Saraband for Two Sisters Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘What happened?’
    ‘Too much to tell yet,’ answered the woman. ‘Oh, it is good to see you … good to be here …’ She threw back her hood and shook out magnificent black hair. ‘It’s not changed … not one little bit. And you … you’re still the old Tamsyn.’
    ‘And this …’
    ‘This is my daughter. Carlotta, come and meet Tamsyn … the dearest sister of my childhood.’
    Then the girl called Carlotta came to my mother, who was about to embrace her when the girl held back and swept a low curtsey. Even then I was struck by her infinite grace. She was very foreign-looking—with hair as dark as her mother’s and long oval eyes so heavily fringed with black lashes that even in that moment I couldn’t help noticing them. Her face was very pale except for vividly red lips and the blackness of her eyes.
    ‘Your daughter … My dear Senara. Oh, this is wonderful. You must have so much to tell.’ She looked round at us. ‘My girls are here too …’
    ‘So you married Fennimore.’
    ‘Yes, I married Fennimore.’
    ‘And lived happy ever after.’
    ‘I am very happy. Angelet, Bersaba …’
    We rose from the table and went to our mother.
    ‘Twins!’ said Senara. There was a lilt of laughter in her voice which I had noticed from the first. ‘Oh Tamsyn, you with twins!’
    ‘I have a son too. He is seven years older than the twins.’
    Senara took my left hand and Bersaba’s right and studied us intently.
    ‘Your mother and I were as sisters … all our childhood until we were parted. Carlotta, come and meet these two children who are already dear to me because of their mother.’
    Carlotta’s gaze was appraising, I thought. She bowed gracefully to us.
    ‘You have ridden far,’ said Melanie.
    ‘Yes, we have come from Plymouth. Last night we rested at a most indifferent inn. The beds were hard and the pork too salt, but I scarcely noticed, so eager was I to come to Castle Paling.’
    ‘What great good fortune that you found us here. We are on a visit.’
    ‘Of course. Your home would be at Trystan Priory. How is the good Fennimore?’
    ‘At sea at the moment. We expect him home before long.’
    ‘How I shall enjoy seeing you all again!’
    ‘Tell us what has happened.’
    Melanie was smiling. ‘I know how you are feeling seeing each other after all these years, but, Senara, you must be weary. I will have a room made ready for you and your daughter, and you are hungry, I’ll dareswear.’
    ‘Oh Melanie, you were always so good, so practical … And, Connell, I am forgetting you and the dear children … But I am hungry and so, I know, is my daughter. If we could wash the stains of travel from our hands and faces and if we could eat some of this delicious-smelling food … and then perhaps talk and talk of old times and the future …’
    Connell came to stand beside his wife. He said: ‘Call the servants. Let them make ready for our guests.’
    Melder, good housewife that she was, was already leaving us to issue orders.
    ‘We’ll hold back the meal,’ said Melanie. ‘In the meantime come to my room and you can wash there. Your rooms will not be ready yet.’
    She and my mother went out with the newcomers and silence fell on the table.
    ‘Who are these people?’ asked Rozen. ‘Mother and Aunt Tamsyn seem to know them well.’
    ‘The elder one was born here at Castle Paling,’ said Uncle Connell. ‘Her mother was the victim of a wreck and was washed up on the coast. Senara was born about three months after. She lived here all her childhood and when our mother died our father married Senara’s mother.’
    ‘So this was her home.’
    ‘Yes, it was her home.’
    ‘And she went away and hasn’t been heard of until now?’
    ‘It’s a long story,’ said Connell. ‘She went away to marry one of the Puritans and I think she went to Holland. No doubt we’ll hear.’
    ‘And she’s come back after all these years! How long is it since she went away?’
    Connell was thoughtful.