PROLOGUE
FIND ME, FIND POURRETTE
October 2001
The autumnal breeze swept over the French village cemetery of Evaux-les-Bains and cut through the tombstones where the three adults remained before their mother’s grave. No one spoke. No one cried. Sophie swallowed hard. Grief, she thought, is a private matter.She knew how to contain her emotions, as did her brothers. Their mother, Marcelle, had taught them well.
A blue silk scarf slid off Sophie’s head and onto her shoulders. Her short brown curls, touched faintly with grey, appeared to have sprouted wings as the wind buffeted her bird-like body. She felt her brothers sway on either side of her, as swirling dry leaves lifted up and around them. Thierry, the oldest, breathed in hard, touched his chest and then gasped. At sixty-four, he already had heart problems. She feared their mother’s death would push him over the edge. Sophie looked up at him, his face tense and taut as a mask. Has he ever forgiven Maman for abandoning him? Over fifty years of explanations should have helped, but had they? Does anyone ever get over being abandoned?
This historical novel, A Cup of Redemption, will be published on October 27, 2014.