51. Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Eight
E dna Knickerbocker was on her way over. She’d called after dinner and said she had something to give to Nadine and would be over right after the six o’clock news. Nadine had been tempted to ask what it was, in case it wasn’t something she needed and could kindly decline, but the older woman was acting mysteriously, and ended the call before Nadine could ask anything.
Edna pulled up by seven, and Nadine went out to meet her.
“Do you think you could give me a hand with this box?” Edna asked, standing next to the trunk of her car. “I’ve got a tricky back.” To add emphasis, she placed her hand on the small of her back.
Herman followed Nadine around the side of the car to the open trunk. Bending her knees to mind her own back, Nadine carefully lifted the cardboard box from the trunk and hefted it out, carrying it quickly to the porch as it was heavy.
She invited Edna in, wanting to show her all the renovations. She set the box down in the front hall. The house was quiet.
The Silvermans and the Jensens were out in their hot air balloons. They were avid enthusiasts and showed up every year for the festival. They’d tried to talk Nadine into accompanying them. They were going offshore and returning later, landing in some farmer’s field. Nadine begged off, confessing she was terrified of heights. But they were able to convince Carlton to join them, and Nadine was glad he was getting out and experiencing some of the wonderful things Lavender Bay had to offer.
Edna walked slowly around the front hall, the parlor, the dining room, the library, and the kitchen. Nadine was proud of the renovations that had been done. The hardwood floors gleamed with refinishing, and there was expensive wallpaper from a stockist in London covering the walls in the parlor and dining room. New furniture had been purchased to offer her guests comfort. The library shelves were filled with books, and there was a vintage partners desk in great shape that had been sourced by Aunt Gail. As ever, the large back window offered the view of Lake Erie. The kitchen had undergone a complete overhaul to get it up to code, and it was now state of the art .
Edna stood in the middle of the parlor, whose double-wide entrance looked out onto the front hall, the dining room on the other side, and the grand staircase. She threw her hands to her cheeks and whispered, “Nadine, you’ve done some wonderful things here.”
This pleased her, because Edna had been in and out of this house growing up and would remember how it used to be. The goal had always been to preserve the house’s wonderful features while bringing it into the twenty-first century.
“How I wish Aunt Lenore could see this,” Edna said, her gaze wandering around the rooms. “She would have loved what you did to the place.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Nadine said.
“You know, when my grandparents died, Aunt Lenore and my mother received a significant inheritance, and Aunt Lenore used hers to upgrade the house. That’s when all the bedrooms had their own bathrooms added.” Edna smacked her forehead, and Nadine’s eyes widened in alarm.
“The box!” Edna said. “I forgot about the box.” She took off for the front hall. The woman had to be in her mid-eighties, but she was pretty spry. She bent over and opened the box and began to pull things out.
“I thought you might like some of these old things from the house.” With her hands full, she straightened up and said, “And now that I’ve seen what you’ve done with the place, I know I’ve made the right decision to hand this stuff over to you.”
Edna handed Lenore a framed black-and-white photograph and with a gnarled finger, pointed at the people in the image, gathered on the front porch steps. “On the top step is Aunt Lenore and Johnny. He must have been about five there. Sitting next to them is Hilda. She’d been with my grandparents and then came to Lenore after her husband died. On the step beneath them is Harriet and Alistair Young. They were boarders here, met, fell in love, and got married. Their family still live here in Lavender Bay.”
“How romantic!” Nadine studied the photo, loving to see the people of the past, especially Lenore Hadley. She studied each of their faces.
“That was before the war, because Alistair came home missing a leg,” Edna said matter-of-factly.
“How awful!” Nadine studied Alistair, who was so young-looking in the photo.
“He did all right. He and Harriet went on to have a pile of children,” Edna said with a wink. She picked up a stack of loose photos. “These are more photos of the Hadleys and their boarders and of the house itself. Maybe you’d like to display them.”
“I most certainly would,” Nadine said, thinking she’d buy picture frames and hang the photos around various parts of the house. There was a photo of a large gathering around the dining room table. On the white border beneath the image, Christmas 1950 had been written in black ink. This would be perfect for the dining room.
“And look what Johnny saved.” Edna showed her a large wooden plaque, stained and glossy and engraved in black script. Mrs. Hadley’s Boarding House .
“This is wonderful!” Nadine imagined it hanging in a place of honor in the front hall. She looked at the older woman, her heart full of gratitude for her generosity. “I can’t thank you enough, Edna. These items are wonderful.”
“I’m relieved you think so,” Edna replied. “A lot of people don’t care for the old stuff, and they end up throwing it in the garbage can.”
Nadine shook her head. “No, Edna, rest assured, I will home all of these things.”
“Wonderful. Now, there are more photos you can go through on your own time, as well as all the ledgers my aunt used for her bookkeeping.”
Nadine looked forward to going through those things in the evenings when things settled down.
Edna left the box on the floor.
“Would you like a glass of homemade iced tea or lemonade?” Nadine asked. She made sure to keep plenty on hand for her guests.
“I wouldn’t mind a glass of iced tea,” Edna said. “But no lemonade for me. Love the stuff but it makes me belch. ”
“All right.”
Nadine invited Edna out onto the back porch. Nadine carried two glasses of iced tea with her, and Edna closed the door behind them, but not before Herman backed out to join them.
“That’s one strange dog you got there,” Edna said, shaking her head.
“I know, but he is very loveable.”
“He’d have to be with that kind of behavior.”
They made themselves comfortable in the new wicker furniture Nadine had recently purchased. The cushions were thick and plump. She knew the professor liked to sit out from time to time when he wasn’t using the library.
They looked at the lake and marveled at the colorful hot air balloons dotting the golden-hued sky. In the distance she spotted the Silvermans’ balloon in repeating geometric patterns of turquoise, yellow, and orange. But they were too far away for her to make out their faces. She’d be curious to see what Carlton thought of it, considering this was the opposite of what he was used to, spending most of his time underwater, looking for shipwrecks, instead of above it.
They spoke of general things, of news around the bay and upcoming events. Edna appeared to know just about everything going on around town. Soon the conversation turned back to the Hadleys .
“So Johnny Hadley never had any interest in living in Lavender Bay?” Nadine asked.
“Initially, we all thought he’d return, including Aunt Lenore. But you know how it is. Some people move away with the intention of returning someday, but then they get settled in their new community and they start building a life. I think that was true of Johnny. He loved his career, and he loved Chicago. The fact that his father was originally from there might have played into it as well. But he never returned and at the end of her life, Aunt Lenore went to Chicago to live with him.”
“She must have been heartbroken to leave the house and Lavender Bay.”
“She was and she wasn’t. Having been widowed so young, Johnny was her life. It was like her heart was walking around outside her body.”
Nadine could certainly relate to that. It was how she felt about Emma.
“Although she cried when she left, I know she was happy living with Johnny. They were always very close.”
“I’m surprised you were made the executor of Johnny Hadley’s will and not Edith.”
It was dangerous territory that Nadine was stepping into, and she knew it. Edith Bermingham, or Mrs. B as she was known in Lavender Bay, was Edna’s only sibling. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other in years. Decades. Their estrangement was as accepted as the fact that the winters could be bleak on the beaches of Lavender Bay. Nadine was nosing around, trying to see if there had been any rapprochement on their parts. At their age, it might be time to bury the hatchet.
Edna let out a bark of laughter. “I’m not surprised at all! Edith is too much like my mother.” She beamed and said proudly, “I always took after Dad.”
So, there had been no reconciliation. How sad. Old wounds festered for a long time, Nadine supposed. She changed the subject and inquired after Edna’s health, which was the older woman’s favorite subject, and Edna was off like a flash, diving into a litany of medical complaints. Nadine got comfortable and smiled, continuing to watch the vibrant colored balloons floating across the sky.
As Edna continued with her list of complaints and Nadine asked appropriate questions, she thought the decision to move back to Lavender Bay, though impulsive, had proved to be the correct one.
Because she was happy, and at peace.
***