Jensen The Rosenholm Trilogy Volume 2: Forget Me Not

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-64690-613-0
Verlag: Arctis US
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 430 Seiten

Reihe: The Rosenholm Trilogy

Chamomile, Kirstine, Victoria and Malou are back at Rosenholm Academy to start a new school year. But in addition to the lessons in runic magic, clairvoyance and Norse mythology, the girls also have something completely different to worry about. A crime from the past draws threads to the present, and the girls have committed themselves to solving the murder mystery that casts a shadow over Rosenholm. An ominous prediction causes the seriousness to dawn on them, while the questions loom large. And each of them harbors deep secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can fulfill the promise they made. Time is running out and it could end up being fatal... Forget me not is the exciting sequel to the fantasy novel Roses and Violets and volume 2 in the Rosenholm trilogy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jensen, Gry Kappel

Weitere Mitwirkende

Alexander, Jennifer

Leseproben

July 28th 4:30 p.m.

Victoria

Victoria watched as ripples of cotton candy clouds drifted slowly across the sky and over her parents’ large white house and well-tended garden. The sun flickered through the branches of the apple tree, and the only sounds she could hear were the distant hum of traffic and a pigeon’s repetitive cooing.

“Is the silent spook at home?” Benjamin buried his face in the crook of her neck and shoulder, giving her goose bumps, even in the summer heat. “Or could we maybe go up to your room?”

“Do you mean Trine?” She propped herself on her elbows and looked down at him, lying on the grass.

“No,” he said, and pulled her down again. “The other one. The tall, pale one.”

“Kirstine? Hey, you’re so mean. You can’t go calling her that.” Victoria sat up. “Kirstine lives here now, of course she’s home. Actually, I should ask her if she wants to come down to the garden too.”

“No, leave her be.” He pulled on her arm to get her to lie down again.

“You need to be nice to her. Kirstine is the coolest girl I know,” Victoria said, pulling her arm back. She remained sitting cross-legged and picked up a scarlet petal from where the English roses had scattered onto the grass. Their perfume was strong.

“I know Kirstine is cool,” Benjamin said. “Didn’t she save my life, after all? That pretty badass. But I also think she can be a strange creature. She never says anything. Just sits and stares.”

“Kirstine is not that good at small talk. And she’s got boyfriend trouble.”

“What? Kirstine has a boyfriend? Who?”

“You don’t need to sound so surprised! She’s not with him anymore, and I’m afraid I can’t say who it is. , you know? But you need to be kind to her. She doesn’t have it easy. Her parents don’t want her living there, and I sometimes worry she feels like a third wheel when you’re here.”

“She a third wheel!”

“Stop it. We could easily hang out, the three of us.”

He turned to her with a wry smile. “That sounds really exciting, sure.”

“Stop it, you’re such an idiot.” She gave him a playful shove.

He sat up and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “The truth is, I’d prefer to be with you alone. In fact, that’s all I really want at the moment. Lie here in the grass, just you and me . . .”

“Victoria! Come here! Juliet’s made lemonade with real lemons!” Her two younger brothers ran out the door to the garden, down the steps and over the freshly cut lawn, which the gardener, on her mother’s orders, kept manicured like a golf course. “It was super sour, so we’ve put more sugar in. Come and taste it!”

Benjamin closed his eyes and leaned his head on her shoulder, giving a sigh.

“Come on,” she said, and pulled him up. “You heard it yourself. There’s super sour lemonade.”

Their large kitchen was in absolute chaos, with lemon peel scattered on the big whitewashed kitchen table and the floor around it, a spilled bag of sugar in the midst of it all. It looked as if the twins had been helping their beloved au pair, Juliet, in the kitchen. She was in the middle of washing the juicer, which was also freshly messy.

“Taste it!” said Harald, holding his glass out right up in her face, while he and his brother, Niels, studied her carefully with their big brown eyes.

Victoria took a big gulp. “Mmm, really tasty!” she said. Both boys’ faces lit up with a great grin. “But now you need to help Juliet clean up, okay?”

The smiles disappeared in an instant and they both turned to face Juliet, who stood at the sink.

“Away you go,” she said, and waved them off, before grabbing the broom to start sweeping up lemon peel.

The boys sped triumphantly into the living room, shouting to Benjamin as they went to come on and get beaten by them at .

“Maybe later,” he shouted after them, shaking his head.

“You spoil them,” Victoria said to Juliet.

“It’s easier without their help,” she said, and shrugged.

“What’s going on here?”

Victoria turned. Her mother stood in the doorway. Her light silk blouse complemented her bronzed skin and the glossy, dark hair, which Victoria had always pestered her to be allowed to brush when she was little. Her mom kept her stilettos on as she set her bag down and inspected the chaos of the kitchen.

“I’ll clean it up,” said Juliet evenly, without letting on that she was surely equally as surprised to see Victoria’s mom home so early.

“I’ve invited people for drinks and they’ll be here in two hours,” her mom said. “I want the boys to have eaten before then.”

“No problem.” Juliet smiled.

Victoria often thought that Juliet must have developed a really thick skin since being with them for such a long time. Her mother’s icy stare always washed clean over her. Victoria would have loved to have that ability.

“But I can see we have guests already?”

Victoria knew that her mother’s tolerance was being tested to the limits, in that she had invited her roommate from school to live with them over the summer, and without talking to her parents about it first. Kirstine mostly kept herself to her room, and her mom seem to have accepted it. (Victoria did wonder if her dad had even noticed they had someone staying with them at all.) Benjamin, though, was something her mom had yet to get accustomed to.

“I was just going,” said Benjamin, looking her mother directly in the eyes.

“You don’t need to do that,” Victoria said feebly.

“I do, I’ve got something to take care of. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and squeezed around her and out into the hall. The front door closed behind him.

“I don’t understand what you see in him,” her mom said as she took a bottle of water from the fridge.

“You don’t know him,” Victoria said.

“I’ve heard about him,” her mom said, then took a sip. “And going by what I have heard, it’s quite hard to comprehend how he’s the one you’ve gone and fallen for. They say he’s broken off contact with his family?”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear,” Victoria said defiantly, though she still avoided her mother’s gaze.

“You should think about yourself a bit more, Victoria. You’ve only just gotten over your first, unfortunate romance.”

“It’s been over a year now, Mom.”

“I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

“Are you?”

“Of course I am. You’re my daughter, after all.” Her mom placed her hand lightly on her cheek. “I’m going up to get changed. You and Kirstine can eat with the boys, okay?”

Victoria watched her as she strode elegantly up the stairs in her high heels. If she had dared, she would have asked if it wasn’t more the family’s reputation that her mother was actually worried about.

In less than an hour, the kitchen was spotless and Juliet had even whipped up a meal of fresh pasta with homemade pesto sauce while Victoria had made a salad. She went upstairs and knocked.

“Kirstine, dinner’s ready.”

The tall, serious girl sat on her bed with her legs curled under her and her phone in her hand. She didn’t look up as Victoria came in. “Malou found an old article. And an address that could be Trine’s childhood home. She’s asking if we want to go with her.”

Victoria sat on the bed beside her. Benjamin was right that she was very pale.

“Look.” Kirstine held up her phone.

“ . . .” Victoria read aloud. “So Trine was reported missing, but nothing more.”

“They thought she had just run away with a boyfriend,” Kirstine said. “That’s also why we couldn’t find anything in the papers about her murder.”

Victoria let her finger swipe down on the phone’s screen so that the article disappeared and was replaced by Malou’s messages.

“What if her parents still live here,” she said, pointing to the address that showed up.

Kirstine turned to face her. “Exactly. Maybe they don’t even know that she’s dead. Maybe we’re the only ones who know that she didn’t run away but was killed.”

Victoria wet her hands and ran them through her dark hair as she studied her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The window was open and she could hear blackbirds singing from the old pear tree in the clear evening light. The sound of birdsong mingled with the murmur of civilized chat and clinking of glasses drifting up from the library, as her parents insisted on calling that room with the ugly old oil paintings and chesterfield sofas. It was not civilized in the slightest when it came down to it. It was all about wealth and power and the family honor, and they spared nothing in their pursuit of more power and more money. Even so, she found it so difficult to go against their ways.

Victoria glanced at the clock and thought about writing to Benjamin. Juliet was in the middle of tucking in the twins, and Kirstine had gone to bed early. Victoria was not tired herself,...