Queen of Broken Hearts (57 page)
Read Queen of Broken Hearts Online
Authors: Cassandra King
Her arms cradling the basket, Dory gives another look into the woods, then sighs and shrugs. When Haley and I start on the path, Dory shuffles behind us, muttering to herself. We've taken only a few steps when Dory lets out such a whoop that I stop and whirl around. The women still on the path ahead of us stop dead in their tracks, as though someone yelled “
Freeze.”
Haley cries, “Momâlook!”
She points upward but doesn't need to, because by then I've heard them. Over our heads are the rustle of wings and the soft coo of two dozen doves, flitting and swooping, shining gloriously white against the falling darkness like the shadows of angels. Haley, Dory, and I stumble backward, out of their way, as they make their spectacular landing in the center of the labyrinth, some on the stone and others scattered about the ground surrounding it. Zoe's white wedding doves have arrived, and it hits me with a jolt of understanding that Zoe has had to retrain them for this occasion. I cannot imagine how she managed it. I know how long it took her to train them to fly away and return here after she released them at weddings. She must have been working for weeks on end to get them to do this. It's no wonder none of us has seen her lately; in spite of her grief for Genghis, she's been preparing them so they would arrive at this moment, just as the ceremony is over. This is her gift to me, this reverse landing of the wedding doves, and I put a hand over my mouth as I blink back my tears.
After a stunned silence, the crowd bursts into applause, and I scan the sea of faces for Zoe's. Dory has dropped her basket of candles and is hopping from one foot to the other as she applauds and whoops and laughs, hugging first Haley and then Etta, who has appeared out of the crowd and hopped over the rock-edged paths to join them. Etta raises her big, jiggling arms above her head to clap her hands as a grin splits her face from ear to ear. With loud cries and cheers, the rest of the White Rings come forward to stand behind Etta, all of them decked out in their ridiculous equinox tunics. Evidently they were all in on this, Zoe's contribution to the ceremony. Now I know why none of us has seen her all evening. I recall the time she first trained the doves, and I know she has to be close enough to them in order to give them her commands. Where on earth could she have released the doves from? I wonder.
From the distance comes a sharp whistle, and at the sound, the doves cock their heads in attention and cease their cooing sounds. As suddenly as they appeared, they lift their pearl-white wings, and one by one they begin to float upward, heading back the way they came, over the dark points of the leafy treetops etched against the blue-gray dusk.
Then I know where she is, where she has to be. I turn my head toward the oak tree that Zoe and Dory and I climbed the day we spied on Lex walking the labyrinth, and I see her. Sitting halfway up the tree like some giant, long-limbed bird is Zoe Catherine, her fingers in the sides of her mouth, whistling her white doves home.
1.   In the opening scene, Clare goes to great lengths to avoid an encounter with Son Rodgers, the husband of her best friend. What is the deeper basis of their mutual dislike? Does Dory stay with her husband in spite of his flaws, or because of them? Does her devotion suggest the complicated nature of love, or simply an unhealthy relationship? Is Son's ultimate transformation plausible?
2.   How does the settingâboth the unique town of Fairhope and the Landing on Folly Creekâcontribute to, impact, or enhance the story?
3.   Two of the most important women in Clare's life are Zoe Catherine, her former mother-in-law, and Haley, her daughter, yet neither is related to her by blood. Is the author making a comment on the ties that bind us to others, and if so, do you find it true to real life?
4.   On a lighter note, Clare finds herself in a love triangle with two very different men. What is it about each one that appeals to her? Which man do you find most appealing, and why? Would you have made the same choice she did?
5.   Explore the role of birds in the story, particularly the author's use of them in the following elements of fiction: symbolism, comedy and tragedy, plot development (consider the colony of terns), and revelation of theme, as in the final scene.
6.   Some scholars contend that myth contains the essential stories of humankind; or as Clare says to Dory, “Initiation, trial, and triumph.” How does the author explain her choice of the labyrinth and Minotaur? Can you suggest other myths and how they might have been used in a different manner?
7.   About the dissolution of Haley's marriage, Dory makes the following comment: “If Son dies before I do, or if we split the sheets, I won't ever marry again. Why do any of us do it?” At another point, Clare states: “I have no intention of getting involved in another relationship, not after the way my last one ended,” and Lex agrees, “Going through all that crap again is the last thing I want ⦔ Zoe Catherine refuses to marry her longtime lover, saying, “I get lonesome, too, but that's no reason to get married. Lonesomest folks I know are the married ones.” Do you find the cynicism of these comments valid? Why, or why not?
8.   Clare spends her life helping others heal and move on, yet can't do the same for herself. What is it about Mack and their relationship that she is unable to let go of?
9.   The Asunder Ceremony is crucial to Clare's theory of healing, based on her assertion that “Ritual is not merely important, it's essential.” Can you supply the Biblical quote that the word “asunder” was taken from? Is it valid to denounce the ceremony as a mockery of a holy ritual of the church?
10.  The author raises disturbing questions about love and marriage, guilt and failure, fidelity and betrayal, loneliness and heartbreak. Does the final scene, with its suggestion of healing and renewal, offer any answers, or does it raise even more?
Excerpt from “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. From
Collected Poems
, HarperCollins. Copyright © 1923, 1951 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Elizabeth Barnett, literary executor.
Copyright © 2007 Cassandra King.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows:
King, Cassandra
Queen of broken hearts / Cassandra King.â1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4013-0177-4
ISBN-10: 1-4013-0177-0
1. WomenâSouthern StatesâFiction. 2. Divorce therapyâFiction. I. Title.
PS3568.A922Q44 2007
813â².6âdc22
2006049697
eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-4296-8
Hyperion books are available for special promotions and premiums. For details contact the HarperCollins Special Markets Department in the New York office at 212-207-7528, fax 212-207-7222, or email [email protected].
First eBook Edition
Original print editions printed in the United States of America.
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To Marly, Leslie, and Ellen: I couldn't have done it without your encouragement, help, patience, and perseverance.
To the family and friends: I love each of you more than I can say, even if I weren't known as Helen Keller.
To the people of Fairhope, Alabama: It is a privilege to set my story in your unique and enchanting town. Please forgive any poetic license I might have taken.
And especially to Margot Swann and the women of Visions Anew, the wonderful real-life organization that inspired the fictional Wayfarer's Landing. Please visit them at
VisionsAnew.org
.
Cassandra King has published numerous short stories, articles, and essays, as well as three other novels,
The Sunday Wife, Making Waves,
and
The Same Sweet Girls
. She has taught college writing classes; conducted corporate writing seminars; worked as a human-interest reporter; and published an article on her second-favorite pastime, cooking, in
Cooking Light
magazine. A native of L.A. (Lower Alabama), she now lives in the low country of South Carolina with her husband, novelist Pat Conroy.
Contact the author at her website:
cassandrakingconroy.com
Also by Cassandra King
Making Waves
The Sunday Wife
The Same Sweet Girls
Queen of Broken Hearts
“Cassandra King has written a wonderful and uplifting tale about women helping other women in a small Alabama town. Full of romance and surprises along the way.”
âFannie Flagg,
author of
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
“This novel about friendship, heartache, self-discovery and loveâin all its wounding, wacky, and wonderful formsâhad me laughing out loud, and then moved me to tears.
âSandra Brown,
author of
Ricochet
“
Queen of Broken Hearts
is an absolutely fabulous story of healing and hope, filled with irresistible characters that are beautifully drawn and have great insights into life. I laughed and cried, and you will too ⦠I absolutely adored this book! Congratulations, Cassandra King, on a monumental success!”
âDorothea Benton Frank,
author of
Full of Grace
“These are not âThe Same Sweet Girls,' but all those who loved that novel will love this one even more. Cassandra King's characters are fully drawn, richly imagined human beings, whose lives will continue to resonate long after you've turned the last page.”
âMark Childress,
author of
One Mississippi
Making Waves
“
Making Waves
is a wonderful novel filled with perfectly rendered Southern characters and the strange ways of love and friendship. It is lush and charming and just plain funny.”
âSue Monk Kidd
“Some people just know how to tell a damn story. Cassandra King not only weaves a wonderful story of love and loss and laughter in
Making Waves
, she makes it seem more than fictionâI found myself seeing real people from my life in the puzzling human nature of âZion.' Poor people really do eat supper earlier than rich people. And a tire painted white does make a fine flower bed.”
âRick Bragg, author of
All Over but the Shoutin'
and
Ava's Man
“
Making Waves
is almost unfair to other writers of Southern settings. No one should be able to create a gathering of such perfect characters and place them in a story of such human and humorous circumstances. Yet, she has done it, and the result is as memorable as any book that I've read in years.”
âTerry Kay, author of
To Dance with the White Dog
and
The Valley of Light
The Sunday Wife
“A wonderful book. Cassandra King catches these quirky, complex people and their world flawlessly.”
âAnne Rivers Siddons
“Kept me up till 3 â¦
The Sunday Wife
is a tasty, irresistible treat.”
âBookPage
“As slice-of-life stories go, this is an extraordinarily generous one: rich, dense, and satisfying.”
â
People
“
The Sunday Wife
is an intelligent, witty novel, skillfully written.”
â
Boston Globe
“A charming read ⦠[King] has a sure winner here.”
â
Publishers Weekly
“
The Sunday Wife
⦠delivers some haunting messages about the nature of love and freedom and forgiveness.”
â
Orlando Sentinel
“
The Sunday Wife
is a complex novel alert to the nuances of the Bible-Belt South.”
â
The Daily Courier
“King explores the nature of loveâthe destructive power of addictive love, the healing power of mature, mutual love, and the blind worship of an adoring congregation.”
