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Chasing Endless Summer (Sutherland Series, The) - Softcover

Buch 2 von 3: Sutherland

Andrews, V.C.

 
9781668015940: Chasing Endless Summer (Sutherland Series, The)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1668015943 ISBN 13: 9781668015940
Verlag: Gallery Books, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

A young girl trapped in a labyrinthine mansion may finally get the family she longs for when her estranged father reappears in her life in this new novel from the world of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Flowers in the Attic and Landry series—now popular Lifetime movies.

After the tragic death of her mother and a long period of isolation under the thumb of a cruel grandfather, young Caroline Bryer has little to hope for in her life in the foreboding Southerland mansion. Her only companion, her enigmatic cousin, Simon, may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing and is not to be trusted. But when Caroline’s estranged father suddenly resurfaces with news of a new wife and stepchildren in Hawaii that she’ll finally be allowed to visit, Caroline dares to hope for a new, normal life. Desperate for her father’s love, Caroline will do anything to stay in this new home. But her troublesome stepsister has other plans, and Caroline cannot tell who to trust and who to run from. Will her new stepbrother and stepsister be a light in her dark life, or will they blot out the last slivers of sun forever?

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

One of the most popular authors of all time, V.C. Andrews has been a bestselling phenomenon since the publication of Flowers in the Attic, first in the renowned Dollanganger family series, which includes Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The family saga continues with Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth, Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger, and Secret Brother, as well as Beneath the Attic, Out of the Attic, and Shadows of Foxworth as part of the fortieth anniversary celebration. There are more than ninety V.C. Andrews novels, which have sold over 107 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than twenty-five foreign languages. Andrews’s life story is told in The Woman Beyond the Attic. Join the conversation about the world of V.C. Andrews at Facebook.com/OfficialVCAndrews.

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Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE
The day after I was permitted to leave the bleak bedroom, Grandfather sent Mrs. Lawson out with me to buy new clothes. I had been told that everything I had owned before I was brought here, even things like dolls, books, and games, had been given to charities. Anyone would think that my grandfather had wanted to erase my previous existence just as he wanted to erase the memory of his daughter, my mother. Mrs. Lawson had told me that I would be reborn. She said that it was the only way Grandfather would accept me back as a Sutherland. It had nothing to do with Grandfather’s spiritual beliefs. Mommy had told me that he believed religion was a refuge for failures. He didn’t abide by church teachings. Nothing I had been doing or anything my mother had done was a sin to him, unless you could call defying him or damaging the Sutherland reputation evil.

I would almost have been happier if Mrs. Lawson had bought me nothing when she took me shopping. Practically everything fashionable for a girl my age, everything on display at the best department stores, was unacceptable to her. She bought me what she could stomach and then took me to one of her favorite thrift shops to find me the rest of my wardrobe. Some of the clothes and shoes were easily a decade old. When I protested, she warned me the way she warned me about anything, warned me the way Simon just had implied things were: “Do what I say, or I’ll tell your grandfather you haven’t changed a bit, and he’ll put you right back in that bedroom.” I couldn’t even look down the dark hallway, where, at the end of it, the double doors hovered in my mind like some cloud full of thunder and lightning. I was still waking up at night when one slammed shut in a dream.

Emerson, my grandfather’s driver and my mother’s favorite person working at Sutherland, drove us about and kept quiet even though I knew he could clearly see my unhappiness. He helped bring everything up to my room, and when Mrs. Lawson was not nearby, he said, “Think of all this as temporary, Caroline. Once you are out of here and away from one of the witches from Macbeth, you’ll blossom as you should. Cheers.”

I hadn’t read Macbeth, but I wasn’t surprised to hear him refer to Shakespeare. Emerson was a tall, thin man who had been born in East Sussex, England. He was always immaculately dressed in his uniform and cap. He had a trimmed mustache, as gray as his full head of hair, and dark blue eyes. His face was lean, with sharp creases in his forehead. Ordinarily, he kept his thick lower lip over his upper lip so that it looked like he had only one. My mother had told me that while she was growing up at Sutherland, she spent more time talking to him than she did with any of the other servants, save the cook, Mrs. Wilson. She told me she would sit and watch him wash and polish the limousine, vacuuming the inside immaculately. He was so intense about it that he would pick up something with tweezers. While he worked, he told her about his life in England and how he had wanted to be a race car driver when he was younger. He often sang old English songs to her and read to her from books of poetry and loved quoting lines from Shakespeare’s plays.

But even before everything terrible had happened, my mother warned me to be careful about what I said or told to him because he was very loyal to Grandfather. The truth was that I wished I could see whatever Emerson saw in Grandfather that made him willing to be so devoted to him and stay so long as his chauffeur. Mommy thought no one spent more time alone with Grandfather, not even his CEO, Franklin Butler, and certainly not Grandmother Judith.

Now Simon and I were headed to the discussion of her funeral. I walked slowly, dreading the thought of returning to that family cemetery and looking at what I knew was my mother’s false grave. How could I stand there and not reveal that I knew the terrible truth, something only a few really knew?

Simon stepped ahead of me.

“We’re going to the—”

“I know where we’re going,” I said. “It wasn’t that long ago when we were all gathered in the Sutherland Room to discuss my mother.”

He nodded and walked a few steps ahead of me. The doors were opened on the grand living room, with its large fieldstone fireplace and gray area rug over the slate floor. There was something special about it, royal, because it was where Grandfather either spent his relaxing time alone or demanded everyone’s presence for some grand announcement. As soon as I stepped in, my memory of being summoned here for the announcements about my mother’s funeral brought a rush of blood to my face. Everyone would surely think that the tears floating in my eyes were for Grandmother Judith, when they were really still for my mother.

Once again, I looked up at the family portraits and the family crest, which featured three stars. It was the symbol of Grandfather’s company, Sutherland Enterprises. Ancestors seemed to come to life, looming above us with their familial authority. As a little girl, I recalled believing that their eyes moved along with us. Surprisingly, this time the gray window drapes were opened wide, the sunlight casting a glow around Grandfather Sutherland, who sat in his heavy-cushioned ruby-red chair that matched the semicircular sofa.

Everyone always had their assigned seat on that sofa. The last time there was a family gathering, for Grandfather’s decisions about my mother’s funeral, Grandmother Judith was sitting on his far right with her feet on the ottoman. A nurse had been attending to her because she had collapsed when she had heard the news of my mother’s death. I remembered how exhausted she was from her sorrow. No one dared take her seat today. All glanced at it as if Death sat among us. For some reason, as frightening as it was to imagine him dark and ugly, I always saw a gleeful smile, too.

Uncle Martin looked the saddest of all in the family. He had his head bowed and clutched his hands as though there was still a possibility Grandfather Sutherland could declare Grandmother Judith alive. He was squeezing so hard that his fingers reddened. From the little I could see of his eyes, he had apparently been crying. Aunt Holly sat with her hands in her lap, looking down as well. Mrs. Lawson, appearing more impatient than somber, stood to the right of them, scowling. Did she approve of anything anyone else but Grandfather did in this house?

Emerson stood just behind her, looking, as my mother would say, like a guard at Buckingham Palace. Often he was the first person seen whenever any visitor came through the main gate. Emerson was always in uniform. Mrs. Wilson, the cook who had been hired when my mother was three, stood beside him. She was the only one dabbing away the tears in her eyes. I saw her risk a small smile when she glanced at me.

Franklin Butler was to Grandfather’s right, his hands behind his back, staring ahead but not looking at anyone in particular. No one was apparently more important to Grandfather than this tall, stout man with a full head of completely white hair that contrasted sharply with his olive complexion. He had thin lips, a sharp nose, and high cheekbones. I had never looked at him carefully or with great interest but somehow noticed now that he had unusual brown eyes, closer to rust.

Even though he hadn’t been unpleasant to her, my...

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Verlag
Gallery Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1668015943
ISBN 13 
9781668015940
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
272
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande

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