“In fact, I think we, as a group, should help you.”
“Why, Stella! That would be great.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few days,” the older woman said. “We all know how Betsy kept every tidbit and scrap that came across her path … .”
She looked around, waiting for their agreement. Everyone nodded.
“Annie,” she asked, “are there dressers and chests and boxes at Fairview where information might be stored?”
“Sure. The house is fully furnished. But according to Ian there were renters there until about ten years ago.”
Stella drew her spine straighter than ever and looked over the tops of her glasses at Annie.
“Really?” As if she did not believe her.
“That’s what Ian told me.”
“And Mr. Mayor would not lie,” Peggy declared.
“Of course not! I didn’t say that he would. But I just find it hard to believe that anyone lived in that old place … .”
“Ian said he was going to talk to someone in Portland who used to sell real estate here. Maybe he’ll know something.”
“Will Green?” Mary Beth asked.
“I believe that was the name, yes.”
“Well, if anyone would know, it’d be him. He was about the nosiest person I’ve ever met.”
The women exchanged surreptitious glances, and then bent their heads busily over their projects. No one would say what they were all thinking: It takes one to know one!
“After the party, I say let’s all go out there and see what we can find,” Stella said.
Annie’s head shot up, along with everyone else’s in the entire Hook and Needle Club. Stella’s eyes widened as she caught her gaffe too late.
“Party?” Alice said. “What party?”
No one said anything, but they did a lot of shifting and rustling of yarn, fabric and thread without looking at her. Kate wafted toward the back room.
“Hey!” Alice said. “What party?”
“Uh … umm.” Annie tried to think fast.
“Are you guys throwing me a surprise birthday party?” Alice said, half-grinning, half-wary.
No one said anything because apparently no one wanted to be the one to out-and-out spoil the party Mary Beth had been planning for the last two weeks.
“Okay, yes!” Mary Beth said finally. “After the meeting today.”
Alice’s expression went from laughing to soft and mushy as if they were a litter of roly-poly puppies.
“You guys! Really? That’s so sweet.” She shot a look at Stella. “And Stella, aren’t you the sly one?”
Stella sniffed and squirmed.
“Well, apparently not too sly, letting it slip that way.” Her shoulders drooped for a moment, and she looked at the others. “I am so sorry!”
“I’m not!” Alice declared. “In fact, I say let’s close this meeting early and get on with the celebration. It’s not every day someone my age turns my age again.”
They all laughed with her, and after a brief discussion of slipper needs, Mary Beth dismissed them, went to the front door, locked it, turned the open sign around and closed the shop.
“I don’t do this for just anyone,” she said, giving Alice a quick hug. “And we can’t keep the shop closed all day. But for now, we’re going to have a party, with no interruptions. Ladies, follow me to the back room.”
****
After the cake was no more than half a cake with holes where candles used to be, the presents unwrapped with oohs and ahhs, and the punch bowl empty of the orange cloud punch, the ladies straightened the stockroom and drifted out the front door, back to their regular routines. No one mentioned anything more about going to Fairview.
Annie had just reached the Malibu when a familiar sleek car pulled into the parking space next to hers.
Ian smiled at her through the windshield and then got out.
“Good afternoon, Annie!”
Rather than being pleased to see him, Annie felt embarrassed and foolish. Her abrupt departure Saturday had been rude and completely uncalled for. She had no idea how to make up for such idiotic behavior.
“Hi, Ian,” she said in a small voice.
He stuffed both hands into his pockets and leaned his lower half against the front of his car. He eyed the tote in her hand.
“Been to the Hook and Needle Club meeting, eh?”
She nodded. “We’re making slippers.”
He hitched up an eyebrow.
“I mean, we’re making slippers for the residents of Seaside Hills Assisted Living. That’s our current project. I mean, our current project involves them. That is, our project is to make slippers. Stella is knitting some. And of course, Kate is crocheting. And you know I’ll be crocheting.” She stopped speaking abruptly when she realized she was prattling like a teenager.
Ian gave her a definite look of concern. “Annie, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Just fine. It’s such a lovely day, isn’t it? I love spring, when everything is so fresh.” She was babbling again. She gazed down the street helplessly for a moment, and then turned her attention fully to Ian. “I want to apologize for the other night. I … well, I was rude.”
He frowned and looked confused.
“What do you mean? I thought we had fun the other night. You didn’t enjoy yourself?”
“My goodness, yes! Going to Sweet Nell’s was a great experience, something new. But I slammed the door in your face. More or less.”
He laughed. “What? Were you afraid I was going to try to kiss you?”
She felt blood heat her face, but she kept her head up and faced down her discomfiture.
“Yes,” she said. “And I’m not ready for that.”
They stared at each other, and Annie realized she had just killed any romance that might have been tender on the vine with Ian. She ignored the stab that shot straight through her heart.
“Well, Annie. I appreciate your honesty. I’m not sure I’m ready for anything like that myself.”
Had she misread his signals from that night? Obviously she had. A little disappointed but rather relieved, she smiled.
“Oh! Well, then. It’s all good, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s all good. And I have something for you.” He turned, taking a yellow legal pad out of his car, and glanced down at it. “I talked to Will Green yesterday.”
“Oh, good! I hope you have some information for me.”
“I do. It isn’t much, but it will help you, maybe.” He took his glasses out of his breast pocket and slipped them on. “I took notes so I wouldn’t forget.” He looked at her over the tops of the glasses. “This is too important to you for me to forget details.”
She laughed. “Ian, you have the memory of an elephant. How could you run Stony Point, if you forgot things?”
He shrugged, grinned.
“Age, my dear girl, creeps up on us all. Besides, I have staff whom I trust to remember things for me.”
He turned to the paper, shook it a little as though to shake out any wrinkles, and read silently for a moment. Annie waited, trying to keep a lid on her curiosity and impatience.
“The house—Fairview—was rented out to Millie Pratt in 1989 until her death ten years later. Will worked with Betsy to contract housekeeping and groundskeepers for the place because Miss Pratt was elderly and disabled. She apparently was alone in the world, quite poor, and Betsy provided furnishings, utilities, and charged a mere pittance for rent. Probably just enough to salvage Miss Pratt’s pride.”
Excitement ran so strongly through Annie that she dropped her tote. She scooped it up in a frenzy, laughing.
“That was Gram’s way, you know. She liked to take care of folks. So Will Green has all the information I need?”
Her high spirits plummeted when she saw Ian’s expression.
“I’m sorry. Will was under a strict agreement that prior ownership of Fairview should remain anonymous, and all he knew was that Betsy owned it. He didn’t
know any details of how or why she had the property, or even who had owned it before her.”
“Oh. Oh, dear.”
“I’m sorry you’re disappointed, Annie. I wish I had better news. Or at least more news. I know how much you want to find out about the place.”
“Thanks, Ian,” she sighed. “And please don’t apologize. I appreciate that you uncovered as much as you did.” She sighed again, and then asked, “I’d still like to know why the place got run down. That just was not like Gram.”
“From what I deduced, it seems she kept it up for a while, trusting someone else with the upkeep, but just decided it was too much.”
“Then why didn’t she sell it?”
“Now that,” he said, “I can’t tell you.”
“It would be the logical thing to do.”
“It would. I’m sure she had her reasons, though. Betsy Holden was no fool.”
“You’re right,” she replied with a bright smile. “She was the smartest, kindest woman I knew. If I’d been around more those last few years of her life … .”
“Now, Annie, don’t start to think that way. You did what was best for your family. Betsy took good care of herself, and she had friends up here who looked out for her. If any of us had known about Fairview, we would have helped her sort things out. For whatever reason, she chose to tell no one. Looking into the past now and dredging up guilt doesn’t change a thing, and you know it does absolutely no good for anyone.”
She met his eyes, and allowed their warmth to lightly squeeze her heart.
“Thanks, Ian. You are a good friend.”
“I try.” He looked over his shoulder toward A Stitch in Time and changed the subject. “So how’d the party go?”
She laughed. “It was great! Alice was surprised, but the surprise came when Stella spilled the beans right in the middle of our meeting.”
“Good ol’ Stella,” he laughed. “And did she like that crocheted lacy bit you made for her?”
“The table runner and place mats. Yes, she loved them. In fact, she broke down and cried because each one of us had given her something unique and handmade that she had really wanted.”
“And cake?”
“The best orange-coconut cake ever, even if Alice didn’t bake it with her own capable hands.”
“That’s saying something. Her desserts are always phenomenal.”
He glanced at his watch and pushed away from the car.
“Well, Annie, I have a meeting in less than ten minutes at City Hall.”
“Then you’d better run along. Thanks so much for talking with Will Green for me.”
“It was my pleasure. I’ll see you again.” He smiled at her, went around his car and got in. Annie stood where she was, watching him back out and drive away.
“I’m not ready for that kind of thinking,” she muttered as unwanted and rather romantic notions popped into her mind. It was better for her to concentrate on Grey Gables, her crochet work, the Hook and Needle Club, and Fairview. Ian Butler must remain exactly what he was: a good friend.
16
At the next meeting, Annie filled in the Hook and Needle Club members on information Ian had gleaned for her. “I still say we go out there and see what we can find.” Stella said, somewhat loudly. “You all know as well as I do that Betsy filled any drawers, boxes or chests out there with more stuff.”
Although the mere thought of prowling through more miscellanea made Annie’s head ache, she tended to agree with the older woman.
“Well, I’m game if you are,” she said, finishing off the blue-striped slipper. It completed the third pair she had made. It was such fun and so satisfying to share LeeAnn’s gift this way.
“I think we should all go,” Gwen said. “As long as it’s safe. I have no desire to fall through the floor.”
“No one is going to fall through any floor,” Peggy said stoutly. “My Wally went over the house with a fine-tooth comb last week.”
Wally had told Annie all the details of his findings, but right then she gave Peggy the floor to share the information with the other ladies. While Peggy talked, Annie started the foundation chain for another pair of slippers.
“The roof needs to be replaced, but it’s not going to fall in,” Peggy said. “The floor is solid; good hardwood there. The windows need to be caulked and sealed, the broken ones replaced. A mason should tuck-point the broken mortar in the fireplace. And those scurrying footsteps, glass and rattling noises? At some point, pack rats have been in the attic and in the walls. They’ve brought in every conceivable thing you can think of—even broken pieces of glass. What Wally found was a multigenerational nest of raccoons and mice.”
Alice let out a little shriek of disgust and dismay. Peggy gave her a look.
“The noise of us being there,” Peggy continued, dragging her gaze from Alice, “frightened them and they scampered. Wally is using a live trap so he can ‘catch and release’ out in the woods, far from the house.”
“And he’s going to repair all those holes and entry points so they can’t return,” Annie added.
“Yes. And then do all the other things that need to be done.”
“And then what?” Gwen asked. “Are you going to rent it out, Annie? It would be a great rental for summer people.”
Annie wrinkled her nose slightly. “I think the title of landlady wouldn’t sit well on my shoulders. I’d rather sell it.”
“I still want to go out there!” Stella insisted. “You have established that it’s unlikely I’ll break a hip by falling through a rotten floor, so I’m ready for an adventure … watered down, certainly, but an adventure just the same.”
Annie looked around at the others. “Far be it from me to deny Stella a watered-down adventure. How about the rest of you? Do you want to prowl around Fairview?”
The rest of them enthusiastically agreed, fidgeting and chattering with anticipation.
When they quieted, Annie said, “Mary Beth, after you close the shop, why don’t we all meet here and ride out there?”
“It will be getting dark by then,” Gwen piped up. “Let’s go Sunday afternoon instead. If it isn’t raining, we’ll have a nice bright day to explore.”
“I like that idea even better!” Annie exclaimed, and apparently, so did the entire membership of the Hook and Needle Club. “Why don’t we meet here after lunch and carpool?”
“If it’s bright and sunny,” Gwen added.
“Yes. If it’s bright and sunny.”
After the meeting, just as Annie was leaving A Stitch In Time, Kate called, “Wait up, Annie!”
The woman slipped on her denim jacket with crocheted epaulets as she hurried toward the front door. She gave Annie a nervous smile.
“Could we go to The Cup & Saucer for lunch?” she asked in an undertone. “I want to talk to you.”
The request surprised Annie. “But don’t you have to work?”
“Mary Beth is letting me have a long lunch today.” She gave Annie a pleading look. “Please?”
Annie had planned to do research on the Harpers and Fairview, but a look into Kate’s eyes changed her mind.
“Sure. I’m a little hungry.”
Kate gave her a relieved smile. “Thanks! And lunch is my treat.” Annie started to protest, knowing Kate didn’t have a lot of extra money. “I mean it, Annie. I want to treat you.”
“Well, then. I can’t say no. Thank you.”
Kate tucked her arm through Annie’s and said as they went out the door, “Let’s just walk. It’s such a lovely day.”
They sat near one of the windows at The Cup & Saucer where the midday sun flooded the world outside.
“I just love it here,” Kate sighed after they ordered hamburgers and fries. “So homey and warm.”
“It is nice,” Annie agreed, sipping her tea. Since moving to Maine, she had learned more fully to enjoy hot tea as well as the preferred iced tea everyone drank in Texas.
“Oh, by the way, I have something for you.” She
reached in to her purse and withdrew the small card the red-haired woman had given her Saturday night at Sweet Nell’s.
Kate took it and looked at the name. “Who is Nancy Crawford?”
“I don’t know her, but she approached me the other night at Sweet Nell’s—”
“You went to Sweet Nell’s?! How was it? Did you sing? Did you have fun? I’ve been thinking about going out there.”
Annie laughed.
“It was a lot of fun. And no, I did not sing, but Ian did.”
Kate’s eyes rounded. “Really? Our mayor got up in front of people and sang?”
“He’s got a fantastic voice too.”
Kate clapped her hands like a little girl. “I just think that’s too cool!”
“It was fun,” Annie said again. “But this is what I want to talk to you about.” She tapped the card in Kate’s hand. “The lady who gave me that card loved my shawl so much she wanted me to make her one—”
“Oh, Annie! You should!”
Annie shook her head. “I don’t want to. But I thought you might. If you’d like to, you can borrow mine for the pattern. What’s more, I think you might have a customer who’d buy a lot more creations from you.”
“Really?” Kate looked down at the card. “That would be great. I’d love to sell more of my work.” She glanced up. “Thank you, Annie! And you’re sure you don’t … ?” She waved the card.
“Positive. I have other things to do, like the ongoing work at Grey Gables, and now, Fairview. My days are going to be full for a long time, I think.”
“Well, thank you,” Kate said again and tucked the card in her wallet. “I’ll give the lady a call tomorrow.” Then she took a deep breath, as though gathering her thoughts; she met Annie’s eyes, and smiled.
“Annie,” she said, pausing for a moment. Then she continued, “Annie, I want to tell you what happened to me.”
That was a loaded statement. Kate had been through a lot in her life. What was it she now wanted to share? Even though Kate was older than LeeAnn, her wide-eyed view of the world often drew out Annie’s nurturing instinct. Annie reached over and touched the woman’s fine-boned hand.
“OK, honey. What do you want to tell me?”
Kate looked out the window for a moment, and then turned her gaze back to Annie.
The Deed in the Attic Page 14