clearly.” 59
    June signaled the oarsmen to move the big boat in at the north side of the Hamilton landing, and as though he had been holding a watch on their arrival, exactly at the moment they bumped against the sturdy pilings, James hurried out onto the dock’s platform, alone except for three of his people who would secure the boat and carry its contents.
    It was never a surprise to Anne when her brother James Hamilton acted precisely by his watch. She did feel a bit of concern, though, because he came alone this time. “And a good day to you, Brother,” she called after he’d given them his formal bow and what seemed a guardedly pleasant greeting. “No one’s ill, I hope. We thought you and Caroline and all your children except your Yale scholar, Hamilton, would be out here to welcome us. Is everyone all right? Papa’s well as usual, isn’t he?”
    “Everyone’s fine,” James laughed, reaching to help them, one after another, from the Lady Love while June, who climbed ashore first, pulled Eve after him up onto the sturdy dock.
    “But where’s Margaret?” Selina wanted to know.
    “And Robert and James Maxwell and Alexander and John Lord and Rebecca Isabella and little William? I thought I’d have all of them to play with—especially Margaret.”
    “There’s bound to be a good reason why Uncle James came alone,” Pete said. “So, why don’t we just hold our horses until he’s ready to tell us?”
    Anne, the last to be helped out of the boat, was giving Eve instructions about where bags and valises should be taken when she saw Eve nod emphatically toward James Hamilton. “I think Eve is urging me to pin you down, Brother,” Anne said, hoping her lingering anxiety about the whereabouts of the other family