Making Up for Lost Time

by Karin Kallmaker

  She lit the three fireplaces in the dining room. Directly in front of the fireplace was a family table for eight to ten people, then tables for two and four scattered around the rest of the room. The family table had a brilliant red cloth on it and a gorgeous centerpiece of holly and pine. She dimmed the lights and let the battery-powered candles in the windows and on each table provide a low, flattering glow.

  “Oh my,” she heard behind her.

  She turned to find Liesel and Jamie standing in the doorway from the street. “Wait right there,” she warned. She hurried over to the music deck and pressed play. Handel’s “Lift Up Your Heads” rippled from the sound system. “Now you can come in.”

  Liesel’s eyes were shining. “This is stunning, Val. You should be so proud. Job well done.”

  Jamie’s eyes held a similar shine. “It looks so elegant, but I know if the lights were up it would be its normal, functional self.”

  “Amazing what lighting can do, isn’t it?” Val pushed the dimmers all the way up and sharp lighting from hidden soffits poured down, bright as daylight. “Makes me want pie and coffee, and clam chowder in bread bowls, and celery ragout with wine.” She turned off the fireplace gas and the flickering warmth quickly dissipated. “For when the sun comes out.”

  “It’s not coming out any time soon,” Liesel said. “It’s going to rain through the weekend.”

  “Good,” Val said. “That will keep Mark Warnell from wandering around asking too many questions. Come upstairs.”

  With all of the studying Val had done for the menu, Jamie wondered if there was any need for subterfuge. Well, she supposed there was. Anyone in town would tell Mark Warnell that Val had just arrived here. Jamie wasn’t sure what Sheila Thintowski knew, but from the feverish way Val had finished the renovation and applied herself to cooking, it was obvious that she still felt the entire charade was necessary.

  Val had no reason to be hesitant about the way the renovations had turned out, however. The guest stairway was repapered, and the creaky treads repaired. The handrails were also repainted and the new carpet runner was the same blue as the Shaker stenciling on the second floor. Val bypassed the second floor in favor of showing them the third floor, with its new “master bedroom” first.

  It astonished Jamie. It was so different from the room Aunt Em had occupied for so many years. The room had been big to start with, but had no closets. Aunt Em had always used a wardrobe, which had plenty of room for her simple clothing. Val had devoted one wall to closet space, half with two sliding doors for hanging garments, and half with drawers of all sizes and a few shelves here and there. A half-dozen down pillows covered the queen-size bed. The foot of the bed was draped with one of the quilts her aunt had collected.

  The bathroom made Liesel sigh. “Em would have loved this. Whenever we went on vacation she would ask for a room with a bathtub.”

  The old fiberglass stall shower had been replaced with tiles and smoky glass doors. The top row of tile above the shower was stenciled with the blue and white Shaker pattern used throughout the rest of the inn. The large, clawfoot tub was big enough for two, Jamie thought, then she shied away from her mental picture of two women in particular sharing its pleasures.

  It hit her then that this was going to be her home. It was lovely—she liked it very much. It also breathed Valkyrie Valentine. She would never be able to forget Val in this room.

  Which was a pretty kettle of fish, she thought.

  She tried not to think about it as they went through the two other bedrooms on the floor. Their common bathroom had been updated as well, with Val’s decorating touches added, but otherwise they were unchanged. It wasn’t hard to picture them as they had been when she and Kathy had lived there. Perhaps she should rent out the master bedroom and keep the other two rooms for herself—one for a bedroom, and one for an office and sitting room. Aunt Em had often longed for a little room of her own where she could read or pay bills in peace.

  Val’s belongings turned up in one of the rooms on the second floor. “I thought I would give them the upper floor…more privacy for us. Mark Warnell in the master, Sheila and Graham in the smaller bedrooms. So I kept my stuff in here.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Jamie agreed.

  “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Liesel ran a hand over a wall glazed with Wedgwood Blue before turning to Val for her answer.

  Val’s smile was tired. “You want me to quit, now that I’ve done the hard part? Not a chance, Charley.” She led the way down the widened back staircase that ended in the kitchen.

  Even here there were changes, but Jamie had strictly supervised them the last two days. With the dining room closed there had been a chance to replace one of the ovens, thoroughly polish and clean the old dampers with their distinctive brass and copper workings. Bill had let them tarnish, then go black with grime. Val had worked around Jamie’s head doing more stenciling on the ceiling, then replaced the facings on the cupboard doors with light maple that matched the tables and chairs in the dining room. Then, yesterday, the whole room had undergone a thick coat of clean white semigloss paint. To Jamie’s nose it still smelled like paint, but it was getting better. A serious bout of cooking would take care of it. Serious cooking began tomorrow morning.

  Liesel was hugging Val and congratulating her on how thorough she had been. “It’s not a surface job—you got right into the bones of the place. She feels brand new to me. I don’t see how your guests won’t be impressed.”

  “The proof will be in Jamie’s cooking, I think. They already expect this renovation at a minimum. What they don’t expect is an authentic Georgian meal à la Jane Austen. It’s the food that will sell them.” Val turned to Jamie with a smile.

  “Speaking of food,” Jamie said, “I think I’ll start on the chocolate leaves and bowls tonight. It can get very tedious and slow, and if they’re here early I’ll never get them done.”

  “Well, I’ll see you later,” Liesel said. “Though if you’re too late you’ll have to get your own cocoa.”

  Jamie grinned. “I think I can manage that.”

  “She gives you cocoa every night?” Val asked after Liesel had gone.

  “Every night. I put my feet up and she brings me a cup of cocoa. She must have longed to do that for my aunt.”

  “So that Kathy creature is the reason they weren’t together? I mean living together?”

  Jamie nodded. “Aunt Em gave Kathy the decision. I think she hoped that Kathy would grow up a little and say it was okay. But she didn’t. She said that if Liesel moved in here that everyone would know her mother was a pervert.”

  “Christ.”

  “I don’t think she even realized the depth of the insult she delivered. Aunt Em was…straight, for lack of a better word. She had said it would have to be unanimous because we all lived in the house, not just her. I mean, I’d already said I’d love it if Liesel lived with us. I loved Liesel even then. I could tell how happy Aunt Em was when Liesel was around. But Kathy said no and that was that. Aunt Em would not go back on her word.”

  “I don’t want to speak ill of someone so well-loved, but it sounds to me like she spoiled Kathy rotten.”

  Jamie sighed again. “She did. And me. I just took it better. Maybe because I knew that Aunt Em didn’t have to love me. I wasn’t her kid. So I knew the gift she was giving me. I knew to cherish it. Love isn’t something you take for granted.” Jamie swallowed hard, wondering what had led her to give away so much to Val. She busied herself assembling ingredients; she couldn’t look at Val.

  Val’s voice was soft. “No, you can’t take it for granted. And yet some people bandy it about so easily. The word, I mean. My mother sends a birthday gift every year and writes that she loves me, but I haven’t seen her in at least fifteen years—her choice. I don’t understand her at all.”

  “At least I had Aunt Em,” Jamie said. “She was a mother to me, through and through.”

  “Oh, I had my dad. It’s not
like I was an orphan. Funny that we both had mothers cut from the same cloth, though.”

  “Funny,” Jamie echoed. She set up the double boiler and turned on the big burner to get the water up to steaming.

  “Well, if you’re going to work, I may as well, too.”

  “You should get an early night. You practically haven’t slept,” Jamie said.

  “It’s early yet,” Val said. “It’s decadent to go to sleep before ten. I think I’ll work on the ribbon-and-pine bough centerpieces—at least I can sit down while I do that. I’ll be in the dining room.”

  Jamie carefully melted about twenty ounces of beautiful European dark chocolate, careful not to heat it so high that it separated. Once it was the right consistency, she whipped in heavy cream and butter. While it warmed she buttered sheets of kitchen parchment. Val had ordered her an extra set of stencils of the Shaker pattern, and Jamie painted them with the thickened chocolate. Then she put the trays into the walk-in refrigerator. The diamonds and leaves would look fabulous on a crystal serving dish.

  She removed a tray of eight small, well-chilled bowls from the refrigerator and set about painting them with the chocolate. Chocolate bowls for chocolate mousse at dinner the day after Christmas, the last evening the Warnell party was to be with them. All in all, Jamie was glad the holiday would soon be behind them. It hadn’t been much fun this year.

  The only problem with the holiday being over was that Val would go away too. Val had said there was a little more work to do—like insulating under the dining room floor. So she hadn’t set a definite departure date. But she’d go.

  “Damn.” Her eyes were unaccountably watering, and she’d just messed up one of the bowls. It had a hole where Jamie’s fingernail had caught it.

  “Jamie, do you—what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Jamie said. “I just messed up a cup, and I’m happy about it.”

  “And you cry when you’re happy.”

  “Right. I’m really, really happy right now.”

  Val stood there for a moment, then said, “Okay. But I wondered if you wanted to see the dining room with just the firelight. I think you’ll love it. And then you should take off, because I’m about ready to drop and you’ve worked just as hard as I have.”

  “Let me finish this last bowl.”

  Val came over to inspect. “This is amazing.”

  “Just takes patience. Like you and the stenciling. How you can stand on a ladder for that long I’ll never know.”

  “We make a good team,” Val said.

  “Complementary skills,” Jamie replied, after a swallow. “There.” She lifted the tray and carried it into the refrigerator. After the chocolate had hardened a small amount of hot water swirled inside the bowl would loosen the chocolate away from the sides. It would only take a few minutes tomorrow morning.

  Satisfied that the bowls were protected from damage, she followed Val into the dining room.

  The new wood blinds, in the same whitewashed maple as the mantel, were closed. With just the firelight, the dining room looked like a family home. The light didn’t quite reach the cash register and dessert case, and the blinds hid the new lettering and designs that Val had added to the glass.

  “This is nice,” Jamie said. She wandered over to the fireplace, stopping here and there to set a chair more squarely under a table. She sank down on one of the raised hearths. “These are really handy. I’ve been warming myself every morning right here, first thing.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” Val sat down next to her.

  Jamie found herself unaccountably nervous. Val was too close, for one thing, and in this light she looked like some kind of goddess. Even worse, Jamie was feeling a little too emotional, a little too much on the ragged edge.

  “We are a good team,” Val said again. When Jamie didn’t answer, she said in a low voice that cut through Jamie’s heart, “Jamie?”

  She lifted her head to find Val leaning toward her. She couldn’t turn away, she didn’t want to. Val’s lips were like warm silk on hers. Jamie knew she whimpered, but holding it back would have cost her the effort she was making to keep from throwing herself into Val’s arms.

  The kiss was long, long enough to make the fire at Jamie’s back seem cool by comparison. Her heart was hammering in her ears and nothing seemed real except for the press of Val’s lips.

  Then Val opened her mouth with a deep sigh that Jamie was helpless to resist. She responded with a gasp and tasted Val’s mouth on hers, all the while holding her hands rigidly at her sides, unwilling to take the consequences of what would happen if she touched Val and her restraint gave way to the flood of long-banked need.

  When Val’s fingertips brushed her cheeks, the sensation was so sweet, and so welcome, that she panicked. Val lurched into the space where Jamie had been as Jamie dashed toward the kitchen, saying breathlessly, “I forgot to close the refrigerator.”

  Val was following her. Jamie dashed through the kitchen to the walk-in refrigerator, opened the door and pulled it shut behind her. Silly, she thought, Val knows how to open the door.

  Open it she did. She was framed in the kitchen light like a primordial being, glowing with energy and power.

  The primordial being said, “Are you nuts?”

  “No, I just didn’t want to ruin the chocolate.” Jamie brushed her fingers lightly over the fully set chocolate stencils.

  “Then I’ll just close the door,” Val said. She did. But she was on the inside.

  Jamie backed into the corner.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Val said. “What on earth do you think I have in mind? I just wanted... to kiss you. Because we make a good team.”

  “I’m not interested in that kind of partnership.”

  “Fine,” Val said. “A kiss is just a kiss.”

  Maybe to you, Jamie wanted to say. Instead she said, “Like with Jan?”

  “Jealous?”

  “Of course not.”

  Val was taking slow steps toward Jamie. “You’re going to freeze in here.”

  “I’m fine. I’m used to it.”

  “Jamie, come out into the kitchen.” She reached for Jamie’s hand.

  “No.”

  “Jamie…” Val took her hand. It was electrically hot against Jamie’s rapidly chilling fingers. “I’m sorry I frightened you. It was the last thought on my mind.”

  “I’m not frightened.” Jamie trembled. “I’m cold.”

  “Come into the kitchen,” Val repeated.

  “I’ve got work to do.”

  “Christ, Jamie. So do I.” Val’s voice cracked and her brilliant blue eyes flashed. “I have things I need to do. Like this.”

  Her mouth found Jamie’s again, this time more firmly. Jamie’s knees, against all laws of physics, melted. Val held her pinned against the chilled boxes of cheese and milk. Her warm arms went around Jamie, and Jamie thought she would faint.

  She kissed Val back. She wrapped her arms around Val’s waist and returned the kiss, pressure for pressure, taste for taste.

  When Val drew back, she whispered against Jamie’s eyes, “Was that so bad?”

  “No,” Jamie admitted. “A kiss is just a kiss.”

  Val sighed, not passionately this time, and she let Jamie go. “We’ll catch our death if we stay in here much longer.”

  “Right,” Jamie said.

  Val opened the door and Jamie turned off the light. In the kitchen, Jamie fussed around the leftover chocolate in the double boiler. It was still warm and semisoft.

  “I wonder what I could use this up on?”

  Val came over to examine it. “Would it make chocolate milk?”

  “Wouldn’t dissolve. You’d have chocolate pellets in white milk.”

  “Frosting?”

  “Hmm, it would be a soft dip for cupcakes if we had any left.”

  “Well,” Val said, “we could eat it with our fingers.”

  Jamie started to tremble again. She scooped up some of the soft, slightly run
ny chocolate on her index finger and offered it to Val.

  Val slowly and deliberately took Jamie’s finger in her mouth, licking the chocolate away. Her tongue lingered longer than necessary and Jamie knew that Val must feel her quivering.

  Val reached for the bowl of chocolate, but Jamie said, her voice barely audible, “Let me.” She offered more chocolate to Val, but as Val drew close to accept it, Jamie swept it across Val’s mouth and cheek. “We could paint with it.”

  Val made a low sound that Jamie echoed as their mouths met, hungry for each other and tasting chocolate and passion with every movement of their tongues. They parted, gasping, and Jamie felt Val’s chocolate-dipped fingers on her face, then they were smoothing across her throat. Then those fingers found their way under her apron, to her shirt buttons.

  Jamie eased Val’s T-shirt out of her jeans, fumbled for the bowl, then painted a long stripe of chocolate down Val’s spine. The T-shirt cleared Val’s head just as Val pulled Jamie’s shirt away. There was a moment’s frustration when the apron tangled, then Val undid it all, including Jamie’s bra, and tugged everything away.

  Jamie swayed on her feet. Val’s hands were coated with warm chocolate as she molded Jamie’s breasts, her tongue following her hands.

  Jamie painted the back of Val’s neck, aware that she was losing control of her desires, would lose control of her better sense if this went on. But how could she stop? Val’s hands and mouth were at her zipper, and within a few heartbeats she was naked, covered with chocolate, in her own kitchen, and open to anything Val wanted to do to her.

  Val was slowly sinking to her knees. She pushed Jamie back against the counter and used the last of the chocolate on her hands to paint the insides of Jamie’s thighs. She eased Jamie’s legs apart and Jamie gasped for air. The room was spinning.