The red and pink flowers were in full glory, and ever since coming home a month before, she’d found herself gazing at them with an almost physical need for their beauty. But they would be battered and broken by the wind’s rough treatment if they weren’t protected. As she worked, she pondered the letter she’d received that morning from Edwina. Instead of the news of an engagement that Josie had been every day expecting, it had held a brief description of the soirees Edwina had attended and an account of what her sister had worn. The letter held no enthusiasm or excitement, almost as though Edwina were simply going through the motions. Perhaps, Edwina’s earlier letter notwithstanding, being in London was proving awkward even though the scandal was over, and perhaps Mappleton hadn’t proposed after all. She would write her that night and gently ask. Josie and the gardener worked for some time together, tying the roses around stakes, until a particularly violent gust uprooted the ancient, half-dead apple tree near the front drive, and Rickett went around to see to the damage.
What do You think about Mischief By Moonlight (2014)?
