Once, I caught my father watching me. That once, I saw a real smile on his face.
When May hit, it hit like the storms of winter.
The house woke up. The same was true for all the cottages. Everywhere there was rushing in preparation for the return of the families. Such madness for four people, when a different four—the four of us—had been living so simply, without any fuss, for so long. Mrs. O'Brennan kept me busy from dawn to dusk and well after. The beds were made, fresh towels put on the racks, lampshades dusted. We freed the furniture from their slumber beneath the draperies.
In the final days before the Worthington's return, fresh flowers—purple hyacinths with their deeply floral scent…the prickly beautiful forsythia and their waxing aroma—filled every room in the house, bunches and
