Rainy Day Sisters Read Online Free Page A

the kitchen with her arms full of freshly ironed sheets.
    â€œI thought I’d pop by with the ironing while I had a moment,” she said, and with a murmur of thanks Juliet took them from her. Rachel cleaned the house twice a week and did all the ironing, tasks that Juliet was fully capable of doing herself, but Rachel’s housecleaning business supported a family of five—a mother, two sisters, and a nephew—and Juliet wanted to help her without seeming pitying. Besides, she hated ironing. “Has the half sister arrived?” Rachel asked, her eyebrows raised, and guilt needled Juliet uncomfortably.
    When she’d told Rachel last week that Lucy would be coming, Rachel had said in a voice of such disbelief that Juliet hadn’t been able to tell if she was joking, “You have a
sister
?”
    â€œHalf sister,” she’d said, and Rachel had rolled her eyes.
    â€œOh,
well
, then,” she’d said, and Juliet hadn’t answered, because she couldn’t, in truth, explain her relationship, or lack of it, with Lucy. Since then she and Rachel had both, in a semijoking way—or maybe not—referred to Lucy as “the half sister.”
    â€œYes, she’s here,” Juliet said. “Lucy’s here,” she added, as if there were any question as to who had arrived. She didn’t want to call her the half sister anymore, even if Lucy still felt like the half sister. Or maybe even just a quarter sister. Barely related, basically.
    â€œAnd is she as scatterbrained as you expected?” Rachel asked, making guilt needle Juliet once more. All right, she might have called Lucy scatterbrained. But she hadn’t meant it meanly. It had been more a statement of fact.
    Juliet leaned against the Aga rail and folded her arms. “She’s just Lucy,” she said flatly. “And she’s only been here about five minutes. She’s just gone upstairs to have a nap. Jet lag.”
    Rachel nodded, her clear-eyed gaze resting a little too thoughtfully on her. “You think she’ll get on at the school?” she asked. “Alex Kincaid is a bit of a slave driver, from what I’ve heard.”
    Juliet shrugged. She respected Alex and she liked his toughness. She understood tough, because that’s what she’d been faced with for most of her life. Lucy, however, didn’t know the meaning of tough, their mother’s ridiculous grandstanding aside. She’d been cosseted and spoiled since the moment she’d been born and as far as Juliet could tell, she still expected other people to step in and pick up the pieces she’d carelessly dropped.
    â€œShe’ll have to manage, won’t she?” Juliet said, deciding to cut short any more speculation or gossip. “I should get on. I’ve got three walkers coming in tomorrow, Australian lads. They’ll eat me out of house and home, most likely.”
    â€œAll right.” Reluctantly Rachel rose from the table. “I suppose I should get on, as well. Lily’s gone to the cinema with a friend. She’ll need a lift home.”
    Lily was Rachel’s seventeen-year-old sister, and Juliet knew Rachel had been caring for her more or less since she’d been a baby. She didn’t like to think about it too much, though, because Rachel was eleven years older than Lily, the same age difference between her and Lucy. And her relationship with Lucy was so incredibly different. So much
less
.
    â€œYou coming to the quiz night tomorrow?” Rachel asked, and Juliet shook her head. Every week Rachel asked her to the quiz night at the Hangman’s Noose, and every week Juliet refused. She wouldn’t know what to do at a thing like that. She didn’t do banter and refused to try.
    â€œSee you Friday, then,” Rachel said, and headed towards the front door. “I’ll do the bathrooms. You’ll need it, after these Australian blokes go.”
    Juliet waved