–Prologue–
So Darkest Hour starts out in normal V.C. Andrews style, with our heroine (presumably an old woman) thinking about her life. She says that she had always seen herself as a Cinderella but instead of a prince she gets a business man who won her in a poker game. (Holy spoiler Batman!! O.o) She felt like she was like a chip in a poker game, being tossed from one world to another. She lived by the philosophy a laborer taught her as a young girl.
“A branch that don’t bend in the wind, breaks. Remember to go with the wind child, so you don’t ever break.”
She asks him what happens when the wind stops, and we get this little gem…
“Well then you can go your own way child.”
We find out the wind didn’t stop for her until she was already married to an ass who she didn’t love BUT she did decide to follow Henry Patton, the laborer’s advice and she went her own way. Sooo much foreshadowing (or right out spoilers) jammed into two pages, jeez!
–Chapter 1–
Our heroine, Lillian Booth lives with her parents and two sisters. The older sister is Emily and the younger Eugenia. Everyone refers to Papa as Captain Booth because he inherited the tile from his father who was a Captain in General Lee’s cavalry.
He also inherited the families tobacoo plantation called “The Meadows” situated n Virginia. It is a beautiful mansion with sprawling meticulously cared for grounds. The inside is all decked out to the nines and Papa makes sure its kept up, saying he will spend his last dollar towards maintaining its beauty.
Because of the beauty of her home and all servants they had Lillian grew up thinking they were royalty. Just like all the princesses in the books from the their grand library they had so much. Heck Mama eve had a reading room, even though Papa didn’t like her “poisoning her mind with polluted words and sinful thoughts” from her romance novels. I can already tell you and I are not going to get along already Captain Booth!
Anyways… There are bunch of portraits of ancestors in the house just like in any V.C. Andrews mansion. Even though Emily is a Booth replica, Lillian and Eugenia don’t look much like one. Eugenia is said not look much like the family because she was born sickly with cystic fibrosis. No reason is given to why Lillian doesn’t. Hmmmm… I wonder where that is gonna go…
Besides being a Booth copy Emily is also very religious. She tells Lillian that she has seen the finger of God touch The Meadows because she and Papa are so devout. She isn’t interested in being beautiful or in appreciating beautiful things, which just baffles Miss Lillian. We also find out that she is bossy. So bossy that by the time she was ten she was already yelling at maids for not doing a good enough job.
Their own mother thinks something is up with Emily. She swears that Emily was born twenty years old. Mother says the reason for that is she was pregnant ten months with her not nine. Louella the cook agrees, “A baby cookin’ that long would be different.”
There’s a few pages about school and the teacher, Miss Walker. Lillian can’t wait to go to school to learn how to read. She loves looking at the illustrations and can’t wait to be able to read the stories all by herself. It is decided at breakfast she even gets to go into town with Mother and get a new dress and shoes!
After breakfast Lillian goes and visits Eugenia. We find out that because she is so sick she is bed ridden and is very very small for her age. She also has striking cornflower blue eyes.
*My Book Shelf* 