Sommersgate House Read Online Free PDF

make it into an event and the food, even without
butter, salt or sauce to season it, was still delicious.
    “You’re a
wonder,” she told Mrs. K with all honesty when the older woman
whisked the dishes away.
    “One does
one’s best. Now, it’s one hour of television or computer and then
you know what to do,” she told the children who rushed to have
their very short bit of fun.
    “An hour?”
Julia asked once the children left, her irritation growing.
    “Lady Ashton
doesn’t want their brains turned to mush by telly or computer
games,” Mrs. K explained.
    Julia’s lips
tightened at the very idea that three grieving children were not
given an opportunity to lose themselves in pleasurable pastimes,
but she held her tongue and nodded.
    If she heard
one more word about what Grandmother or Lady Ashton did or did not
want, her exhaustion and jetlag would cause her to lose her
ever-loving mind and she’d scream the house down. Something which,
she understood, would not help her impossible, inconceivable
situation one bit.
    After the
children’s short hour of fun, Mrs. K and Julia put them to bed,
first Ruby and then Willie and Lizzie.
    Sitting on
Lizzie’s bed, Julia tucked her in tight all the way down her sides
just as she knew Gavin used to do because that was what Patricia
used to do.
    “I’m happy
you’re here, Auntie Jewel,” Lizzie murmured sleepily, but even
tired, she didn’t sound happy at all.
    “I’m happy
too,” Julia lied, bent forward and gave her niece a kiss on her
temple.
    Julia rose and
crossed the room but stood uncertainly at the door for several
moments after she’d turned out the light, completely at a loss of
what to do for the girl. She wished Gavin was there to tell her
but, of course, she wouldn’t have had to do anything if he was.
    With a heavy
heart, she went to find Mrs. K.
    “I’m off to
the husband,” Mrs. K. announced when Julia arrived in the kitchen
and saw that Mrs. K was putting on her coat. “Breakfast for the
children is at seven o’clock. They have to leave no later than
seven thirty. I expect you’ll have a lie in tomorrow, you must be
done in.”
    Julia looked
at the clock. It was ten after nine. If Mrs. Kilpatrick was here in
time to feed the children by seven, she was working incredibly long
hours.
    “I’ll be at
breakfast, Mrs. K,” Julia, resolute, told the housekeeper and
something in her tone made Mrs. K’s head come up.
    The other
woman regarded Julia closely. “I suspect you will, luv, but it
doesn’t have to be tomorrow. Give yourself a wee bit of a break.
And don’t you worry. You’ll get settled in, you all will.” Julia
heard more hope than certainty in Mrs. K’s voice but she had no
time to worry about it because with that, Mrs. K left.
    As Julia
headed out of the kitchen, she noticed that Mrs. K had put the
house to sleep just as she did the children. Curtains were drawn
and small lights were on here and there that did nothing to break
the dark and everything to extend the frightening shadows of the
big house with its large rooms and high ceilings.
    Sommersgate
House, her home for the next decade.
    She shivered
at the thought.
    It was
beautiful, haughtily and even brashly so, but it was not welcoming.
Indeed, it was not welcoming in a tangible way, as if it had its
own personality, its own set of eyes with which to look down on her
with disapproval.
    In fact, the
house reminded her a great deal of Douglas.
    She shook off
that thought as she made her way to her rooms.
    Julia had not
been surprised to see that she had been put in the guest suite,
which was off the dining room and down the back hall that lead to a
small Chapel (a lovely little Chapel which was really its own
building but attached to the house, it nestled snugly in the
sloping hill in which the curving drive was cut over a century
ago).
    Julia was not
placed upstairs with the children or the other members of the
family, even though all three children had their own room, as