The Unloved Read Online Free PDF

I can come up with someone who can deal with her.”
    They were on the wide veranda that ran the length of the front of the house now, and Lucinda started down the front steps. Marguerite watched her as she got into her car, and waved to her as she began driving away. She was just about to go back into the house when she saw the station wagon coming along the road from the causeway, and knew immediately who it was.
    She hurried down the steps, unwilling to wait even an extra few seconds to greet her brother.
    “Well, I hope you’re proud of yourself, Miss Helena,” Ruby said as she carefully picked the last scraps of the ruined breakfast out of the threadbare carpet that covered the oak floor of the bedroom. “Now you got rid of Lucinda, so me and Miss Marguerite can do even more than we’s doing already.”
    “Which is little enough,” the old woman observed, lowering herself back onto her pillows. “And Lucinda isn’t the only person who can be fired.”
    Ruby carefully got to her feet and glanced scornfully at the woman for whom she had worked for more than fifty years.“Don’t rightly see how you can fire Miss Marguerite, and there ain’t anybody else left in the place.”
    “There’s you, Ruby,” Helena snapped. “I’ll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head when you speak to me.”
    “And I’ll thank you for the same courtesy, though I know perfectly well I won’t get it,” Ruby replied. “Only thing that keeps me from quitting is that there ain’t no other jobs around here. And I don’t see how I can leave Miss Marguerite alone with the likes of you.”
    A vein in Helena’s forehead began throbbing, and she pushed herself once more into a sitting position. “Don’t you dare speak to me that way,” she raged. “Don’t you forget your place in this house—”
    “And don’t you either,” the old servant snapped, her own eyes glinting with anger now. “You can’t fire me, and you know it. And since I ain’t going to quit, the best thing you can do is relax and try to enjoy whatever life you got left in you!” She moved closer to the bed, and Helena shrank back, pressing herself into the pillows. “Now, I’m willing to go on about my business and go on taking care of you and Miss Marguerite just like I’ve always done, but I won’t have you throwing no more food around and driving no more nurses away! You think you’re such a high and mighty aristocrat, seems to me you better start acting like one!”
    She was about to say more when a car horn honked outside, and then the sound of voices floated in through the open window. Ruby smiled thinly. “Sounds like Mr. Kevin’s finally come home,” she said softly, her eyes fixing once more on the old woman in the bed.
    Her words seemed to galvanize Helena Devereaux. She threw back the bed covers and swung herself around so her legs hung over the bed, though her feet didn’t quite touch the floor. “Help me,” she demanded. “Help me get dressed!”
    Ruby’s eyes widened. “Get dressed? Miss Helena, you ain’t been dressed in five years! What are you thinking of?”
    “He’s my son,” Helena insisted, her eyes burning feverishly now. “I am not going to greet my son wrapped in this rag and sitting in this bed. Help me!”
    She tried to get to her feet but staggered, nearly falling,until Ruby moved forward and grasped her under the arms. Moving slowly, the old housekeeper guided Helena across the room and lowered her to the chair in front of the vanity. Immediately Helena’s hands began searching the top drawer for her comb and brush and the box of makeup she hadn’t touched for years. A minute later she began brushing the thin wisps of hair that only partially concealed her pink scalp. “The black dress,” she said. “Find the black silk, and the shoes that go with it. And my jet beads. I’ll wear them, with the garnet brooch.” She glanced into the mirror and saw Ruby still standing behind her. “Do as I say!”