Summary
A tremor of lace curtains, a whiff of ether in the parlour: Dr. Strickland’s death is announced not by knell but by the hush that follows a dropped teacup. Cherry, the household’s bright finch, has already flown—her vows to Martin Lloyd exchanged beneath a canopy of magnolias whose petals bruise like gossip. Peter, the boy next door who once traced her initials on fogged glass, boards a steamer with a heart heavier than any trunk; the wake of the ship coils like a whip crack across the Atlantic. Years collapse. He returns to find the doctor’s study shuttered, its skeleton model still grinning at the vanity of flesh, and Alix—Cherry’s elder, all cheekbones and cathedral silences—walking the veranda as though pacing a psalm. Desperation is a bleak aphrodisiac; Peter weds Alix in a ceremony where the organ wheezes like an exhausted lung. Cherry re-enters, marriage cracked, eyes blazing with the knowledge that time has not cooled her echo in Peter’s blood. The house becomes a hothouse of glances: staircases lengthen, mirrors seem to swallow breath. One dusk, Cherry and Peter plan flight—two moths convinced the candle owes them its flame—only for Alix to discover them in the orchard, moonlight knifing through leaves while she delivers a rebuke so quietly it feels like a coronation. Fate, never finished, fells Martin among redwoods; his shattered leg is a telegram from conscience. Cherry rushes westward, locomotive smoke braiding her remorse. Peter, left with the wife he never chose, offers freedom; Alix, forgiving in a way that feels like victory, suggests they begin again, not from innocence but from the rich compost of error.
Synopsis
Cherry, the youngest daughter of Dr. Strickland, marries Martin Lloyd; and Peter, a neighbor who was in love with her, unhappily begins a world tour. Returning home, Peter finds that the doctor has died, leaving the older daughter, Alix, alone; and he marries her out of desperation. Cherry, unhappy with her marriage, leaves her husband and comes to live with her sister and Peter; learning that Peter still loves her, Cherry agrees to run away with him, but they are discovered by his wife and upbraided. Martin is injured in a logging camp accident, and Cherry, realizing that she still loves her husband, goes to him. Peter resolves to free Alix, but she forgives him and they agree to start anew.
