The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons Read Online Free

Uncle Victor would like to hear would be in my best interest.
    â€œSo,” I asked, “what about Aunt Prudence?” I didn’t know my aunt well, but had loved the tales of her adventures, loved the photographs of her withher long, wild, curly hair, so like my own. “When will she come?”
    Barrister Hardy sighed. “That is precisely the problem. My office has been trying to locate your aunt since we received the news of your parents’ untimely deaths. She was last reported to be in Australia, in the outback country. She was working with an archaeologist, exploring aboriginal caves, on a quest of some sort. Despite our best efforts, we could not reach her. We can only hope that at some point she will make an effort to contact her brother. At this time she is unaware of the situation here.”
    â€œShe could be dead for all we know,” shouted Victor, once again jumping to his feet.
    â€œOh, good Lord,” muttered Addie, who up to this point had remained silent. “Miss Prudence is most certainly not dead!”
    Victor’s face was red, his nostrils flared.
    â€œMay I remind you, missy,” said Victor, through clenched teeth, “that you are a servant here. A servant , do you hear me? Your job is to be seen and not heard!
    â€œAnother of my brother’s faults,” he said to the barrister, jutting out his chin toward Addie, “allowing the help to behave as though they were on equal footing. That, and entrusting his child to our dreamer of a sister. Is it any wonder someonewith so little judgment would endanger the lives of his wife and child in order to save a drunkard on a boat? It’s a wonder anyone is surprised at all by this sad state of affairs!”
    I felt as though I’d been slapped. I gasped, and Addie knelt beside me, rubbing my hand. “Don’t pay him any mind,” she whispered. “Don’t listen to him a’tall!” But I did pay him mind—I hated him then, and nearly hated my aunt Prudence as well, for her absence, and Mother and Father for theirs. They’d left me, all of them, left me entirely alone with this horrid uncle and his wife. Thank goodness I’d still have Addie. Dear, sweet, loyal Addie.
    Barrister Hardy turned very red, a deep angry flush that began at his collar and crept up his face. “That will be enough!” he said. “Mr. Simmons, you will remain silent until I am finished.”
    Uncle Victor sat back down, in quite a huff. Barrister Hardy continued.
    â€œIt seems to me that, in the absence of any other family, I have no other choice but to appoint Victor T. and Margaret K. Simmons guardians of Lucille and overseers of the house and estate.”
    I watched Uncle Victor mouth the word yes , his eyes narrowed, the word escaping as a quiet hiss. At that very moment, as if in protest, the shutters on the library window inexplicably blew shut witha bang, knocking one of Father’s seascapes off the wall. The sound made all of us jump, particularly because we hadn’t been aware of any wind. The gust also took up Father’s ship’s bell out by the front door. It clanged loudly, eerily, as if sounding a death knell or perhaps announcing the launching of a phantom ship. Looking back, I recollect this clearly, because it was the first real hint about the house, the first indication that there was indeed something very strange about to take place. But at the time I didn’t pay much attention. My mind was still reeling at the prospect of having Uncle Victor and Aunt Margaret as my guardians.
    Uncle Victor thrust the painting haphazardly back onto the wall, the scene of Ulysses and his crew tipped like a sinking ship. He went on to the window and attempted to push the shutters back, but it seemed as though they suddenly had a mind of their own, and they continued to defy him. He pushed and grimaced and struggled with the shutters until Addie came over to help. She reached