Shades of Twilight Read Online Free PDF

cousins were total opposites. Roanna had never been still long enough for anyone to cuddle her. Pick her up for a hug, and she was squirming to get down. Nor was shepretty the way Jessie was. Roanna’s odd mix of features didn’t fit her small face. Her nose was too long, her mouth too wide, her eyes narrow and slanted. Her hair, with its unDavenport-like tinge of red, was always untidy. No matter what she wore, give her five minutes and the garment would be dirty and likely torn. She favored her mother’s people, of course, but she was definitely a weed in the Davenport garden. Lucinda had looked hard, but she couldn’t see anything of David in the child, and now any resemblance would have been doubly precious had it existed.
    But she would do her duty by Roanna, and try to mold her into some sort of civilized being, one who would be a credit to the Davenports.
    Her hope, though, and the future, lay with Jessie and Webb.

CHAPTER 2
    L ucinda wiped away the tears as she sat in Janet’s bedroom and slowly folded and packed away her daughter’s clothing. Both Yvonne and Sandra had offered to do this for her, but she had insisted on doing it alone. She didn’t want anyone to witness her tears, her grief; and only she would know which items were precious, because of the memories, and which could be discarded. She had already performed this last task at David’s house, tenderly folding away shirts that still faintly carried the scent of his cologne. She had wept, too, for her daughter-in-law; Karen had been well liked, a cheerful, loving young woman who had made David very happy. Their things had been stored in trunks at Davencourt for Roanna to have when she was older.
    It had been a month since the accident. The legal formalities had promptly been taken care of, with Jessie and Roanna permanently installed at Davencourt and Lucinda as their legal guardian. Jessie, of course, had settled right in, commandeering the prettiest bedroom as her own and cajoling Lucinda into redecorating it to her specifications. Lucinda admitted that she hadn’t needed much cajoling, because she understood Jessie’s fierce need to regain control of her life, impose order on her surroundings again. Thebedroom was only a symbol. She had spoiled Jessie shamelessly, letting her know that even though her mother had died, she still had a family who supported and loved her, that security hadn’t vanished from her world.
    Roanna, however, hadn’t settled in at all. Lucinda sighed, holding one of Janet’s blouses to her cheek as she pondered David’s daughter. She simply didn’t know how to get close to the child. Roanna had resisted all efforts to get her to choose a bedroom, and finally Lucinda had given up and chosen for her. A sense of fairness had insisted that Roanna’s bedroom be at least as big as Jessie’s, and it was, but the little girl had merely looked lost and overwhelmed in it. She had slept there the first night. The second night, she had slept in one of the other bedrooms, dragging her blanket with her and curling up on the bare mattress. The third night, it had been yet another empty bedroom, another bare mattress. She had slept in a chair in the den, on the rug in the library, even huddled on the floor of a bathroom. She was a restless, forlorn little spirit, drifting around in search of a place of her own. Lucinda estimated that the child had now slept in every room of the house except for the bedrooms occupied by others.
    When Webb got up every morning, the first thing he did was go on a Roanna hunt, tracking her down in whichever nook or cranny she had chosen for the night, coaxing her out of her blanket cocoon. She was sullen and withdrawn, except with Webb, and had no interest in anything but the horses. Frustrated, not knowing what else to do, Lucinda had given her unlimited access to the horses, at least for the summer. Loyal would look out for the child, and Roanna