Authors: Mariah Stewart
“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.”
“My poor mother.” Ellie tried to imagine what Lynley must have been feeling. Rejected? Frightened? Unloved? Lonely? Surely all of that and more. “I had no idea. I’ve been reading Lilly’s journals in chronological order but I haven’t gotten past her young married life. Lynley wouldn’t have been born yet. All of this explains so much about my mother.”
“Lynley had a difficult time when she first arrived
in town, as I recall, but Lilly and Ted loved her as they’d have loved their own child, and in the end, it was most certainly for the best. They were much more stable than Lynley’s parents were. Evelyn was always very high-strung and, well, frankly, a bit of a drama queen. She was always quite self-absorbed.”
“That explains my mother’s attachment to Lilly and the house and St. Dennis,” Ellie said thoughtfully. “I wonder if my father knew.…” For a second or so, she almost wished she hadn’t tossed Clifford’s letter into the Bay.
Before Grace could respond, Cameron joined them.
“You about ready to leave?” He placed a hand lightly on Ellie’s back.
“Yes.” Ellie turned to Grace. “Thank you again for … for everything. Dinner was absolutely delicious.”
“As always,” Cam added.
“Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed your meal.” Grace patted Ellie’s hands. “Now I should tend to our other guests and help Lucy get ready for the next seating. But promise you’ll come and have tea with me one afternoon. Just call. Anytime. We’ll have Lucy join us.”
“I’d love that, thank you.” On impulse, Ellie hugged the older woman briefly.
“Make it soon, dear.”
“I will,” Ellie promised.
She slipped into her jacket and made her way with Cameron through the crowd of similarly departing diners, trying not to think about everything Grace
had told her. Once outside, she took a deep breath, filling her lungs with cold air that hinted at pine and the Bay beyond the trees.
“Is everything all right?” Cameron asked.
“Sure.” She nodded but didn’t trust herself to look at him.
When they reached the pickup, she paused at the passenger-side door and said, “Thank you. This was one of the nicest days I’ve had in a long time.”
“The day isn’t over,” he told her as she climbed into her seat. “As the poet said, there are miles to go. I think he was referring to miles of wallpaper that needed to be scraped. Miles of brushstrokes to be painted on miles of walls.”
“Look, about that.” She snapped on her seat belt. “We don’t have to do any of that today. I’m sure you have better things to do on a holiday than scrape someone else’s walls. You could use the rest, I’m sure.”
“Nope. Nothing I’d rather do.” He closed the door and walked around the front of the truck.
“I thought holidays were supposed to be days off.”
“You took off yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but I was referring to you. Couldn’t you use a little downtime?”
“I don’t do downtime.”
Cam started the engine and backed out of his parking spot.
“That was the most amazing dinner ever. I can’t remember the last time I ate that much.” Ellie leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. “I may not be able to get out of the truck.”
“You and me both. We might have to spend the rest of the day here in the truck.”
Cam turned on the radio and searched for something other than static. Ellie kept her head back and her eyes closed as her mind zipped back and forth through her conversation with Grace, trying to grasp it all. Her grandparents had lost not one, but two children, and Evelyn—her grandmother—had gone into a deep depression, so deep that her grandfather thought that Lynley would be better off on the other side of the country, being raised by a couple she barely knew. Had he felt that he had to make a choice between his wife and his daughter? Had he been trying to protect Lynley from what may have been a nightmare situation with an unstable mother? For years Ellie had wondered why her mother had been all right with sending her daughter off to boarding school at such a young age. Having been sent off herself as a child must have made such a separation seem normal.