Chapter Fourteen
Sonya thought of the summer gathering as an evening with family. The Doyles had become hers. Cleo’s laser focus on food, drink, and presentation made it an exceptional evening with family.
Food ranked as top conversation topic at the start of the meal.
“Flank steak happens to be my specialty.” Ace took his rare and nodded at Cleo. “I’ve met my match.”
“It’s hard to believe you didn’t cook before you came to Poole’s Bay,” Corrine commented.
“I can verify that.” With her wineglass, Winter gestured at Cleo, then Sonya. “Neither of them had the slightest interest. Oh, they’d pitch in.”
“I’m an excellent chopper/stirrer,” Sonya claimed. “And that’s what I did a lot of for this spread, as that’s what Cleo assigned to me. There’s a lot of my knife work in that potato salad.”
“Which is excellent. Zippy,” Paula said as she took another bite.
“Creole. I had to order the Creole mustard, as you Yankees don’t stock it locally.”
“And what makes it Creole mustard?” Deuce wondered.
Cleo winked at him. “The zip.”
He laughed. “Works. And your chopping, Sonya, really polishes it off.”
“You have a flair for it,” her mother said. “And you, to your credit—or mine, since I raised you—never failed to clean up after a meal.”
“Now we have Molly.”
“Oh boy.” Seth hunched his shoulders at the mention of ghosts.
Anna patted his arm. “I’ll keep you safe.”
“Molly’s a jewel.” Sonya smiled over at Seth. “And as benign as they come.”
“She is,” Winter agreed. “I can’t say I’m used to all of it, but there’s something about coming out of the shower in the morning, finding your bed made. And your clothes laid out.”
“Something creepy” was Seth’s opinion.
“She takes good care of the wood.” Owen glanced toward the house as he sipped his beer. “She might have some help with it, who knows, but the furniture, the millwork, the floors? You’ve got to have some love in you to take that kind of care.”
“There’s one who waters the pots. Eleanor, right?”
“Right, Mom. Jerome—he stacks wood, I think he weeds, as we never have to. And we would. There’s Rita—”
“You actually give them names?”
“Those are their names,” Sonya told Seth.
“How do you know?”
“Clover told us.”
“And it just gets creepier.”
“Her musical stylings.” Never one to pass up teasing his brother-in-law, Trey took out his phone, set it beside his plate. “Give Seth a tune, Clover.”
Willing to play, Clover went with Blue ?yster Cult. “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” sang out.
“That’s just … I don’t know what that is.”
“Communication,” Owen told him. “Like the Creole mustard, it’s got a zip that works.”
“There’s a kid,” Trey pushed on. “Jack. He plays with the dogs, and the cat. Draws pictures. They’ve got one on the fridge.”
“You’ve got a ghost drawing on your refrigerator?”
“He’d have been an artist if he’d lived.” Cleo bit into a slice of Winter’s bread. “He has talent.”
“Was he a Poole?” Corrine wondered.
“Yes,” Sonya told her. “He died when he was nine. A fever took him. When I first got here, he played tricks on me. I’d come into the kitchen, and all the cabinet doors would be open, the stools lying on the floor. And yes,” she said to Seth, “it did creep me out.”
“Finally!”
“But then I got Yoda, and, well, a boy and a dog. Most days when I’m working, I can hear them playing fetch down in the hall.”
“We got used to each other,” Cleo put in. “And built up trust. Sonya bought him an art kit.”
“Nobody finds that weird?” Seth looked around the table. “Nobody?”
“It’s life at the manor,” Sonya said. “And the trust is important. He let Cleo and me see him in the yard with Yoda. Just a little boy in those short pants with the…” She gestured.
“Suspenders,” Deuce murmured.
“Yes. I caught a glimpse once before, but he ran from me. This time, he turned, grinned, waved. It…” She pressed a hand to her heart.
“Misty moment,” Cleo finished.
“I’ll say again, Collin chose well.” Ace lifted his glass. “Here’s to the ladies of Lost Bride Manor.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Seth lifted his, then looked at his wife. “But I’ll tell you, honey, we’re never moving from our unhaunted house.”
“You’ll be dealing with cries in the night soon enough.” Ace added a wink. “From my great-granddaughter.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” Paula shifted. “I saw the mural in the nursery. Cleo, Sonya, it’s just magical.”
“That was the goal. But Cleo’s got the lion’s share there, too. I’m the designated assistant. It’s like chopping.”
“Sonya minimizes her artistic talents.”
“My fine art talents.”
“Which she has.”
“She’s got a painting she did of the tree out front in the, what is it?” Trey had to think. “The gift-wrapping room.”
“Where once again we hauled furniture in and out,” Owen remembered. “We’re the designated muscle around here.”
“You have a gift-wrapping room?” Anna looked back at the manor with delight. “I have to see it.”
“We’ll show you. And Cleo’s using Collin’s office, so a few changes there. We’ve found so many treasures, big ones, small ones, in storage. We’re making use of them where it makes sense.”
“Which involves hauling furniture.”
“Strong and strapping,” Cleo purred so Owen just shook his head.
“What’s this I hear about a Poole family gallery? Corrine brought me and my own darling a few pictures to identify when she and Deuce couldn’t.”
“Poole Family and Friends Gallery. We’re going to— Not to scare Seth again.”
“No.” He looked at Sonya with a plea. “Let’s not scare Seth again.”
“So I’ll just say, when we have control of the Gold Room again on the third floor, we’ll make it a kind of Poole history gallery. And since we’re finding so many of those treasures stored away—hair combs, a kid glove, an old yo-yo, invitations, and more—we’re going to display them.”
Deuce looked down at his plate a moment, then lifted those blue eyes to Sonya.
“I didn’t know what to expect or hope for that day I knocked on your door in Boston. A part of me still grieved the loss of my oldest and closest friend. I wanted, so much, to honor his wishes, and wanted to persuade you to at least consider coming here.”
“You were honest, and that was persuasive.”
“You gave Sonya, and me,” Winter added, “family we didn’t know we had.”
“That was Collin’s wish, or one of them. What I didn’t know that day was you would honor not only his wishes but the dreams he had before he lost Johanna.”
“They’re my dreams now, too.”
“Tell us about some of them,” Corrine prompted. “What you plan.”
“Oh, well. Top goal has to be finding seven wedding rings and how they’ll move someone who won’t be named at the moment out of the manor. In the meantime, we’ll keep going through everything in storage, making use. Taking ownership, one room at a time.”
“I now have a gorgeous vanity in the room I use when I’m here.”
“It was Catherine’s, and that was her room. We put it back. And we found a desk that was Lisbeth’s, and it’s in the room she had. Eventually, I’m hoping to tackle the servants’ quarters, find a use for them, furnish them, and hopefully that lightens up the ballroom so we can open it again.”
“We’d throw some blow-up-your skirt holiday parties with a ballroom.”
Sonya grinned at Cleo. “Wouldn’t we? And there’s a space up there where we’re talking about displaying some of the amazing clothes stored in trunks.
A kind of fashion history. If Poole’s Bay had a museum, or there was a way to help fund one, we could donate or lend—whatever it would be—at least some of them. They’ve been beautifully kept.”
“A museum.” Ace pursed his lips. “Hmm.”
“Seed planted,” Paula said.
“Let me give that some thought.”
“Those are very fine dreams.” Corrine’s wistful smile matched her tone. “Collin and Johanna shared some of them. I may not be strong and strapping like some at the table, but I hope if you need an extra hand, you’ll call on me. I’m a hell of an organizer.”
“I can attest,” Trey said.
When the meal ended, and Sonya got up to clear, everyone stood.
“No, please sit, relax.”
“Absolutely not.” Corrine continued stacking plates. “We all ate, we all help. Then, I’m with Anna. We want to see that gift-wrapping room.”
“We can take a little break before dessert.” Cleo led the way into the house.
“I heard a rumor about cream puffs.”
“That’s a fact,” Cleo told Ace. “And they’ll go perfectly with the peach ice cream we made last night.”
“Homemade peach ice cream.” Deuce pressed a hand to his belly. “Somebody should’ve told me.”
“Just stack everything up for now,” Sonya said. “A walk through the house, and upstairs, will help work up a dessert appetite.”
It took time to bring it all in before Sonya could lead the way.
“I see changes already. Good ones,” Corrine decided. “And you’ve framed some of the photos you found, too.”
“With names and approximate dates on the back. You all really helped us there,” Sonya told her. “You and Deuce, Ace and Paula. And Clarice Poole.”
“I remembered this one.” After giving Mookie a quick pat, Ace tapped a photo. “At a party when I was strong and strapping—and younger than these two. Michael and Patricia were already married, and living on the other side of the village.”
He angled his head in thought. “Michael came, as I recall. Patricia, of course, didn’t. A Poole cousin visited from New York or Boston, maybe Chicago. I danced with her a time or two. Julia—one of the Haverton line. Pretty girl. But not as pretty as my own darling.”
He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I do like dancing with pretty girls.”
“I’d worry if you didn’t.”
“In any case, it wasn’t long after this, if my memory serves, that Michael inherited the manor, and Patricia had it closed up.”
When they moved to the music room, Anna let out a breath. “The portraits. Trey told us you’d found more, but seeing them’s different than just hearing about them.”
“Pretty girls,” Paula said. “Well, this one.”
“Agatha,” Sonya supplied.
“More handsome than pretty.”
“Sonya found her wedding invitation,” Trey told them.
“I’m hoping we find others. It would be nice to display as many as we can.”