Secret Whispers (Heavenstone 2)

I couldn’t help being so reluctant and appearing so disinterested. Going to parties, dancing with boys, even simply talking to them now gave me goose bumps. On the other hand, I did want to do something exciting, but I was afraid I was about to make some terrible new mistake and somehow add more sad weight to the load my father carried on his shoulders.

“Why did you agree to that?” I heard Cassie whisper. “If Daddy finds out . . .”

Mrs. Hathaway would turn down Ellie’s request, I thought. Surely, she didn’t trust her. But less than an hour later, she returned with a smile across her face that could light up Times Square in New York. I didn’t have to ask how it went.

“Start thinking about what you’ll wear,” she said.

I felt my heart start to thump as if it were trying to break out. Forget about the violation of one of Hathaway’s cardinal rules. This would be the first date I’d had since I was in public school.

“We’re both going to look really hot.” She went to her closet.

I looked at the invitation again.

Clark Kelly Morgan? He sounded as if he came from some aristocratic family. For the first time in a long time, I wondered what a boy might be like. Ellie saw me staring at the invitation.

“He just happens to be quite good-looking,” she said.

I looked up at her.

“He’s supposedly a pro-quality tennis player, and, not that it matters to you, he comes from a well-to-do family. They’re probably not half as rich as yours but, according to Ethan, nothing to turn up your nose at.”

“I’m not a snob, Ellie. I don’t care if his family is wealthy or not. Besides, I’m sure I won’t have much to do with him after this. I can’t carry on with a college boy and keep it forever from Hathaway.”

“Maybe not,” she said, and then paused and smiled. “And then again, maybe you will like him so much you won’t care.”

“No!” I heard Cassie cry inside me.

I tilted my head and shook it as if I were trying to get water out of my ear.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, but I could see it in her face. Despite how well we got along, she was counting the days until we parted. I certainly couldn’t blame her. If I could part from myself, I wouldn’t hesitate. Of course, rejection of a Heaven-stone for any reason would infuriate my sister, Cassie. I didn’t have to imagine what her comment would be. She was there, eager to make it.

“Don’t give it a second thought. Good riddance to her,” Cassie whispered. “Good riddance to them all. We don’t need anyone else but ourselves.”

Ethan

“WELL, THAT’S VERY nice, Semantha. I hope you have a good time,” Daddy said when I told him I had a date to a school party.

Of course, I didn’t tell him it was a college party, but I didn’t doubt for one moment that Mrs. Hathaway had already called him to report my sudden interest in doing something social. Despite what I had told Ellie, I thought the news might please him, and that was more important than telling him the whole truth.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

“I have a little breaking news for you, too,” he said.

“You d

o? What?”

He laughed and then said he was going out on a real date himself.

“You are?”

“I feel like a teenager calling it a real date, but you know how it’s been, Semantha. So many people have been trying to fix me up with this woman or that woman. I’ve gone to functions and met women who were deliberately placed in my path, but it’s not been easy. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss your mother. I’ve tried to bury myself in my work. Your uncle Perry drives me crazy about it, but he’s not completely wrong. I am a young man yet, don’t you think?”

“Yes, of course you are, Daddy.”

“No one will ever replace your mother, but it’s very lonely here without her and you.”