Sarah's Roses, Book I: Roses of Blue

Chapter II

Shringking in a corner, Pressing into a wall, Do they know I'm present, Am I here at all. ~ Lang Leav

Chapter II

My right hand unconciously reached up to fiddle with the strands of my right braid. I was afraid of this woman who turned out to be none other than my mother's elder sister, Helen Jane Greensten.

"Come here, child," she said in a cold voice. Still staring at the ground and playing with my hair I took a few steps closer to her. My uncle had sat down in a chair beside her.

"Well, one thing is certain, she is the spitting image of Evelyn," Aunt Helen said at last. "Stop examining at your feet and look at me, child. Yes, Evelyn through and through. Except for those eyes. Evelyn's eyes were sky blue, hers are a steel grey. Well, child, I am sure you know what a surprise you are to us. Your mother disappeared ten years ago and suddenly we are told we have to take her orphaned daughter in."

"I'm sorry." I forced myself to speak. How intimidating she was. "We probably went about it all wrong. You see, Father Joseph though perhaps to start with just a letter informing how you had a niece, but Mrs. Maguire thought it would be best to send a letter stating the date of my arrival. That way, she said, it would be harder for you to refuse."

It was not an answer pleasing to my aunt, I could tell by the way she set her lips in a thin, angry line and raised her eyebrows just a little. "Well, I never..." she muttered before her voice trailed off.

"You are a surprise to me too," I found myself continuing, my fingers still relentlessly tugging the strands of my hair. "I never knew I had an aunt and uncle until a few days before Mama - before Mama - before Mama died." I bit my lip, I couldn't cry in front of them! What would they think of me?

"Who is Mrs. Maguire?" Uncle Andrew asked. Unlike Aunt Helen, he seemed very calm and cool about the whole 'niece from nowhere' issue.

"Mrs. Maguire is the wife of my landlord a." I answered. "She also has a son named Robert. They were my mama's only real friends."

"For mercy's sake, child," Aunt Helen suddenly burst out. "Stop fidgiting like that. Cannot you stand still?"

My hand jerked down from my hair and a hid it behind my back, while my feet shuffled together and I straighted out my back. She certainly was unhappy, there was no mistaking that. Uncle Andrew reached out to put his hand over hers, but she snatched it away before he was able to.

"How did your mother die?" She kept on with the interrogation.

"Mama?" I placed my left hand behind my back to hold down my right one from going up to the braid again. "She came down with a bad fever that got the end of her in the end. Mrs. Maguire said she was too weak to fight it."

"And your father?"

I caught my breath, my eyes locking with her. I had been waiting for that question, and dreading it. I stood silently, not knowing what to say, or how to say it.

"Child, I asked you a question, what of your father? Who is he? Is he also dead?"

I gulped down the lump of fear stuck in my throat. "Oh, him." My voice could barely be heard. "You see, ma'am, well, I don't have a father." I took a deep breath. "My mother never married."

Aunt Helen let out a gasp. "You are illegitimant!"

Stunned silence ensued after this terrible sentence was passed. I could see horror filling her eyes as her breathing became quick and irregular.

They hadn't known.

Why hadn't Father Joseph told them the full truth? I was sure he had. He was a priest after all. What would happen to me now?