Barefoot in the Sand
Page 33
Laura laughed. “It might have been just a tad unsettling! You know, if I ever have a daughter, I’ll name her Victoria.”
Arden’s eyes widened. “You’re planning on having a baby?” She had never dreamed of being a grandmother, not when the role of motherhood had been denied her.
“Who knows? With my family’s support, I might just be able to now.”
“Would you consider adoption?”
Laura nodded. “Yes. Of course. But I’m not making any big decisions yet. I’m still reeling from the discoveries we made this summer.”
The two women turned again to the photo album. “Here’s me with my mother,” Arden said softly. “Easter 1977. I remember that hat of my mother’s, and that handbag. They were the loveliest shade of blue, periwinkle I think you’d call it.”
“Florence was truly beautiful.”
“She was. You know, her signature perfume was Joy by Jean Patou. Ironic, as she was such an unhappy person after my brother died.”
“Maybe Florence was unhappy even before your brother died. We know so little of her.”
“That’s true. I’m just sorry she wasn’t able to laugh more in her life.”
“Look,” Laura said suddenly, “I’ve been wondering if you’d like me to try to find Alice Davidson, your old friend from Two Suns. I’m hardly a professional detective, but I think I’ve developed a few sleuthing skills this summer. And maybe Ted could help.”
“I’ll think about it. I suppose if we do find Alice, she has the choice not to respond.”
“Exactly.” Laura took her mother’s hand in hers. “You and I have become so close. It’s more than I ever hoped for. I mean, you hear these stories about children finding their birth parents and things not going well at all. And no one is really at fault. The past is the past for a reason. Things change, people change. So, this relationship we have is a bit of a miracle really.” Laura paused. “To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable calling you Mom, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you as my mother. Oh, how could I have forgotten! Wait here.”
Laura dashed off to the loft. When she returned, she was carrying a large rectangular box. “I’m afraid it’s not wrapped. I was afraid of disturbing the packing.”
“What is it?” Arden asked as Laura placed the box flat on the table.
“Your birthday present. I know, I gave you the scarf, but like I said, that was a placeholder. I wanted to get you something more personal, so I contacted a former classmate of mine from grad school. Her family have been in the antique-book and print trade for generations and she was able to find this for me. I had it sent to Deborah’s house so that it would be a surprise.”
Arden reached for the kitchen scissors and carefully cut through the heavy tape and layers of Bubble Wrap. What was revealed was an excellent reproduction of Branwell Brontë’s portrait of his three sisters, painted in the 1830s.
“I don’t know what to say,” Arden breathed. “I’ve always loved this. Do you know what Elizabeth Gaskell said about it?”
Laura shook her head.
“She knew Charlotte, and she said this was a ‘good likeness, however badly executed.’ I’ll hang it in the shop where everyone can see it. Young Tami, for one, is going to love it.”
Laura laughed. “I’m so glad you like it. Maybe we could do an Arden Forest event around portraits of our favorite writers and what, if anything, we can learn from them.”
“That would be a lot of fun.” As Arden gazed at the portrait of the three brilliant sisters, she thought about how along the way she had given up any hope of happiness or adventure. She had been content to make do with peace, and peace was all well and good as long as it didn’t slip into complacency or apathy. But there was no chance of a complacent or an apathetic life now, not with Laura by her side.
“Hey, was I imagining it, or did I see a significant look pass between you and Gordon the other day?” Laura asked suddenly.
Arden looked up and smiled. “You’re not imagining it. I think I’m ready to . . . I’m not going to throw myself at Gordon, I’m just going to let him know, subtly, that now might be the time for us to take things a step further.”
“Ditch the subtlety. You’re not getting any younger, none of us are. And now that I’ll be sharing a house with Deborah, you and Gordon will have all the privacy you need!”
“You’re assuming Gordon will say yes to my proposal.”
Her daughter just rolled her eyes.
Acknowledgments
In memory of Elizabeth (Betty) Wall and also of Betty (Miss Elizabeth) Smith, two dear friends who are much missed and who will never be forgotten.
Thanks to John Scognamiglio and the entire team at Kensington, who have always gone above and beyond for their authors. And cheers to Rusty Donner and to Phyllis Arcidiacono, who against all odds are back home where they belong!
Please turn the page for an author Q&A with Holly Chamberlin!
Q. Arden Bell, née Victoria Aldridge, one of the main characters in your latest book, Barefoot in the Sand, considers the gift she was given on her eighteenth birthday, an old edition of one of her favorite novels, her most prized possession. Tell us about any books in your collection that hold a special place in your heart.
A. So many books mean the world to me, but I’ll tell you now about one in particular. My father, Joseph, was always on the lookout for interesting old books and prints, both for himself and for me. A long time ago he gave me a 1905 edition of Villette published by Thomas Nelson and Sons as part of the New Century Library. It’s in excellent condition and it means an enormous amount to me because it was a gift from my father, from whom I got my passion for reading (as well as from my mother!).
Q. Barefoot in the Sand is in part a mystery. Was this the first time you’ve written a novel with a strong element of whodunit?
A. Yes, it is, and though the mystery element is minor compared to the emotional story at the center of the book, it took me quite a lot of time and mental effort to make it coherent. I’m in awe of how writers who specialize in mystery and detective/procedural stories do it! Their brains are definitely way bigger than mine!
Q. You were writing this book during 2020, a time when the entire world was grappling with COVID-19. How did this affect your storytelling?
A. COVID hit my family hard; both my stepmother and a cousin were very sick and, at times, not expected to live. Luckily, both recovered, but it will take at least a year for them to regain full strength, and who knows what long-term effects might appear? My husband and I remained in strict isolation, and the strain of that—not seeing our friends and family—was at times enormous. That said, I chose not to deal with the pandemic in this book. Honestly, I don’t know how to write about what we’ve experienced and are still experiencing, and as far as was possible, I wanted this book to be full of love and forgiveness and coming together and healing. I think we need those elements now more than ever.
Q. Besides writing Barefoot in the Sand, what other projects or activities helped get you through 2020?
A. Walking. And more walking. Until bad winter weather got in the way, I took long walks as often as I could manage. And I took photos and drew pictures. And I watched tons of old movies from the 1930s through the 1950s. I mean lots. And I ate cheese. Lots of cheese.
Q. What’s next up for Holly?
A. My next book will once again be set in Eliot’s Corner though it will focus on a new cast of characters. However, Arden Forest and its book club will play an important role for my heroine!
A READING GROUP GUIDE
BAREFOOT IN THE SAND
Holly Chamberlin
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Holly Chamberlin’s Barefoot in the Sand!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Several versions of the older-woman / younger-woman dynamic make an appearance in this novel. Talk about some of those variations as mentioned here: the lov
ing adoptive mother (Cynthia) and her child (Laura); the older mentor/ guardian angel (Margery) and her younger friend (Arden), and, to a lesser extent, Arden and Tami; the birth mother (Arden) and her long-lost child (Laura); the dedicated teacher (Miss Thompson) and her pupil (Victoria); the nanny (Mrs. Clarke) and her charge (Victoria); the employer (Arden) and her employee (Elly); the mentally/emotionally damaged mother (both Florence Aldridge and Regina Montgomery) and her daughter (Victoria and Florence).
2. As an extension of the first discussion question, consider the two mother/son relationships represented (if briefly) in this novel, namely, Mrs. Teakle and her son Brent, and Florence Aldridge and her son, Joseph. For all he suffered as a child, Brent is a well-balanced and functional adult, largely, we assume, thanks to his mother’s having bravely defended him against his brute of a father. What sort of mother to a son do you think Florence might have been? Admittedly, this question is nearly impossible to answer based on the little we know of the young Florence, so be the author for a moment and use your imagination!
3. Lines and passages from Villette often come to Arden’s mind as she faces trials and tribulations. (We all find ourselves turning to favorite stories and characters for comfort or inspiration!) Here is another line from the novel for us to consider in relation to Barefoot in the Sand: Man cannot prophesy. Love is no oracle.
What are your thoughts about the future of Rob Smith and Victoria Aldridge, assuming they had been allowed a future? Do you think their relationship would have continued and survived, and if so, under what circumstances? What if Victoria hadn’t gotten pregnant? How might that have changed things for the couple? Would Victoria have gone off to college that fall and continued to see Rob long distance? Would her expanding world have made the idea of a life spent in Port George, married to Rob Smith, seem less desirable? So many first/teenage loves fade and come to a rather inglorious end. But not all.
4. Here’s another line from Charlotte Brontë’s 1853 novel, spoken by its heroine: “The negation of severe suffering was the nearest approach to happiness I expected to know.”
Compare this statement to what Arden tells us early on about having abandoned the expectation of excitement and adventure in favor of achieving peace and contentment. Is this a negative thing? Where does hope for positive change fit into this scenario, if it does? Is it possible to live for any length of time without some degree of hope in a better/changed future? At the end of the book, Arden feels that with her daughter by her side, excitement and adventure are now possible—that active happiness has indeed come her way. Do you understand what she means by this?
5. When Laura appears on Arden’s doorstep, Arden knows her instantly. (In a sense, Laura is Arden’s “pearl of great price.”) She has loved her child for thirty-six years without even knowing the child’s name. How do you love someone you know nothing about? Can love be entirely instinctual, spiritual, heart based, without what is commonly held to be knowledge or information? Or is this notion mere sentimentality or wishful thinking?
6. Arden and Laura host a bookshop event around the theme of star-crossed lovers in literature. Both women admit that to different degrees they were prey to the darkly glamorous myth of fated or doomed romance. We know that not only women have succumbed to the dangers of a story that ignores the daily, pedestrian, but no less wonderful aspects of love. How has modern culture kept this unhealthy myth alive, and how has it worked to erase the allure of love as a sickness, a dynamic all about suffering and sacrifice? What do you tell your daughters—and sons—about true love, soul mates, and devotion unto death? Why do we need—if we do need—stories of grand passion to inspire us?
7. Twenty-one years after leaving her hometown, Arden settles in Eliot’s Corner, a town only two hours from Port George—the place where she had known and loved Rob as well as the place where they had been so cruelly separated. Consider this passage from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a classic story of two doomed lovers, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, in relation to Arden’s choice:
But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghostlike, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime, and, still, the more irresistible the darker the tinge that saddens it.
8. Though Victoria/Arden suffered at the hands of her parents, she continues to defend them as “not evil,” as well-meaning in their own way. Laura has trouble understanding her mother’s emotionally generous view of Herbert and Florence Aldridge. What do you think of this difficult, problematic pair? Do you share the sympathy for Florence that both Arden and Laura come to feel by the end of the story? Do you think Herbert’s handling of his wife’s fragile mental state was indeed well-intentioned, performed out of love? How morally culpable is he in the killing of Rob Smith?
9. Arden tells us about the night she came across her mother and a family friend in the gazebo on the Aldridges’ property. She feels great guilt and shame about not having acted to stop what she saw as an assault. And she comes to realize that her running away without leaving a note of explanation was cruel, no matter how necessary it seemed at the time. What are your thoughts about Victoria’s actions /nonactions that summer of 1985 when she was eighteen years old?
10. When Florence Aldridge nearly collapses in Arden’s cottage, Arden steps forward to help her and experiences a rush of maternal feeling. The mother, she tells us, has become the child; it’s the way of the world. Talk about your own experiences with the dynamic that comes to those of us who care for a sick or simply an aging parent.