Unexpected Riches (Bellingwood Book 13)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  No wonder it was so difficult for her. The last week had reminded Beryl that her family just couldn't bring themselves to care. The rest of the time, she ignored them. On the other hand, Tallie was a great young woman and she seemed to handle Beryl as well as any of the woman's friends.

  When she opened the door, she saw Heath propped up on a couch. Polly sat down on the coffee table in front of him. "How are you feeling this morning?"

  "I'm better," he said.

  "Really better or I-have-happy-drugs-in-me better?"

  He started to laugh, clutched his stomach and said, "Don't do that. I'll be okay."

  "I know you'll be okay. You're a strong young man. Are we all eating out here this morning?"

  Heath swung one leg to the floor. "I said I'd go to the dining room when they were ready."

  Polly glanced at the dining room. "Stop right there. Let me guess. Hayden and Henry figured you could probably make it, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "Yeah. Well, no. You stay still. We'll eat here where you can be comfortable." She stood up and shook her head. "Men and boys. Such idiots."

  "It's okay," Heath said, but he didn't make any further attempts to get off the couch.

  "Sit," she commanded with a grin. "Stay."

  Polly strode out into the kitchen. "We're eating in the living room. You two are nuts if you think I'm going to let that poor boy sit up at the table."

  Hayden turned around from the stove. "He said he'd be okay."

  "He'd be miserable," she said. "We can pamper him this morning."

  "I tried to tell them," Rebecca whispered.

  "It's fine. Start carrying out the things from the dining room table." Polly walked into the kitchen and gave Hayden a hug. "It's good to see you. Congratulations on your game last night."

  He lifted his arm up and around, then pulled her tight. "Thanks. And thanks for taking care of Heath. Has he talked to you yet?"

  "No," she said, stepping back. "But he will. The poor boy is probably nervous. I told him he had until today." She chuckled. "We'll see, though. My day is getting busy, so it might wait until tomorrow."

  "Let me know if I need to sit on him."

  Polly looked around. "Where's Henry?"

  "Right here," Henry said, coming in from his office. He watched Rebecca carry milk and juice into the living room and gave Polly a guilty look. "We made a bad decision?"

  "We're just making a new one," she said. "Would you get the TV tray tables?"

  He nodded and went on in to the living room. The tables were stored in one of the big closets he'd built after they were married. If they moved into the Bell House, Polly knew she'd miss this place, but having plenty of space to spread out and easily store her things would be such a relief. Having extra bedrooms for guests and family would be even better. She chuckled inside. Creating this immense apartment was supposed to give her plenty of room, but before she knew it, she'd spread her family into the space. No matter how big of a house she had, Polly worried that it might never be enough. And to be honest, that sounded pretty good.

  ~~~

  Beryl had texted back that Tallie wanted to do a late lunch - maybe around two o'clock. She and Rebecca cleaned up after breakfast, giggling at the sounds of laughter and then Heath's moans, coming from the living room. After a quick shower, Polly joined them until it was time to leave.

  Tallie met her in the kitchen and they headed for Polly's truck.

  "How did you sleep?" Polly asked.

  "It was wonderful. That's a beautiful room and the view is incredible. I can't imagine waking up every single morning to the horses and donkeys and that beautiful back yard."

  "Sycamore House is idyllic most of the time."

  "Debra and I…" Tallie stopped and shook her head. "Sorry. Elise. That's going to take some getting used to. Anyway, we went up to the coffee shop for breakfast. It's so strange seeing someone I know from home all the way up here."

  "Elise invited you to go to breakfast with her?"

  "No. I was in the kitchen looking for leftovers from last night when I heard her walking around." Tallie grinned. "She's kind of shy."

  "Yes she is. Good for you for catching her. What was she like when you knew her?"

  "Still really shy. She liked to be alone, but she was so nice to Beth. I think she went to the restaurant a lot more often because Beth was there. Whenever Debra…" Tallie stopped. "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be. I get it. Go on."

  "Whenever..." Tallie paused. "Elise came in, Mom let Beth stop what she was doing. Elise invited Beth to sit with her and they talked about everything. It was weird, though. Elise would write these mathematical equations out on a placemat and Beth was fascinated by them. She'd watch Elise create the entire thing and then draw her fingers through the patterns like it made sense to her."

  "Maybe it did."

  Tallie blinked. "It could have. Beth was sad when Elise told us she was leaving town. I'm not sure how I'll tell her that I got to see her again. It won't make sense to her."

  "How did she take the news of Ethan's death?"

  "She cries a lot. I think she understands."

  "Have you talked to her since you came up here?"

  "Not about Ethan," Tallie said, shaking her head. "We talk about other things, though. I've taken pictures so she can see where I've traveled. We put a map on the wall for her and Mom prints out the pictures I take so Beth can pin them to the map. She needs help, but I highlighted the route I was driving and circled the names of the big cities."

  "That's so much fun," Polly said. "She's lucky to have you all."

  "Honestly, we're lucky to have her. We know she’s different, but we wouldn’t want it to be any other way. She's just Beth."

  Polly pulled into Beryl's driveway. "You're going to love this house."

  "Come in, come in," Beryl called from her front door as they exited the truck. "I've been waiting for hours and hours."

  "She's kidding," Polly said to Tallie. "She knew what time we were arriving."

  "But I have been waiting. I've been cooking and cleaning just for you."

  Polly lifted her eyebrows. "Cooking?"

  "Someone cooked it," Beryl said, stepping back as they entered. "Let's just leave it at that."

  "Stop," Polly said, reaching out to touch Tallie's arm. "You have to start here. It's probably my favorite room in any house I've been in." She led Tallie into Beryl's front room.

  "Did you paint this?" Tallie asked, looking at the arrangement of paintings on the wall. She peered at the signature. "Oh my, you did. This is incredible. I could look at these detail pieces for hours."

  Beryl smiled and took a seat in one of the wing chairs. She crossed her legs and before long, a small grey kitten had found her and was on her lap.

  "Every time I come over, I want time to take it in," Polly said. "But I never get to. There is always something else happening."

  "You can come over any time," Beryl said. "You know I'd love that."

  Polly nodded. "You're right. It's not like you're a famous artist who needs time in her studio or anything. What you really need is people bothering you at all hours of the day."

  "I'd leave you alone in here while I worked."

  "No you wouldn't," Polly scolded. "You'd feel like you had to take care of me."

  Beryl stood up, holding the kitten in her arms. "You two spend as much time as you'd like. Little May and I will see what her brother and the old lady are doing." She turned around when she got to the door. "I'm serious. We're in no hurry. I'm glad you like my work."

  "I didn't look," Tallie said. "Did she do the big tree at Sycamore House?"

  "It was a building-warming, Christmas gift my first year," Polly said. "I can't believe she did that for me."

  "Look at these intricate details." Tallie reached up to touch a tiny squirrel. "This one's just a baby."

  "Maybe this is the mother over here," Polly said.

  Tallie stepped away. "Would she ever take on a student? I'
d give anything to study with her."

  "She'd love that. Beryl works with Rebecca and I know of at least two other girls who were her students. They were in high school, so I don't know if she's ever taught anyone other than beginners. But you should ask."

  They walked into the living room and Tallie stopped again. "This is cool," she said. "So comfortable."

  "Peel back one layer and there are still five or six more," Polly said.

  "Blankets?"

  Polly chuckled. "And rugs on the floor, pillows scattered everywhere." She pointed to the other end of the room. "And look, now cat toys and scratching posts. Smart woman."

  "Are you girls done?" Beryl asked.

  "For now."

  "Then come on downstairs. I've set us up there." She grinned. "It's closer to the kitty toys. That way I can keep them occupied while we eat. They still haven't learned all of their manners. If one jumps up on the table near you, please don't hesitate to pick it up and put it on the floor. I'll give it a firm 'no,' but they need to know what's polite and what's not."

  Beryl had decorated the table with shades of browns and golds. Two vases were filled with daisies and cattails carved from wood. The petals were exquisite.

  "Where did you find these?" Polly asked, touching a delicate wooden daisy petal.

  "It was years ago. I picked them up in a tiny grocery store in Kentucky. Some of the locals made them and I thought they were fun. I probably gave too much, but the area was poverty stricken and a few extra dollars of mine wouldn't hurt me and might help the artist."

  Lunch was simple: sandwiches, a tossed salad and a savory vegetable soup.

  "This is perfect," Tallie said. "I've eaten so much since coming into town I feel really guilty."

  "Did we find anything out last night?" Beryl asked Polly. "All of that data and information and we spent more time listening to me complain about my horrible family than we did digging into the story."

  "I flipped through some of the pages that Tallie copied. The page numbers that he'd written down were mostly from the Lester Carter line. In fact," Polly nodded at Tallie. "One of the pages was your family."

  "If he had already talked to Ethan and more than likely some of the others out there, why was he going through the genealogy?" Beryl asked. "He already knew their names. And surely they've already put together all of the information that they were going to find from the letters."

  "Think about it," Tallie said. "Our family had those letters and you have those boxes of things that your grandpa and Aunt Evaline collected. We can't be the only ones with pieces of history. Ethan assumed there was more out there, but he started out just looking for family stuff, not clues to a treasure. He wanted pictures and things like that. The whole treasure thing was an unexpected fluke."

  "Do you think there is even treasure to be found?" Polly asked.

  Beryl rolled her eyes heavenward. "It's ridiculousness at its prettiest. Of course there isn't. Think about it. Pearl had been bailing her father out for years. She and Cyrus communicated about her finances on a regular basis, so don't you think that he would have talked to her about that gold after Jedidiah died? If anyone knew where he hid it, Pearl would have known. Ten to one, she found it, returned it to her uncle's bank and the whole episode was finished."

  Polly looked at Tallie. "But you didn't find a letter from Cyrus to Lester that the situation had been resolved."

  "I don't think so. I can look again. They're in my room back at Sycamore House." She pursed her lips. "What about relatives from Cyrus's line. What if they have any information from that time? Are they still around here?"

  Beryl snagged May when she jumped up, snuggled her, said "No" before putting the cat back on the floor. "I wouldn't know them from Adam. And the charts are still at Sycamore House."

  "By now it's tucked into my office," Polly said. "Henry and Hayden said they'd take care of it."

  "Would you like to stay here while you're in town?" Beryl asked Tallie. "I'd let you have that room over there. I moved back upstairs when that jerk Brit came in. You'd have the run of the whole basement. Well, except for the kittens. They're everywhere. Your own bathroom and the little bar kitchen here. There's the television and I do have Wi-Fi."

  "I hate to put you out," Tallie said. "I know you work at all hours and don't want to be the reason you feel you have to sneak around in your own house."

  "Don't be silly. I can sneak out to the studio any time. I'd love to have you."

  Tallie looked at Polly.

  Polly desperately wanted to tell her to please say yes. Tallie hadn't been in the kitchen last night when Beryl exposed her soul to her friends, but this girl was the closest thing to family Beryl had around. "We can drive back and get your things."

  "And that tote of Aunt Mildred's papers," Beryl said. "I thought about that last night and was glad Tallie left it in the office. At least that was locked up. I don't know how I'd explain it to the old hag if something happened to her precious, precious charts. Use a scanner, old lady."

  "Then I'd love to."

  "Good," Beryl said, her face lighting up into a smile. "If you wouldn't mind, maybe we could go through that genealogy chart this afternoon and find some names we can give Aaron."

  "What?" Polly asked.

  "I got to thinking about it. He's looking for Carters in the towns around here. But there are other family names he should be looking for, too. Tallie would know which of her cousins were the most interested in what Ethan was doing. We can make a list of names for Aaron and then he'll have something to start with. We can also research Cyrus's descendants. Maybe they live close by and have more historical documents we can look at." She stood up, snatching May from the top of the table again. "And I want to see that information that Andy gathered about land owned by the Carters when Bellingwood started. Maybe there's something there."

  Polly smiled as Beryl paced back and forth, carrying the kitten. "Do you want help?"

  "No. That's okay. We can go through the rest of it later." Beryl spun around. "Maybe I'll promise Andy another trip to Spain if she just sorts it and deals with it."

  "She'd love that," Polly said.

  "I know. It's really her thing." Beryl sat back down and put the kitten on the floor, then leaned in toward Tallie. "Would you like me to ride back to Sycamore House and help you?"

  "You want to do this right now?"

  "Are you finished eating? You stopped a long time ago," Beryl said.

  "Yes."

  "Polly?"

  Polly pushed her plate back "Of course. This was terrific."

  "I'd serve dessert, but I know you have plenty of sweet stuff at your house and I want to get started on this with Tallie. Do you mind?"

  "No, not at all. Shall we take the food upstairs?"

  "Oh yes, so the kittens don't get into it." She picked Hem up and put him on the floor. "Miss Kitty spoiled me. She is so polite. All of this kitten training is for the birds. They're getting better, but my goodness, they ignore me when they don't want to be good."

  Hem jumped back up to the table and Polly grabbed him. She put him on the floor and picked up her plate and the tray of meat and cheese. "They did very well for a while. We took too long. Let's get going."

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Everyone was finally where they belonged by five o'clock and Polly only had a short time before meeting her friends at Pizzazz for their regular Sunday night gathering. After crazy weekends like this, she was often tempted to push the group into meeting once a month, but nobody wanted to give up this time they got away from all of their responsibilities.

  The dogs rushed to the top of the steps to greet her and she sat down, nuzzling Obiwan's neck. "It's good to see you, bud. Will you let me rest here for a minute?" She wrapped her arms around him and he sat still as she relaxed against his body.

  "Polly?"

  She startled, having nearly fallen asleep, even though it was just a split second later.

  "What are you doing?" Henry asked, standing
over her.

  Maybe it had been longer than a split second.

  "Just taking a breath."

  He reached out so she could take his hand while standing up. "Did you get everyone settled?"

  "Tallie is at Beryl's and those two are in love with each other. By the time I finally dropped them back off, they didn't know whether to talk about their favorite brands of oil paints and brushes or all of the family history they share. I'm so glad Beryl has found her. How's Heath?"

  "He's asleep in his room. Hayden left about an hour ago to visit a friend here in town."

  "And Rebecca?"

  "She hovered over Heath all day. As soon as he went into his room, the poor girl crashed on the living room sofa."

  Polly smiled, but yawned in the middle of it.

  "You need a nap, too," he said.

  Polly yawned again. "But a real nap. Not one of those happy naps. And only forty-five minutes so I can be mostly alert for supper tonight."

  "You're still going? You have to be exhausted." Henry stopped her in the doorway to the media room. "Have you stopped moving at all this weekend?"

  "I'm fine. And I want to go. Nobody needs me to help them or fix something or figure out a mystery. I just get to eat pizza and see my friends."

  "If you're sure."

  "Do you mind if I take a quick nap? I kind of left you with all the responsibility around here today."

  He chuckled. "I watched television and napped on the couch. It hasn't been too difficult. In fact, I should probably spend some time in my office. You go sleep."

  "Wake me if you don't see me in time."

  Henry kissed her cheek and gave her a gentle push out the door. When she got to her room, she collapsed on the bed and waited for the rush of animals to end. Once they were settled, she turned over on her side, wrapped her arm around Obiwan, tugged him in close and felt herself relax.

  ~~~

  The sky was gray as she stood beside an open grave, surrounded by people she couldn't identify. A young woman dressed in a long black dress and holding a black parasol stood across from her, reading from a book. Polly assumed it was a Bible, but couldn't understand the words coming from the young woman's mouth. Six men carrying a coffin trudged up the hill, marching in time to a song being hummed by the gathered crowd. Polly tried to hum along, but found she didn't know the tune.