Charis Read Online Free

she was
pleased to be there. The summer at home has been agonising for her. At school
there was no Mildred. There was plenty to keep her mind occupied and always
things to do. She was still a quiet child but clever and eager to learn.
    Before long she was working with girls a year older than herself and
she started taking her music seriously and developing a real talent on the
piano. Her best subjects were history and English – the love of both developed
from her father, her gift of music inherited from her mother. She no longer
cried herself to sleep at night, although she constantly missed her father and
longed to be able to talk to him again, or to have him tuck her in bed at night,
or sit and hold her in their big armchair and tell her more stories of his
childhood. Very early in life Charis learned what it is like to be all alone
amidst a crowd of people.
    Instead of home becoming a refuge from the world, for Charis, school
became a refuge from home.  She loved Meadow Lea Hall but hated being there now
that Mildred had taken charge. She never went home for weekends or for half
term and dreaded the school holidays. Christmas and birthdays almost ceased to
exist. She would get a card and gift from James, and Mrs. Patterson tried to
make some sort of small celebration for her, but there was no tree or Father
Christmas to fill her stocking, no birthday cake with candles to blow out. Her
birthday was in August during the school holidays so she didn't even get to see
any of her friends. If she unwittingly upset or disobeyed Mildred she could be
locked in her room and be deprived of food for hours on end. Mrs. Patterson
would try to sneak something to her but Mildred seemed to have eyes in the back
of her head and knew just when to be around to thwart the housekeeper’s
attempts to help. But even that was preferable to being locked in the garden
shed and left there overnight. Charis had never liked being left in the dark. She'd
always had a night light in her room, but since the night in the shed the dark
had terrified her. She’d been cold, hungry and unable even to close her eyes –
listening to the sounds of the night and wondering what was out there lurking
in the dark, just waiting to come and get her.  George had come and released her
at first light and it never happened again. Years later Charis wondered if the
Pattersons had threatened Mildred. But being dragged to her bedroom and locked
in was a regular occurrence, although she thought that much better than being
in Mildred's company.
    Charis had done well at school. So well that she’d completed her
studies a year early and won herself a place at Oxford, reading history and
following in her father's footsteps. She still loved music but thought she
would never be as good a pianist as her mother. She used her music, both
playing and singing, as a solace to her loneliness. She found she could express
herself and lose herself in it, but wanted to use it for pleasure and not a career
as her mother had done. But just when it looked as though life was going to be
good to her, she returned home and another bombshell was dropped.
    She was met by the news that Mildred was suffering from terminal
cancer. Mildred, healthy, was unbearable to live with. Mildred, ill, was far
worse. She wanted – demanded – to go to London where she felt she would get
better specialist treatment. She couldn't afford it on her allowance so Charis
must take her. Even though Charis offered to arrange it all and pay the
expenses for her, she was still expected to go with her and look after her. She
ranted and raved, she bullied and tried to make Charis feel guilty by saying
she had dedicated her whole life to taking care of Charis and her mother before
her. On and on she went until finally Charis felt she had no choice but to give
in and take her, postponing her entrance to Oxford for a year.
    Paul had kept a London home, in St. John's Wood. When his parents
died, the house in the Lake