Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree Read Online Free Page A

he had never fallen off his pedestal. Even in death he loomed over her and she still longed for his approval. After so many years she still yearned to feel a sense of belonging that
    had somehow, in spite of all her efforts, eluded her. Sometimes she felt she was watching the world about her from a place behind an invisible glass window - a place where no one else seemed able to reach her.
    ‘Senora Anna, Senora Chiquita is on the telephone for you.’
    Anna was abruptly drawn back to the present and to her father who like a mad botanist was snipping away at anything green.
    ‘ Gracias , Soledad. We will not wait for Señorita Sofia but eat as normal at nine,’ she replied and disappeared inside to talk to her sister-in-law.
    ‘Como quiera, Senora Anna,’ replied Soledad humbly, smiling to herself as she padded back to the hot kitchen. Of all Senora Anna’s three children, Soledad loved Sofia the most.
    Soledad had been employed by Señor Paco since she was seventeen years old. The newly married niece of Chiquita’s maid, Encarnacion, she had been instructed to cook and clean while her husband Antonio had been hired to look after the estate. Antonio and Soledad were childless, although they had tried to have children, but without success. She recalled those times when Antonio had slipped into her anywhere and everywhere, by the stove, behind a bush or tree - whenever an opportunity arose, Antonio had taken care not to miss it.
    What a pair of young lovers they had been, she mused proudly. But to their bewilderment, no child had ever been conceived. So Soledad had consoled herself by embracing Sofia as her own.
    While Senora Anna had given all her time to her sons, Soledad had rarely been without the little Sofia wrapped in her apron, nestled against her foamy breasts. She even took to carrying the child to her bed - she seemed to sleep better that way, enveloped in her maid’s womanly scent and soft flesh. Anxious that the child wasn’t receiving enough love from her mother, Soledad asserted herself in the nursery in order to make up for it. Senora Anna didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seemed almost grateful. She never was very interested in her daughter. But Soledad wasn't there to put the world to rights. It was none of her business. The tension between Senor Paco and Senora Anna wasn’t her concern and she only discussed it with the other maids in order to justify why she spent so much time with Sofia. No other reason. She wasn’t one to gossip. So she cared for the child with a fierce devotion, as if the little angel belonged to her.
    Now she looked at her watch. It was late - Sofia was in trouble again. She was always in trouble. She seemed to thrive on it. Poor lamb, thought Soledad
    as she stirred the tuna sauce and cooked the veal. She's starved of attention, any fool can see that.
    Anna marched into the sitting room shaking her head with fury and picked up the receiver.
    l Hola Chiquita,’ she said curtly, leaning back against the heavy wooden chest.
    ‘Anna, I am so sorry, Sofia has gone off with Santiago and Maria again. They really should be back any minute ..
    ‘Again!’ she exploded, picking up a magazine from the table and fanning herself in agitation. ‘Santiago should be more responsible - he’ll be eighteen in March. He’ll be a man. Why he wants to muck around with a fifteen-year-old child I cannot imagine. Anyhow, this is not the first time, you know. Didn’t you say anything to him last time?’
    ‘Of course,’ the other woman replied patiently. She hated it when her sister-in-law lost her temper.
    l Por Dios , Chiquita, don’t you realize there are kidnappers just waiting out there to prey on children like ours?’
    ‘Anna, just calm down a little. It’s quite safe here, they won’t have gone far. .
    .’ But Anna wasn’t listening.
    ‘Santiago is a bad influence on Sofia,’ she ranted. ‘She is young and impressionable, so she looks up to him. And as for Maria, she’s a