Book Club Reads: 3-Book Collection: Yesterday’s Sun, The Sea Sisters, Someone to Watch Over Me. Amanda Brooke

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СКАЧАТЬ of the mess left in the aftermath of Holly’s culinary disaster. With the ease of an expert homemaker, Jocelyn managed to clear away the chaos and brew up a strong pot of tea in a matter of minutes.

      Lifting a trembling china cup to her lips, Holly took a sip of the sweet tea. She looked at Jocelyn over the rim of her teacup and wondered not just where to begin but whether she had the guts to begin at all. How was she going to explain why a scorch mark on the table had filled her with such terror?

      ‘I need Tom to come home,’ whispered Holly.

      ‘You’re missing Tom? Oh, sweetheart, he’ll be home soon. He is due home soon, isn’t he? Or has something changed? Is that why you’re upset?’

      Holly shook her head. She had so far refused to allow herself to make sense of her visions. Every time something in her present life had created a link with her visions, she had explained it away. The conservatory, Tom’s haircut, the doors changing position, even the pink teddy bear, she had dismissed them all as coincidences and mind games. But the scorch mark was something else. The scorch mark, it would seem, was the final nail in her coffin. Amidst the chaos of the burning toffee sauce and the thoughtless act of transferring the hot pan from the stove to the table, Holly hadn’t changed her future, she had confirmed it.

      Still trying to push away her thoughts, there was only one constant. ‘I just need Tom with me right now,’ she told Jocelyn.

      ‘His travelling won’t last for ever and you’ve said yourself how it will help his career. It’ll be worth it in the end when he’s got a good job based back in London. You’ll have the rest of your lives to make up for lost time then, and you’ll look back and long for the peace and quiet once you’ve got a house full of kids,’ added Jocelyn with a jovial laugh, which was meant to lighten Holly’s mood but sent it spiralling down further into the murky depths of despair.

      Holly went to put her teacup back down on the saucer but with her hands trembling so much, the handle slipped from her grasp and the remnants of her tea splashed across the table. ‘Why do I make such a mess of things?’ cried Holly, leaping up to grab the dishcloth before the spillage reached Jocelyn’s side of the table.

      As she turned back around, Jocelyn was already standing there beside her. She took the cloth from Holly’s hand, discarded it on the table and then wrapped Holly in her arms.

      ‘Tell me what’s wrong,’ Jocelyn pleaded.

      ‘I can’t,’ whispered Holly. ‘I’m so scared, Jocelyn! I’ve never been so scared in all my life.’

      Jocelyn squeezed Holly tighter to her as she felt her friend’s body shaking with fear. She started to rub her back. ‘It’s all right, I’m here. Whatever it is, it’s going to be all right, I promise.’

      Holly looked up at Jocelyn. How different her life would have been if she’d had a mother like Jocelyn. But at least she was with her now, and Holly didn’t have to deal with her living nightmare on her own, not any more. ‘I’m going crazy, but I know if I say it out loud it’ll just make it real and I don’t want it to be real,’ she explained, fighting the suppressed tears that were burning the back of her throat.

      ‘Oh, sweetheart, tell me what’s wrong. You can’t keep it all to yourself. I promise you I won’t judge.’

      Holding her breath in an effort to bring her shaking body under control, Holly hiccupped back a suppressed sob. She looked into Jocelyn’s eyes and the steeliness in her gaze gave Holly the strength to speak the unspeakable. ‘I’m going to die,’ she whispered. ‘I’m going to die and I don’t want to. I don’t want to leave Tom in such a mess. I don’t want to leave Libby without a mother.’

      Finally she took a breath, but as she paused, she noticed that Jocelyn had tensed her body. Jocelyn released her grip and took a step back to look Holly in the eye.

      ‘How do you know all of this?’ she asked hesitantly.

      ‘I’ve seen it. I don’t know how,’ Holly hiccupped. ‘I don’t know how it works, but it has something to do with the moondial. It isn’t broken at all. It works and I think it showed me my future. I’m going to die in childbirth on September twenty-ninth next year.’

      ‘You need a glass of water for those hiccups,’ Jocelyn said as she unravelled Holly from her arms and turned towards the kitchen sink.

      ‘Did you hear what I said? I’ve either gone completely crazy or the moondial has helped me travel forward in time and it showed me that I’m going to die,’ whispered Holly, horrified that she might have just made a fool of herself. Of course Jocelyn would think she had lost her mind, what else was she supposed to think?

      Jocelyn’s hand trembled as she handed Holly a long glass of cold water. Holly was too upset to notice. She took the glass but, rather than sip it, she put it to her forehead to cool her brow. She couldn’t look Jocelyn in the eyes.

      ‘Would it help if I told you that I died too?’

      The glass in Holly’s hand slipped between her fingers but she saved it just in time to prevent the table from being damaged further. She sat down again when she felt her legs about to give way. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said, stumbling over her words but in her heart a spark of hope ignited.

      ‘I used the dial too, Holly.’ Jocelyn sat down on the chair next to her and grabbed her hands. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I should have said something when I saw that you’d resurrected the dial, but I hoped you wouldn’t work out how to use it, that you wouldn’t need to use it.’

      ‘You saw your own death and you changed it?’ Holly squeezed Jocelyn’s hands, holding onto the hope that was now glowing brightly. It was almost enough to know that she wasn’t going mad, that the whole thing wasn’t just her mind unravelling. Yet Jocelyn wasn’t simply telling her that the moondial really did have the power to look into the future, but that the future could be changed.

      Jocelyn nodded and Holly felt a sense of control she hadn’t felt for days. ‘Tell me, tell me what happened.’ She bit her lip and waited for Jocelyn to explain.

      Jocelyn let go of Holly’s hand and visibly sagged in her chair. She was quiet for the longest time and Holly wasn’t sure if she was going to speak. When she did, it was in a barely audible, trembling whisper.

      ‘I’ve already told you about Harry, what he was like and why I left. Well, that was only partly true. Harry was bad enough, but it was only through the moondial that I saw how things would get worse, so much worse …’ Jocelyn’s head was bowed down and she sat staring at her hands as she recalled her time in the gatehouse. ‘That was why I left him, you see, to avoid the trouble that would come.’

      Holly sat mesmerized as she watched Jocelyn lift her eyes towards the kitchen window. It may have been the height of summer, but it seemed a cold, mournful day outside. Jocelyn couldn’t see the moondial from where she was sitting, but she obviously felt its presence bearing down on her.

      ‘It’s been such a long time and I tried to convince myself it was just a weird and complicated dream,’ offered Jocelyn. ‘It was so much easier than living with the guilt.’ Jocelyn glanced at Holly and gave her a weak smile before returning her gaze to the window.

      ‘What happened?’ Holly asked.

      ‘I was horrified when Harry plonked the dial in the middle of the garden, which was just what he wanted. The garden СКАЧАТЬ