Chapter 18
The next morning, Alethea made it a point to steer clear of Brent at all costs. She had been genuinely surprised to see his bright white F350 pull into the driveway at 7:59 on the dot, shattering her certainty that yet another contractor had run away from the spooky goings-on in the old Victorian. Staying in the cottage as long as possible until Danica finally kicked her out so she could begin her classes, she reluctantly went over to the house. Her plan was to grab a Jane Austen novel and hightail it up to the tower reading room before she had a chance to bump into Brent. She picked out a book from the thin étagère in the drawing room and was almost at the stairs when she heard Brent’s deep voice coming from across the entryway.
“There you are. I was hoping that we could talk this morning, if you had a free moment?”
She cringed. There was no way possible to mentally prepare for this conversation. Oh yes, of course, you must want to chat about the fact that I can hover in midair like some kind of wizard? At least if she was a wizard, she might have some useful powers. Instead everything that was happening to her just made her feel like a freak. “Uh, sure.” She turned around and faced him, trying not to look directly at his piercing green eyes, or inhale too much of his intoxicating scent.
“I wanted to ask you a few questions about the window before I got any further with it.”
A wave of relief washed over her and she visibly relaxed. “Absolutely, go ahead.”
He looked at her quizzically. “What did you think I was going to ask you?”
She stalled for a moment, thinking of something to say. “Uh, I thought you were going to tell me you needed more money.” It was a white lie and one she hoped was believable.
“No, no, nothing like that.” His smile was reassuring. “I was just wondering if you’d be opposed to a different design. Without the original materials, I haven’t been able to make an exact replica of the floral collage but I started working on something I think is even better. Don’t worry, it’ll stay true to the original aesthetic of the window, I’ll use the same flowers and color palette. I think you’ll find it beautiful.” His eyes looked at her intently and she felt like she was being drawn into them. “I know I certainly do.”
“Um, yeah, sounds good. I trust you.” Alethea snapped her mouth shut but it was too late, the words had already escaped. It was the truth, though. She did trust him despite all her efforts to the contrary.
Beaming, his smile washed away all hints of trepidation that had been there a minute ago. “Great! You won’t be disappointed, I promise.” He was about to walk away when he turned back towards her. “Oh, and one more thing.” His hand hesitated for a moment before reaching into his pocket, and he handed her a yellowed recipe card, faded from age. “It’s my grandma’s tea recipe. It took me a while to find it yesterday, but there it was in one of her old boxes in storage. I’m pretty sure all the herbs you need for it are growing in your garden.”
She took the card from him, forcing herself to ignore the feeling of static electricity that thrummed as her hand neared his. Had this been what he had run off to go do yesterday, to dig through old boxes to look for a recipe for her? “What garden?” she asked him. “You mean that overgrown patch of weeds in the backyard?” She laughed at that. “I highly doubt any herbs are alive in that mess, it looks like nothing back there but sedge and thistles.”
“I don’t know, herbs can be surprisingly tenacious. I bet if you cleared out the weeds you’d be surprised.”
“Maybe, but it’ll be easier just to mow down the whole space and start fresh. I was thinking about planting some drought-tolerant ground cover. An Airbnb needs to have a yard that’s as low-maintenance as possible.” As she spoke, she noticed that he looked a little disappointed. She hadn’t meant to come across as ungrateful for his grandmother’s recipe. He had obviously gone through a decent amount of effort to get it for her. “I’ll ask Priya to pick up the ingredients for the tea when she’s at the farmer’s market this weekend. This was thoughtful of you, thanks Brent.”
He nodded and gave her a quick smile. “I should get back to work. Thanks again for your blessing on the window.”
If he had planned on saying anything further it was cut off by the sound of Priya clattering down the stairs. “Al, you have to come see this!” Priya dashed into the room and grabbed Alethea by the arm, almost pulling her along behind her.
Alethea laughed and wiggled free from her grip. “Okay okay, I’m coming!” The excitement plastered across Priya’s face made it clear she had made a significant discovery in the attic. She had been bringing down different relics all week to show Alethea and Danica, an opal broach in the shape of a scarab beetle, a pair of intricately decorated silver candlesticks, and a bronze unicorn bookend were some of the favorite finds so far. Twice she had insisted they go up into the attic to see various pieces of furniture that were too heavy for her to drag down herself. She had gone through about three-fourths of the contents of the attic so far and had mentally staged most of the house already from the treasure trove of furniture and decorative items that all miraculously seemed to be in pristine condition.
“I still can’t get over how perfectly preserved everything is up here, it’s unreal.” Priya led the way, as they walked through one of the narrow pathways towards the east corner of the attic.
Alethea looked around at the drop cloths covering the larger objects and up at the rafters high above them, agreeing with her friend. They had been here almost a month now and there was still not a single bit of dust in sight. That was odd, wasn’t it? Come to think of it, beyond picking up after themselves and doing the dishes, the house hadn’t really needed to be cleaned yet. She hadn’t vacuumed or dusted even once and there were never any fingerprints or smudge marks to be found. She had just assumed that Priya, her neat-freak of a friend, had been cleaning up after them, but now she suddenly wasn’t so sure.
“Here it is.” Priya motioned to a medium-sized hope chest that from the smell of it had been crafted from pure cedar. It was intricately carved in a winding pattern of ivy and calla lilies, the fine detail work of exceptional quality.
“Take a look.” Priya pointed to the center of the chest where an oval photograph was inset, bordered by a frame of mother-of-pearl inlay. The photo was extremely detailed and in extraordinarily good condition for its obvious age, and there in the center was a woman whose eyes Alethea knew through and through, staring back at her. A woman who looked like she could be Alethea’s identical twin!
“Whoa.” It was all she could say and it came out in a hushed tone.
“I know, right? This is definitely your ancestor! How cool is that?” Priya was beaming at her discovery. “I didn’t want to open it, I wanted to give you the honors.”
Alethea smiled at her friend’s thoughtfulness. “Thanks, Priya.” Bending down, she tried to pull up the heavy latch but it seemed to be stuck. She tried again but was careful not to use too much force, she didn’t want to do any accidental damage to the antique hardware. Frustratingly, she couldn’t get it to move. Looking at it more closely, she ran her fingers over the cool metal where a single lily was etched in relief. “Maybe we should bring it down and have Brent take a look.” She couldn’t believe she was actually suggesting an intentional interaction with that man, but she was too intrigued by the trunk not to. The woman who’s dowry this had been was a spitting image of herself, so much so that it was almost spooky.
Priya came over to the other side and tried to lift the solid cedar chest. “Okay, well, that’s not going to happen. Let me run down and see if Brent can come up instead.”
Alethea rested her hand on the solid planks of the perfectly smooth cedar. She instantly felt connected to this woman in the old sepia print and was eager to discover the contents of the trunk. Which one of the many women in her line was she? Could it be her great-great-great-grandmother, Beatrice, the original mistress of the house?
She heard the sound of Priya’s voice and Brent’s footsteps coming up the stairs, so she moved over to the other side of the trunk, giving him room to bend down and inspect the latch. He squinted and held his phone up, using the screen like a flashlight to get a good view of the metal hardware.
“Hmm, there’s no obvious damage.” He tried giving it a soft jiggle, attempting to lift the latch with a surprising delicacy for hands that large. “No luck.” He stood up and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “If we can bring it downstairs where there’s more space, maybe I can get a better look. Let’s see if we can all lift it together.” The three of them took positions around the trunk and heaved on the count of three. The trunk didn’t even budge.
Brent was astonished. “Wow, what the heck is in there, lead?”
Dandelion jumped up on the chest and let out a loud, “MEOW!”
“Hey, you shouldn’t be up here. Come on, let’s go back downstairs.” Alethea bent over her cat, who was busy batting at the latch. “No no, don’t touch that.” She picked up the squirming feline and held her firmly in arms, despite her attempts to wriggle free. Unable to help herself, she touched the chest one last time with the palm of her hand before they made their way out of the attic and down the stairs, sorry to have to leave it up in the attic, unopened.
….
That night the three friends decided to make s’mores, or at least Priya’s gourmet version of the classic camping treat, and got a good sized fire going in the steel fire pit in the backyard. The deep, metal bowl was big enough to hold a large stack of wood. Priya had made the marshmallows from scratch earlier in the day, and the melty, gooey vanilla puffs tasted like pure heaven, sandwiched in between dark chocolate and shortbread.
“I can’t believe the summer is halfway over already.” Danica’s expression was made to look even more meditative by the light of the flickering flames shining on her face.
“Me neither. I’m dying to get home and see Jake of course but I’m really going to miss this place when the summer’s over. And our time together.” Priya smiled at the other two women. “I didn’t realize how badly I had been missing something like this from my life. I mean really, how often do you get to spend a summer out in the country with your best friends once you become ‘an adult’?” She used air quotes around the last two words.
“So true. I’ll never forget this summer.” Danica’s tone was almost wistful.
“Me neither,” said Alethea, but for reasons much more complicated than just the time spent with her friends.
“Oh hey, before I forget! You two are coming hiking with me tomorrow. I found this trail that has an epic view that you guys have to see!”
Priya rolled her eyes and laughed. “Well it’s a good thing I’m free!”
Alethea joined in with their laughter. Hiking sounded like a great idea, actually. She could hardly wait.
Dandelion hadn’t gone outsidewith the others. She was perfectly content to stay inside hidden away on a pile of pillows in a wardrobe on the second floor. Being back home made it much easier to avoid the humans when she wanted to. Why did they have to be so difficult all the time? She was still indignant at the injustice she had suffered, and in front of Zachery’s owner of all things. Alethea hadn’t needed to manhandle her that way, that really was excessive. She licked her fur even harder at the thought, working hard to get all of her hair smoothed back down, just so. A feline must always look her best, no matter what the circumstances. The most frustrating part was that she had been so close! Now, back to strategizing how to get Alethea to open that trunk.