Letters of love by Kathy Cakebread (book suggestions txt) 📕

Letters of love


The attic lay stark and cold in the dark, untouched air, its lengths covered in boxes and boxes of memories from days ago. Staring at the work that lay ahead of her Katie sighed, her breath dislodging traces of dust from the beam above her. The house, a family heirloom had originally belonged to her great-great grandmother and was passed down the generations till it became hers. Now it was time for a clear out. A cold wind reverberated through the attic, dislodging a newspaper cutting that had been placed loosely in a beam. Picking up the cutting Katie blew off the dust, cradling the fragile paper in her hands. The date read December 22, 1863; the headline Tragedy at Royal Dockyard. Scanning the story she picked out details of a ship builder named William Parker who was killed when a timber fell and crushed his body. On his person they had found a number of letters and a photo of a woman. The article went on to state his family’s urgency to find the identity of the mystery woman and the paper had enclosed the photo. Glancing at the image Katie gasped, the woman was almost her mirror image, her great-great grandmother Bernadette. Her hands shaking she dropped the piece of paper and in her flustered state tripped over a heavy box on the floor. She glanced down, saw the small brown chest and instinctively knew it would contain the answers to the past. Her breath hushed she opened the chest, gently blowing on the dust that had built up over the years. Inside were a small blue babies rattle, a velvet red diary and a bunch of letters held together with an elastic band. For a minute she just stared, these were the keys that could unlock the past, let her in on a family secret that lay unspoken for years. Gingerly she picked up the rattle, its melodic tune soothed her just like it would a baby. Replacing it she picked up the letters, the band breaking as soon as she tried to pull it off. Gently she unfolded the letter on the top of the pile and started to read… ‘My dearest Bernadette, I hope you are well. The work here is long and tedious but the thoughts of you are what keep me going. We started work on the Dockyard’s first iron battleship a month ago now and the works coming on strong. I’m so lucky to have found work here, I know times are hard and I’m lucky to be part of such a strong and worthy organisation. I will see you soon my darling, William.’ The letter was dated February 15 1863. Was William the secret that had created the mystery and silent whispers that had dominated her childhood? Or was there something else. Determined to uncover the mystery she opened the diary, thumbing through pages till she came to an entry that caught her eye.
‘Dearest diary, tonight was the most wonderful night for William came to me and he proposed! He can’t afford a ring yet so we can’t make it official, but just having him here was enough. And so, with the promise to be wed we made love under the stars, it was beautiful diary, just like how I had imagined. Soon my handsome ship builder and me will be one!’ She signed her entry Bernadette Parker. Katie sighed a tear rolling down her cheek. It was if a key had broken the heavy lock that has lasted long over a century. The enigma that had once engulfed her family was now free. With a heavy heart she turned to the last diary entry; it was written with a weaker hand then the other entries, the black ink smudged by what looked like tears. ‘December 23, 1863, Diary he is dead and his family did not know me! What is a proposal without a ring? The paper is calling for information on the photo of me found on him but I know I can’t reveal my true identity. I am unmarried and pregnant. They won’t want to know me, not now. Oh god what am I going to do?!’
Fingering the rattle Katie knew exactly what Bernadette had to do; give up the child that she had wanted with the man she had loved so much.

Publication Date: 11-29-2009

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