Love Notes from Vinegar House Read Online Free PDF

pudding when the adults’ voices dropped and I saw Uncle Lawrence bow his head as my grandmother talked about Rumer’s special circumstances. Then her eyes narrowed and she asked if I hadn’t had quite enough food for one day, so I slid from my chair and left the room.
    While I’m quite good at eavesdropping, the closed doors at Grandma Vinegar’s house are solid and word-tight. Five minutes after I had left the room, Isabella found me crouched down at the dining room door trying to listen to the adults’ conversation. I hushed her as I pressed my ear closer.
    There was a rush of steps behind me and then my brother Oscar asked, “What are you doing?” He probably thought I was part of his Spies game.
    “Go away,” said Isabella, kindly.
    “What’s she doing?” he repeated.
    “None of your business,” I said, crossly.
    “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to tell Mum,” he said. As little brothers go, Oscar was typical. Isabella promises that he’ll turn into a person one day, but I severely doubt it.
    “I’ll give you a dollar if you go away,” I said. “I’ll give it to you when we get home.”
    “Okay,” he said. I heard the squeak of his shoes moving away towards the kitchen.
    “Come on, Freya,” said Isabella. “We’re playing Cluedo in the Blue Room.”
    “
Sshhh
.”
    I listened to the voices rumbling behind the door, then I heard Isabella say, “Oh,” and a scratchy voice behind me say, “May I ask what you are doing?”
    There were many doors in Vinegar House, at least two to a room downstairs, and Grandma had a way of sneaking about the place like a cat burglar on the prowl. One moment she’d be reading quietly in the drawing room, and the next she’d be dispositing your mobile phone, which you’d totally forgotten was in your pocket, onto the silver tray in the entry hall. Aunty Wendy, cousin Julia’s mum, told me that it was a well-known fact that Grandma Vinegar had the third eye; she “saw” things that hadn’t happened yet and knew things that she couldn’t possibly know. I don’t know if Aunty Wendy was joking, but it seemed possible to me.
    “Freya?” said Grandma.
    I mumbled something about losing a necklace, then Isabella and I scurried off to the Blue Room out of grandma’s sight.
    “She’s a witch,” I said hotly, my heart still beating double time at being caught eavesdropping. “What are special circumstances?” I asked Isabella before we entered the bedroom.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Grandma was talking about Rumer’s special circumstances. What special circumstances?” I demanded.
    Isabella just shook her head as she pushed me into the bedroom. “Come on,” she said, but I was sure she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Chapter 6
    This is how Rumer ruined Luke Hart for me.
    Somehow she had crashed
my
family’s annual beach holiday with the Hart family at Ocean Side. There was hardly enough room in the holiday shack for our family, but Rumer managed to get prime position in the kids’ room, just under the one tiny window that could catch a passing breeze on the stillest night. We usually put Oscar under the window because Deefa slept on Oscar’s bed, and the dog usually drank a bathtub of salt water during the day. Salt water had an awful effect on Deefa’s innards. I can’t even begin to describe the smell.
    It wasn’t what I would call a “happy families” holiday. Isabella ignored Rumer most of the time – my sister could hold a grudge – although she would be polite if Rumer asked her a question. On the second day of politeness, I asked my sister how she could bear to even be in the same room as Rumer, but Isabella muttered something about Rumer’s special circumstances and wouldn’t explain even when I niggled her for a whole hour about it. Still, the phrase stuck in my mind …
    Being the middle child in our family is like being a second-rate person. Oscar and Dad sometimes go off and do boys’ things on weekends,