Free The Patterson Girls by Rachael Johns Page A

Sarah.’
    â€˜Who the heck are Aunt Victoria and Aunt Sarah?’ Abigail asked.
    â€˜The names ring a bell,’ Charlie said, biting her lip.
    Lucinda and Madeleine looked at each other and Madeleine saw her own memory reflected in her sister’s face. ‘They were Grandpa Jimmy’s sisters,’ she said. ‘I can barely remember them. They died just after Abigail was born—terrible head-on collision on the highway—so you probably wouldn’t remember them much either, Charlie.’
    â€˜We didn’t see them very often, did we?’ Lucinda looked to Madeleine for clarification.
    She shook her head. ‘If I remember, Mum didn’t like them much.’
    â€˜No wonder.’ Charlie half-laughed. ‘What kind of people write about a curse in a wedding card?’
    â€˜I wonder what the curse was?’ A frown line creased Abigail’s otherwise flawless forehead.
    Lucinda scratched the side of her neck. ‘Isn’t Paterson’s Curse that pretty purple flower? The one that’s actually a noxious weed that farmers hate?’
    Charlie nodded. ‘Yep, but most people round here call it Salvation Jane.’
    â€˜You don’t think that’s what they were talking about, do you?’ Abigail, never one with any interest in local agriculture, looked immensely disappointed.
    â€˜Does it matter?’ Madeleine snapped, wishing she’d never found this dumb box. Knowing her little sister, she’d want to get to the bottom of what was probably nothing and, knowing the others, they’d go along with it to appease her.
    â€˜I’m a little curious,’ Lucinda admitted, rubbing her lips together in the way she always did when deep in thought.
    â€˜Me too,’ Charlie added. ‘Maybe there’s some big family secret we’ve never been privy to.’
    Madeleine sighed, realising progress would be halted until they got to the bottom of it. ‘It’s probably nothing more than two silly women with a hyperactive imagination but if you’re all so concerned, why don’t we ask Dad?’
    Hopefully he was in the motel and Madeleine could grab a glass of wine from the bar while they indulged this excitement. Surely if the curse was worth worrying about, they’d have heard about it before now.
    Leaving the bedroom looking like a war had been fought between its walls, the four sisters hurried down the hallway and through the door to the motel.

Chapter Five
    Abigail had always thought of her family as boring. She boasted two happily married parents who’d lived practically their whole lives in small town Meadow Brook, and three reasonably normal sisters—if you didn’t count Charlie’s new age tendencies. Thus, the idea of a family curse intrigued her. Not that she actually believed in curses, but the idea was far more exciting than the other things going on in her life.
    â€˜Dad!’ She waved the card in the air as they approached the reception desk where their father was doing something at the computer. ‘Look what we just found.’
    He looked up; his smile was weary but he was trying. ‘Hello, my princesses. Sorry I’ve been a bit preoccupied today. How’s the sorting going in the house?’
    â€˜We’re making progress,’ Lucinda told him.
    â€˜It’s fine, Dad. We know you’re busy,’ Madeleine spoke at the same time. ‘We can come back later if you like.’
    â€˜No.’ He shook his head, plucked his glasses off his nose and put them down on the desk. ‘What did you want to show me?’
    â€˜This.’ Abigail opened the card and put it down on the desk in front of him. ‘Do you know what they mean by the Patterson curse?’
    She held her breath as he read, hoping that maybe this would create an exciting diversion from real life for him as well. A funny expression came over his face—like he was reading about the death of