THE DESOLATE
HEART DINNER PARTY
Part One
Granny Hodge sat apart from the rest of us.
This came as no surprise, knowing Granny as I do:
Ancient, reclusive, suspicious. For her to join a dinner party, even as a
silent observer, was something of an accomplishment. In truth, I am a little
afraid of Granny. Wise and elderly she may be, but she is also deceitful. She
guards her truth within her gnarled body and she masks her thoughts through
rheumy eyes that see everything. She serves a dark master with grim success. Granny
kept her watchful gaze on Hester Kyle.
Hester needed watching. Not because of her beauty,
but because of her deviousness. Hester bore the luscious ripe beauty of a young
Sophia Loren, and harbored an ugly self-serving heart. Given her background,
the acts borne in Hester’s dark soul failed to surprise me.
I turned my attention from Hester’s shifty, greedy
gaze of her surroundings to Granny. The old woman fingered the birthmark on the
back of her hand and met my eyes. I know she read my thoughts, and a cold hand
wrapped around my heart.
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