Burnt Norton Read Online Free

and death.’
    Specialists came and went, speaking in hushed whispers. William waited.
    ‘I’m sorry. Your daughter will never walk again. Keep her warm, keep her well. We can do no more.’ There were no tears now, only confusion.
    ‘Sleep in your own room, my dear,’ his wife said. ‘It is better that way. I shall sleep with Elizabeth.’
    The following morning he wrote an entry in his diary. You have taken my child. My God, why have you forsaken me? He could think of nothing else to say.
    Elizabeth remained conscious throughout. The dull ache in her back remained, and her head throbbed. Below her waist she felt nothing.
    Miss Byrne fussed around her. ‘Now keep still, Lizzie darling. The specialist wants to be looking you over.’
    ‘Yes, Miss Byrne,’ she said, but she couldn’t move anyway. At night when she was finally left alone, she tried to imagine the future, but no thoughts came.
    Her mother held her hand, did all the things that a mother should, but she couldn’t fix her broken body. ‘Dear God, let me be with John,’ Elizabeth whispered in the darkness.

3
    The days following the accident proceeded as in a dream. Dorothy recalled snatches of conversation, a face swimming above her, a spoon held to her lips.
    ‘She is suffering from shock. I would advise you to wait to tell her, my lady.’
    ‘Yes, doctor, we will do as you say.’
    It was her mother’s face, but it wasn’t her mother. This woman had swollen eyes and unkempt hair.
    ‘Lizzie! I want Lizzie.’
    ‘It’s all right. Swallow this and we will bring her to you.’ A different voice – Miss Byrne.
    ‘No! Take it away!’ she cried.
    As she slept, Dorothy was haunted by indistinct recollections of sun-filled afternoons: John playing in the garden, running through the long grass; John chasing the butterflies by the pools; John lying beside her. No matter how peaceful, they always ended in disaster.
    In her waking hours she reflected on the days before the accident. One incident in particular plagued her. Dorothy had known her actions were wrong; now she believed the accident could be her fault.
    Boredom had driven her to break the rules. Her father had been in Warwick on constituency business, and Dorothy, Elizabeth and Thomas were with the seamstress. After three torturous hours of pinning and measuring, Dorothy was on her way into the garden when she noticed the door to her father’s study was not quite closed. She could not resist.
    Shutting the door quietly behind her, she headed towards her father’s telescope. It had fascinated her for years, for its ability to bring the universe closer. Dorothy sat on the stool behind the telescope, moving the instrument on its pivoting base. She peered into the lens, pointing it upwards. Nothing. The stars remained hidden behind the grey autumn sky. It was a bitter disappointment. She was on the verge of leaving when she noticed the drawer of her father’s desk lying open. Her father kept his diary in the drawer.
    The passage outside was quiet. Kneeling underneath the big old-fashioned desk, her legs crossed, her heart thudding in her chest, she pulled the diary into her lap, and began to read.
    There, on the first page, was her grandmother’s writing:
    To my Darling William,
    A gift on your coming of age.
    May you have a full life, and may you fill these pages with your many successes.
    Your loving Mother.
    On this first day of July in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and ten, I have attained my majority. It is a relatively insignificant detail in world history, but to me an auspicious day. A month has passed since I married my young wife. I am indeed a fortunate man, for she is handsome and dependable, and an exceptional catch, being part of the Tracy dynasty, whose lineage can be traced to Charlemagne. Tonight we will dine with her parents at Toddington.
    Dorothy put the diary down. Dependable . What did that mean? She would have to find out. Picking it up again she read entry after