A Hearth in Candlewood (24 page)

Emma had accompanied the women for a polite period of time, then excused herself and returned to the patio, where she could keep one eye on all of her guests and the other on the door to the dining room to watch for Mother Garrett’s return.

By six-thirty, Emma was frantic. The guests were all gathered back together again on the patio. Both Cross boys had been paying so much attention to Liesel and Ditty that the poor girls had pleaded with Emma for permission to retreat to the house for a spell to escape even the slightest appearance of impropriety and Emma’s strict guidelines for redeeming themselves. The light refreshments were long gone. Supper was a mere half hour away, and Mother Garret was as scarce as a rose would be in the gardens come winter.

With one heartbeat, Emma was concerned that, despite Liesel’s assurances to the contrary, supper would be ruined and she would disappoint her guests. In the next heartbeat, Emma almost relished the notion of Mother Garrett being late for a meal for a change, then rejected the idea as petty. She was halfway across the patio to check the kitchen again when Mother Garrett emerged from the dining room with Mr. Atkins in tow.

‘‘I’m sorry I’m late, but I knew Liesel could manage until I got back. I’ve brought a guest with me,’’ she gushed. ‘‘I thought Mr. Atkins might enjoy the company of some younger people as much as he would a good meal.’’

He blushed. ‘‘Mother Garrett insisted I come to supper. I hope it’s not a problem.’’

‘‘Not at all. Why don’t you join the menfolk while I help Mother Garrett set out supper?’’ Emma suggested, taking hold of her mother-in-law and ushering her into the house. ‘‘I thought you promised not to do any matchmaking,’’ she whispered. ‘‘That’s what you were doing when you invited him to supper, wasn’t it?’’

‘‘Of a sort,’’ she admitted and started for the kitchen.

Emma followed her mother-in-law but kept her voice low.

‘‘After promising me you wouldn’t? And after what Liesel and Ditty both did? Are you seriously thinking that either one of them—’’

Mother Garrett stopped and turned to face Emma. ‘‘Yes, I’m matchmaking, but not that kind,’’ she insisted.

Emma rolled her eyes. ‘‘Is there any other kind?’’

‘‘Of course there is. Yes, Mr. Atkins needs a wife, but he needs help in that store of his even more. The minute I met young Steven Cross, who sorely needs a job, I knew I had to bring Mr. Atkins here to meet him. All I’m trying to do is match them up and solve two problems at once. I can always worry about finding a wife for Mr. Atkins later.’’

When Emma’s jaw dropped, she snapped it shut. ‘‘You just met Steven this afternoon. Don’t you think you should know him for more than twenty minutes before leaping to the assumption he might be suitable as Mr. Atkins’ employee?’’

Mother Garrett cocked a brow. ‘‘Did he or did he not clear the backyard behind that cabin of theirs for his mother so she could put in a winter garden?’’

‘‘He did, but—’’

‘‘Does he or does he not help take care of his ailing father, a man who has trouble drawing an even breath?’’

‘‘He does, but—’’

‘‘Then enough said. Any young man that devoted to his parents is good enough to introduce to Mr. Atkins. Am I right or am I not?’’

As usual, Mother Garrett’s insight proved far more simple and direct than Emma’s. ‘‘You’re right.’’

Mother Garrett grinned. ‘‘I know, but it’s sweet to hear you say it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have supper to set out.’’

And set out supper she did.

Hearty servings of cornbread and gravy, baked beans thick with molasses and chunks of tender pork, along with an assortment of pickled cucumbers, red cabbage, and corn relish left little room for dessert. The guests, however, finished every single one of the apple fritters dusted with sugar and nutmeg, while Emma polished off two more pieces of Diane’s amazing rye bread.

Including Liesel and Ditty, who joined them at the table at Opal and Garnet’s insistence, there were eleven all told around the dining room table, twelve if you counted Butter. The Mitchell sisters had everyone so enthralled, there had not been a single lapse in conversation. After supper, Steven left with Mr. Atkins to go to the General Store, where the young man would be starting work on Monday. Soon after, the buggy returned as Emma had requested to take the rest of the Cross family home. Reverend Glenn and Aunt Frances, tuckered from a long day, retired to their rooms. While Mother Garrett supervised the cleanup, Emma escorted Opal and Garnet out to the front porch so they could sit awhile before taking to their beds.

The air was cooler now, and few lights from Main Street filtered through the trees to disturb the darkness. Soft light filtered from the windows behind them, however, providing just enough light to be able to distinguish one another’s features.

‘‘It’s so good to have you both back,’’ Emma murmured. ‘‘I wish you could stay longer than a few days. By the time you finish with the rose gardens doing whatever it is you do to prepare them for winter, there won’t be any time left to spend visiting together.’’

Opal nudged her sister’s chair. ‘‘We were hoping you’d say that, weren’t we?’’

‘‘We’d like to stay a full week this time, providing you have the room,’’ Garnet suggested. ‘‘We were hoping we might visit with Mr. Breckenwith while we are here, too.’’

‘‘I’m delighted! Yes, I do have the room.’’

‘‘Provided you let us pay for our rooms for the extra days,’’ Opal added.

Garnet nodded. ‘‘We insist.’’

Emma shook her head. ‘‘There’s positively no way I can allow you to pay for your rooms. Without both of you, there wouldn’t have been a rose garden in the first place, and you’d both be daft to argue the point because what I know about gardening in general and roses in particular would fit through the eye of a needle.’’

‘‘But—’’

‘‘In the second place, you visit twice a year but spend all your days working in the garden, except for the time you go riding in the morning. I think it’s time you stayed for a few days just to enjoy yourselves.’’

‘‘But we love taking care of the gardens for you,’’ Opal countered.

Garnet nodded. ‘‘It’s little enough to do for you, considering all you did for us.’’ Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘‘You were like an angel. If you hadn’t helped us, I don’t know what would have become of us.’’

Memories of their first meeting surfaced, along with the memory of Aunt Frances’s arrival here, and brought a smile to Emma’s heart. Three years ago, both Opal and Garnet had appeared at her kitchen door late at night, drenched to the skin by a day-long downpour and badly shaken. Stranded some miles from town when one of their horses pulled up lame, they had lost all but the clothes on their backs to the same pair of bandits who had been responsible for a rash of robberies in the area.

Dressed as men, without a coin between them, the two sisters had been turned away at the tavern, as well as the hotel. Alerted by Mr. Emerson at the hotel, the sheriff at the time, Robert Lindlow, had detained the sisters for questioning. Once he realized the two women were indeed victims and not the bandits, he had released them and suggested they might find shelter at Hill House, although he had not had the decency to take them there. He had not been reelected, either, and Emma was quite certain Sheriff North would never have turned Opal and Garnet out the way his predecessor had done.

She smiled at the two sisters. ‘‘I hardly think offering you shelter here when Hill House was nothing more than a shadow of what it is today qualifies as angelic. Be that as it may, if you hadn’t come here, I would never have discovered two wonderful new friends. Please allow me to invite you to stay for a few days as my friends,’’ she insisted.

Garnet sighed. ‘‘At least let us do something for you in return.’’

Emma grinned. ‘‘I was hoping you’d say that. Take me riding with you.’’

‘‘Riding?’’ they cried in unison.

‘‘Yes, riding. You do intend to get horses from the livery and go riding for several hours each morning, don’t you?’’

Opal’s eyes widened. ‘‘Would you really want to come with us?’’

Emma chuckled. ‘‘I really would. I haven’t been on a horse in years, but I’m sure the livery can provide me with a sweet, gentle mount who won’t mind a rider who’s a bit rusty.’’

‘‘We’re serious riders,’’ Garnet cautioned. ‘‘If you want to ride with us, you’ll need to wear trousers and a sensible straw hat instead of a bonnet.’’

Emma swallowed hard, then dismissed concerns about appearing in public dressed in trousers. Just this once. ‘‘I’m sure if I sort through some of the clothing guests have left behind, I’ll find something suitable.’’

Opal grinned. ‘‘We like to leave early, at first light.’’

Emma groaned. ‘‘I don’t suppose we could compromise and leave at eight?’’

‘‘Seven.’’

Emma cleared her throat. ‘‘Seven-thirty, and Mother Garrett packs a picnic so we can ride most of the day.’’

Opal and Garnet clapped their hands and took turns describing where they would like to go with Emma. The more she listened, the more excited she became about exploring some of the land she had been studying on her map.

And the less she worried that the gossip surrounding the runaway chickens might quickly pale once the very prim and proper Widow Garrett, proprietress of Hill House, paraded down Main Street on horseback wearing men’s trousers.

25

O
VER THE NEXT FEW DAYS,
Hill House was a flurry of activity. Once Liesel and Ditty left to return home for the weekend, work for nearly everyone was nonstop, from predawn to well past twilight. Sleep was little more than a few hours of rest at night, leaving not a moment for Emma to think about resolving the dispute between James and Andrew Leonard. She did, however, make time to pick out a gift and send it to Warren and Anna, along with a note, so it would arrive in time for their sixth wedding anniversary, which was in but a few weeks.

Four unexpected guests arrived—two at a time, but several hours apart—on Saturday morning while the Mitchell sisters trudged back and forth from the terraced gardens to the house. Emma spoke with Ditty’s father when he came to pick up his daughter and had reassured him of closer supervision when he agreed to let the young woman return to work on Sunday evening.

Sunday itself was a blur. Mother Garrett, who was on her own in the kitchen, needed help serving breakfast. Tidying guests’ rooms rather than stopping to eat kept Emma busy until Sunday services, where she nodded off twice during Reverend Austin’s sermon. Then back to Hill House to more work.

By the time Liesel and Ditty reappeared Sunday night and Emma took to her bed, she fell asleep listening to the young women in the room next door comparing punishments they had each received from their parents.

Monday morning, Emma woke up shivering. Overnight, autumn had arrived to chill the air as well as the floorboards, promising an early frost. ‘‘Exactly as Opal and Garnet claimed,’’ she muttered, donning her robe and hurrying across the cold wooden floor to the trunk at the foot of her bed to find her slippers.

Once she had her slippers on her feet, she knelt, said her morning prayers, and went to the window. She pulled the curtain aside and glanced down at the gardens. The terraced display of roses that had been a glorious feast of color all summer was gone and would not return until late next spring. The bronze roof on the gazebo did not glare under the gentler autumn sun.

In the seasons ahead, however, nature had other gifts in store for her when she glanced out her bedroom window. A delicate etching of frost on the terraced hill would quickly give way to winter ruffles of snow, and later, a patchwork of budding spring greenery. The gazebo would soon wear a lace cap of frost until winter arrived, covering the roof with a bonnet of snow and adding a necklace of glistening icicles that would last until warm spring breezes melted it all away.

A knock at her door pulled her from her reverie. Emma tightened the sash on her robe and answered the door that opened into the upstairs hallway. ‘‘Yes, Liesel?’’

‘‘Aunt Frances sent me to tell you she’s on her way to the garret and to meet her there so you can find something for her to alter.’’

‘‘Already? Oh dear.’’ She paused. It might be easier to try on the trousers without being fully dressed. At this hour, her guests should still be abed and she could slip up to the garret and back again without being noticed. ‘‘Tell her I’ll be there as soon as I wash up and re-braid my hair.’’

The young woman’s blue eyes twinkled. ‘‘Yes, ma’am.’’ She looked about, as if making sure they were alone, and leaned closer. ‘‘Is it true? Are you really going to wear men’s trousers like Miss Opal and Miss Garnet?’’

Emma’s eyes widened. ‘‘Who told you that?’’

Liesel grinned. ‘‘Aunt Frances did. She came down early and had breakfast with Ditty and me.’’

Emma chewed the inside of her cheek. Defying convention might not be the best way to prove she was offering proper guidance to Liesel and Ditty, and she did not dare consider what might happen if the legal owner of Hill House arrived unexpectedly and caught a glimpse of her. ‘‘You must have misunderstood. Aunt Frances is going to help me go through some of the apparel our guests have left behind, but . . .’’

‘‘I wouldn’t tell a single soul if you did. Ditty wouldn’t, either,’’ she promised and scampered back down the hallway.

‘‘You’d be the only two in all of Candlewood who wouldn’t relish telling that tale,’’ Emma grumbled. Mindful of her lawyer’s admonition to avoid scandal and gossip of any kind, she set aside her urge to challenge convention and wondered how she might tell the Mitchell sisters she had changed her mind about wearing trousers.

With nothing suitable of her own to wear riding, however, she washed up, dressed her hair, and hurried up to the garret. As anxious as she was about getting something appropriate to wear riding, she was just as pleased to have some time alone with Aunt Frances. With all the commotion of the past few days, they had not really discussed James’s visit or the plan that both James and Andrew would be coming to Hill House in two weeks to try to resolve their problem.