Read The Sparrow Sisters for Free Online Page B

think about it, he reached his hand out, inches fromher mouth, then couldn’t bring himself to touch her. With a jolt he saw his fingers tremble. Patience didn’t pull away. In fact she’d closed her eyes. Shock, and something like anticipation, was all over her face.
    â€œHelp,” she whispered.
    Henry spun awkwardly on his heel and, forgetting completely that he’d meant to buy something at the bakery, he turned back to his office.
    Patience dropped the muffin in her lap. She stared at the still-warm cake for a full minute. Then she ate it.
    H ENRY TOOK THE ten minutes he still had before Sally arrived to pace and thump his fist on the exam table, wrinkling the paper and setting up an ache that traveled all the way to his shoulder. He’d rowed for over an hour at first light and had been enjoying the pleasant soreness in his thighs and back. Now it just felt like pain. He couldn’t imagine why Patience brought out his worst, or why he cared. It had been so long since he wanted someone to like him that he almost didn’t recognize the feeling. He ripped the paper from the table and spooled out a new strip. He heard Sally click-clack through the front door and in minutes Henry smelled coffee. Grabbing the charts off his desk without even looking at the names, Henry walked out to the waiting room.
    â€œHey, Dr. Carlyle,” Sally said handing him her mug. He waved her off and poured his own.
    â€œTell me about the Sparrow Sisters,” he said abruptly.
    â€œOh, well, um.” Sally shuffled the papers on her desk. “Let’s see, the Sparrows are one of the founding families. They were whalers, magistrates, soldiers, doctors, vicars; you name it. Thaddeus and Honor Sparrow were the most extraordinary couple, like a storybook, and the girls were everything to them. But Honor died with Patience, and Thaddeus lost it. There were a couple of years there when we didn’t think the Sisters would make it either. There used to be four of them, all with garden names like Nettie, but Marigold died. I don’t think Sorrel ever got over that. There are only the three.” Sally paused for breath.
    â€œAnd now?” Henry said.
    â€œThey own the Sparrow Sisters Nursery on Calumet. It’s pretty amazing: everything and anything grows. Even when the weather turns, the Sisters manage to produce. Even in the winter there’s stuff around.”
    As Sally talked, Henry saw that a patient had come through the front door and was now standing uncertainly in the waiting room. He nodded at the man and held up one finger as he pulled Sally gently away from the front counter.
    â€œWhat else?” he asked.
    It was as Frank said: the Sparrow Sisters Nursery had quite a reputation. Sally told Henry about the Nursery that was now a landmark in the town. The plants that grew in tidy rows, the orchids that swayed delicately in the beautiful glass greenhouses, and the herbs and vegetables sown in knot gardens around the land were much in demand. Sorrel had planteda dense little Shakespeare garden as a tribute to her reading habits. The lavender, rosemary, roses and honeysuckle, clematis and pansies, creeping thyme and sage were not for sale in that garden, but Sorrel would re-create versions of it for clients whose big houses on the water needed the stamp of culture, even if their owners had little idea what their lovely gardens meant. In fact, it was the summer people who sustained the business, as they did the town. As much as the Sisters disliked the brassy, noisy women who came, checkbooks open, they knew that without them and their shiny SUVs and brand new surfboards, the Nursery and the town might well struggle.
    â€œYou wouldn’t believe what the Sisters have done with the land,” Sally said. “People used to talk about how much they can grow, how long they grow it. Nobody much cares anymore about their methods, just what they can buy.”
    The Sparrow Sisters’