Authors: Mariah Stewart
She shook her head. “No. For a moment I thought the building looked familiar.” She stared at the white clapboard siding and the long windows with their dark shutters. “Maybe I drove past it when I first came into town.” She paused. “But of course you
can’t see the back of the building from the road and I know I didn’t drive up here, so maybe it just reminds me of some other place I’ve been.” She tried to remember what other place that might have been, but couldn’t. Still, it seemed the most logical explanation.
They climbed the steps and went into the lobby, where Grace greeted them.
“Ellie, I’m so happy that Cam was able to talk you into joining us for dinner.” Grace took both of Ellie’s hands in hers and held them for a moment.
“So am I,” Ellie replied. “Your inn is beautiful.”
“She’s holding up pretty well.” Grace gave Ellie’s hands a squeeze before releasing them. “Now, go on into the dining room and have a glass of wine and some hors d’oeuvres and mingle. Cam, I’m trusting you’ll introduce Ellie to anyone she doesn’t already know.”
“Will do, Miss Grace.” Cam took Ellie by the arm and steered her into the dining room.
Ellie took three steps inside the door and stopped. There was that feeling of déjà vu again. Even the tables with their white cloths set for parties of six or eight or ten with their milk-glass bowl centerpieces of small gourds and pumpkins all seemed familiar somehow. The bank of windows on two sides opened to the Bay, just as she knew they would.
“But I’ve never been here before,” she heard herself whisper.
“What did you say?” Cam leaned closer.
“I was just thinking aloud. Never mind.” She gestured to a table on her right. “There’s Mrs. Finneran, Jesse Enright’s assistant. Is that her husband?”
Cam turned to look. “You mean the white-haired gentleman? That’s Curtis Enright, Jesse’s grandfather. He and Mrs. Finneran have been friends for ages. She and Curtis’s wife, Rose, were good friends.”
“I think Grace may have mentioned that.” Ellie paused, remembering what else Grace had said about Violet’s childhood friendships and her connection to Lilly. “Let’s stop at their table and say hello.”
Violet Finneran seemed pleased that Ellie had remembered her, introduced her to Curtis, and invited Ellie and Cameron to join them.
“Don’t be silly, Violet,” Curtis said. “They don’t want to sit with a couple of old fogies like us. They want to be with the young folks.”
“No, no, I’d love to join you.” Ellie glanced at Cameron. “Unless you’ve already arranged—”
“No arrangements.” Cam pulled out the chair next to Violet for Ellie and she sat. “Will Jesse be joining you, Mr. Enright?”
The white-haired gentleman nodded. “He’s picking up Brooke and her mother. I think Clay and Lucy have already arrived, but they’re off somewhere.”
“Can I bring you something from the bar, Miz Finneran?” Cam asked. “Another glass of wine?”
“No thank you, dear. I’m approaching my limit and want to save a little to have with my dinner.”
“Ellie? Mr. Enright?” Cam took their orders and disappeared into a room off to the left.
“So how are you liking St. Dennis, Ellie?” Violet asked.
“I’m liking it very much, thank you,” Ellie replied.
“And your new house? You’re settling in?”
“Temporarily, yes. You know that I’m planning on selling the property after I finish some improvements. But it needs a lot of work.”
“Which house is that?” Curtis asked.
“Lilly Cavanaugh’s place,” Violet told him.
“Oh, right. I heard that it changed hands.” He nodded slowly and seemed to be looking at Ellie with new interest. “You know, my late wife, Rose, and Lilly were good friends back in the day. Along with Violet here.”
“I believe I did hear that, yes.” Ellie smiled, recalling Lilly’s recounting of Rose’s crush on the man who now sat across the table, aged and wrinkled, but still handsome in his way.
“Oh, yes, I spent a lot of time in that house of yours when we were growing up.” Violet sighed. “And of course, Lilly and Ted lived there after they married. It’s a wonderful house. I’m so happy to hear that you’re enjoying it.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice so that only Ellie could hear. “If there’s anything you want to know … about the house or the people who lived there … please don’t think twice about asking me. I’m sure you must have questions.”
“I do.” Ellie nodded, very much aware that Violet was one of the few people in St. Dennis who knew who she really was, and as such, could be an important source of information in the coming months. “I’ve been reading Lilly’s journals and the more I read the more I realize how little I know.”
“I’ll be happy to help fill in any of those blanks that I can for you, dear.” Violet patted Ellie’s hand, and Ellie felt tears well up behind her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I have so many questions.…”
“I’m sure you do.” Violet started to say something else, but was interrupted when a large group of elderly men and women stopped by the table. She introduced Ellie to each of them.
Everyone seemed to know her house and Lilly and Ted, and Ellie was impressed once again by how many people had fond memories of the couple. When the introductions were made, Ellie recognized several names from Lilly’s journals: Douglas Montrose, who’d been their class daredevil, the one who’d given Lilly her first kiss. Marjorie Trimble, the girl who’d tried to break up Lilly and Ted by spreading rumors about Lilly. Matthew Divine, whom Lilly liked to tease that, with a name like his, he’d have no choice but to enter the seminary (he did). Millie Passel, who’d been voted class clown and who still seemed to have a healthy sense of humor.
The familiarity of it all settled around Ellie and made her feel a part of something she hadn’t belonged to even six weeks ago. When Cam returned to the table with their bar order, he glanced at Ellie and looked as if he was about to say something before having second thoughts.
“What?” Ellie asked.
“Nothing. You just looked … happy, I guess, is the best word.” Cameron sat next to her, his arm across the back of her chair.
“I guess I am.” The thought hadn’t occurred to her, not in so many words, but it was true. She did feel happy. “There’s such a nice group of people here.”
Ellie looked around the room and was struck by the number of faces she recognized. “Doesn’t anyone in St. Dennis eat Thanksgiving dinner at home?”
“Sure, but it’s been a long-standing tradition for a lot of families to come to the inn. I don’t know how it got started. Grace would know.”
“Did you used to eat here when you were growing up?”
He seemed to give more thought to the answer than a simple question would merit.
Finally, he said, “After a time, we did.”
There was a touch of something she couldn’t name—sorrow? melancholy?—in his voice, but she sensed there was a story there that was part of a larger one, one he wasn’t ready to tell. She could appreciate that. There were things she wished she could say, but couldn’t.
Jesse and Brooke arrived with her mother, and Clay came by to claim a seat at the table.
“Where’s Lucy?” Cam asked him.
“Orchestrating,” Clay replied. “Big events are her thing.”
“I hear your big event will be after the holidays,” Violet said. “Grace told me that you and Lucy have set a date.”
“She’s been so busy making sure that everyone else has the perfect wedding that she hasn’t been able to plan ours,” Clay told her. “When the wedding she had booked for New Year’s Eve canceled, she jumped on it. She’s done so many weddings she can plan them in her sleep. She knows exactly what she wants and how to get it done, so we’re good.”
“Not in on the planning, eh?” Cam leaned forward to make eye contact with Clay.
“I just want to marry Lucy.” Clay shrugged. “How, where, day, night, what we eat, what the cake looks like, what kind of flowers … whatever she wants is fine with me.”
“But there will be exceptional beer, right?” Cam asked. “You’re going to be making a special wedding brew.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” Clay nodded vigorously. “Wade and I are already working on that.”
Waitstaff began to bring trays and bowls and platters laden with traditional dishes to each table for family-style service. Soon the room was dense with chatter and requests to pass the potatoes or the green-bean casserole or the oyster stuffing. It was unlike any holiday dinner Ellie—an only child—had ever taken part in, filled as it was with so much laughter and conversation. But it was also the most memorable meal she’d ever shared. By the time dessert was served, she barely had room for the pumpkin pie that everyone insisted she try. Ellie left the inn with ribs aching from laughing and her jaws sore from talking so much. When you live alone for any length of time, you just don’t have much occasion to talk, she reminded herself, and fewer occasions to laugh out loud. Even when she’d lived with Henry, in retrospect, she couldn’t recall that they’d talked—or laughed—all that much.
Ellie and Cam said their good-byes and strolled into the lobby, where once again, Ellie was overcome by a sense of having been in this place before. When
Cam stopped to talk to an old friend, she took the opportunity to walk around the lobby and study its appointments. She paused before the massive fireplace and tried to remember where she might have seen its like before.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Grace startled Ellie when she came up behind her and placed a hand on her back.
“Oh, no. I just thought I’d look around a little. It’s crazy, but I keep having the feeling that I’ve been here before.”
“Ah, but you have,” Grace said softly.
“That’s impossible.” Ellie shook her head. “I’ve never been in St. Dennis before.”
Grace took one of Ellie’s hands. “Ellie, your mother brought you here several times.”
Ellie’s heart began to beat so loudly she was certain everyone in the inn could hear it, that any minute someone would call 911.
“You know?” Ellie whispered. “How did you know? Did Violet …?”
“No one had to tell me. I knew you the minute I saw you in Cuppachino,” Grace replied gently. “Lynley and Lilly used to bring you here for afternoon tea when you were just a toddler. Very often Lucy and I would join you. There are photographs somewhere. I’ll try to find them for you.”
Ellie covered her face with her hands, trying to remember, but she couldn’t bring up a memory.
“But you couldn’t possibly have recognized me.”
“I knew you all the same, Ellis. Ellie.” Grace smiled. “Lilly just loved to dress you up and show you off
around town. We had some lovely times here together. Lilly never had children of her own, you know, and she doted on you.”
“I don’t remember being in St. Dennis.” Ellie tried, but there was nothing concrete. “Sometimes I think I might recognize some little thing, but I can’t say I have any real memories.” She hesitated, then said, “Miss Grace, I’ve just learned that my mother lived with Lilly in my house when she was young.”
“Oh, yes.” Grace nodded.
“Do you know why?” It might not have been the best time, or the best place, to have this conversation, but Ellie couldn’t keep the words from tumbling from her mouth. “I’m just beginning to realize how little I know about my mother, particularly her childhood.”
Grace took Ellie’s arm and steered her from the main throng in the lobby. They stopped next to a window that looked out over a vast expanse of lawn where a gazebo stood. In the background, the Bay looked dark blue as a light mist began to fall. “Were you aware that Lynley had younger twin sisters?”
“No.” Ellie frowned. “I was under the impression that she was an only child. I never heard her mention having sisters.”
“I’m not surprised that it wasn’t something she’d talk about. They were not quite two when they died. One caught a lung infection that she shared with the other. They passed on within a few days of each other.”
“Oh, my God. That’s horrible. I never knew.” Ellie felt blindsided, as if she’d just taken a fist to her stomach.
“After they died, your grandmother—Evelyn—went into a terrible depression. Her husband moved the family to California thinking the change of scenery would help her to cope, but she seemed to sink deeper into her depression. Peter—that is, your grandfather—called Lilly and asked if he could send Lynley to live with her and Ted until Evelyn was well again.” Grace sighed. “Of course, Evelyn never did get better.”
“My mother told me that her parents drowned in a boating accident, but other than that, she almost never spoke of them.”
“Well, there’s not much question that they drowned, and it doesn’t surprise me to hear that Lynley didn’t have too much to say about them. Imagine how you might feel as a young child, being shipped off by your parents and never seeing them again. That must have had a terrible effect on Lynley. But whether or not there was an accident … no one will ever know for sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“All we really do know is that Peter took Evelyn out on their boat, and they were never seen again. Weeks later, the boat was found miles down the coastline—no damage to the boat, but no one was on board. People around here figured that Evelyn had become suicidal and that Peter couldn’t stand to see her suffer so much, but he couldn’t let her go alone. I’m of the mind that he probably just ran the boat until it could run no more. He and Evelyn most likely eased themselves overboard and drowned together.”
“Oh, my God.” Ellie felt sick. “Why would you think that?”
“Because two weeks before the ‘accident,’ he mailed an envelope to Lilly which contained his will and other information one would need to probate an estate. Of course, it could have been a coincidence, but I believe he wanted to make certain that Lynley was well provided for.”
“This is all so tragic.”
“Oh, dear. I’ve upset you. I’m sorry, Ellie. I probably shouldn’t have been so blunt.” Grace took her arm and led her to a settee that stood near a doorway and urged her to sit.
“No, no, please don’t apologize. I had no idea that my grandparents … or that my mother …” Ellie paused. “How old was my mother when all this happened?”
“Well, let’s see.…” Grace appeared to be calculating. “I think she was around four or five when the twins were born, so she’d have been six or seven when they passed on. I think she stayed out west with her parents for another year or two, so I’m thinking she was around eight or nine when she came here to stay.”