Chapter Eight #2
Her close encounter with the deer the night before still fresh in her mind, Kit drove slowly along the road leading to the farmhouse.
Hoping to cut down the time it would take to get to the front door and out of the cold, she hesitated only briefly before driving onto the grass and parking next to the front steps.
Who was there to object to tire marks on the front lawn? Certainly not her.
She climbed the steps holding the key to the front door. Once she’d unlocked it and stepped inside, she noticed a large sheet of paper taped to the newel post. Stepping forward, she read the note addressed to her and sighed with gratitude as she read:
I turned up the furnace so it wouldn’t be too cold when you got here. The thermostat is on the wall right inside the living room. Maxine always kept the oil tank full because she always said you never knew. Let me know when you need the trash taken out. Liam
Underneath his name he’d written his phone number.
“Bless your heart, Liam. Your mama and daddy raised you right,” she murmured as she entered his number into her phone contacts.
Kit located the thermostat and smiled. Liam had set it at an agreeable seventy-three degrees. He must have driven out here at the crack of dawn for the air in the house to be as comfortable as she found it.
She took off her coat, then dialed Liam’s number. At the voicemail prompt, she left a message expressing her thanks for his thoughtfulness.
Sliding her phone into her pocket, Kit went back into the front hall and stared up at the steps leading to the second floor. As if following a silent Siren’s song, she began to climb.
When she reached the top, she found a landing, a full square, with doors on two sides.
The third side was a set of steps leading upward, and the fourth led to a hallway, long and dark and leading to another door at the end.
She’d save that one for last, she decided, and she’d save exploring the third floor for another day.
She opened the door to her immediate right.
Her grandparents’ room, she thought as she surveyed the old-fashioned furniture: a four-poster bed, covered with a pale-blue sheet, and a tall chest and a long dresser with a tall mirror over it.
There were framed photos on the top of the dresser, positioned in such a way that none obscured the other.
Two weddings were immortalized in silver frames, including that of the grandparents she had never met.
A wave of sadness passed through her. It wasn’t right that Beth wasn’t there to share in whatever discoveries she might make.
Kit took her phone from her pocket and FaceTimed her sister.
Looking tired and pale, Beth appeared on the screen after the third ring. “Kit? Everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine. I’m exploring the second floor here in the farmhouse and I thought you might want to poke through things with me.”
“Oooh! I’d love to. Wait just a second. I’m at the café and I want to tell that fabulous son of yours that I’m slipping into the office for a few.”
Kit heard Beth’s muffled voice, then more distinctly, her son’s. “Hi, Mama! Find that buried treasure yet?”
“Still looking. Thanks for filling in for me at the café.” She lowered her voice as his face filled the screen. “Your aunt Beth looks tired. Does she seem okay? Why is she there so early? She should be home resting.”
“She was already here by the time I arrived this morning, so that’s a conversation you might want to have with her.”
“Could you keep an eye on her, maybe see who else is available to help out when you leave for the restaurant?”
“I got it covered, Mom. Abby got a sitter for this afternoon and she’ll be sending Aunt Beth home and staying until closing. And I’m going to keep an eye on the cash register. We’ll talk again. Here’s Aunt Beth. Keep in touch, Mama.” He grinned as he passed the phone to Beth.
“Why did you go in so early, Beth? Shouldn’t you be sleeping in?”
“I was awake, and I have a business to run. I can’t rely on my sister’s children to run it for me.”
“Of course you can.”
“Besides, I feel okay today, so I thought I’d open up, but Ned came in right after I did. He’s such a great kid. Wonderful with the customers, and so good to me,” Beth told her. “But why are you calling in the middle of the morning? I thought you weren’t going to call until tonight.”
“Well, I am standing in the bedroom I believe belonged to our grandparents.” Kit switched the angle of the phone so Beth could see the room. “There are some photos on the dresser, and I thought we could go through them together.”
“Oh, I’d love that. Thank you so much!” Beth rolled the chair away from the desk and sat. “Let’s see whatcha got there.”
“First up, there’s a photo of Mom and Dad on their wedding day. It’s the same one Mom had on her mantel.” Kit held it up.
“I remember that one. Do brides still wear those fancy satin gowns with all those pearls on the top? And that long frothy veil? So lovely. Mom was a beautiful bride.” Beth sighed. “And look how handsome Dad was in that tuxedo. He always looked so elegant when he and Mom got dressed up to go out.”
“He did, for sure. They were such a striking couple.” Kit put the photo back where it had stood, then held up the next. “Here are our grandparents in black and white.”
“Children of a different era, for sure. And don’t they both look like they mean business?”
“They do. Here’s Grandma Annalee in a plain dress, buttoned to the neck, and that little hat with the tiny veil that just dips toward her face.”
“She looks so stylish. I wonder what color her dress was.”
“Some light shade, but it’s not white. She’s still pretty, though, even if not in a fancy gown. Okay, maybe not so much pretty as sturdy and capable.”
“Her expression is pretty clear, don’t you think? In a don’t mess with me way. I bet she ruled that campground with an iron fist.”
Kit laughed along with her sister. “I’d put money on that. I’m wondering if the campgrounds had fallen on some hard times when Annalee and Tom were married but had become more prosperous when it was Mom and Dad’s turn. Mom’s dress doesn’t say bargain basement.”
“Are we sure that’s Tom and Annalee’s wedding picture?”
“It has that feeling, the way they’re posed and that veil on her hat. I’d be surprised if it were not. Plus Mom had a similar photo in her album, remember?”
“I do now that you mention it. Maybe finances kept our grandparents to a bare minimum when they married, but when they could afford it, they made sure their daughter had the wedding of her dreams. But how about Maxine? Are her wedding photos there as well?”
“I don’t know if Maxine ever married. I should ask Banks, though I’d think if she had, he’d have told me.
But now that you mention it, there don’t seem to be any photos of Maxine here with the others.
There are a few more photos of Annalee and her babies, but I can’t tell which is Mom and which is Maxine.
And an older woman in a long dress with a huge dog.
” Kit scanned the photos with her camera. “Not sure who she is, though.”
“Maybe Annalee’s mom or Tom’s, though the clothing suggests late eighteen hundreds.”
“Hard to know, but I agree on the clothing. And that dog is a beast.” Kit laughed.
“I bet that dog outweighed her.”
“Maybe she’s someone who helped around the camp. It seems everyone in Tolerance worked here at some point in their life. Maybe I’ll find other photos that will help us determine who she is.”
“See if you can figure out which room is Maxine’s. I’m dying to know more about her.” Beth’s eyes were shining with anticipation.
“Follow me while I open this next door. Oh, I think . . . I might have found her,” Kit said as she went inside. “Yup. There’s her recliner where she watched TV.” She turned to include the television in the scene. “And here are some magazines . . .”
She glanced through the stack that sat on the small table next to Maxine’s chair. “They’re all old, though. Like, years old. Twenty, thirty, forty years old. Strange thing to collect.”
“Are they all the same publication?” Beth asked.
“No. There are some old Life, some Look, some National Geographic . . . some newer. Well, there’s a bit of a mystery.
Add that one to the list.” She picked up a copy of Look and flipped through it.
“I don’t know what she was looking at in here.
Lots of photographs, mostly of people who were noteworthy in”—she glanced at the cover—“the winter of 1969.”
She dismissed the magazine and tossed it back onto the pile.
“Do I see photos on the dresser?” Beth asked.
“A few.” Kit crossed the room, her eyes quickly scanning the array of frames before stopping in her tracks. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Holy crap!”
“What?” Beth demanded. “What did you find?”
Kit held a photo up to the camera. “Say hello to Aunt Maxine.”