The Daughters of Julian Dane

by Lucile McCluskey

  “Well, like you said, Addie, changes had to be expected. I’m afraid there is more – the biggest one of all,” he said as he turned the page of his pad.

  Oh, no. What more? She wondered.

  “I’m no artist,” he said, “but this is supposed to be the front stairs. Let’s go into the foyer. You will be able to understand and picture it better.”

  Addie followed him reluctantly, wondering what else could they possibly want, and from the foyer? Grandpa had disappeared, but she hoped he was listening.

  Mr. Sully stopped at the big round table with that huge urn that Addie thought a bit ugly, and looked up. He seemed to be studying the banister that crossed the wide hallway of the third floor. He pointed to the left.

  “The door to that first room is eight feet from the banister.” He pointed to the right. “It’s the same distance to that door.”

  Addie knew exactly what he was going to say next. A sound proof wall. She should have known. The elderly patients of a nursing home went to bed early, and a dinner club would be noisy. She said, “A wall across that hall up there from one bedroom door to the other.”

  “I’m afraid so, Addie. And Mr. Lovejoy suggested that bookshelves on both sides of the wall would create a perfect sound barrier.”

  “Hummm. If it was paneled and with bookshelves like in the library, it would sort of match, wouldn’t it?”

  “That’s my girl,” Sully said. “And, Addie, I believe the shelves in the library could be moved. We’ll look into it.”

  She looked at him. “Mr. Sully, I’m not saying that I like the idea. It’s something I’ll have to think about.”

  “But you understand that the patients of the nursing home have to have their peace and quiet.”

  “Yes. So now we get to the nursing home part.” She was sure from his look that he knew she was not in full favor of this one venture, as he called it.

  “Right. The door between Mattie’s kitchen and the summer kitchen, which will be for the nursing home, will be walled up. William wants shelves on his side of the door for can goods, and the four feet beside the door to the inside wall he needs a closet for cleaning equipment and a locker for extra kitchen help to use. The back door to the back hall will become the entrance to the nursing home part, and the committee wants it to be made more attractive and bigger with a small reception area. Of course the parking area will be on the backside of the building for the nursing home and to the right of the building for the dinner club. The driveway around the building to the nursing home entrance must never be blocked.” He looked at Addie seriously, “I guess that’s all, Addie, except to mention that all this is going to be very costly.”

  Grandpa’s voice said, “That’s what banks are for.”

  “All right, Grandpa. Where are you? I hope you’ve heard all this.” Then to Sully, she said. “But it won’t be Stonegate with all these changes, will it?”

  “I really can’t say, Addie. This is my first visit to the mansion. I’d really enjoy seeing all of it. As it is now,” he added”

  “You can’t have your cake and eat it too, young Addie. If you don’t make Stonegate pay for itself, you’ll lose it. Grant Cutler will have to put it on the market. And there’s no telling what a new owner would make out of it.”

  She knew that, but she liked it just the way it was. Still, it was hers, even if it had to be changed in order for her to keep it. But it wouldn’t be Stonegate. It would be all these businesses. She had to have time to think.

  “What’s it going to be, Addie?” Sully asked.

  She sighed. “Would it be all right to give you my answer early Monday morning?”

  “Certainly.” He looked at his watch. “And it’s so late. I think I’ll make an early entrance on Stover Avenue for once. Might even take a nap. After all that good food of Mattie’s, I sure don’t need to eat again today. It was delicious. We all told her so.” He was closing his yellow pad with the pencil tucked in it.

  “Mr. Sully, you live on Stover Avenue?”

  “Sure do. Been there since the day I came back to Riverbend.”

  “Stover is just one street over from the high school.”

  “Believe me, I know, especially during football season and band practice.”

  “I have a problem that you might help me with.”

  “Anything at all. Just ask.”

  “I’m having to drive mama’s Lincoln, and school starts Monday. But I don’t want to drive the Lincoln to school. Would it be that you have someplace I could park it during school hours?”

  “Well now, it just happens that I have a two car garage with only one car in it.”

  “Oh, that would be perfect, Mr. Sully. Could I rent the other garage from you during school months?”

  “No. But you can use it for as long as you need it.”

  “Oh, Mr. Sully. How did I ever do without you?” and she hugged him.

  “Wow! Wow! Wow! What else can I do for you, pretty girl?”

  Addie laughed at him. “What house number?”

  “Twelve-twelve. Its’ light green trimmed in hunter green shutters and front door. The garage is at the back of the house, but faces the street. It’s unlocked.”

  “Tell him you’ll do the alterations,” grandpa’s voice said.

  “No, Grandpa. I want us to talk about it.”

  “Tell him, young Addie. We’ll talk about it later.”

  She knew grandpa would have his way. He would know all the arguments, and she had to trust that he knew what was best to do. “Mr. Sully,” she said seriously, quietly, “the alterations – they’ll be done. Just leave me your pad.”

  Addie heard Miss Judy’s car go around the building as she entered the kitchen. Miss Mattie, her apron on over the pretty blue dress she had worn for the luncheon, was seated at the table having a cup of hot fruit tea. She got up and went to the microwave to push buttons. Addie knew it was her lunch she was attending to, and she was starved. She tried to smile. She didn’t want Miss Mattie to know how she felt about all the changes that had to be made. She was loosing her Stonegate. But you’re gaining three big businesses that will help this town, she tried to console herself. “Is Miss Judy going back to the farm?” she asked.

  “No, Dear. She’s going to visit some cousins in Nashville and do some shopping. She said she hadn’t bought any clothes in almost three years. She’ll be back in the middle of the week.”

  Addie sat down at the table wishing that Miss Judy would spend her money in Riverbend, but not at Lilly’s. There was the department store. They had nice clothes.

  Mattie set a tall glass of fruit tea before Addie. “Tell me what you think after talking to Sully Morgan.”

  “An awful lot of remodeling has to be done before any of the businesses can be licensed to operate,” she answered trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. Mattie sat her food before her. It looked so good. She took a couple of bites before she added, “And I suppose it should get started right away.”

  “Oh, I hope so,” Mattie said eagerly. “But I wasn’t sure that Sully was going to convince that Mr. Lovejoy that you weren’t already operating a nursing home. And he wasn’t very happy about it. But between Sully and Jo Ann they finally settled the matter to Lovejoy’s satisfaction. And I can tell you we all breathed a sigh of relief. Lovejoy even joined my dinner club, and that surprised me.”

  “Mr. Sully didn’t mention it, so I’m sure he feels that Mr. Lovejoy is satisfied. And you can go ahead with your plans while the changes are being made.”

  “Oh, I’m so happy, Addie. All thanks to you. And your young man called. He asked if you had plans for the afternoon, and if he could stop by? I told him I was sure you’d be glad to see him.”

  A look of dismay crossed Addie’s face.

  “Did I do wrong? I was sure you’d want to see him.”

  “Oh, I do. It’s just that I wanted to go see mama this afternoon. Daddy will be working. But maybe Donnie will go with me. I’ll go freshen up whe
n I’m through eating, and this sure is delicious.”

  Opening the door of her bedroom, she found grandpa sitting on the sofa.

  “That man switched off my TV box when Mattie was showing them the space that her dinner club would use and what it wouldn’t use.”

  “Sorry, Grandpa. I’ll fix it.” And she went into the dressing room and pushed the power button on his TV. Back in the bedroom, she asked, “You’re sure about all these changes that has to be made? I know that Stonegate is actually yours, but ...”

  He chuckled. “Young Addie, Stonegate is not mine. It never has been. I just paid the bills for having it built. It was Victoria’s. She copied it from someplace in Europe. Probably someplace she had lived, or wished that she had. Probably where Julian Dane’s father lived. She was terribly in love with him, but he couldn’t marry her. He was already married, and he was of the nobility.

  “I reminded her, repeatedly, that she was spending her inheritance on this big mausoleum, but she had to have it. There was no living with her if I insisted on a change of any kind, other than what she had in her mind of what it was to be like when it was finished.

  “The most I ever learned about Victoria’s life in Europe was that a marriage was arranged for her to the Dane fellow when she found herself pregnant. But it didn’t last long. She referred to him as a brute, who deserved to die. I think she either had him killed or she killed him herself. And I also thought she was either being blackmailed or was gambling.

  “The last time she wired for money, I cut her off – told her no more from me or her own account. I insisted she come home, marry Stone, who had loved her since she was in her late teens, and settle down. She wired back ‘Send out the invitations’. I think she had just realized that she was pregnant with Wilhelmina. I’ll give her credit for one thing though. She never, for one single minute, let Hiram Stone suspect that Wilhelmina wasn’t his, even though the baby came too early to be his.

  “And when she returned, she was no longer the spoiled brat that her mother and grandmother had made her. She had grown up, and with a strong willed mind of her own, that couldn’t be changed once it was made up. But then, she’d been in Europe for more than ten years.”

  “What happened to her folks, Grandpa?” Addie asked as she brushed her hair.

  “When she graduated high school, her grandmother was already dead. Her mother had a cousin, whose daughter had also just graduated. They were taking the two girls to Europe to further their education. A few mornings before they were to leave, Victoria’s mother went riding. Her horse was spooked, we thought by a rattler. She was thrown from her horse and broke her neck. She was dead when we found her. Her father thought it would be best for Victoria if she went on to Europe with her cousins.

  “Her father died in a flu epidemic a few years later. At the time, I couldn’t locate Victoria. Sometimes there were long periods when I didn’t know where she was – until she needed money.”

  “And she was my grandmother.”

  “Well, that’s one thing for sure. Julian Dane was her son, and you’re the spittin image of him.”

  “Yeah. I know. The night Miss Willy died, she had Grant Cutler bring me that portrait of him that hung in her bedroom.”

  Addie stood on the porch at Stonegate and just looked at Donnie Whitefield. She didn’t think she’d ever get enough of just looking at him. He held both her hands, and it was as if an electric current flowed from him into her. She wondered if he felt it? They didn’t talk – just looked at each other in comfortable silence, his blue eyes looking into her green ones, his full lips smiling at her, that stray lock of dark brown hair on his forehead. She wanted to reach up and smooth it back in place. Finally, she asked, “Want to go visit mama with me?”

  “I have to go visit her,” he answered. “She asked me to clean out the trunk and glove compartment of the old Plymouth for her.”

  “Oh. You didn’t come just to see me, then,” she said teasingly.

  “Well, I would have, but it was good to have a reason.”

  “Let’s go in the truck. I’ve never ridden in it.”

  “Sure,” he said, and they were off down the marble steps to where it was parked.

  Addie thought a lot of its spit and polish had worn off from all the use Mooney had put it to. She figured it had already paid for itself.

  “It’s a great truck, Addie – even rides great. And I intend to pay you more for it than you paid for it,” Donnie declared.

  “No. You won’t.”

  “We won’t argue about it,” he said as he started it and drove down the drive. “The Foster brothers are going to haul the Plymouth off for free. They have the Taurus now. Roy and Dennis took it to them right after lunch. Howie Foster was out at Yates Hilltop Salvage early this morning, and Yates was getting in a cream colored Taurus just like yours with two good passenger doors and windows. You’re going to get the doors exchanged for free also.”

  “How come?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Mooney has really lucked up on something good with the Foster brothers.”

  “Mooney? He has a job.”

  “I know, but this is different. He’ll keep his job. He’s very excited about all he’s going to learn there. But the Junkyard Dog is the envy of every male, and some females, of driving age in Riverbend. And the Foster brothers want to start creating them with Mooney’s advice. They have three on the drawing board now – two spoken for. None of them will be alike, but they will all be labeled ‘Junk Yard Dog’, and they’ll be numbered. And Mooney will get a good percentage from each one that’s made. He and the Fosters were up late last night planning it. And Mooney wants Sully Morgan to draw up a contract for him before the Fosters can even start on one.”

  “That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for Mooney, and I hope it’s a huge success. I don’t know what I would have done without his help while you and daddy were gone.”

  “Well, I’m back now, and at your service, ma’am.” He had stopped beside the old Plymouth. “How about checking the glove compartment, but be careful. Don’t get yourself cut on glass.”

  Addie was looking down at the Neilson house. Instead of Ellie Mae’s little tan car there was a modest size gold car in the front of the house. It looked new. Good for them, she thought. I hope they have a great time together, and go everywhere they haven’t been able to ‘til now.

  As Donnie tried to open the smashed in trunk, Addie carefully tried to open the glove compartment through the open car window. When it opened, she scooped up everything in it, then looked around at what she could see of the interior of the car. There was her sweater in the back seat, which she didn’t want. Then she spotted two sets of keys on the front seat amid a lot of glass. “Oh,” she said. “I have to have them.”

  “You be careful,” Donnie was saying, as she reached in to extract them from the shards of glass. “I’m glad Della told me what she wanted from the trunk. I can only get my arms in. At least I can feel for the things she mentioned.”

  With the keys in her hands, Addie looked at the tags tied to them. “House/Oak Cr.’ one said, and the other just said ‘Stone house’. She added them to the papers, a pair of sunglasses, a ball point pen, and a flashlight from the glove compartment, and walked to the rear of the car. Donnie was feeling for something else to add to the pile of stuff he already had on the ground.

  “You get everything?” he asked as he pulled out a plastic bag that Addie knew held the stadium blanket that her mother kept in the trunk. “I believe that’s everything,” he said.

  Addie was looking intently at the little house. “Neat little house,” Donnie said.

  “It’s the smallest house I’ve ever seen. I wish I had the key. I’d like you to see inside it.”

  “Oh, I’ve seen it. Ellie Mae uses it, or she did, for her afternoon rest period from the Simmons couple. I was down here picking up a piece of furniture for Aunt Mel, and I was curious about the little house, and Ellie Mae showed it to me.”

&nbs
p; Addie looked at him seriously. “You said you’d been helping build houses. Do you know enough to fix it up into a little house that I could live in?”

  Donnie looked at her in surprise. “You’re kidding? Why would you want to move from Stonegate? I know you’ve left home, but you can’t live down here, it wouldn’t be safe.”

  “Miss Lettie and Ellie Mae live down here. And besides, why can’t all these houses be fixed up? Like the big house there,” she said pointing to the house next to the little house, the biggest one on the landing.

  Donnie looked at the big house in a studious silence. Then he said, “Those two are probably the best built houses down here. The big house would make a nice home. Those three sets of French doors and that long porch would make a very picturesque place. Yes. It would be beautiful with white railings around the porch and down the steps, and a shorter railing around the roof up there, making a finish for those three dormers.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Oh, yeah. It should be painted white with six round columns across the front, and large, brass, coach lanterns flanking the three sets of doors. It would be a turn of the century house – Victorian. But, if you look around, most of these houses were built Victorian.”

  Addie was looking at Donnie, excitement mounting in her. Donnie could see it. “What?” he said.

  “Why couldn’t we turn the landing into a street of Victorian houses – make it sort of like a park from the past?”

  He chuckled. “Addie, for one thing, it would take money, a lot of it.”

  “Not if we did one house at a time. We could sell the houses or rent them as they were finished.”

  “Not much real estate selling going on in Riverbed.”

  “If we make pretty houses, people will buy them. I just know they will.”

  “But why do you want to leave Stonegate?”

  “I don’t want to leave it,” she said sadly, “but as soon as some alterations are made to the building, there will be a dinner club on the same floor as my bedroom, a nursing home over me, and a childcare center below me. I don’t think it’s going to seem very homey then. And, Donnie, one of these days, my mother and daddy are going to have a nice home to live in. I am determined of that. If you think you could make the little house into a place for me, do you think you could make the big house into the house you seem to see it as for them?”