“That brings me to another concern,” said Louise. “I’ve been thinking that it might be better to use the parlor for my music lessons. I was looking at the rooms the other day, and I thought it might be nice to keep Father’s study as a library. It would be a nice quiet place for guests to go and read or write or borrow a good book.”
“I’m not sure how quiet it will be with kids hammering on the piano right next door,” said Jane.
Louise’s brows lifted. “Hammering?”
Jane grinned. “You know what I mean.”
“My pupils do not hammer,” said Louise sternly. Then she smiled. “I only plan to teach those with the true ability to play. My poor old ears are too finely tuned to suffer through anything less than that.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” said Jane.
“Speaking of piano music,” said Louise. “I told Aunt Ethel and Lloyd that we might have a little sing-along music on Christmas Eve—if the house is somewhat ready by then. What do you think, Jane?”
“I think a sing-along would be great.”
“I mean about the house.” Louise peered into the dimly lit and barren living room and frowned. “Is there really any chance that the downstairs will be presentable by Christmas?”
“I’m certain that the living room will be finished. There’s even a chance that the parlor will be done, but I honestly don’t see how I can get the wallpaper up in the foyer by then. The new stair runner isn’t supposed to be here until after the New Year.”
“I guess we can’t have everything,” said Alice.
Louise frowned. “I’m just getting so tired of living like vagrants.”
Jane laughed. “I wouldn’t exactly call us vagrants, Louise.”
“Well, all this grimy dust and building debris.” Louise shook her head. “It wears on my nerves.”
“These things take time,” said Jane with a frown. “And lately it’s been just Jim and me working here, for the most part anyway.”
“I’ll be here for the rest of the week,” said Alice. “I’m ready to be put to work again.”
“I’ve been trying to help out in the house,” said Louise, “but it seems I spend most of my time driving around and being your gofer these days.”
“I know.” Jane patted Louise on the back. “Sorry if I seem cranky. I guess I wish it were all done too. In the fall I imagined all of us sitting around our beautifully renovated home by Christmastime. I thought I’d be baking all these lovely cookies and treats, but my new stove hasn’t even arrived yet. Besides I don’t have enough time to do much in the way of baking.”
“Let’s not push ourselves too hard,” said Alice. “I think if we simply get the living room finished and put back together for the holidays, we’ll be doing just fine. I plan to do everything I can during the next few days to help out.”
“As do I,” said Louise. “By the way, Cynthia called today, and she’d like to come visit for Christmas. I told her that the guest floor was still somewhat uninhabitable, but that she was welcome to share my room.”
“Actually,” said Jane with a twinkle in her eye, “the Sunset Room may be ready by then.”
“Really?” Louise looked hopeful. “When could you have possibly had time to work on that?”
Jane smiled. “I wasn’t going to mention it, but there are those nights when I can’t get to sleep, so I sneak down there and putter around. I’m surprised I haven’t disturbed you.”
Alice chuckled. “I thought I heard something one night, and I meant to put out some mousetraps the next morning.”
“You’d need quite large ones,” said Jane.
“So when do we get to see your new creation?” asked Louise.
“Not until every single thing is in place.”
“It is just like Christmas!” exclaimed Alice.
“What do you mean?” asked Louise.
“All these new rooms and renovations. Isn’t it fun? Each time something gets done feels just like opening up a new package.” Alice glanced around the finished dining room. “Like this room. I just love it so much. And your kitchen too, Jane. Honestly, if the other rooms only turn out half this nice I’ll be completely happy.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Grace Chapel Inn seemed to turn a corner just before Christmas. To start with, as promised, Alice donned her coveralls and rolled up her sleeves and helped Jane attack the living room.
“I gave Louise enough errands to keep her out of the house for most of the day,” confessed Jane as she masked off the wood trim. “I don’t want her to see this room until the painting is completely done.”
“What exactly do you have in mind?” asked Alice as she studied the cans of various colors of paint on the drop cloth.
“Remember when you asked me about faux painting? Well, we’re going to do a faux finish in here.” Jane was already opening the cans. “And we need to work quickly, Alice.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” said Alice with a mock salute.
Jane stood up and smiled. “That’s just the attitude I’m looking for today. I need someone who can take orders and not ask a bunch of questions.”
“At your service.”
As she was instructed, Alice started rolling a pale golden color onto the upper walls. Jane had already decided that the wainscoting, which had always been painted in that room, should simply remain painted, and she had covered it with a nice creamy white a few weeks ago. “Don’t worry about getting that gold on evenly,” she said. “Just smear it around diagonally. I’ll follow you with the next step.”
So Alice did her best to smear the paint around, but she couldn’t help being concerned that it didn’t look very nice. Still, she kept her mouth shut and did as Jane instructed. She was so focused that she barely noticed Jane following behind her with a scrunched up rag and pan of paint. Finally, Alice completed the longest wall and turned to see how it looked.
“Oh my!” Alice looked at Jane’s half of the wall and shook her head. “That is amazing, Jane. It looks beautiful, almost like marble or some sort of stone.”
Jane paused to grin and push a stray strand of dark hair from her eyes. “Thanks. Now, back to work.”
By one o’clock, they had finished the faux painting, and the living room glowed with color and warmth and elegance. “Oh, Jane!” Alice exclaimed. “I never dreamed it would be so pretty. How did you know?”
Jane winked and paused to add a finishing stroke with her wadded up cloth. “I’m the artist, remember?”
“No arguing with you there.”
“So, how about if you start cleaning up, and I’ll go see if Jim can help me move a few pieces of furniture in here. Wouldn’t it be fun to have some things in place before Louise gets back? She was totally unconvinced that I was going to pull off this room.”
Alice was already peeling masking tape and paper from the wainscoting. “She’ll be convinced now.” She paused to look at it once more. “You know what else, Jane? It looks really lovely with the dining room color right next door. The gold and the green seem complimentary. Did you plan that too?”
“Of course.” Jane dropped her messy cloth into the garbage can. “I tried to pick out all the downstairs colors to go with each other. I hate it when you walk from one room to the next and it feels like you’ve entered an entirely different house.”
Alice nodded. “Yes, that makes sense.” Of course, Alice knew she never would have thought of such a thing herself, but she was glad that Jane had that vision.
It took Alice nearly an hour to clean and clear the living room of the paint debris. By then, Jane and Jim were carrying in some large pieces of furniture from the basement and attic.
“How about if I fix us a little lunch,” suggested Alice as she watched Jane deciding on where to place the marble-topped table. “Since it’s obvious that I’ll be of little use in here.”
“Sounds good,” said Jane. “You in, Jim?”
“Never turn down free food,” he said as he carefully edged the table next to
the bay window. “Is that where you want it, Jane?”
“Perfect.”
So Alice went into Jane’s cheerful kitchen and poked around the refrigerator until she found some leftover mushroom soup and some sandwich meat. She knew her lunch didn’t look as festive as something Jane would put together, but Jane and Jim seemed thankful just the same.
“What are your plans for Christmas?” Alice asked Jim.
“I thought I’d go visit my son,” said Jim as he scraped his spoon across his bowl.
“I didn’t know you have a son,” said Alice.
“He has a daughter too,” said Jane. “They live in Washington State.”
Jim grinned. “Sounds like you’ve been paying attention to all my chitchat, Jane.”
“I also remember that you have several grandchildren. The daughter has a new baby, and the son has two or three kids.”
“Two.” Jim nodded. “Two girls.”
“Well, that’s nice,” said Alice. “You’re a grandpa.”
“Yep. My son and his wife have been begging me to come see them in their new home. And I haven’t even seen my daughter’s baby yet.”
“Now, I know about your kids, Jim,” began Jane. “But you’ve never mentioned a wife. What’s the story there?”
He frowned. “Divorce.”
Jane nodded as she picked up the empty plates. “I know how that goes. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, you two can feel free to get back to whatever you were doing,” said Alice. “I’ll clean up in here.”
“Great.” Jane set down the plates in the sink. “Louise might be home any minute now.”
Alice puttered around in the kitchen. She really liked how warm and cheerful it felt in there now. It was so much nicer than before. She wondered why it had never occurred to her to paint the cabinets such a nice bright color. That’s just me, she thought as she rinsed out a soup bowl.
“Hello?” called Louise from the front foyer.
Alice dried off her hands and hurried out to see her older sister’s reaction. You could never be certain with Louise.
“Oh my!” Louise’s hand flew to her mouth as she walked into the living room. She stood in the center and turned around and just looked with wide eyes. Alice couldn’t tell if she was pleased or horrified. “Oh my!” she said again.
Alice looked around the room and smiled. She thought it looked perfectly lovely. The sofa and overstuffed chair reupholstered in burgundy fabric looked elegant with several new pillows in place, as well as a beautiful knitted throw in shades of burgundy, cream and gold. Their mother’s antique rocker looked at home in the corner, and Jane had even taken time to place a potted fern on the marble-topped table by the window. Well, Alice thought the room looked absolutely sensational.
“It’s perfect,” breathed Louise as she finally peeled off her gloves.
“Really?” Jane went over and threw her arms around Louise. “You honestly think so? I have a few more pieces to put into place and some things for the wall and—”
Louise nodded and just mutely turned around again. “Honestly. It is heavenly, Jane. How did you know how to do this?”
“Remember, she’s an artist,” said Alice, winking at Jane.
“I haven’t got it all together yet,” said Jane, “but I think you can get the effect I’m going for.”
“We get it, Jane,” Alice assured her.
“Alice was right,” said Louise happily. “It is like Christmas. Now, if someone will help me to unload the car.”
“Let me,” offered Alice. “I think Jane is more useful in here.”
As it turned out, even Aunt Ethel loved the living room. When Jane took the time to add a few Christmas touches, like the trio of alabaster angels that had belonged to their mother, lots of creamy white candles in brass candlestick holders, and with plenty of evergreen boughs, holly and pine cones along the big oak mantle, the room looked festive and ready for the holidays.
Then the following week, Alice came home to discover that Father’s study, now called “The Daniel Howard Library,” was wallpapered with a friendly tweed in mossy shades of green and brown.
“That wallpaper looks so nice next to the mahogany woodwork,” said Alice when her two sisters showed her the room. “It makes the rich color of the wood literally gleam in contrast.”
“That’s thanks to Louise,” said Jane. “She spent the last two days cleaning and oiling the bookshelves. She’s even been rearranging the books.”
“Just putting them in a more orderly fashion,” explained Louise. “So we can find titles more easily.”
“Where did this area rug come from?” asked Alice as she admired the Oriental rug in shades of rust and gold and black.
“Don’t you remember?” asked Louise. “It used to be in Mother and Father’s bedroom.”
“Oh yes. It always seemed a bit dark for a bedroom, but I like it in here.” Alice pointed to the pair of russet colored chairs across from the desk. “And those are from the bedroom too?”
“Yes,” admitted Jane. “They were like new. I don’t think Father ever sat on them once. Don’t they go well in here?”
Alice nodded. “You are a whiz, Jane.”
“Louise sewed the cushion covers,” said Jane.
Alice picked up one of the decorative pillows. It was a geometric design tapestry of earthy greens and gold. “What beautiful fabric.”
“Jane found that at Sylvia’s Buttons,” said Louise. “At first I thought it looked too contemporary, but I like it now.”
Alice looked around the room in satisfaction, her eyes settling on the big mahogany desk where her father’s old black leather Bible and dated globe still sat. “I think Father would like it in here.”
“Really?” Jane looked hopeful. “I tried to keep him in mind. I didn’t want to do anything with this room that felt unlike him.”
“You did a great job.” Alice sighed, feeling slightly left out. “I just wish I could’ve been more help.”
“You’ve been wonderful help,” said Jane. “Your encouragement and diplomatic skills. Really, we never would’ve gotten this far without you.”
Alice forced a smile to her lips. Maybe it wasn’t just a feeling of being left out. Maybe it was simply the fresh reminder that Father was gone. His study was no longer the same. He was not coming back, but then what did she expect? She absently gazed at the blank wall directly behind his desk and then pointed to it. “What do you plan to do with that, Jane?”
Jane frowned. “I’m not sure. I agree with you that it needs something.”
“I have an idea,” said Alice suddenly.
“Really?” Louise looked skeptical.
“Yes. I saw something like it at the hospital once. Old Henry Tyler had suffered a pretty bad heart attack and his daughter, I think her name is Lucy, brought in this large framed picture. It was a sepia-toned photo of old Henry as a boy, going fishing. It was about this big.” Alice held her hands about two feet apart. “I asked Lucy about it, and she said it was an old snapshot that she’d gotten blown up at a professional photocopy shop. They had some really nice machine, not like our copier at the hospital, but the good kind that they use for photography. Anyway, I have some old snapshots of Father when he was a boy, and also during his days at seminary, as well as a few from when he and Mother first met. Suppose we picked some of those and had them blown up and nicely framed and—”
“Alice!” exclaimed Jane. “You are a genius! That is an absolutely brilliant idea.”
Alice beamed.
“I know just the place to have it done,” said Louise. “There’s a shop in Philadelphia that a friend of mine runs. I’ll have them sent out and back in no time.”
“See,” said Alice. “It’s still just like Christmas.”
In the next two weeks, the parlor was completed, with the ivy and violet wallpaper hung to Louise’s satisfaction, and all the furnishings in place, includi
ng Louise’s baby grand piano. Not only that, but the cookies also got baked. They were not as spectacular as Jane would have liked but were temptingly tasty just the same. Then, with less than a week before Christmas, a tall fir tree was put up in the parlor, complete with twinkling lights and some handblown antique ornaments. By Christmas Eve, the three sisters were finally ready for their sing-along—and a long winter’s nap.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cynthia is here!” Louise sang out as she rushed through the foyer to answer the doorbell. “Come and say hello to my one and only daughter.”
Alice set down a heaping platter of Christmas cookies on the dining room table and then hurried out to greet her niece. “Welcome home!” she said as she hugged Cynthia and helped her with her coat. “Did you have a good trip?”
“The traffic was awful until I got to Acorn Hill.” Cynthia looked around the foyer and frowned. “Hey, I thought you guys were fixing this place up.”
Louise laughed. “Don’t judge a house by its foyer. We’re still a work in progress. Come and see the living room and dining room and say hello to Jane. Then we’ll give you the full tour.”
“Oh my,” said Cynthia as they walked into the candlelit living room. “This is really beautiful.” She walked around the room in wonder.
“It’s mostly Jane’s doing,” said Louise. “Although we all helped out a little. I even sanded the woodwork a bit myself before Jane painted it.”
“It feels almost celestial in here,” Cynthia finally said after she had examined everything. “What a totally amazing transformation. I can hardly believe this is the same house.”
“We considered putting the Christmas tree in here,” said Louise, “but decided to stay with family tradition and have it in the parlor.”
“I like it this way,” admitted Alice. “With all the candles and the greenery on top of the mantle, I think this room is lovely without a tree.”
“Now come see the dining room,” said Louise, her eyes sparkling like a little girl. “It’s lovely too.”
“Wow,” said Cynthia as they went into the dining room. “Everything looks so different from the last time I was here.” She shook her head in amazement. “Everything feels so much lighter and brighter—I absolutely love it! I may never want to go home.”
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