LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter 3

      Carmona Broadbent was no beauty. She knew this, just as she knew the sun would rise in the morning. A thick-ankled, thick-waisted girl, who had grown tall at an early age, Carmona lived her life with the awareness that no prince loomed on the horizon, waiting to ask her to the ball. This should have bothered Carmona, especially since her best friend in the world, Edythe Hargreaves, was blessed with the stunning good looks of a film star. But Carmona’s lack of physical attributes did not bother her, for she had something even better than porcelain skin, a tiny waist, and long supple legs. Carmona Broadbent had brains.

      She had spent her entire life watching the side effects of Edythe’s beauty. Mothers stared, goggle-eyed, taken aback by Edythe’s beauty as a child. As she got older and blossomed into womanhood, wives would stare, before they would search out their husbands, as if worrying Edythe would somehow lure the men away from their families. And poor Mrs Hargreaves worried and fretted, as though she were the custodian of a hothouse flower in need of continual tending. Carmona thought it all ridiculous. She knew, with that certain wisdom of hers, Edythe’s beauty wouldn’t last forever. Edythe would one day grow old, as that poet – Carmona could never recall his name, as she had little time for romantic notions – said, the proverbial bloom would eventually come off the rose. Carmona didn’t wish her friend any ill will, she simply had seen into the future and knew what Edythe’s life would be: she would meet someone of wealth and influence. Likely, he would see her dance and fall in love. They would properly court – or not, Carmona didn’t care – marry, have many children, and live happily ever after in some big country house. By the time Edythe’s looks had faded, she would be happily ensconced in her life on some anonymous manor somewhere. Her influential husband would have a mistress in a luxury flat in London. Carmona, on the other hand, would be using her fine mind to save humanity, one injured brain at a time. She was going to be a doctor, so busy saving people’s lives, she wouldn’t even miss the husband and children she would not have.

      Carmona and Edythe were as opposite as night and day. Edythe, kind-hearted and good-natured, had done a fine job of balancing Carmona’s irreverent sarcasm. Like only best friends can do, they had supported each other through the tragedies and upsets children experience on the road to adulthood. Carmona didn’t resent Edythe’s beauty. She believed each person had their own gifts to bring to the world.

      Edythe’s father was a farmer, who was lucky enough to own the land he used to grow vegetables and graze a sizable herd of sheep. Although they were financially comfortable, Edythe’s family didn’t have the wealth and influence – and all its accompanying responsibility – Carmona’s family enjoyed. As a result of this, Edythe had developed a strong sense of purpose. When Carmona and Edythe were 10 years old, Carmona’s mother had dressed them up in their fancy best and had taken them to London to see The Nutcracker. The girls enjoyed the train ride in the first-class car, staying in a hotel, and eating in the hotel restaurant without adult supervision. When Carmona’s mother, Claris, had come down with a banging headache and had sent the girls to dinner unsupervised in the safety of the hotel dining room, the two girls had spent a happy hour watching all the well-dressed men and women, who moved so glamorously in this affluent world.

      They had seen a matinee, and given Claris’s influence, sat in the best seats. When the dancing started Edythe was mesmerized. She had not moved during the performance, rather she watched the show, her eyes riveted to the stage. Carmona had never seen such rapture on a human being’s face. After the performance, Edythe asked question after question about the story, the dancers, how the dancers trained. She kept her programme

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