Saraband for Two Sisters by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online

look for my mother because I knew that she was there. I found her. She was married to a gentleman of high nobility, a friend of King Philip … You remember him, Tamsyn. He was here as Lord Cartonel. You thought he came courting me.’
    ‘I remember him well,’ said my mother soberly.
    ‘My mother had never been what you would call maternal. She never wanted me. I was an embarrassment … no, not even an embarrassment … an encumbrance, shall we say, right from the first. I should never have been born. It was a miracle that I was and that was due to your mother, Tamsyn, who found mine on the shore half dead and to her own detriment brought us both into this castle.’
    ‘It was long ago,’ said my mother, ‘and you were brought up here as my sister, Senara. There are unbreakable ties between us and I am glad that you have come back to us.’
    ‘Do tell us what happened,’ begged Rozen.
    ‘I went to Court. I married a gentleman of rank. We had a child, Carlotta. I had always wanted to see you, but of late the urge became irresistible. I must see you and Castle Paling before I was too old to travel. My husband agreed that I should pay a visit. He could not accompany us. He has a post at Court. So we set out. We arrived in London … and we travelled here by stages. That is all and now we are here and right glad to see you.’
    ‘You will stay with us for a long while, I hope,’ said my mother.
    ‘I have a feeling that I shall not be eager to leave this place. I must go back to Spain in due course, but to me Castle Paling is what I think of when I say home.’
    My mother was deeply moved; so was Aunt Melanie.
    Uncle Connell said that we must all drink to the return of Senara with her daughter and she must regard Castle Paling as her home for as long as she wished to, to which my mother replied with some firmness: ‘Senara was my sister. There is a home for her at Trystan Priory if she so wishes it.’
    Senara held out one hand to my mother and one to Aunt Melanie.
    ‘God’s blessings on you both,’ she cried, ‘and right glad I am to be here. I long to be once more in the Castle, but when I lived here Tamsyn was my sister. We shared a bedroom at one time, do you remember, Tamsyn?’
    ‘Until you went to the Red Room.’
    Senara closed her eyes and laughed, and I knew that she and Mother exchanged some memory.
    ‘You were my sister and it was to be with you that I came here. Yet the castle was my home … all the time I lived here. I will go with you, Tamsyn, for a while and then I will come back and stay at Castle Paling. How’s that? Of course it may well be that you will not want me here …’
    ‘Not want you!’ cried Melanie. ‘Why, it was your home.’
    ‘We change in … how many years is it, Tamsyn? Nearly thirty. What time has done to us. You do not look the age I know you must be. You live again in these delightful twins.’
    ‘As you do in your Carlotta. Women stay young when they think young and feel young and look young,’ said my mother.
    Senara touched her plentiful black hair in which there did not appear to be one grey strand. ‘I have always cared what I look like. As did my mother. She has many secrets.’
    ‘She lives still?’ asked my mother.
    ‘In Madrid in grand style. It is how she always wanted to live. She resented it here.’
    ‘And she has remained young and beautiful?’
    ‘Not young—even she could not manage that. But she still is beautiful. She rules her household like a queen and it is said that she is more royal than royalty.’
    ‘Yes, I can believe it. What did she think of your coming to England?’
    ‘She scarcely gave the matter a thought. Perhaps she considered me a little mad. But she knew that I had been brought up by your mother and your influence was strong with me. You had made me sentimental, affectionate … a little like yourselves … Therefore I had these odd notions.’
    Uncle Connell said: ‘I have a very special black cherry brandy. I shall