Free Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen Page A

light packer, and the idea of leaving anything behind that her mother might then don for some party or other sickened her. “One can never be too thin or too rich—I still fit in all my daughter’s things, you know,” she could just imagine the old lady trilling at one of her evenings. But on the other hand, she had to remember that the less treasure she arrived at Dogwood with, the more there’d be for Charlie to buy her.
    â€œThanks, miss.”
    Astrid, whose attention had been temporarily diverted by the beautiful new thing on her finger, replied with a distracted, “You’re welcome.” She was still gazing at her engagement ring, a little misty-eyed, when the door to the hall opened.
    â€œWhat’s all this?”
    Astrid rotated toward the entry and her hand went behind her back. Her mother was standing in the doorway, clothed in a white silk bathrobe, her makeup from the night before only partially removed from her face. Her eyes twitched over the scene, taking in the luggage and reading its meaning.
    â€œGoing somewhere?” She pushed a fistful of dark hair away from her face.
    â€œMe?” Astrid replied innocently, taking a step toward her mother and keeping her hand resting girlishly at the small of her back. The thrill of what had passed between her and Charlie last night hadn’t faded even a tiny bit, but she now found herself even more breathless and proud as she paused, about to reveal it to her mother.
    â€œYes, you.” Her mother took a long sip from her china coffee cup, observing Astrid over its rim. “I assume you aren’t sending all your favorite dresses to the Salvation Army.”
    â€œGood afternoon, Mrs. Marsh,” Billie said, exhaling in her stepmother’s general direction, but otherwise not moving a muscle to express greeting.
    â€œAfternoon, Billie.” Virginia went slinking across the floor, balancing her coffee in front of her and finding a place on the bedspread, in between the piles of lace undergarments, to recline. “Did you girls enjoy the party?”
    With exquisite patience, Astrid put both hands forward and ever so slowly lifted a silk camisole lying near the edge of the bedspread. She picked it up by the straps, folded it neatly, and placed it to the side so that she could perch on the corner of the bed and rest her left fingers over her right, Charlie’s ring sitting like a little jeweled crown on her lap.
    â€œWhat’s that ?” her mother gasped.
    â€œCareful, darling!” Astrid cried out when she saw the sloshing of coffee in her mother’s cup. “My prettiest things are out now,” she went on in a patronizing tone, “and you’ll ruin them if you don’t mind your beverage.”
    â€œDid Charlie give that to you?” Her mother scowled as she leaned forward to get a better look.
    â€œYes, of course! Who else would have given it to me? I don’t have other beaux,” she added with such lightness that anyone other than her mother might have missed the point. But Virginia was no fool, even on mornings like these, and she heard the undercurrent of Astrid’s statement perfectly. When she turned her green eyes up at her daughter, they had a kind of desperation in them, but Astrid was determined to smile back with nothing but peachy innocence. “Isn’t it pretty?” she prodded.
    â€œVery.” Virginia took a sip of her coffee before casting her eyes around the room. “Is Charlie taking you on a cruise of the Orient now?”
    â€œNo! Nowhere so far as that.” Astrid stood and walked over to the shoe suitcase, where Brenda was still standing, looking a little fearful of what might yet happen between her two mistresses. “Only . . . now that we’re going to be married, and everyone can see that from the ring I’m wearing, it seemed silly for us to be apart any longer.”
    â€œYou’re not married