The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich Read Online Free PDF Page A

wiped her mouth with her napkin and exclaimed, “It’s time for Molly’s mornin’ walk. Would anyone like to come along with us today?”
    “I’d love to come, Shay,” Calliope chirped. “And maybe today will be the day we see some lilac blossoms, hmm?”
    “Ooo , maybe so,” Shay giggled. “I can’t wait for the lilacs! Mama, will you help me gather bunches and bunches for our new house the way we used to for our old house in the wood when they’re bloomin’ well?”
    “Of course, my sweet pea!” Kizzy assured her daughter. “As long as there are lilacs in spring, we’ll fill as many vases as we can for the house, all right?”
    Shay clapped her hands with excitement. “Oh, I can’t wait for the lilac bunches! I think they smell so…so…well, I think heaven smells like lilacs!”
    “I’m sure it does,” Lawson chuckled. “Meanwhile, I’ll help your mama with the breakfast dishes so you and Calliope can be on your way with Molly. All right?”
    “Thanks, Daddy,” Shay said, leaping up from her chair and throwing her arms around her father’s neck as she kissed him quickly on one cheek. “You know how impatient Molly gets if we don’t get her mornin’ walk in early.”
    “Ah yes,” Evangeline said , smiling. “ Molly gets very impatient to get out and about.” Evangeline winked at Calliope knowingly.
    Calliope sighed with resplendence born of contentment. Oh, she missed her sister Amoretta—missed her something awful. But she adored the new family environment that Kizzy and Shay brought to the Ipswich home. It was new, fresh, and filled with hope and endless possibilities of happiness. She enjoyed being the big sister for a change too, instead of the little sister as she’d always been to Evangeline and Amoretta. And Shay was the most adorable baby sister anyone could ever have wished for. And besides, Amoretta and Brake visited often, especially since winter had slipped away to welcome spring. Langtree wasn’t so far away after all, only half a day’s ride in the wagon. Amoretta and Brake would visit again soon, and meanwhile Calliope was joyous in the company of her family—of her sisters Evangeline and Shay, her father, and her stepmother and friend, Kizzy.
    And there was something more as well—her secret bliss. The warm embers of felicity that smoldered deep in her heart, ignited months before in a moment of unanticipated epiphany, elevated Calliope’s delight in life to such a soaring height that she was certain no one in all the world could fathom it—even if someone did know of her bliss and its cause, which no one did.
    Oh , she knew that her secret wouldn’t always gift her the euphoria it did in that moment—not forever. But she’d determined some time ago to linger in her bliss for as long as her secret would keep safely cached in her own heart and mind. Thus, as she watched Shay put the collar of the leash around poor Molly’s neck, as she saw Molly visibly sigh with buoying up her patience with her little friend, Calliope sighed as well. Winter was gone. Spring had arrived. And some secrets were well worth handing poor Fox Montrose over to some other young woman to adore—some other young woman who was not an Ipswich girl.
    *
    “Isn’t it a little cool out here, honey?” Lawson asked as he joined his daughter on the front porch that evening. “Are you sure you’re warm enough?”
    “Oh yes, Daddy,” Calliope answered with a sigh. “Resplendently so!”
    As her father sat down next to her on north-facing porch swing, he laughed, repeating, “Resplendently so, is it?” Stretching one strong arm along the length of the swing at Calliope’s back, he said, “That’s quite a theatrical response in the positive from a young woman who just this morning informed her father that she does not wish to be courted by the handsomest young bachelor in town.”
    “Maybe I don’t think Fox is the handsomest young bachelor in town,” Calliope teased. “Have you met