‘I demand to know!’
He started and his face seemed to turn whiter still. He said in a low voice: ‘Who put that there?’ She had found it in a lumber room upstairs, turned to face the wall. There...
Category: Sarnia
Extracts from Sarnia
The crack of the whip
Edmund forced a way for them up the Assembly Rooms steps, from where they could see over the heads of the crowd. She looked where he indicated. She saw the cage first, a square wooden...
An emotion utterly strange
Sarnia turned to Edmund, expecting him to help her remount her horse. He did not move, but stared at her. She was conscious of the intensity of his regard, and also of their isolation. She...
One bad one is enough
A fresh storm arose in the night, with the sound of distant thunder and the wind howling up from the sea. She thought at first it was the wind which had awakened her, and lay...
‘I am your doctor’
They were trying to make out she was mad, but a doctor could not be deceived. She clutched his arm, weeping and shaking, and implored him to get her away, to take her to a...
The weather is breaking
She felt more at peace than she could ever remember. Over eighteen hours had passed since she last took the drug, and her mind felt clear, though languid. There was the enormous relief of freedom,...
On the hot sand
She slept and woke, hearing her own voice crying weakly for Peter. The storm raged, but less fiercely. She tried to get to her feet, but the drag of wet clothes and the oilskin were...
Leave of absence
‘How did you get leave of absence from the bank?’
‘Mr Merton granted it. I asked for it in lieu of the holiday I was to have later in the summer. He readily agreed – you know how indulgent he is.’
She said quickly: ‘You did not tell him that you were alarmed on my account?’
‘I did not speak of you at all. I spoke of an aunt at Southampton who was ill, and needed me.’
The world grows worse
They set out next morning, with a tide and a fresh south-easterly. Mr Fernie’s boat was larger and better kept than Tostevin’s, a two-masted ketch newly painted green, with a crew of two men and...
Honouring the dead
The graveyard was not far from the house, less than ten minutes on foot, but the Jelains insisted on the carriage. Sarnia was still too weak to walk out, Mrs Jelain declared, and Edmund supported the argument. In fact, Sarnia was not sorry to acquiesce. Although she had ceased taking Dr Falla’s potion, a lethargy clung to her mind and her limbs felt weak. She was grateful for the help of Edmund’s arm as he led her from the landau to the graveyard.
