"Aunt Hope loved her songbirds," Laura said from across the room. "She used to keep that feeder filled with thistle for the finches. There's another, bigger feeder." Laura leaned over Georgia to point toward a low-hanging branch of a nearby apple tree. "She used to put a different kind of seed in that one. A lot would spill onto the ground for the cardinals. I meant to stop and get some wild bird seed to fill those feeders. I wish I'd remembered."
Laura lifted her cup and sipped at it.
"Ummm.
This is so good. Aunt Hope would be proud of you. I never could get it quite right, you know. I always need a bag
to make a decent cup of tea. This is just like Aunt Hope used to make."
She leaned back against the counter and said, "All's well in the attic. A few years ago we had some shingles blow off in a bad storm, and we had a lot of water come in. I'm always afraid it will happen again.
I
hate the house being vacant
.
" Laura finished her tea in two more sips, then peered into her cup before rinsing it out in the sink, and said, "If Aunt Hope were here, she'd read our tea leaves."
"I never met anyone who could do that."
"It's supposed to be a gift"—Laura grinned—"a type of second sight that I don't have. Aunt Hope was uncannily good, however, and many a time, spooked me with just how good she was."
"You really do miss her a lot," Georgia observed.
"Yes." Laura nodded. "You would have loved her, Georgia, and I think she would have loved you, too."
"Did she know about…
about Mother
…
?"
"Yes. I told her after I met Delia. I had to talk to someone and, unfortunately, it couldn't have been Mom."
"How did your aunt feel about it?"
"She thought it was nothing short of a miracle. She was very happy for
me, actually. I think she under
stood completely how I felt about Mom and Dad, how much I loved them. But I think she knew, too, that Delia was a blank page in my life, and that it was a wonderful thing that she had gone to such great pains to find me—to help me to complete the story, as it were. Aunt Hope understood long before I did that I had little missing pieces that I needed to find.
Delia just found me first, before I had felt compelled to look for her." Laura looked around the room as if checking to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything, then said, "If you're finished, I guess we can head back home."
Georgia went to the sink and washed out her cup and placed it next to Laura's, then went back to the table and slid her chair slowly back into place. For reasons she could not explain, Georgia felt reluctant to leave the warmth of the old house.
Following Laura from the room, she turned back to snap off the overhead light and paused to look around. The photograph she had earlier inspected caught her eye, and the face of the dark-haired man held her gaze for a long moment.
Troll or not,
Georgia smiled to herself,
Matthew Bishop was one hell of a good-looking man.
six
"
D
amn!" Laura grumbled between clenched teeth. "I knew I'd forget something."
"What's that?" Georgia pulled into the parking lot behind the inn and turned off the ignition.
"The preserves for Jody. She's really going to be disappointed. And she made a point of reminding me three or four times not to forget several jars of peaches because she had a cobbler planned for dessert this week for a party that is checking in tomorrow."
"Can't she substitute something else? Canned peaches or something?"
Laura smiled grimly. "Jody does not substitute ingredients. She will substitute a different recipe, and she won't be happy about it. She prides herself on the high quality of her cooking. I'm really very fortunate to have her, Georgia; for so young a woman she's amazingly accomplished. I do everything I have to do to accommodate her, which is why she has her own room at the inn and she's treated like family. She
is
like a member of the family—the one who controls the kitchen. I hate to disappoint her."
"Why don't you just bring all of the jars back to the inn?"
"What, and empty Aunt Hope's cupboard?" Laura shook her head. "I never even considered doing that. For one thing, Matt raids the cupboard of plum jam— that's his favorite—every chance he gets, and, for another, Ally and I do still spend an occasional weekend there, and we like being able to go downstairs and select a jam for our breakfast toast. But mostly, I guess,
I
sort of feel that as long as some of Aunt Hope's put-up fruit and preserves are down there, it's just a little more of her that we still have with us. I know the day will come when there'
s nothing left, but for now…
does that sound silly?"
"No, not really. Maybe a bit inconvenient, at times like this, but I understand the sentiment. We'll just drive back tomorrow and get whatever it is that Jody needs." Georgia brightened at the thought of returning to Pumpkin Hill. There had been something peaceful and welcoming about the place, and she was hoping there'd be reason to go back at least one more time before she returned to Baltimore.
"I can't." Laura hopped out of the Jeep. "I have a conference with Mother's doctor at eleven, and that party of eight is checking in tomorrow afternoon for a writers' retreat."
"I'll drive back first thing in the morning," Georgia told her as they walked toward the inn. "It's an easy drive, and, besides, I have nothing better to do."
That much was certainly true. Georgia had tried helping out in the kitchen, but had clearly been in
Jody's way. The chambermaids each had their assigned rooms, so helping there wasn't an option, either. While Georgia was grateful for the time she was having with Ally when school let out in the afternoon, there were long, idle hours between breakfast and the end of the school day; hours that had, back in Baltimore, always been filled. Here in Bishop's Cove, she could run in the mornings and take long walks after lunch, but she was becoming a bit restless with the decrease in the level of physical activity, and being brought down with a cold for three days hadn't helped.
Accustomed to long hours of aerobic exercise day after day for years, Georgia's body seemed to be experiencing a form of withdrawal brought on by her sudden sedentary behavior. She missed the routine, the strenuous exertion, as much as she missed having something to focus on. For most of Georgia's life, ballet had been her focus. She had never—not since the age of five—gone an entire week without dancing. She felt edgy, agitated. Mentally and physically uneasy, she keenly felt the loss of her routine, of that which had served as her very center, and wondered if perhaps she hadn't acted hastily. Her edginess only served to cause her to question the wisdom of her recent decision.
Had she been impulsive? Should she have given more thought to the consequences of her actions? And maybe she shouldn't have pushed Ivan
…
And what, she tried to recall as she took the back steps to her room on the inn's second floor, had been so important that she had felt compelled to take time off from dancing, anyway?
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Georgia stripped off her sneakers and socks and padded in bare feet to the suitcase that sat open on a chair in the co
rn
er of the tidy room she had occupied since arriving a week earlier. She pushed aside the sweatshirt and dug beneath the clothes, her hands seeking smooth leather. There—there they were, right under a nightshirt. She pulled her worn pink ballet shoes from under the pile and sat down on the floor to put them on. The simple act of slipping them onto her feet calmed her the way a glass of wine might calm some, a long drag from a cigarette might soothe another. As familiar to her as her name, the slippers hugged her feet and seemed somehow to remind her of who she was.
In one fluid motion she rose to her feet, heels together, legs stretched straight, her toes turned outward to form a straight line, in perfect First Position. She straightened her back, raised her chin, and curved her arms, raising them to the level of her chest. Exhaling, she slid into Second Position, opening her arms to the sides to form a gentle O. Then into Third, the heel of her right foot snug against the middle of her left, her right arm raised in a graceful arc. To Fourth, her right foot forward, parallel to her left, right arm over her head, left arm dropped back into First Position, and so into Fifth, her right foot close up to her left, the toes of each foot touching the heels of the other, her arms softly overhead. She pushed back the small table that stood inside the door and began the series of floor exercises she had practiced daily over the years; exercises to make her back limber, to stretch her legs, to develop her stomach muscles.
Thirty minutes later, having finished what she considered to be a short round of stretches, Georgia sat in the middle of the floor and cried.
She was still sitting there, feeling glum and purposeless, when Ally flew in after school. Seeing Georgia on the floor, her legs straight out in front of her, Ally saw all that a five-year-old
would
see.
"Hey! You're wearing your pink ballet slippers! I have pink ballet slippers, too! I'll put them on"—the little girl flew back out through the door, her voice trailing excitedly down the hallway—"and we can dance!"
Georgia smiled in spite of herself. How can one remain gloomy when a happy five-year-old wants to dance?
"Do you take dancing lessons, Ally?" Georgia asked when her niece returned proudly sporting her prized pink ballet shoes.
"No, not anymore." She shook her head. "Mrs. Carlson had a baby and stopped teaching."
"Do you remember anything she taught you?"
Ally sucked on the side of her top lip, trying to recall. She stared down at her feet, the toes of which were pointed in opposite directions, and said, "No."
Georgia stood up and corrected Ally's feet, bringing the heels together gently. "This is First Position, Ally. Now, raise your arms like this
…
good, but a little more of a curve. Your hands should be leveled between your waist and your chest."
Georgia took a step back and studied Ally's pose. "Very good. Now, do you remember Second Position?"
"No." Ally shook her head.
"Like this." Georgia showed her, mentally adding a few feet of length to that barre she had wished for e
arlier. "And this is Third…
"
"Aunt Georgia, you're a good teacher," Ally told her. "See, I remember First, Second, and Third." She slid from one position into the others with motions unskilled but determined, the light of pride in her eyes.
How long ago that same light was first lit within me,
Georgia reflected.
When had it started to dim?
The afternoon's
earlier fear and uncertainty began to melt away, and a calm assurance began to return and spread through her. Having lost the total joy she had once found in ballet, stepping back now
was
the right thing to do. Georgia sorely missed her routine, missed her classes, missed the exercise, but she had not been wrong to leave the troupe. She would, temporarily, seek another direction. If it led her back onto the stage, fine. If it led her someplace else, well, that would be fine, too.
For right now, she would dance with Ally. Later tonight she would seek out Gordon Chandler and ask him about his exploits. Tomorrow morning she would rise early and walk down to the beach to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Then she'd go for a long run. She'd run until her legs ached and sweated, and then she'd take her time walking back to the inn. She'd shower, have breakfast with her sister, and then she'd go back to Pumpkin Hill. All in all, tomorrow had all the makings of a very good day.
T
he alarm buzzed rudely in her ear the next morning, and Georgia fought the initial impulse of
slapping it into silence. Knowing she had a goal that day, however, coerced her body from under the warm flannel sheets and cozy quilt and propelled her into her running clothes. The stillness of the small coastal town in this predawn hour wrapped around her, and she welcomed the sound of the surf hitting the beach as she walked across the sand. Wrapping the blanket around her as Laura had taught her to do, she sat down and soaked up the early morning sights and sounds. The majesty of the sunrise was shared with a stray gray-and-white cat that strolled down from the dimes with grand nonchalance, and an elderly fisherman who stood at the edge of the sea and tossed his line into the barely visible waves. Georgia sat back and just enjoyed.
When the first thin fingers of sunlight had finished their upward stretch into the morning sky, Georgia stood and shook the sand from the blanket. She'd drop the old quilt off on the front porch of the inn, then run for thirty minutes, all according to plan. Glancing back at the horizon as she climbed the old wooden steps at the edge of the beach, she congratulated herself on having had the good sense to give herself these moments of wonder. She had begun to feel pretty bleak, and it had perked up her spirits tremendously.
Georgia returned to the inn from her early morning run to find Laura pacing around the kitchen, the phone to her ear and a panicked look on her face.
"Was anything damaged?" Laura asked of her caller, oblivious to Georgia's return. "Was any of the equipment stolen?"
Georgia poured herself a glass of water, watching Laura with curious eyes.
"There were two vintage John Deeres and a few attachments; a plow and cultivator. Not much else. Oh, thank goodness. I'm glad they're still there." Laura caught Georgia staring and placed her hand over the receiver to explain. "Some kids broke in to the ba
rn
at Pumpkin Hill—yes, yes, Chief Monroe. I'm here. Well, if the door was still locked, how did they get in?"
Laura rolled her eyes to the ceiling and said, "I did that. I was there yesterday and I opened a window on the second floor. I forgot to close it before we left. How 'bout Matt's place? Did they get into the apartment? Oh, good. There's a
blessing…
"
Appearing to calm slightly, Laura reached for the cup of coffee she'd left on the counter and lifted it to her lips to take a sip.
"Yes, I know…
I suppose you're right, Chief. It has been vacant for too long. I'd hoped that Matt would be back by now, but as you know he's still living in Shawsburg. No, I have no idea when he'll be able to move back." Laura sighed a long, low sigh of resignation. "You're right, of course. I'll write up an ad and call it in to the local paper there. Yes, I'll start looking right away. Thanks, Chief."
Laura hung the phone back onto its base and turned to Georgia, saying, "One of the neighbors, on his way home from the night shift at the chicken processing plant on the other side of town, saw some light
s on the second floor of the barn
and called the police. They found a bunch of teenagers with a Ouija board and a few six-packs having a
séance
."
"I guess you're lucky that's all they found."
"Yes. We are. And as the chief just reminded me, we may not be as lucky the next time. If anyone had wondered about the status of that farm, now everyone will know for certain it's vacant—which is not a good thing."
"Did he have any suggestions?"
"Yes—that we find a tenant as soon as possible. He said with the place being vacant for so long, it's a prime target for vandalism which, sometimes, he tells me, takes the form of arson. I don't know what we'd do if anything happened to Pumpkin Hill, Georgia. It's such a big part of my family
…
"
Laura stood and stared out the window for a long minute, then reached for the phone. "I guess I better call Matt and see if he can drive out to the farm today to meet with the Chief to see if anything has been disturbed in the house. And I want to let him know that I'll be putting an ad in the paper for someone who's looking for a short-term lease."
"What do you consider short term?" Georgia asked thoughtfully.
"Six months to a year. Hi, Matt? I'm glad I caught you before you left for the clinic. Listen, I just
got a call from Chief Monroe…"
Georgia poured her coffee and went out through the back door. She inspected the wisteria for the first signs of green and, finding none, strolled down the path to the wide porch that wound around the front and sides of the inn. A handsome gray-haired man in an Irish knit sweater and a pair of tan corduroy slacks stood on the top steps looking in the direction of the beach.