Chapter 24. “Married!” Elizabeth uttered, unable to hide her shock

“M arried!” Elizabeth uttered, unable to hide her shock. “You—and Frank?”

“What is all the commotion in there?” Simon and Mr. Fier came hurrying in from the front porch, and Mrs. Fier appeared on the stairs. “What is going on, girls?”

Elizabeth stood frozen in place, trying to stop her knees from shaking, while she watched Kate run into their mother’s arms. “Mother! Frank has asked me to marry him!”

Elizabeth stood aside to watch the happy uproar that followed this announcement. Mrs. Fier’s kind face lit up, and Mr. Fier clapped his hands delightedly.

Finally Elizabeth could not help herself. She could not keep the words from bursting from her lips. “It cannot be!” she cried in a trembling voice. “Frank loves me!”

No one seemed to hear her.

Simon asked, “Where is Frank? I want to congratulate him.”

How can this be? thought Elizabeth. Is this really happening? Kate and Frank?

She wanted to scream. She wanted to fly out of the room. She wanted to disappear forever.

How can this be? How can this be?

She uttered a sob of grief, of anger, of disbelief.

Kate and Frank?

Elizabeth remembered just then all the times that Kate had acted strangely around her and Frank. When Elizabeth told Kate that she liked Frank, and when Elizabeth and Frank had come in from the woods and found Kate stirring soup. Kate had seemed upset those times. Now it all made sense.

Kate had loved Frank all along.

And Kate had stolen Frank from her!

“How could you?” Elizabeth shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Her new outburst made everyone fall silent, and they all turned to stare at Elizabeth.

“How could you?” she raged at Kate again. “My own sister!”

“What?” Kate gaped at her, bewildered. “Lizzie—what are you talking about?”

“I—I—I—”

Elizabeth found herself speechless now.

Afraid of the intense anger she felt, afraid she might explode from rage, she tightened her fists around the knitting needles and ran from the room.

I must find Frank! I must find Frank! she told herself as violent sobs escaped from her throat.

She pushed blindly through the kitchen, out the back door, and into the woods. Behind her, she could hear Kate calling her name.

Elizabeth ignored her Frank was all that mattered. Kate could not be trusted.

“Frank!” she screamed. “Frank!”

Her feet padded over the brown carpet of pine needles. Sharp branches tore at her skirt, but she barely noticed.

Elizabeth had almost reached the clearing when she realized she was still clutching Kate’s unfinished scarf and her knitting needles. She tossed them onto the ground and kept running.

“Frank!” she called.

Far behind her, she could still hear Kate’s worried call: “Elizabeth! Elizabeth!”

Simon and his parents were left standing in the parlor in a daze. None of them understood what had just happened.

Wasn’t Kate’s announcement a joyful one?

At last Mrs. Fier said, “Simon, run after the girls and see what this is all about.”

Simon nodded and started after his sisters. He heard voices ringing through the woods. They were his sisters’ voices.

No sign of Frank. Simon could not help wondering where Frank was all this time.

He tried to follow the voices, but they seemed to come from all directions in the thick woods, like birdcalls.

Then, suddenly, there was a bloodcurdling scream.

Simon froze. The woods fell silent.

Silent as death.

What was that? Where had it come from?

He ran in the direction of the scream. Soon he found himself in a clearing. He recognized it as the place where he and his sisters had played as children.

Simon’s eyes frantically searched the clearing.

Who screamed? Why?

Behind the bigger of the two rocks he saw something dark. Simon squinted hard until it came into focus.

A pair of dainty black high-button boots.

He took a step closer, his heart beating wildly. The ground seemed to tilt under him.

Taking a deep breath, Simon peered behind the rock.

“Ohh.” He gripped the top of the rock as his eyes landed on Kate’s body. She lay sprawled on her back, her light brown hair spread out around her head like a halo. Her pale blue eyes were open, reflecting the sky.

Simon gripped the rock till his hand hurt. “Kate?”

She did not answer. She stared up lifelessly, a knitting needle plunged through her heart.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20