A Flight To Heaven Read Online Free PDF

will be ages before I can go dancing again. I cannot have a lovely dress like this.”
    Both her friend and Madame Winterson tried hard to persuade her, but Chiara would not agree to take it.
    “It’s perfect,” she sighed, “But I cannot – not now.”
    She ran back into the changing room and took off the white dress, putting her own frock, which she had worn at school, back on.
    And then she left the shop and walked home with Elizabeth, as the afternoon sky was beginning to turn red with winter sunset.
    “Everything will be all right,” Elizabeth said and slid her arm through Chiara’s.
    Chiara nodded, but all her thoughts were far away, back at Rensham Hall, a few days after her Papa’s death.
    All through the dark days following the death of her husband, Lady Fairfax had stayed in her bedroom with the door locked.
    Chiara knocked many times and called out to her Mama, but only her maid, Margaret, was allowed to go inside.
    “Her Ladyship is so distressed, Lady Chiara. She needs plenty of sleep and rest. She will see you when she is feeling better,” Margaret said, when she found Chiara waiting outside the bedroom door.
    It was agony for Chiara not be able to go in and comfort her Mama and be soothed in her turn.
    At the same time she could not get out of her mind the feeling that, if she had not come home from school on that day and her Papa not come hurrying to greet her, he might not have died.
    Did her Mama blame her for what had happened, and was that why she would not speak to her?
    When Lady Fairfax finally emerged from her room on Christmas Day and came down to breakfast, she looked pale and wan and had dark circles under her eyes.
    Chiara ran to hug her before she could sit down.
    “Mama, I am so glad to see you. I have been so worried about you.”
    Lady Fairfax pushed her gently away.
    “I am fine, darling. It’s just – I have had such a terrible shock. But I am feeling better now and I could not bear to think of you spending Christmas Day alone. We must be together and struggle through as best we can.”
    She sat down in her place and then began to pick at some toast and marmalade. Chiara thought that her heart might burst, if she did not speak the thoughts that had been tormenting her.
    “Mama, you are not angry with me, are you?” she asked, when she could wait no longer.
    Lady Fairfax sipped her coffee.
    “Why should I be angry with you?” she asked in a tired voice.
    Stumbling over her words, Chiara spoke of her fear that she might have been responsible for her Papa’s heart attack. It was so painful to do this that she found herself crying uncontrollably.
    Lady Fairfax stood up and came around the table to stroke her daughter’s hair.
    “Darling, you must absolutely forget such a foolish idea. Your dear Papa had been very ill for some time. We did not tell you because we knew you would be upset.”
    It was such a relief to hear those words, spoken so gently by her Mama, but then Chiara simply could not stop crying. Her whole body was shaking with violent sobs.
    After a moment, she heard her mother say,
    “My darling, I know how sad you are, but we have to get through today, when we will both be missing your Papa so terribly. And then – there is the funeral.”
    It had been arranged that Lord Fairfax would be buried before the New Year.
    Lady Fairfax took Chiara’s hand and gazed at her solemnly.
    “Once the funeral is over, my darling, I think it would be a good idea if you went away for a little while.”
    “But – why, Mama? I want to stay here and look after you,” Chiara exclaimed, unable to believe what she had just heard.
    “No, my darling. We will end up just making each other even more upset. You must go and be with someone of your own age, who will cheer you up and help you to look forward to the future. That will be much better for you than being here brooding over what has happened.”
    Chiara felt her heart freezing like an icy stone as she heard this. How could