The Key in the Attic

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The Key in the Attic Page 5

by DeAnna Julie Dodson


  “Is that all?” Mary Beth asked when the woman appeared to be slowing down.

  “For now. That shelving in your basement. It looks relatively new.”

  “It is.”

  “Good. If you’ll have everything cleared out of it, we’ll arrange to have it picked up right away.”

  “Picked up?”

  “Yes. Picked up. Hauled off. No use having it bulldozed with everything else. It looks in good shape. It ought to bring a little money.”

  “Ms. …” Mary Beth looked at the business card she still held. “Ms. McMillan, those are my shelves. I put them down there. If you do end up buying the building—and that’s not nearly a settled fact yet—my shelves won’t have anything to do with your deal with Mr. Huggins.”

  “Our standard contract specifies that purchase of the property includes anything attached to the building. That would, of course, include any built-in additions.”

  Mary Beth managed to keep her tone of voice low and pleasant. “That may well be the case, but for one thing, those shelves aren’t built in. I ordered them to fit that space, but they’re not attached. For another thing, your standard contract isn’t applicable until and unless Mr. Huggins signs it.”

  “As you say.” The woman took a pair of designer sunglasses out of her purse and put them on. “That being the case, if you’re planning to take them with you, it will save you some time and trouble later on if you go ahead and pack up whatever is in those cabinets, your merchandise, I presume, and clear them out now. I understand Huggins wants to make a quick deal, and so do we. Good afternoon, Ms. Brock. Greg.”

  Greg mumbled a quick goodbye and trotted after her through the door.

  For a moment, Mary Beth could only stare after them. Then she turned away from the door and looked over the little shop that she had worked so hard to make appealing to people like herself—people who loved all kinds of needlework.

  “And just how am I supposed to keep my customers happy if all my merchandise is packed up in storage? Oh, that’s right, I don’t have any customers. Thank you very much, Ms. Whoever-You-Are.” She glanced again at the business card. All it had under the SLR & FFH, Incorporated logo was “Kyrie McMillan, Corporate Planning,” an email address and six different telephone numbers. “Ms. Corporate Planner then. Fine. We’ll see whether or not you always get your way.”

  “What’d you say, Miss Brock?”

  Mary Beth started and turned around to see Amanda Culbertson had slipped inside without her noticing. She laughed and said, “Mandy! Where’d you come from?”

  “I was just over at the library. I had a little free time, and it seemed like a good opportunity to come help you out. Who were those people who just left your shop? I’ve never seen them around town.”

  Mary Beth pursed her lips as she watched their black SUV hurry down Main Street. “Well, I hope we won’t see them much more. If at all.” Abruptly, she smiled and ushered Mandy into the shop. “Now how are you at alphabetizing?”

  Amanda frowned, slightly puzzled. “OK, I guess.”

  “Good.” Mary Beth took her to the wall of pattern books at the back of the store. “Sometimes customers don’t put things back in the right places, and I don’t always notice. Could you go through all these books and make sure they’re in the right category—crochet, knitting, sewing, etc.—and then alphabetize according to the last name of the author?”

  “Sure. That’s easy enough.”

  “And if the same author wrote more than one book, then put the titles for that author in alphabetical order too—OK?”

  “Got it.”

  “Thank you, Mandy. You’re going to be a great help.”

  Mary Beth’s smile faded when the girl’s hot-pink cellphone suddenly blared out a rap tune with unintelligible lyrics and something that sounded like car crashes in the background. Cringing, Amanda glanced at the caller ID and then turned the phone off.

  “Sorry about that, Miss Brock. They can leave a message.”

  Mary Beth’s smile returned. “That’s very considerate. Thank you.”

  Seeing that Mandy was going to be busy for a while, Mary Beth went into the back room and ate the tuna sandwich and potato chips she had brought from home. When she came back into the front of the store, she was surprised to see Ian Butler coming through the front door.

  “Ian. Hi. Did you decide to take up knitting?”

  Ian laughed, his dark eyes warm. “Actually, I came to talk to you, if you have a minute.”

  “Sure. It’s been Grand Central Station around here this morning. But Mandy is tidying up my books for me, so at the moment, I’m a lady of leisure. Come sit down.”

  She led him to the circle of chairs usually occupied by the ladies of the Hook and Needle Club, and both of them had a seat.

  “So what’s on your mind, Ian?”

  “I just had lunch with Annie and Alice. They’re about ready to make war on the town council over this thing with Burly Boy.”

  “Ugh. Don’t even mention that name to me right now. I just got a visit from somebody in Corporate Planning or something.”

  “Was it that McMillan woman?”

  “I take it you’ve already met her.”

  Ian shuddered. “I was just glad it wasn’t in a dark alley.”

  “She’s not that bad,” Mary Beth said, chuckling. “She’s just very used to getting her own way.”

  “Was that her in the SUV?”

  Mary Beth nodded. “And her little assistant, the poor thing—he looked all of twelve years old.”

  “Poor kid. What did they want?”

  “They were scouting out the place, acting as if it already belonged to SPQR & FFA, Incorporated—or whatever it is. I couldn’t believe it, Ian.”

  “You should have told them to come back when they have a contract.”

  Mary Beth shrugged. “I did, more or less, but then she was going to call up Mr. Huggins at the hospital to get his OK, and I really didn’t want them bothering him right now, you know? Not with his wife as sick as she is.”

  “I can understand that.” He gave her a rueful, sympathetic smile. “They didn’t stay long, did they?”

  “Just long enough to ruffle my feathers, and that was way too long.”

  “I’ll try extra hard to stay on your good side then. I don’t think I could take another beating like the one I got over lunch.”

  “From Annie and Alice?” Mary Beth held up one hand. “I swear, Ian, I didn’t send them over to see you.”

  Ian chuckled. “I know, but I couldn’t blame you if you had. I’m none too happy about the deal either. But there’s something else I hope you’ll understand about why we’re not trying to stop the sale to Burly Boy. Mr. Huggins needs that money. We’d rather he sold the place to you or to some other investor who would let you keep your store. But he needs to sell, and if Burly Boy is his only option, it’d be pretty heartless for us to stop him and keep his wife from getting the care she needs, wouldn’t it?”

  “Nobody wants that. And I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t want the town council to miss out on anything that would actually be good for Stony Point in the long run either.”

  “Obviously, we want to keep the character of our downtown. Stony Point should stay looking like Stony Point and not Las Vegas or New York, right?”

  Mary Beth chuckled. “Right.”

  “But there are purely financial considerations also. Not only are the Burly Boy people willing to pay well for the privilege of opening on our Main Street, they’d bring in some good sales tax revenues for years to come as well as provide some entry-level and even management jobs that we desperately need.”

  She felt bad for Ian. Life was hard enough these days. He and the town council had not only themselves to consider, but also the welfare of the whole town. Keeping Stony Point’s traditions and way of life alive while not killing its industry and growth had to be a delicate balancing act.

  “I can see how that would be a hard decision, esp
ecially with Mr. Huggins in his situation. Maybe keeping my little shop open isn’t the best thing for the town.”

  “No, no, that’s not what I mean at all. I’m just saying we all have some hard decisions to make. The way I see it, Mr. Huggins would rather sell to you than anyone. We all want you to stay in Stony Point. If you can figure out how to pull that off, then it’s a no-brainer. You stay, everybody’s happy. But if you can’t, there’s not much more for us to do than to let Mr. Huggins get his money however he can and make the best of it for Stony Point.”

  “I wish I knew what was going to happen, Ian. Right now, I’m just praying hard and keeping my eyes open.”

  “I guess that’s the best thing any of us can do right now.” He stood up and gave her shoulder a pat. “If there’s anything I can do for you, Mary Beth, you let me know.”

  “I will.” She followed him to the front door. “Um, you will let me know before there’s anything final about the sale, won’t you?”

  “I thought Mr. Huggins was holding off until the end of next month.”

  “Oh, he is. But I know he’s got a pretty hard situation to deal with, and if the Burly Boy people put more pressure on him, he might change his mind. I couldn’t really blame him.”

  “But he’d have to have approval first from the planning and zoning commission and the council before that kind of deal could go through,” Ian reminded her.

  “I know. So I figure you’ll know about it if anything changes.”

  His eyes crinkled at the corners. “All right. If I hear any news like that, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, you keep those eyes open.”

  “I will.”

  Again he patted her shoulder. “And don’t worry—OK?”

  “Thanks.”

  She shut the front door after him and turned around to find Mandy right behind her.

  “Oh!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, Miss Brock. I’m done though, and I thought you’d want to take a look.”

  Mary Beth forced a smile, not sure what her book wall would look like now, but the smile soon widened into a genuine grin.

  “That looks great, Mandy. Everything is so neat and well organized.”

  Mandy fairly beamed under the praise. “Thanks. I hope I did it all right.”

  Mary Beth wrapped one arm around the girl’s shoulders. “You did it perfectly. Now, if you still want to help, I’ve been wanting to reorganize my patterns too. I think between the two of us, we can just get it done before closing time. Can you stay that long?”

  “Sure. Just let me call my mom and let her know.”

  While Mandy was calling home, Mary Beth was surprised to see Kate come into the shop.

  “Hi there!” Mary Beth hugged her. “I didn’t expect you in today.”

  “I’ve been busy during my time off.” Kate held up an overstuffed tote bag. “I’ve printed up a bunch of copies of my new patterns, and I was hoping you’d have room for them in the display.”

  “Oh, wonderful!” Mary Beth hugged her again, almost in tears. “Thank you for being so understanding about this whole mess, Kate. You don’t know how much I miss having you in the shop every day. I hope it won’t be long before I can bring you back full-time.”

  Kate gave her a hopeful little smile. “I was thinking about that. I’ve been busy working on patterns and packaging them for sale. I thought—if you don’t object, that is—I could do that here as easily as at home. Then I could help out with customers, too, if you needed me to. No wages required. What do you think?”

  “Oh, Kate, really?”

  Kate nodded eagerly.

  “No, I couldn’t.” Mary Beth shook her head. “I couldn’t take advantage of you like that.”

  “What advantage? I told you I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing at home right now. Only it’s not nearly as fun doing it by myself and without someone to bounce ideas off of. You’ve always been such a help to me when I’m working up a new idea. What do you say?”

  Mary Beth gave her an enormous hug. “Welcome back!”

  6

  The rest of the afternoon flew by, but Mary Beth was pleased with how neat and appealing the shop looked after a little straightening up, and she was thrilled to have Kate in the shop again. By the time she got home, her telephone was ringing. She tossed her purse into a chair and picked up the receiver.

  “Hello?”

  “You know, Mary Beth, I really don’t appreciate you using Amy to try to manipulate me!”

  “Melanie?”

  “I know you’ve always felt like I had it easier than you, but I’ve worked for everything I have. I took chances to make it big instead of being satisfied with a one-off little craft store in a town nobody ever heard of. Now you think I’m the one who has to bail you out? You could have gotten into the business when I did. Mother would’ve found a place for you somewhere, I guess. But you had to waltz over to Hickville in the backwoods and be on your own. Well, this is the ‘on your own’ part, sister.”

  “Well, how nice to hear from you, Melanie. How have you been?”

  “Don’t be cute. You’re not the type. And I don’t appreciate what you’re trying to do.”

  Mary Beth clamped her jaws so tightly shut she was surprised they didn’t creak, but she was not going to give her sister the fight she was obviously looking for. She merely counted to ten.

  “Mary Beth? Are you listening to me?”

  Mary Beth let her breath out slowly and forced a smile that she hoped would show in her voice. “Of course I’m listening, Melanie. I just don’t know what you’re talking about.” She sank down into the chair and then shifted to pull her forgotten purse out from under herself. “How about starting at the beginning and telling me what’s going on?”

  “Don’t try that on me, Miss Innocent. I know you talked to Amy today.”

  “Yes, I did. She is my niece, you know.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can use her to do your dirty work, Mary Beth.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “She asked me to make you a loan. Don’t tell me you didn’t put her up to that.”

  Mary Beth leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Think whatever you want to, but I didn’t. I don’t know why you’d think that. I don’t think she’d even say I’d do something like that.”

  “She told me it was all her idea, but don’t think for a minute I don’t know you didn’t call her up to complain about how bad things are for you. But—with the Lord’s help, of course—you’ll make it through somehow.”

  Her sister’s voice had turned into a mocking imitation of a pathetic whine, and for some strange reason, in a bad southern accent on top of it all. Again, Mary Beth had to count to ten.

  “Look, Melanie,” she said finally, “Amy is a sweet girl, and it’s good of her to be concerned about me, but I would never ask her for anything. I certainly wouldn’t ask her to ask you for anything. And heaven knows, the last thing I would do is expect anything from you. I told her, and I’ll tell you right now, honestly, sincerely, and with no misunderstandings and no hidden messages: I will work this out. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ll figure out something. And yes, with the Lord’s help—thank you very much—I’ll be fine.”

  Melanie only made an impatient little huffing sound.

  “I know you don’t understand me, Mel. You never did. Mother never did. The fashion business is just not important to me. I would hate living your life. I know you have the money and the fame. I know you go everywhere and know everyone who is anyone and are in all the fashion magazines. I’m glad you have what you want. Honestly, I am. But I could never live that way. I love Stony Point and A Stitch in Time. I love my little house and my ordinary friends and my quiet life. And I know you think it’s just hysterically funny, but I do believe God will look after me and show me what I need to do when the time comes to close the shop. If the time comes.”

  “You tell yourself whatever you need to, Mary Beth. Whateve
r gets you by. But don’t bring Amy into it! Do you understand?”

  “I didn’t bring her into it. In fact, I told her I absolutely did not want her to do anything. And believe it or not, I don’t expect anything from you either. We’re both grown up. We make our decisions, and we deal with what comes of them. I’m just sorry that you feel like I’m trying to manipulate you or Amy.” Mary Beth swallowed hard. “And I’m sorry the only time we ever talk is when something is wrong.”

  The only answer she got was a click followed by a dial tone.

  ****

  As soon as Annie and Alice had finished their lunch with Ian at The Cup & Saucer, Annie went on a fact-finding mission that took most of the afternoon. The minute she got home, she dropped in over at Alice’s.

  “Do you have time for company, Alice? You won’t believe what I found.”

  Alice snorted. “You won’t believe how many rivers they have in Scotland. That’s one clue that’s going to be hard to pin down. Come on in.”

  “Hmmm, so that’s not going to help us get started.” Annie followed Alice inside, and they both made themselves comfortable on the couch. “Any luck on any of the other clues?”

  “Well, thanks to the Internet, I found out that an old English measurement that happens to be 45 inches is called an ell. I’m thinking ‘Roadside Refuge’ is an inn.”

  Annie dug out her copy of Geoffrey’s clues. “OK, I guess we can pencil those in. Anything else?” She cleared her throat and read the paper aloud:

  “England’s 45 inches

  Twice indebted

  Katherine at home

  Blue and twinkling

  Roadside refuge

  Turn to the right

  Twice beholden

  Scotland’s river

  Busy sweets maker

  Twice obliged

  Katherine to her friends”

  Alice wrinkled her forehead in thought. “‘Blue and twinkling’ I was thinking could be eyes or maybe just eye, but it doesn’t make sense. Eye Inn? Do you suppose that was a tavern or something back then? Maybe that’s where he hid the next letter Angeline was supposed to find.”

  Annie swatted herself on the forehead. “I can’t believe I’m so stupid. The letters she was supposed to find aren’t the kind you write to someone. They’re the kind you write with. They’re all right there. Not the words ‘eye inn’ but the letters ‘IN.’ That spells ‘in’! Ell, the 45-inch unit of length in England, is for the letter L. ‘Katherine to her friends’ must be Kay, the letter K.”

 

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