The Lake House by Marci Nault Read Free Book Online

know how to make her dreams come true.
    One month in San Diego turned into two, and after three months of Victoria sweet-talking her daddy, her mother realized Victoria’s intentions.
    The telegram read: Return immediately. Stop. My daughter will not flaunt herself on a screen . Stop.
    Her father put her on the first plane home.
    Victoria placed the picture back on the shelf and sat on the hearth, remembering how she’d returned to Nagog from San Diego determined to break away, no matter the consequences.
    After a few minutes lost in thought, she went into the kitchen. From under the sink she collected cleaning supplies and cloths. Back in the sitting room she dusted the mantel and the picture frames on the shelves. She removed the sheets that covered the tables and the other two chairs.
    A Tale of Two Cities, her mother’s favorite book, lay on the marble end table, and she picked it up. The hardbound cover had the smoothness of her mother’s ivory hands. She lifted the book to her face; the pages, tipped in gold, held a faint smell of Chanel perfume.
    “Mother, I hope you and Father are watching over my girls in Heaven. I miss all of you.” She placed the book back on the table and adjusted it to the same angle as her mother had left it.
    Victoria turned and left the room. She could hear Molly cleaning in the study. Victoria walked down the narrow hallway between the sitting room and the kitchen and entered her father’s study.
    It was still raining and the gloom of the day made the room dark. Floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases lined the walls. Across the room was the window seat where, as a little girl, she would curl up and read by the window, her back against the bookcase.
    She walked around the room, tracing her fingers along the gold-embossed titles of the books that filled the shelves. The room had a musty scent from being closed for five years, but it didn’t take away the smell of her father. Tobacco smoke from long ago was in the walls, and his spicy cologne in the leather-bound books. She could almost see him behind the big maple desk, his pipe touched to his lip as he read the Littleton Town News .
    Molly was dusting the books and whistling a tune from Mary Poppins, and Victoria wrapped her arms around her friend from behind. “You don’t need to clean everything. I can handle it.”
    Molly turned and put her hand on Victoria’s arm. “Like you would know how.”
    Victoria leaned her cheek against Molly’s soft hair, and breathed in the scent of lavender shampoo and pine cleaner. Molly was her home. More than this house or the lake, no matter where Victoria had been in the world or what had happened in her life, Molly was the place where her heart could rest.
    “I think we need a shopping trip to stock your cupboards. I’d do it myself, but I know you’ll want healthier food than I would buy. Plus, you need to get out for a bit.”
    “The weather is horrible. Are you sure you want to drive in this mess?”
    “ Channel Five News said it would clear by this afternoon. We’ll just wait until it does.” Molly squeezed Victoria closer.
    It would be good to get out, Victoria thought. It was time to settle into life here in Massachusetts. As long as she had Molly, everything would be okay.

    B y noon the weather looked like it was going to clear, but then the sky turned a depressing gray and clouds moved in. White crystals hit against the windowpanes, and for three hours the wind whipped around the house. A large plow sent sparks along the road, blasting the street with sand. Three men jumped from the truck, shovels in hand. They spread out and attacked the walkways.
    Then, as is typical of New England winter weather, the storm blew away just as quickly as it had come in.
    Molly and Victoria decided to venture out, and Molly declared that a drive through the countryside of Littleton to see the fields and farms covered in snow was the perfect way to get to know Nagog all over again. The pavement was