Sisters by Lynne Cheney Read Free Book Online Page A

rushing darkness. Her throat felt
constricted, but she must have cried out because there was the sound
of people running. The old woman rolled her eyes toward the noise and
disappeared into the hallway's darkness.
     
     
- Chapter 5 -
     
    "Sophie? Sophie? What
happened, Sophie?" James was the first at her side.
    "Somebody outside the
door. I was startled. Foolish of me."
    "Outside the door? Who
was it?" Paul demanded.
    "A woman, an old
woman. I know her, but I can't think..."
    "Anna May, please go
see that Mother is in her room." It was Paul who spoke, looking
over his shoulder. then he turned back to Sophie. "It was my
mother. I'm sure it was. She's been living with us these past few
years, and she's old and sneaks up on people sometimes. Here, sit
down." He indicated a love seat in the hallway and turned on a
light. "You should sit down. You're pale."
    But Joe had awakened, and
Sophie wanted to see him. He was making a questioning noise, and
there was fright and confusion in his voice. She tried soothing him,
holding his hand, stroking his forehead, but her presence didn't seem
to five him comfort. Quite the contrary, his eyes would fix on her
and fill with dread, as though she were a specter come to haunt him.
After several minutes, Sophie realized it would be better if she left
him with the nurse.
    She shut the door to Joe's
room behind her. "He doesn't know me," she said, sitting
next to Paul, who had waited for her in the hallway. "Or maybe
the noise and running confused him. How stupid of me to cause all
this excitement." She felt an utter fool, angry with herself for
upsetting Joe, Paul's mother. Of course that's who the old woman was.
"The Widow Bellavance"--that's how Sophie had known her at
Fort Martin. She couldn't really remember Paul's father. She had been
only three or four when he had been killed in the Denson massacre.
But she recalled his mother now, remembered a grim-visaged woman who
seemed to hate the entire world. Sophie had felt her malevolent gaze
before.
    "You didn't know my
mother was living with us," Paul said. "We should have
warned you."
    "The truth is, I
didn't even know she was in Cheyenne. Why didn't I see her either
time I was here before?"
    "She was over on House
Street then, in a little place I bought her over there. She's never
been much for company or visiting. Liked to be by herself and was
fine until a couple of years ago. Then she started wandering, looking
in the neighbors' windows, so we brought her to live with us."
    A small woman with brightly
hennaed hair came hurrying up the hall, smiling with astonished
cheerfulness. "Your mother's just fine, Paul. A little
overexcited, perhaps, and I think it would help if you'd go in and
see her. Besides, I'll take care of Sophie. We girls understand these
things better than you men do. Isn't that right, Sophie?"
    As Paul stood, Sophie
forced herself to nod an answer, even though she knew that to Anna
May a response mattered little. She didn't pay heed to most of what
was said to her, and she seldom let what she did hear affect the
course of her chatter. It always amazed Sophie that Paul had chosen
Anna May for his wife. There was nothing evil about the woman, but
she was such a strain on the nerves. Was Paul's equanimity so great
that he was unaffected?
    "You're just too thin,
that's what it is," Anna May was saying. "Just look at you.
I could put my hands around your waist, I'm sure. Have you been
dieting, Sophie? Your nerves will give out, don't you know, if you
don't take care of yourself properly. And you're laced too tight, I
imagine. That's not good for you either." The astonishing smile
flashed again. It reminded Sophie of an electric light, the way they
seem to glaringly overbright at first. "Why don't you let me
undo your laces a bit?" Anna May suggested.
    "I'm really quite all
right, Anna May. And my laces are just fine, really."
    Anna May drew nearer, and
in case she meant to have at the laces in spite of Sophie's protests,
Sophie