Back Home Again (10 page)

“Well, what on earth does she mean by
that?
” Jane shook her head.

Alice laughed, but quickly recovered when she saw Louise’s grim face. “I’m sorry, Louise.”

“
Honorable?
” Louise exhaled slowly as she shook her head. “Perhaps I’ve let this thing go too far.”

“Didn’t you say that Lloyd has already walked you
through most of the city’s red tape?” Jane peered at Louise. “Aren’t all our permits in process and looking fairly promising now?”

“Yes.”

“Then what’s going on?” asked Jane.

Louise waved her hand. “Oh, nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Lloyd has turned out to be … well, a very nice friend. Honestly, that is absolutely all there is to it.”

“Is that what Lloyd thinks too?” asked Jane.

“Well, now I’m not entirely sure.” Louise grew thoughtful. “It’s been so long since I’ve had any kind of involvement, well, of the romantic kind, that I guess it’s possible I may have confused the poor man a bit.”

“As well as Aunt Ethel,” added Alice.

“Dear me, I wonder what I should do now.”

“You should tell Lloyd Tynan.” Jane went to check on the oven.

“Gently,” said Alice. “Let him down gently.”

“You’re right,” agreed Louise. “I’ll take care of it at once.”

Alice sighed. “Aunt Ethel will be glad to hear of it.”

“Should I tell her too?” Louise looked doubtful.

“I don’t think so,” said Alice. “Somehow I think it might go better with her if she hears it from someone else.”

“Trying to protect Aunt Ethel’s pride, are we?” Jane closed the oven door and removed her mitt.

“Just her feelings,” said Alice. “I know she comes across as a troublesome busybody sometimes, but she is the last of Father’s family.”

“Good old Alice,” said Jane. “Always looking out for everyone else.”

Louise excused herself to call Lloyd.

Chapter Thirteen

A
lice was surprised to discover that she actually liked Jane’s new bedroom once the painting and decorating was complete. As it turned out, Oriental Eggplant wasn’t nearly as garish as she’d expected.

“It makes the room feel cozy,” she admitted when Jane proudly showed it to her. “I like how the dark color makes your art stand out. It reminds me of a gallery.”

“That white matting really helps to make the pieces pop, doesn’t it.”

“Jane!” exclaimed Alice as she examined a painting more closely. “These are your own creations!”

Jane smiled.

“I didn’t know you did modern art.”

“It was sort of an experimental thing. Remember my therapy phase?”

“Well, I really like them. Do you have more?”

Jane laughed. “Yes. Painting proved to be quite cathartic.”

“You should consider a show.”

“Here in Acorn Hill?” Jane frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, maybe we could use some of them in the inn.”

“Oh, Alice, do you think Louise would go for it? I would absolutely love to do the dining room in a more contemporary style. It would be so much more like what I was used to back in the city.”

Suddenly Alice wasn’t too sure about what she was getting herself into. “I guess we’d better talk to Louise about it.”

Jane shook her head. “She’ll say no.”

“What did she think of your room?”

Jane made a face. “I can’t remember her exact words, but she sort of stammered and cleared her throat and said something like, ‘well, isn’t this
interesting
.’ I could tell she hated it.”

“Oh, I doubt that—”

“Louise and I are as different as night and day, Alice. Honestly, I sometimes wonder how this will ever work. It’s good that we have you.”

Alice tried not to gulp.

“
Yoo-hoo
,” called Louise. “Are you girls up here?”

“In here,” answered Jane. “Alice is checking out my new digs.”

“Aunt Ethel just called and said she’d be pleased to join us for dinner tonight.”

“So, everything between you two is all right now?” asked Alice.

“I think so. We met for pie this afternoon, and Aunt Ethel gave me a little lecture about men and relationships and propriety.” Louise laughed. “Can you imagine—at our age? I had to bite my tongue a number of times.”

“And you did?” asked Alice.

Louise nodded. “For the sake of the family, I did.”

Jane patted her on the back. “Good girl.”

“So what do you think of Jane’s décor?” asked Louise, peering at Alice with unmasked curiosity.

“I think it’s quite nice.” Alice smiled. “It feels cozy and artsy and fun—all at the same time.”

Louise nodded, but still looked unconvinced. “Jane has offered to help me paint the trim in my room tomorrow.”

“I tried to talk her out of the wallpaper.”

Louise shook her finger. “Too late. I already ordered it.”

“Speaking of décor,” said Jane. “Guess what came by FedEx today?”

“Our paint colors?”

Jane grinned.

“What are they?” asked Alice.

“Yes, Jane, tell us.”

“Not until dinner.”

“But what about Aunt Ethel?” asked Louise.

“She’s family. She has a right to see them too. Besides, it might be wise to have her in on this from the get go.”

Alice couldn’t stand the suspense. “But are they—”

“No more questions.” Jane held up her hands as she moved toward the door. “And unless you two plan to help fix dinner, you better stay out of the kitchen. I don’t want you pestering me about the paint colors while I’m trying to concentrate on cooking.”

It wasn’t until both dinner and dessert were finished and cleared away that Jane finally brought a large brown folder into the dining room. “I’m going to turn the lights up now so that we can get a better look at these colors.”

“This is so exciting,” said Alice.

“Now who decided on these colors?” asked Aunt Ethel.

“Our ancestors,” said Jane. Then Louise brought their aunt up to date on the computer process of uncovering historically accurate colors.

“I don’t know about this,” said Aunt Ethel. “This house has been peach for as long as I can remember.”

“The layers of paint don’t lie,” explained Jane. “Originally this house was definitely
not
peach. The computer proved this.”

“Goodness, isn’t technology amazing.” Aunt Ethel shook her head.

First Jane pulled a rough sketch of the house from the
folder. “I did this rather quickly,” she explained. “It was a guide for where the paint chips had been removed.” She pointed to what looked like a key. “A is for the main body. B is for the shutters, and so on.”

“Interesting,” murmured Aunt Ethel, obviously pleased to be involved.

“I made a copy of my sketch, so that I could color it in according to what the original colors were—just so we could see how it looks all together.” Jane paused to look at the three women. “Are you ready?”

They all nodded eagerly and Jane pulled out a second picture of the house. “It’s really rather nice,” she told them as they all stared. “I mean it’s actually quite conservative for a Victorian—”

“What color is
that?
” asked Louise, pointing to the strip of trim along the roof.

Jane laughed. “It looks quite similar to my Oriental Eggplant, doesn’t it?”

“The body color isn’t too bad,” said Alice. “Would you call it sort of a taupe?”

“Maybe a dark taupe, with more hints of brown.”

“How about cocoa?”

“That sounds about right. We’ll call it cocoa.”

“
Tsk-tsk
. It’s so dark,” said Aunt Ethel. “You can be certain the town will never agree to this.”

“They are the accurate historical colors,” defended Jane. “I don’t see how they can disagree.”

Aunt Ethel just shook her head. “But it’s so—so—”

“Horrible,” added Louise.

“What about the green trim for the shutters?” asked Alice. “You said you like dark green trim, Louise?”

Louise looked like she was about to cry. “Can’t we just burn these samples, Jane? Pretend that they never came? Go to good old-fashioned white or even a nice cream?”

Jane pulled out large pieces of painted cardboard now, arranging them on the table. There were four colors in all: cocoa for the body, dark green for the shutters, eggplant for the roof trim and creamy white for the trim around the windows.

Alice studied the colors for a long moment. “They’re not really so bad,” she finally said.

“
Not so bad?
” Louise looked at Alice as if she’d just used profanity.

“No. They’re starting to grow on me. In fact, I think they might actually look friendly.”

“
Friendly?
” Aunt Ethel looked as though she thought Alice had completely taken leave of her senses.

“Yes. Now that I think about it, our big light-colored house is a little imposing. The original colors are more humble somehow. They’re really growing on me. I think they will make the yard and flowers look more interesting.”

“That’s exactly right,” said Jane, patting Alice on the back. “You seem to have a bit of an artist’s eye.”

“Oh, I don’t know …”

“To be honest, I’ve never been terribly fond of the color,” said Jane. “I used to jokingly tell my friends that I lived in the giant peach.”

“But it’s always been a giant peach,” said Louise in a tremulous voice. “Why do we have to change it?”

“Right,” said Aunt Ethel. “You’ve just started to get some support from the town lately. Why do you want to rock the boat now?”

“Because change is good,” said Jane.

“And because, in this case,” Alice paused to look at the colors again, just to make sure that she was really sure, “I honestly think it’ll be an improvement.”

“Oh, Alice.” Aunt Ethel groaned. “Of all people, I’d think that
you
would want to protect your father’s home and keep it just the same.”

Alice paused to consider how her father might react to a change of this sort. Despite his years, he had always adapted rather easily to change. Also, he was probably the most humble man that Alice had ever known, and for some reason the new colors seemed inviting and humble to her.

“Well, I can’t really speak for Father, but do you want to know what I
think
he might say about this?”

They all nodded and looked very interested.

Alice took a deep breath. “Father was a very humble man. I think that he would be the first to admit that this big three-story house is a bit imposing in the first place, and then to be painted peach … although, I’m sure it never occurred to him to change the color since it had been left to him and Mother looking like this. I can imagine that he would’ve enjoyed living in a more humble home. I suspect he would think returning to the original colors would be an improvement.”

Both Aunt Ethel and Louise looked thoroughly disappointed and slightly deflated by Alice’s little speech, but neither of them spoke a word.

“Well said, Alice.” Jane sighed. “I don’t want to make anyone unhappy. It’s not as if I personally picked out these colors, but I agree completely with Alice. I think Father would’ve felt more comfortable in a house that was a little more friendly.”

Louise groaned. “Well, I have to agree with you on some points, but isn’t there some way we can compromise?”

“Like how?” asked Alice.

“Well, I do like the trim paint, and maybe if the main body color could be just a little lighter, like a nice dignified beige.” She shook her head. “But I cannot abide that awful eggplant color.”

“The problem with a compromise,” said Jane, “is that we instantly lose the historical integrity we were striving for, and that could lead to a battle with the community.”

“She’s right,” said Alice. “If we don’t stick to the authentic colors, we’d probably just have to paint it peach again.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Louise looked defeated. “The rules from the county historic preservation society clearly state that restoration changes must be either historically accurate or approved by the committee.”

“Does that mean that we can go ahead with the painting
without
approval?” asked Jane hopefully.

“If it’s historically accurate.” Louise sighed.

“Just how accurate is this computer company anyway?” demanded Aunt Ethel. “What gives them the right to make these kinds of decisions?”

“They’re used by historic renovators all across the country. I have all their information right here, if you’d like to read it, Aunt Ethel.”

She waved her hand. “No, thanks. I just wondered.”

“So, are we in agreement?” asked Jane. “Jim wants me to order the paint tomorrow so they can begin on Monday.”

Louise pressed her lips together for a long moment, then finally said, “I suppose I’ll have to agree with the two of you, but now, if you don’t mind, I am going to bed with a headache.”

“It’s a good thing
I
don’t have a vote,” said Aunt Ethel as she pushed back her chair. “Because I would definitely decline.
Harrumph
. I wonder what the church board will think of this, Alice.”

“Oh, Aunt Ethel, do you really think this has anything to do with the church board? Don’t you remember what was decided at the last ‘emergency’ meeting?”

“Well, I’m sure that Florence will be interested in these latest developments. And Lloyd too, for that matter.”

Jane turned to Alice and rolled her eyes. “Thanks for coming tonight, Aunt Ethel.”

“Thank you for the lovely dinner, Jane. That prime rib was so tender it practically melted in my mouth.”

“Thanks.” Jane gave her aunt a weak smile and waited until the elderly woman made her way out. “Talk about biting the hand that feeds you,” she said to Alice, and they both laughed.

“Don’t worry,” said Alice. “I’m sure Aunt Ethel will come around before long. She usually does. This will probably blow over with the community too—eventually.”

“You mean after the townsfolk finally get used to the new colors, like in a few months?”

“Or years.”