Eliza Vandas Button Box chapter sampler

would have looked like pillows made of moss if it hadn’t been for their strong leather handles. Milly stared. Where had the woman come from? There’d been no sound of a car, and the next bus from Wide Beach wasn’t due till six o’clock. The woman couldn’t have walked far either — not in this weather. She’d have been soaked if she had — soaked, muddy and messy — and she wasn’t any of those things. She looked very calm and very neat. Neat as a pin, Milly thought, the phrase flying into her mind as if it had been invented just to describe the stranger. At that moment, the woman’s eyes met hers, and Milly felt a little jolt like a tiny electric shock. The woman put down her bags, folded her hands, and waited. Milly ran to the door and opened it. ‘Hello,’ the woman said. ‘I’m Eliza Vanda.’ She looked up at the sky. ‘It’s raining,’ she added, as if she’d just noticed. Milly nodded. She realised that her mouth was hanging open and quickly shut it.

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