Will in Scarlet (2013)
“—JOHN LITTLE Much got her nickname from something her father used to say. When the neighbors asked what use a daughter was to a poor miller who needed strong hands to work his grindstone, he’d frown and shake his head. What use is a daughter to a poor miller? he’d ask. Nothing much.
But when they were alone together, when he’d tucked her in at night and brushed the hair from her eyes with his cracked, callused hands, she’d ask him her own secret question: Is there anything that would make you h...appier than me?
Nothing much, came his reply.
That wasn’t the whole truth. Much saw how lonely he was, how on certain gray days he’d sit in his chair and stare at her mother’s dusty lockbox. She’d seen him fingering the fine dress he kept stashed within. She’d noticed the way he blinked and wiped at his eyes when he spoke of his wife, dead these five years.
Much’s Christian name was Marianna, same as her mother’s. And that, perhaps more than anything, was why her father had refused to use it.MoreLess
But when they were alone together, when he’d tucked her in at night and brushed the hair from her eyes with his cracked, callused hands, she’d ask him her own secret question: Is there anything that would make you h...appier than me?
Nothing much, came his reply.
That wasn’t the whole truth. Much saw how lonely he was, how on certain gray days he’d sit in his chair and stare at her mother’s dusty lockbox. She’d seen him fingering the fine dress he kept stashed within. She’d noticed the way he blinked and wiped at his eyes when he spoke of his wife, dead these five years.
Much’s Christian name was Marianna, same as her mother’s. And that, perhaps more than anything, was why her father had refused to use it.MoreLess
Read book Will in Scarlet for free
Write Review:
Guest
Read Also
9 / 10
![Cover North Carolina Medical Journal [serial] 42, 1898](https://files.readanybook.online/430492/thumbs/50x81/north-carolina-medical-journal-serial-42-1898.jpg)
User Reviews: