Chapter 26
Briar
Briar watched from the parking lot as the counselors closed the cabins up for the summer, dragging mattresses into storage and deep cleaning the bunks. How children got so sticky was still a mystery to Briar, but the phenomenon required thorough scrubbing of all surfaces.
She might be giving them pointless work to maintain a camp that was soon to become hunting grounds.
In minutes, she would be showing the potential buyers around, while hopefully avoiding anyone finding out.
It was hot, and sweat dripped out of every pore on her body.
There was no place she wanted to be less.
As a car appeared in the distance, Briar wrangled her emotions into less complicated shapes, pulling herself into the charming persona she used at the bar.
‘Hey there,’ she called to the man who stepped out of the car.
He was tall, dressed simply in khakis and a blue shirt, but the fit of them screamed custom tailoring.
His wife wore a large woven hat and a dress so white it was hard to look at in the direct sunlight.
Neither of them had broken a sweat yet, and Briar felt disgusting in comparison.
‘You must be Ms. Elwood,’ the man said, his voice booming with a Southern twang. He put out his hand for Briar to shake. ‘I’m Sonny Randolph and this is my wife, Gladys.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Briar said. ‘Mr. Lavish said you wanted a tour. Anything in particular you wanted to see?’
‘Just want to get a sense of the land,’ Sonny said. ‘Whatever you want to show us.’
‘I’d like to see the kitchen,’ Gladys said.
Briar nodded, trying not to cringe at the thought of bringing them into the thick of the action. ‘Sure, okay.’
She led them towards the cluster of cabins off the main green.
‘So, I’ll start with the mess hall. It’s got a full chef’s kitchen. It’s also the only building that’s winterized.’
She glanced back, trying to discern if the thought of having to install heating units in the cabins made any impact on their opinion of the property, but Sonny’s opaque aviators made it impossible to tell.
She pulled open the doors to the mess hall, which was thankfully empty. The tables had been folded and stacked against the far wall, making the room look bigger.
Gladys clapped her hands. ‘Oh honey, look at the skylights!’
Briar smiled tightly. ‘Yeah, it’s a good space. We can fit 150 in here for meals. Of course, that’s children, so it will be fewer with full-sized humans.’
She’d meant it as a joke, but they ignored her, walking into the middle of the room.
‘What do you think?’ Gladys asked, pointing to the far side of the room. ‘We can add the wet bar and dining table over there and leave this side for the living space.’
Briar squinted, trying to picture the room with real furniture and not donations from local elementary school cafeterias.
‘Let me show you the kitchen,’ Briar said, guiding them. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Cook, since he should’ve been at least six hours into his twenty-four-hour post-camp nap. They blinked at each other before Briar realized she was blocking the Randolphs.
‘Um, this is our cook,’ Briar said, stepping aside. Cook gave the Randolphs a withering look.
‘How do you do?’ he asked, bowing his head. Briar was pretty sure only she could tell he was doing it mockingly.
Sonny smiled and clapped Cook on the back. ‘An Englishman! Amazing.’
‘I’m Scottish,’ Cook corrected, but Sonny didn’t seem to hear.
‘The Randolphs are thinking about buying the camp,’ Briar said awkwardly, and Cook’s eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline.
‘Are they now?’ he said, sizing them up more aggressively. Briar knew she only had a few moments before Cook went feral.
She began ushering the Randolphs away from him. ‘Like I said, this kitchen could feed a small army, so you should have everything you need.’
Gladys evaded Briar’s herding, surveying the room. ‘I think we’ll have to gut it.’
Briar gritted her teeth, refusing to look at Cook. ‘Right,’ she said brightly, grabbing the Randolphs by the shoulders and spinning them out the door.
‘Your cook’s quite a character,’ Sonny said.
‘Haha, yeah.’ She couldn’t get the image of Cook’s face when she’d mentioned selling the camp out of her head.
Briar took them along the path to the lake, then reversed direction skillfully as she spotted Freddie. He was another person she didn’t want to meet the Randolphs – she still hadn’t figured out what to do about his visa.
Looping around, she pointed out the archery range and the greenhouse as they made their way towards the camp entrance.
The last stop on the tour was the director’s cabin.
‘This is the smallest of the residential cabins,’ Briar said, showing them into the hall. ‘Bedroom to the left, office to the right.’
‘I think we could keep the rifles here,’ Sonny said from the office doorway. ‘Build custom shelves along that back wall.’
Briar blanched, her stomach flipping at the thought of her mother’s books and furniture being replaced by guns, ammo and neon orange beanies.
‘Well,’ she said, clapping her hands together, ‘is there anything else you needed to see?’
The Randolphs took the hint and followed her out the door. She led them back to their car and shook their hands again. Sonny said he’d put an offer in on Monday.
‘I think you’ll be pretty pleased with the number,’ he said, winking as he slid into the driver’s seat. Briar repressed the urge to scowl as she watched them drive off, the wheels kicking up a dust storm down the drive.
‘Bri,’ came a small voice on the other end of the line. ‘I messed up.’
‘What happened?’ Any residual tiredness from being awoken by the phone ringing at 3 a.m. left Briar at the sound of her sister’s panicked voice.
‘I got the date wrong,’ Hazel said. ‘I thought I had another week, but my bio final is due today and I haven’t even started.’
Before Briar’s brain could fully understand the problem, she said, ‘We’ll figure it out. It’s gonna be okay.’
‘I can’t fail this,’ Hazel cried. ‘I won’t graduate.’
‘You’re going to graduate,’ Briar said emphatically, her gaze flicking up at a creak in the floor, catching Alice’s eye as she peered into the hall.
‘You said it was a bio final?’ Briar said, as Alice came over. ‘Luckily, I happen to know an expert.’
Alice took the phone from Briar, turning the speaker on. ‘How can I help?’
Hazel launched into a complex explanation of spore patterns, talking so fast it made Briar’s head spin. But Alice just nodded along, slipping into the office to grab a pencil to take notes. Briar left them, heading toward the mess hall.
She heated water on the stove, then rummaged through the pantry for snacks. She stuffed what she could into a bag and poured the boiling water into a mug, grabbing teabags on her way out the door.
By the time she returned to the director’s cabin, Alice was wide awake, pencil tucked behind her ear and hands steepled as she rapidly dictated into the receiver. From the furious clicking sounds on the other end, Briar could only assume that Hazel was typing every word.
She laid out her bounty on the floor. Alice’s face brightened at the sight of Twinkies, and she made a grabbing motion. Briar tossed it over.
It occurred to her that she should probably be angry.
She’d reminded the twins they needed to finish their schoolwork, and she’d raised them to understand that leaving it until the last minute was irresponsible.
But hearing Alice’s calm tone made it impossible to feel anything but safe; she knew everything would work out.
Briar could be disappointed in Hazel at a more reasonable hour.
She pulled a knee up to her chest and rested her head on it. Tiredness returned to her bones, and her eyes slowly shut as she listened to Alice’s voice.
‘Briar?’ Briar hummed in response, just on the edge of sleep. She felt a hand on her shoulder. ‘Hey, go back to bed. I got this.’
Briar blinked up at Alice. The light in the hall had shifted slightly, and Briar had no sense of how long she’d been asleep.
‘Haze?’
‘I’m still here,’ Hazel’s voice sounded small over the speaker, but there was no longer any panic in it. ‘Ally gave me an outline. I think it’s gonna be okay.’
‘It definitely will be,’ Alice said, grabbing Briar’s hand and pulling her up. ‘You basically had all the research done. You were in a much better position than you thought. You just needed some help organizing it.’
Briar’s heart clenched at the warmth in Alice’s tone, her sleepy brain supplying her with pictures of Alice working with her students, of what her life in academia must be like.
She found herself jealous of Alice’s future Royal Botanical Society colleagues, of the people who would benefit from her brilliance every day.
They didn’t know how lucky they would be, how they had taken her from someone an ocean away.
Then she crawled back into bed, wrapping the blankets tightly around her and hugging a pillow to her chest, feeling safer than she had in years, but at the same time, intensely scared of what she was about to lose.