Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - The Tea Planter's Wife

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn at Books and Beat. To play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

Her hand shook so much that the water spilled, soaking her nightdress and trickling down her chest. She felt as if this terrible thing she had agreed to would mean peace and sleep were gone forever.

~The Tea Planter's Wife: A Novel by Dinah Jefferies, page 145

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First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is a weekly link-up hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or two) of a book you're reading, or thinking about reading.

PROLOGUE
Ceylon, 1913

   The woman held a slim white envelope to her lips. She hesitated for a moment longer, pausing to listen to the achingly sweet notes of a distant Sinhalese flute. She considered her resolve, turning it over as she would a pebble in her palm, then sealed the envelope and propped it against a vase of wilting red roses.

   The antique ottoman stood at the end of the four-poster bed. It was made from dark wood, its sides covered in satin moire with a padded leather lid. She lifted the lid, took out her ivory wedding dress, and draped it over the back of a chair, wrinkling her nose at the sickly scent of mothballs.

   She selected a rose, broke off the bloom, and glanced at the baby, glad that he still slept. At her dressing table she raised the flower and held it against her fair hair; such fine threads of silk, he had always said. She shook her head and let the flower go. Not today.

Here's the blurb:

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever . . .

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

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