Roses by Leila Meacham Read Free Book Online

acting a little odd today, but it feels good to kick the traces a
     bit.”
    “Uh-huh,” Sassie murmured. “Well, now, I’m comin’ back to get you soon as Henry comes down.”
    Mary sensed Sassie’s concerned backward glance and regretted causing her worry. No doubt she and Henry thought she was finally
     losing her mind. Something cold would have tasted good. She wished she hadn’t refused the offer of iced tea, but it was too
     much trouble for Sassie to have to come back.
    She made herself comfortable and directed her gaze slowly up and down the avenue. The Toliver mansion sat high enough to permit
     a good view of the neighborhood from the verandah. Her great-great-grandmother had seen to that. How she loved this house,
     this street. Little about it had changed since she was a girl. The carriage houses were now garages, sprinkler systems had
     replaced the hand watering once done by the household help, and a few of the old trees had finally toppled, but the antebellum
     grace of the avenue remained the same, a small part of the South not yet gone with the wind.
    Would Rachel ever appreciate what it had cost her to take this place away from her? Would the child ever fathom what it had
     been like for her to live the final weeks of her life knowing that she would be the last Toliver to reside in the family home
     place, the house her forebears had built? Most likely not. That would be asking an awful lot from the girl….
    “Miss Mary, you talkin’ to yourself again.”
    “What?” Startled, Mary squinted up at her housekeeper.
    Sassie Two was standing in front of her. “You talkin’ to yourself again. And where are your pearls? You left here wearin’
     ’em.”
    Mary felt at her neck. “Oh, I left those for Rachel—”
    “For Rachel? Oh, Lawsey, that does it. Miss Mary, you comin’ in outta this heat.”
    “Sassie!”
All at once, Mary’s mind cleared. The past dashed to pieces in the clarity of the present. She was herself again, and in
     charge. Nobody told her what to do, not even Sassie, who was family and had the right. Mary pointed her cane at the housekeeper.
     “I will come in when I’m good and ready. You and Henry go ahead and eat. Kindly fix me a plate and leave it in the oven.”
    Showing no offense at Mary’s attempt to put her in her place, Sassie said, “Well, what about some iced tea?”
    “No iced tea, Sassie. Bring me a glass of Taittinger’s from that bottle we keep in the refrigerator. Get Henry to open it.
     He knows how. On second thought, bring the bottle. Ice it down in a champagne bucket.”
    Sassie’s eyes bulged. “Champagne? You want
champagne
in this heat? Miss Mary, you never drink alcohol nohow.”
    “I am today. Now go on and do what I say before Henry perishes of hunger. I heard his stomach growling like a caged tiger
     in the car.”
    Shaking her wiry gray head, Sassie retreated and returned with a tray bearing the commanded items. She set it down loudly
     on the table next to Mary. “Will that do?”
    “Splendidly,” Mary said. “Thank you, Sassie.” She looked up at her housekeeper with a swell of profound affection. “Have I
     ever told you how much you mean to me?”
    “Not near enough,” her housekeeper said. “Now, I don’t care what you say, Miss Mary, I’m comin’ out here to check on you ever’
     so often, so you better be careful what you say to yourself if you don’t want no secrets let out.”
    “I’ll be sure to guard my conversation with myself very carefully, Sassie. One other thing. Was Henry able to get the lid
     to Mister Ollie’s trunk open?”
    “He did.”
    “Good.” Mary nodded in satisfaction.
    When Sassie had gone, she poured the flute full of champagne and brought the rim to her lips. She hadn’t imbibed anything
     stronger than a few sips of champagne on New Year’s Eve since she was a girl. She knew better. Alcohol had the power to take
     her back to times and places she’d striven nearly all her life to