The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams

Chapter 15 Rose

CHAPTER 15

ROSE

Rose leaned on her cane. “You’re a darned fool.”

“Apparently so.” Luke, sitting on her stool behind the counter where he’d been downloading the online orders, adjusted his arm brace. “Fortunately, I just sprained my wrist, that’s all.”

That wasn’t all. He’d badly sprained his wrist, and it now looked like a black sausage stuck in a sling. “You also got bruised and scraped up and had a concussion. It’s a wonder you’re not dead. What were you thinking, climbing a tree like that? You’re not ten, you know.”

“I know, I know.” He hit a button on the screen and the printer came to life. “It was stupid. Like I told you last night, I was just trying to help Tay.”

“Help? By climbing a tree like a chimp? It’s a good thing Tay didn’t ask you to jump into hot lava, because you’re the sort who’d do it.” Rose narrowed her gaze on her grandson. “You were showing off, weren’t you.”

“Me? No! Of course not.” As he spoke, he flushed and then gently touched his jaw where an angry red laceration ran from his chin to his ear. Beyond his sprained wrist, some serious bark rash on one of his arms, and a series of multicolored bruises on his chest and back, he had few other injuries—which was fortunate, indeed.

Rose had to fight the urge to fuss at him again. As far as she could tell, the only good thing that had come out of yesterday’s hijinks at the cemetery, of all things, was that she no longer wondered if Luke was interested in Tay. That arm brace was hard proof, which would have been terrific news if he hadn’t made such an idiot of himself in the process.

Rose clicked her tongue. “You scared poor Lulu nigh to death, coming home all bruised up and wearing a brace. And now the whole town is buzzing about how you got injured while looking for William Day’s lost gold stash, thanks to Zoe Bell, who saw Tay practically carrying you into Doc Bolton’s office.” Which was icing on a very bitter cake, in Rose’s opinion.

“We’re not looking for gold. I mean, if we find it, then terrific. But Sarafina told her daughter these clues led to a family secret, nothing more.”

“What better family secret could there be other than a nice, big pot of gold? Plus now the whole town thinks they know what you’re doing. Just this morning, Erma Tingle stopped me while I was unlocking the store to ask what you two planned on doing with the lost gold once you find it.” Rose scowled. “I warned you all about that at the beginning. But would you listen? No.”

Irritated, she picked up a duster. “That’s another thing. You looked like a fool in front of Tay. What sort of a man can’t climb a tree?”

The words elicited an immediate reaction from Luke. If he was red before, he was now on fire. Good. He should know how ridiculous he looked. Lord love the man, but it was possible that he’d totally blown his chance with Tay yesterday. Which explained her weird reaction when she’d brought Luke home after their visit to Doc Bolton. Not once had Tay looked Luke directly in the eye. She was as embarrassed for him as I was.

Rose stifled a sigh. I guess he’s back to square one. “This whole thing is a mess. Before you two are done, this town is going to have the worst case of gold fever anyone’s ever seen.” Unwilling to look at his scraped face another minute, she pointed the duster toward the front of the store. “I’m going to hit those shelves while things are quiet. It’s been slow this morning, but that’ll change soon enough, thanks to you two.”

He stood. “I’ll do it.”

“Doc Bolton said you need to rest that wrist as much as possible. Once you’re out of that sling, you can dust all you want.” Cane in one hand, duster in the other, Rose made her way to the front shelves and set to work. I can’t believe he pulled such a stunt in front of Tay. What was he think—

“Give me that.” Luke had appeared at her side and claimed the duster. “I have two hands, you know.”

She started to argue, but had to admit he was doing pretty well with his other hand. She sat down in one of the overstuffed reading chairs that were sitting about the bookstore. “Just what have you and Tay found out so far? And don’t give me generalities. I want specifics. You hardly tell me a thing, and I eat two meals a day with you.”

“It’s not a secret. So far, we’ve found evidence that it’s quite probable that Sarafina knew William well, which is no surprise, considering the letters the Doves found in that vault in their chimney. But now we have some context. The Register ledgers show that not only did Sarafina report for the newspaper but William was being paid as an assistant for the photographer’s studio his uncle ran from the second floor.”

“So they probably saw each other often.”

“That’s what Tay thinks.” Luke straightened from where he’d been dusting a bottom shelf and fixed a calm and steady gaze on her. “You already knew all of this, though, as you read Tay’s notes every morning.”

She sniffed. “You know how I hate surprises.” She got up and reached for the book cart. “I’ll get the new stock unloaded.”

“Grandma, no. I’ll get it—”

“That wrist will not be picking up any boxes. I may have a bum hip, but after your impressively bad fall, the rest of me is in better shape than you.”

“I can’t let—”

“Shush. There’s just one box and it’s small, too. I’ll be back in a minute.” She hung her cane on the cart and pushed it to the back room, walking at a crisper pace than she normally would in order to keep him from following. It annoyed her to be treated like an invalid when she just had a touch of arthritis now and then and a hip that didn’t like movement. She found the box and headed for the front desk where the scan wand sat.

The front bell rang and Tay came in. This morning she was dressed in a pair of jeans, a large, boxy sweater with cream and tan stripes, and a pair of tan boots. It was funny, but even though Tay always seemed swallowed by her shapeless clothes, the effect was still feminine.

Luke had already turned toward her, a welcoming smile at the ready. “There you are.”

Tay joined him, her gaze instantly resting on his brace. “How are you feeling?”

“Me? I’m made of steel.” He flexed his good arm as he spoke.

Tay moved away. It was a tiny movement, no more than half a step, but Luke saw it at the same time Rose did. He flushed and dropped his arm.

Rose rolled her eyes. What had the boy been thinking to do something as corny as an arm flex? That sort of tomfoolery might have worked on a flirtatious woman like Kat Carter, but not the serious type like Tay Dove. Rose sent her clueless grandson a sour look. Lord, child, read the room.

“I’m sorry you fell.” Tay eyed the angry scrape on his jaw and made a face. “You got pretty scratched up.”

“I was lucky the ground around that tree was thick with dead leaves. But I’m doing okay. I’m not even taking any pain medicine this morning. Not a single— Oh. That reminds me. I need your phone number.”

Tay’s gaze returned to his face, her suspicion evident. “Why?”

Rose frowned. Goodness, why was this woman so touchy?

To his credit, Luke seemed unfazed by Tay’s reaction. “I need to send you the pictures I took yesterday, especially the ones of the tops of the headstones.”

“Ah.” Relief flickered across Tay’s face, although her cheeks re-mained pink. “Let me see your phone.”

He unlocked his phone and handed it to her.

She put in her number and then returned it. “I thought about those pictures last night, but I didn’t want to bother you.”

“I wouldn’t have been bothered at all.” He bent over his phone. A moment later, he said, “There. You should have them all.”

“Thank you.” She sent him a guilty look. “Again, I’m really sorry you got hurt yesterday. I never should have asked you to climb that tree.”

Luke shrugged, and then winced. “Forget about it. I have to say, though, before my dive to the ground, it was a lot of fun. I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie.”

“This job isn’t usually so exciting.”

“Really? I guess I’m just lucky, then. By the way, I have an idea about the tombstones. You were right about needing a photo from above.”

She moved a little closer to him. “What did you see?”

“A lot.” He swiped his phone to a certain photo. “This is the one I took right before I fell. See the markings on the tops of some of the tombstones?”

She nodded. “There are chipped places and those lines. So?”

“Think of them as dots and dashes.”

She slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. “Morse code!”

Rose frowned. Darn it, I asked him what he’d found out and he never mentioned that to me.

Luke grinned, looking as pleased as a cat with cream. “It’s an anagram. The letters are a-n-t-n-f-u-n-i-o-w-t-o .” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his jeans pocket and handed it to her. “I wrote them down for you.”

She took it eagerly. “Luke, this is fabulous! I wonder what it spells.”

He put his good elbow on a nearby shelf and leaned on it, and Rose noticed how close his face was to Tay’s as they looked at the notebook paper together.

Tay shook her head in wonder. “We should work on it now. Do you have time?”

Rose was surprised at the warmth in Tay’s voice. Well, well, well. Luke may be able to recover from his own silliness after all.

Luke grinned. “Me? I have nothing but time.”

Tay stared at the paper. “I had a thought last night. I’ve always assumed that the family secret had something to do with Sarafina and David Tau. But the fact that William Day was buried in that cemetery makes me wonder if that’s true. What if the secret Sarafina was going to share with her daughter involved William in some way?”

“Wait. That’s… You’re not suggesting that William might be Lucy’s father rather than David?”

“No! William died years before Lucy was born. It can’t be that. I just… I don’t know. It was just a thought.”

“We’ll keep it in mind,” Luke said. “I’m getting more and more curious about this secret, though.”

Rose wished they would quit talking about William Day.

Luke absently toyed with the strap on his wrist brace. “Do you think the secret had to do with the gold?”

“Maybe, but…” She bit her lip. “It’s possible, although Sarafina and David left Lucy very well provided for.”

Luke frowned. “So Lucy was already well-off.”

“She was Sarafina and David Tau’s only heir. On top of that, her French husband came from a wealthy wine family.”

“Maybe that’s why Sarafina wasn’t more insistent about her daughter following the clues. Because Lucy didn’t need more money.”

“The wording in that letter, plus the fact that Sarafina hid the end result with what appears to be layers of riddles, makes me think she wanted Lucy to reflect really, really hard about whether she really wanted to know this particular family secret. Which leads me to believe that, whatever it was, it might have been upsetting to Lucy in some way.”

All this talk about whether there was gold made Rose nervous just listening in. Determined to put an end to Tay and Luke’s conjecturing, she grabbed the book cart and pushed it closer to them. “Sorry to break up your little meeting but, Tay, you should know that people in town are beginning to talk about you and Luke searching for the lost Day gold.”

Tay grimaced. “I know. My sisters were buzzing about it last night after I got home. People are saying we’re close to finding it, which is about as far from the truth as you can get.”

“What are you going to do about that?”

“I don’t know what I can do. I’ve told everyone that we have no way of knowing what the end result of this quest will be, but no one seems to be paying any attention.”

“Why would they?” Rose said glumly. “It’s more fun to think there’s a pot of gold at the end of this search. If I was honest, I’d admit that I wish there was, too.” She caught Luke’s suddenly worried look and, to distract him, picked up the small stack of new books on her cart and shoved them into his hands. “Here. Shelve these.”

“But Tay and I were just going to—”

“I’ll wait for you,” Tay said. “I’m going to email these photos to the drugstore and get prints for my records.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I’m done.” Luke watched as she left. As soon as Tay’s office door closed, he started shelving the books Rose had given him.

Rose watched him work. It seemed that Luke and Tay were getting along pretty well, despite his being chump enough to fall out of a tree right in front of her. It also appeared that, because of their little foray into the cemetery, their little town was about to wake up to the once-dead whispers of William Day’s lost gold.

The bell rang as the door opened and some customers came in. Luke called out a welcome while Rose went to her spot behind the counter. The first thing tomorrow morning, she’d comb through Tay’s research notes and see just what those two crazy kids were getting into. “I wish they’d tell me,” she muttered to herself. “But that’s what I do. I read and I know things.”

Boy, if that didn’t describe her life, she didn’t know what else would.