Hyacinth (Suitors of Seattle) Read Online Free PDF

she was a young girl, but she'd never before really paid attention to the place.  So often, she'd worn her older sisters' cast off dresses, or simply wore the same dress for so long that it was in tatters before she moved on, so she hadn't spent as much time there as most of her sisters.
    After the dressmaker, they went to the diner where she'd eaten on several occasions with her mother and sisters.  During the summers as she was growing up, her mother would spend one afternoon per week with two girls.  So in four days she would have spent an afternoon with each of them for more personal time.  Hyacinth had enjoyed their time together, even though she'd had to share her mother with Jasmine, the sister her other sisters detested.  It happened both because of age order, and because she complained the least about spending time with Jasmine.
    Jasmine hadn't bothered Hyacinth as much as the others, because she'd never been able to figure out what would really bother Hyacinth.  It wasn't that she hadn't tried, because she really had, but Hyacinth had been in her own world so much that it had been impossible for Jasmine.  Hyacinth had only found out the true reason her sister had been so much easier on her in letters after Jasmine had moved to Montana to help Daisy out.
    As they sat down at the table in the diner, Mary sighed heavily.  "It would be so nice if Jasmine was here with us." 
    Hyacinth smiled. Her mother looked so forlorn it was almost comical. "It would.  I miss her and Daisy."  She really did, too.  It wasn't just to be agreeable.  Jasmine had been great fodder for her imagination.  She'd often watched her naughty sister and jotted down notes about the way she'd behaved.  She knew someday those notes would come in handy.
    "You should meet those boys of hers.  They aren't identical, which is a blessing for everyone involved.  They prank everyone around them way too much as it is.  If they were identical twins, the world would not be a safe place."   Mary loved her step-grandsons with everything inside her.  She seemed almost proud of the boys' pranks, despite her words.
    Hyacinth grinned.  She'd heard a lot of the pranks the boys had played on Jasmine and Daisy since Jasmine had married.  "They sound like they're a handful.  I hope they keep Jasmine on her toes."
    Mary laughed.  "I think they're afraid of pranking Jasmine now.  They learned quickly.  Of course, she has to constantly be on the lookout for what they may be doing to other people."  She sighed heavily. 
    "I'm sure she does."  Hyacinth shook her head.  "I don't know what she's going to do when she has babies of her own."
    "I don't either, but I hope she has a hard time with them.  She deserves to have children who are just as hard to handle as she was."
    "Mama!  I can't believe you'd say that."   In all the times her sisters had complained about how terrible Jasmine was, their mother had never agreed with it.
    "You know as well as I do that your sister had no idea what propriety was.  She was an absolute monster to each and every one of her sisters.  I think only you escaped the depth of her terror, but only because she couldn't figure out how to torment you."  Mary shook her head.  "Why, I think if she were here now, she'd be talking to you constantly about ending up with one of Amaryllis's cast offs."
    Hyacinth frowned.  "Why is everyone so convinced that Lawrence and I have a relationship other than friendship?"  She just couldn't see what they did that made people think they were becoming a couple.
    Mary laughed.  "He stands outside our house every morning watching for you to come out so he can walk you to the library.  He sent you flour for some absurd reason.  The man is very interested in you whether you've realized it yet or not."
    Hyacinth shook her head.  "He's not."
    "We'll see."
     
    *****
     
    Lawrence arrived at precisely half past five that evening, a huge bouquet of hyacinths in his arms.  "I wanted