Outtakes from When the Meadow Blooms

Only a couple more weeks until the release of my new book, When the Meadow Blooms. So I thought this would be a good time to share some outakes or scenes cut from the book before it was published. I sometimes tend to be wordier than necessary. I know you all can’t believe that! But some scenes are better without quite as many words. Still, they can be interesting in their one way. So here’s a chance for you to get to know Calla, my young teen character. In this scene she is already at Meadowland but she does remember that she and her little sister needed rescuing from the bad place they had been in.

Calla had been at the house all day finding things for her mother and going through the boxes of her grandmother’s clothes. The boxes were like a treasure chest. As Calla held up the dresses she imagined how her Grandmother Meadows might have looked in them while she asked her mother about her.

Mama sat in the wingback chair beside the bed and did her best to satisfy Calla’s curiosity. “She was very sweet to me when your father brought me here that one time. He hadn’t bothered to tell her we were coming. I don’t think he had even told her about getting married. They didn’t have a telephone and your father wasn’t much of a letter writer.”

“Not like Uncle Dirk then,” Calla said.

“I suppose not. I thought not at the time even more than now because your uncle was so determined to stay away from us. Away from your father too. I thought that odd and wondered if it was because he thought your father had made a mistake marrying me, but your father waved away my concerns. Said it was merely how Dirk was. That the fire had changed him and I should stop trying to make friends with him and let him be. That did seem to be what he wanted.”

“But Grandmother wasn’t like that?”

“Oh no. She welcomed me into the family from the very first moment. I did so look forward to taking you to visit her and presenting her with the gift of a granddaughter.”

“You said she died before I was born.” Calla held up a white lacy blouse to admire. She breathed in what she thought might be a whiff of perfume still clinging to the fabric. She wished she could have met her grandmother.

“Sadly, yes. After that, your father never wanted to come back to Meadowland.”

“Why?” Calla folded the blouse and put it in the pile for her mother to wear.

“No, no, dear. You keep that one for you. It will go with that blue skirt over there. I think with a belt that will fit you nicely.” She pointed at the skirt.

“But where would I ever wear it?” Calla transferred the blouse to her pile and then added the skirt.

“In time we might be able to attend church. Or you might want to get dressed up for an outing with the young man you met yesterday.” Mama smiled. “Your uncle says he’s going to ask him to drive you to town to go shopping.”

“Oh.” Calla kept her face away from her mother as she fussed over folding the skirt. “He’s probably more interested in fishing than girls.”

“Boys of a certain age are all interested in fishing.” Mama laughed. “For girls. Especially pretty girls like you. Just you be careful he doesn’t get too pushy with his bait.”

“Mama, you’re embarrassing me.”

“Your freckles are lighting up.” She picked up an accordion fan they’d found, flipped it open and fanned air toward Calla. “I’m sorry. But there’s nothing you should be embarrassed to talk about to your mother. You can ask me anything.”

“Even about Papa?”

“Especially about your papa. You do remember him, don’t you? You were seven when he went to the army.”

“I never thought he liked me much.”

Mama looked surprised. “That’s not so, Calla. He loved you and Sienna. He simply lacked patience at times. But he wanted the best for you. For all of us.”

Calla wasn’t sure even her mother believed that, but she didn’t say so. “But why didn’t he want to come back to Meadowland?”

Her mother folded the fan up into a solid black strip and then opened it again to reveal the pink roses decorating the paper.

“I’m not sure I can answer that.” She folded up the fan again and tapped it on her knee a few times before she went on. “I never knew for sure why your father didn’t want to visit here. I do know he and your uncle had some sort of disagreement after your grandmother died, but whatever might have happened between them, it’s long in the past and has nothing to do with us now. I’m sure if he could know, your father would be as grateful as we are that his brother is being so kind to us.”

“Rescued us,” Calla said as she tried on a straw hat with white silk roses laced around the brim.

“Yes, rescued us.”

I am excited for you to meet my characters and read the many words that didn’t get cut from the book. Coming soon – May 3rd.

Do you have special keepsakes from a relative you never actually knew?

Goodreads Giveaway Chance

My publishers, Revell Books, have a giveaway chance up on Goodreads. They are giving away 5 copies of When the Meadow Blooms. You can jump over to this link to join in the fun.