CHAPTER 89 - THE FIRST CHRISTMAS ---- CAPÍTULO 89 - LAS PRIMERAS NAVIDADES
Instagram On the afternoon of the thirty-first, Pilar and Rosario came together to prepare the grape cones. It was a tradition of long standing at Villa Claire. Grandmother Claire had adopted it with the same natural ease with which she had adopted so many other things from Algeciras. She had simply absorbed them into the order of the household as though they had always belonged there. Every year, on the afternoon of the thirty-first, the cones were prepared in the kitchen: twelve grapes for each person, carefully counted out, the silver paper, or waxed paper, twisted at the end so that they should not fall out. It was a small, repetitive task, carried out amid conversation, and taking rather longer than necessary precisely because of that. That year it was Charlotte, Pilar and Rosario who did it. Margot helped for a while and then went to see to the children. Rowena came in and out twice with questions about the supper. The grapes lay upon the table in the large fruit bowl, the ...
