Beholden

by Lesley Crewe

  I opened the letter.

  Dearest Bridie,

  You know I love you, so I’m not going to go on about it. There’s not a lot to say that hasn’t already been said between you and I, and so I feel the time is right to escape my beautiful prison.

  You will find that my lawyer has papers bequeathing you my estate—but don’t worry, you’re not getting all of it, Missy. I’ve left you the house, the land, the barn, and of course my critters. And money for their upkeep. Feel free to call Dog, Dog, Cat, Cat, Horse, Pony, and the Sheeps whatever you want.

  I am leaving this dreary town at last, and it’s all because of you. You have shown me that life goes on despite great heartache, and that you can love another. I never realized that. I was so busy being the spinster on the hill that I forgot I had free will.

  Your loving spirit has been a joy to me, and I believe you were meant to come back into my life to teach me this great lesson.

  I am off to see the wizard. I will forward a post office box when I settle in whatever part of the world strikes my fancy. In the meantime, I know it will take you about three days to turn my house into a fabulous bed and breakfast or whatever else you have brewing in that beautiful head of yours. I know it will be in loving hands.

  I owe you everything,

  Nell

  The phone rang at nine thirty.

  “Hello?”

  “Bridie, are you planning on coming to work today?”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  You can be happy for someone and still be annoyed. Nell had left without letting me say goodbye, left me alone with this giant house to look after. Even though I really loved the house, I didn’t like being there by myself.

  “Sell it,” said Mitch.

  “And live where? With you?”

  “No.”

  I hit him on the arm. “What do you mean, no?!”

  “Well, if you want to, but it’s pretty cramped at our place. I was thinking you might like to buy something small, close to me.”

  “You want me close, but you don’t want me on top of you, is that it?”

  “You’re putting words in my mouth.”

  “It’s so refreshing to know exactly where I stand with you.”

  “I told you from the very beginning that I was never getting married.”

  “I’m not either! And certainly not to you.”

  “That’s fine by me!” He left, but I noticed he only went to the barn.

  “It’s fine by me too!” I shouted after him. He shut the barn door, and I knew he was in there muttering to Napoleon about what a harpy I was.

  There was no way I would sell this place. It would be perfect for a bed and breakfast, but I couldn’t run it all by myself. I’d have to hire someone to help me. Someone friendly and engaging, used to dealing with the public.

  Hobbs and I went for a walk.

  “Hobbs!” Danny shouted as we walked into the store. “My darling boy. Your mother’s been very naughty. She never comes to see me anymore.”

  “How would you like to live with me?’

  Danny looked at me funny. “As much as I love you, Bridie, you’re not exactly my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.”

  I laughed. “Thanks, I got that. I’m hiring you to look after my house, not sleep in my bed.”

  He gave me a sly look. “What are you up to?”

  “Nell has skipped town and left me her house. I’m turning it into a bed and breakfast. I need you to manage it for me. I’ll pay you whatever they’re paying you here.”

  “Er, they don’t pay me. I’m the lad who was kicked out of Ireland for being a ponce. Uncle Tim and Aunt Janet kindly offered me room and board, but not much else. They do love a bargain.”

  “If that’s the case, there’s no reason for you to stay. The only thing you need to do is learn how to cook.”

  “Shite! I knew there’d be a snag.”

  “Don’t be foolish. Any idiot can learn how to cook.”

  “Not this idjit.”

  “I will teach you myself.”

  “Oh, feck!”

  Danny gave his aunt and uncle one week to find a replacement, which I thought was generous, seeing as how they were basically using him as slave. He was so delighted when he saw the inside of Nell’s house, he wept.

  “I’ve come home at last!”

  We decided to sleep in the small room off the living room so we could turn the three bedrooms upstairs into guest suites, but I often found myself on the living room couch. Danny snored like a trooper. Naturally, Hobbs slept with him.

  Mitch shook his head over the whole thing. “You’re sleeping on a couch in your own house. Sleep in your bed until a guest actually arrives. Are you sure you’ve thought this through? Bed and breakfasts require food. Your other two properties, people feed themselves. One wrong move and you could kill someone with botulism.”

  “Is there anything else you can think of to dampen my mood?”

  It took all summer to get the place up to snuff. When we were done, you’d never have known there used to be a dressmaking studio in the house. Now it looked like a real living room, albeit with a quirky edge. Danny loved to drape old fabrics of Nell’s on curtain rods and banisters. I was getting as neurotic as Mitch. “You can’t leave that there, Danny. Someone will fall down the stairs and kill themselves.”

  “Like that would happen in a million years.”

  “It happened my grandmother not fifty feet from here.”

  “Oh, damn. You do have the worst backstory of anyone I’ve ever met.”

  Trying to teach Danny how to cook breakfast dishes every night after work just about killed me.

  He was so remorseful. “I told you, I’m as useless as tits on a bull.”

  It took a week before he got the hang of cracking an egg without pieces of shell in it. He burnt every pat of butter he put in a frying pan. The dogs—Buddy, Josie, and Hobbs—stayed right by his side, because he was feeding them undercooked and overcooked bacon.

  A fried egg seemed beyond him, so I had him whip up pancake batter. That was worse than the eggs.

  “You told me to look for small bubbles before I turn the pancakes over, but when I do, they’re still oozing on the other side and they splatter everywhere, or they’re completely burnt. How is it possible?”

  We tried toast. It didn’t go well.

  Danny wept. “I can’t do anything. I’m ruining your dream.”

  “Nonsense. Just let me think.”

  “Can I make you a cup of tea while you think?”

  “God, no.”

  It hit me later that day. Maud came into the bank. “Hi, sweetheart.”

  Maud.

  “Maud, I have a proposition for you.”

  She looked puzzled. “Okay.”

  “But first I need your bank book so it looks like we’re actually banking.” She passed it to me and leaned in closer.

  “When I open my bed and breakfast, would you be able to come to the house every morning we have guests and cook them breakfast? You wouldn’t have to clean up or anything. Danny will take care of the housekeeping duties and the dishes. You can be in and out in a couple of hours, depending how many guests we have. I will pay you well.”

  She looked surprised. “Me?”

  “Yes, you! You’re a fantastic cook, and I’m assuming your boys are old enough now to get their own breakfasts, if you haven’t completely spoiled them already. It would give you some pin money.”

  “I suppose I should talk to the boys.”

  I opened her bank book. “A widow does not need to ask her children for advice. She can make her own decisions. And if you don’t mind me saying, it looks like you could use a few extra dollars.”

  She instantly blushed, and I was mortified. “Forgive me! That was a
terrible thing to say, and certainly none of my business.”

  “Don’t worry. I know you didn’t mean it to sound harsh. There’s truth to what you’re saying. I could use the extra money. I’ll do it. Gladly. It will be a nice change.”

  I ran around the counter and kissed her. Mrs. Beliveau gave me a shocked look.

  So did Mitch when he found out.

  “You’ve got my mother running around like a chicken with her head cut off, experimenting with soufflés and omelets. She had six different types of muffins on the counter this morning.

  “What a terrible thing to endure, your mother’s delightful cooking.”

  We were riding out to our favourite fishing spot, without the fishing gear. I’d packed a picnic.

  “Your mother is really excited about this. She could use some flavour in her life, and spending a couple of hours with Danny in the morning would cheer anyone up.”

  He still looked like a small boy who’d had his favourite lollipop taken away. “I don’t want her getting tired out.”

  “Is your mother eighty?”

  “No.”

  “Seventy?”

  “No.”

  “Sixty?”

  “No! Okay, I get your point.”

  “How old is she, anyway?”

  “Fifty-one.”

  “Then the woman needs a new adventure. Be happy for her, instead of thinking of yourself. She not just your mother.”

  He didn’t say anything about it after that. He was too busy making me feel like a woman.

  When I told Danny, he kissed my feet. Literally.

  “I’ve died and gone to heaven! This is the most beautiful house, and I’ve been cleaning it every day just for fun.”

  “I noticed that manure pile out back has a swirl on it.”

  Danny might not have been able to boil an egg, but he loved housework, and the place was immaculate. All the painting I’d done for Nell paid off in spades. The inside of the house was very impressive, and all of Nell’s bedspreads, crocheted throws, and pillows made the rooms look inviting.

  Pops’s nest egg was being put to good use, and that was before I decided a selling point for this place would be a petting zoo.

  I told Mitch over the phone.

  “I’m painting the barn red and the fences white, and I’m getting some chickens and a few goats to go with the sheep and the horses. I think a cow would be a nice touch.”

  “Are you crazy, woman?! You hardly have time to breathe as it is.”

  “Once this gets off the ground, I might be able to stop working at the bank.”

  “Oh, good. Less money is just what you need.”

  Mitch was a worrywart.

  But even Patty and Ray wondered if I was biting off more than I could chew. I was spending Thanksgiving with them. Pup and Kimberly gave me their handprints shaped like turkeys and I planned on framing them.

  “Is this bed and breakfast going to be lucrative in the winter?” Ray asked. “I imagine you have to have steady customers throughout the whole year to make it successful. So that would mean having the yard and driveway plowed out every day in the winter. It’s a big responsibility.”

  “I’m not afraid to see what happens. If it’s a disaster, I still have the cabin and Gran’s, which have been very lucrative so far.”

  Patty held a sleepy Kim. “Please don’t burn the candle at both ends for too long. Something’s going to give.”

  Before I went home I stopped in to see Mavis and told her about my plans.

  “Your father would be very proud of you.”

  I burst into tears, which was mortifying. Mavis jumped up and dithered. “Stop that. You’re making a scene. Do you need some money?”

  What was she talking about?

  “No, I don’t need any money,” I sniffed. “That was such a nice thing to say.”

  “I’m not a complete cold fish.”

  My new adventure started the first of November. With a little advertising, I’d have the place humming in no time. The guests would roll right in.

  They didn’t.

  November was apparently not a great month to start. Neither was December, nor January 1973.

  I was shaken. So were Danny and Maud. Here we thought we had this brilliant idea and nothing was coming of it.

  It wasn’t my fault, but it felt like it was. Danny was nursing a cold one morning and looked at me forlornly. “I’m Freddie the Freeloader. I should go back to the shop. I’m living off you like a parasite.”

  “You’re family, Danny. That’s what families do. I’ll hear no more talk about you going back to the shop.”

  Then one day we got a booking for all three rooms, for two nights starting on Valentine’s Day, under the name Smith.

  “If this is a joke,” I fretted, “I’ll kill someone.”

  They turned out to be Jack’s wife’s family, down to celebrate an engagement party for Jack’s younger brother. Diane was a sucker for punishment in my opinion.

  Jack stayed with his mom, but Sandy, her mother, and her sisters stayed with us. All of them were delightful, and they absolutely loved Maud’s cooking and Danny’s being Danny.

  When they left, I happened to be home. Sandy sought me out.

  “I do know what happened between you and Jack.”

  My eyes lowered to the floor. “I wondered.”

  “Jack always talks about you with such affection. I can see why.”

  “And you are a lovely girl, Sandy. Thank you. I’m glad Jack is so happy. He deserves it. I’ll always remember that you and your wonderful family were our first guests.”

  “I’ll tell everyone about this place. It’s amazing.”

  Slowly but surely, the reservations kept coming. We weren’t bustling, but we were busy enough to know that we were offering something unique. Our guestbook was filling up with nice compliments, and the best part of it for me was seeing Maud and Danny getting along like a house on fire. I was almost jealous of their relationship. They were speaking in code after a while. I was missing all the good stuff when I went to work at the bank. Maud looked and acted like a different person—still as sweet as ever, but with more confidence. Even Mitch noticed a difference.

  “You see? I was right.”

  “Yes, dear,” he said.

  In April, a postcard arrived in the mail with a picture of the northern lights. When I turned it over, there was a post office address on it. It was from Norway. Nell had drawn a small heart in the corner, but that was it.

  “Details, woman!”

  I spent the rest of the day taking pictures of the house, Danny, Maud, the animals, and the new sign at the end of the road: The Spinster on the Hill Bed & Breakfast. Once the pictures were developed, I wrote a newsy letter, ordering Nell to write back with more than just a heart, and sent it off to her.

  The very next day I got sick. Really sick. Patty’s warning about burning the candle at both ends had come to fruition. I was suddenly more tired than I’d ever been and spent most of the day in bed with a bucket.

  Danny was the world’s best nurse. Almost too good. He hovered like a bat and it got on my nerves after a while. “I don’t like an audience while I’m puking.”

  “I’ll be behind the door.”

  After three straight days of this, Maud came to see me, even though we had no clients. She sat on the end of the bed and seemed nervous.

  “You look dreadful, honey.”

  “You shouldn’t be here. I have the stomach flu, and I don’t want you to get it. It’s a nightmare. I can’t keep anything down.”

  She opened her mouth and then closed it.

  “What?” I said.

  “Have you considered it might not be the stomach flu?”

  “What else would it be?”

  “Could you be pregnant?”<
br />
  I felt the blood drain from my face. Bad enough that I hadn’t even considered it, but it was Mitch’s mother asking. That meant she knew that Mitch and I…canoodled.

  “I’m sorry, Bridie. It’s none of my business, but if you think it could be the case, you need to see a doctor.”

  “Oh my God. What have I done? I’m so stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid, dear. Millions of other girls have had the same thing happen to them and the world is still turning.”

  “But I always said I was never getting married. I’m the spinster on the hill.”

  “As much as I would love it if you and Mitch did get married, there’s nothing to say you have to. People will gossip, but you’ve certainly lived through that before.”

  I reached out and took her hand. “Thank you for always being so nice to me. I’ve fallen into this nest of wonderful women and can’t imagine why I’ve been so lucky.”

  She brushed my hair out of my face. “You’re very easy to love, Bridie.”

  “Don’t tell Mitch.”

  “Of course not. It’s your news to tell. But can I just hug you?”

  She squeezed the life out of me and squealed in my ear. Someone was excited.

  But not as excited as Danny. “I’m going to be an uncle! How marvellous!”

  “You can’t say anything, Danny. I don’t even know if it’s true. I need to see the doctor.”

  “Oh, you’re pregnant, girlie. I’ve watched me mam go through this a hundred times.”

  “I’m surprised she’s still alive.”

  “So is she.”

  It turned out I was pregnant, and I had something horrible called hyperemesis gravidarum, which was a very scary term for really miserable morning sickness, except it lasted all day and night. I called Mitch to come and get me from the doctor’s office. He assumed I still had the stomach flu.

  He took one look at me standing outside the office and I saw his face register shock. I was a mess, babbling away as he ran around the truck and held my arms to look me straight in the face. “What is it? My God, you look so thin. Are you dying?”