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Back Ladies of the House
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. January
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. February
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. March
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. April
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Twenty
  30. Twenty-One
  31. Twenty-Two
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Twenty-Four
  34. Twenty-Five
  35. May
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. June
  43. Thirty-Two
  44. Thirty-Three
  45. Thirty-Four
  46. Thirty-Five
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. Forty
  52. July
  53. Forty-One
  54. Epilogue
  55. Acknowledgments
  56. Author’s Note
  57. Ladies of the House - Reader’s Guide
  58. Questions For Discussion
  59. Excerpt

Here, though, I had to step in. “Cricket,” I answered, “this is a grown man you are talking about. Even if what you’re saying is true, Blake is a person who is capable of living a life independent from his mother’s wishes. There are other jobs. He could’ve made it clear to his mother that Wallis was a nonnegotiable. In your theory, the fact that he did not choose Wallis over himself is suspicious and, I’d argue, very telling.” He’d hurt my sister, and the more I thought about it, the angrier with him I became. He had been a part of this family for the past couple of months, so how could I not have begun to think of him like a brother? I didn’t want to believe anything could tear him away from Wallis. But he was gone, and what mattered to Wallis was his absence, not the reasons behind it.

“But, Daisy, you’ve seen them together. You know how much he loves her.”

“I know what he’s shown us.” Cricket looked like she was ready to object, and loudly, so I put a finger to her lips and pointed to Wallis’s closed door. This was turning into a conversation that I didn’t want Wallis, as upset as she already was, to overhear.

“Can you honestly say you haven’t had doubts? Not about how much he loves Wallis, but about his own—I don’t know—resolve? To have a relationship like theirs takes a certain amount of steadfastness. It isn’t an easy task for anyone, not even for someone who is in love.” I recalled Melinda Darley’s face in the graveyard when she’d said those proprietary words—my son—like a child guarding her toys.

“He loves her,” Cricket maintained. “That we can all be sure of.” She was seated on the edge of the couch now, ankles crossed. Her gaze seemed designed to disarm any further argument I might volunteer.

“Fine,” I conceded, though I was far from satisfied. “But let’s focus on protecting Wallis’s feelings, and not defending Blake at the expense of them.”

Before Cricket could answer, there was a knock at the door.

A second later Wallis burst out of her room. “Who is that? Is it Blake?”

“It’s probably just the pizza,” I said, but she lunged to open the door.