The Lullaby Sky (8 page)

“Yes, I do, and I won’t even tell Miss Rosie that you said a bad word, Mama.” With those words, Sophie marched across the lawn.

“I’ll go with you,” Darcy said. “I’ll support you in this shelter thing, my friend, but it doesn’t mean I won’t worry about you.”

“I love you, Darcy.” Hannah laughed.

“More than your new blue bedroom?” Darcy teased.

Hannah bumped her with her hip as they started up the porch steps. “More than chocolate, darlin’.”

They quickly gathered up the salad and bread and toted it across the road. Calvin swung Aunt Birdie’s door open with a dramatic sweep. “What’s this I hear about you putting in a shelter for crows or birds of some kind? Sophie said it was big-people talk, but that you were going to do something with a shelter because the crows were attacking Darcy’s eyes.”

Travis stepped around from behind Calvin and took the bowl of salad and bread from their hands. “I’ll take those things to the dining room so y’all can get your huggin’ done.”

Calvin drew Hannah to his chest tightly. “How have you been?”

“I’m better than I was on Wednesday, and Travis promises that by the end of the summer I will be really good,” she answered and took a step back. “I wasn’t expecting you to come back this soon, but I’m so glad to see you.”

Calvin pulled her in for one last squeeze before he said, “Darcy, darlin’, you dyed your hair back to its natural color! Now let it grow out by December and you can model my spring line for me.”

“Yeah, right!” She wrapped her arms around him and winked at Hannah.

“Y’all going to stand in the foyer all day gawkin’ at one another while the lasagna gets colder than a dead skunk in the middle of the road, or are you goin’ to come on in here and eat dinner?” Aunt Birdie asked.

“I intend to eat dinner. I’m finished gawkin’ for a little while.” Calvin headed into the dining room. “This looks awesome, Aunt Birdie.”

Miss Rosie carried a basket of thick-cut french bread to the table. “Don’t go givin’ her all the credit. I made the noodles. Those dried-out things you buy at the store ain’t fit to feed the hogs.”

“Miss Rosie, darlin’,” Calvin said, “I’m absolutely sure this will outdo the lasagna they serve in Italy. Here, let me seat you.”

“That’s better.” She sniffed the air in a pout, but her blue eyes sparkled. “You can say grace and then you will be forgiven for leaving me out.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Calvin nodded.

Aunt Birdie and Miss Rosie had the two end seats on either side of the long oak dining room table. Liz and Sophie flanked Calvin on one side, with Sophie at Aunt Birdie’s right hand. Travis was between Darcy and Hannah on the other side of the table. After grace Aunt Birdie asked Liz to serve the lasagna and Hannah to start the salad around the table.

Sophie started to hum “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and wiggled her small shoulders to keep time with the notes. “This is a happy song, Mama, for a happy day.”

“And we shouldn’t hum or sing at the table, remember?”

“That’s Father’s rule, but he ain’t here.” Sophie smiled brightly.

“And it is a happy song.” Miss Rosie broke into the full song in her lovely soprano voice. When she got to the fourth verse, Aunt Birdie harmonized with her as they sang, “Then the traveler in the dark / Thanks you for your tiny spark / He could not see which way to go / If you did not twinkle so.”

Every single thing, even the lyrics of the song, kept telling Hannah that she was doing the right thing. She would keep a house for that weary traveler in the dark, the woman who couldn’t endure another beating or who was taking her children away from a horrible home. Every poor soul who’d been abused needed one tiny spark to give her hope, to show her which way to go, and Hannah was going to do her damnedest to be just that small light at the end of the dark tunnel.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

C
alvin began the applause when the song ended, and everyone else joined him. He paused and took a bite of the lasagna. “Oh. My. God. You ladies should start a restaurant.”

“At our age!” Miss Rosie giggled. “Eighty is too old to start a new business. You come on back to Crossing and we’ll give you our recipes, and you and Travis can build a fancy café. We’re too damned old for that shit.”

“Rosie Johnson! This is Sunday,” Aunt Birdie scolded.

“Then we’re too old for that holy shit.” She smiled in all innocence.

“You need to go back to church,” Aunt Birdie said staunchly.

“Me? I didn’t cuss in church this morning, but I know someone who did.”

“Ladies, that was lovely dinner music,” Calvin interrupted. “And while I have all of you together, I have to tell you a couple of very well-known New York clothiers for plus-size women have approached me for a spring line.”

Darcy clamped a hand over her mouth. “You weren’t joking about me walking on the runway.”

Calvin nodded. “You and Liz both.”

It took three big gulps of sweet tea to get the chunk of lettuce to go down when Hannah choked. After a few seconds, her eyes stopped watering, and her ability to speak returned.

“Are you serious?” Hannah asked. “Does this mean you’re going to move your business closer to us and we can see you more often?”

“Yes, I am,” Calvin said. “And Darcy and Liz, it’s only walking down a long stage, making a graceful turn and going back to get dressed again.”

“And Hannah?” Travis asked.

“Sweet Hannah is too small for this line. Later I might contract for a petite line or, I’m hoping, a children’s line so I can feature our Sophie, but this year it will be for women size sixteen to twenty-six,” Calvin answered.

“Have you started designing?” asked Hannah.

Calvin’s head bobbed up and down. “I’ve been working on this for a couple of years. I have a request, Hannah.”

“I told you I’m too short to model for you.”

“Not that. I want to buy your land. Not your house. I’ll leave you a nice-size yard, but I want the rest of your property plus the airplane hangar. I’ve talked to Travis, and he said as soon as he’s finished helping you, he can take on the job of turning that hangar into my studio. We’ll turn the loft into living quarters, the old office will be my new office, and the hangar is going to be my sewing factory. The new showing will be in Dallas, of course, but I’ll have more space and time to work if I live in Crossing.”

“We can have it done in a month,” Travis said. “It’s not hard to get summer help when school is out and teenage boys are looking for jobs.”

“And if you’ll sell me your land, I plan to beg Aunt Birdie to let me rent one of her upstairs rooms to live in so I can help Travis with the remodeling and keep sketching out new designs,” he said.

Hannah was totally speechless, and then the tune to the English lullaby started playing in her head, the fourth verse playing over and over on a continuous loop. Finally, she nodded. She’d gotten the message. The money from this sale would allow her to run a shelter for women for a long time.

“Well, you’ve got sh—crap for brains if you think I’d charge you a dime to stay with me,” Aunt Birdie huffed. “You can move in today or next week or whenever you want to, but don’t insult me by trying to rent a room. You are family, boy, and don’t you forget it.”

Calvin got up, rounded the table, and bent low to give Aunt Birdie a hug. “Thank you so much. I could live in a hotel, but it would mean driving back and forth every day. And besides, I like your cooking much better than fast food.”

“You’ve always been a sweet-talker. Now eat your dinner and pretend that you are in a fancy restaurant with violins playin’ over there in the corner. Besides, all this business of movin’ to Crossing ain’t a done deal until Hannah agrees,” Aunt Birdie said.

“I agree,” Hannah said simply.

A deep frown created furrows in Liz’s forehead. “Don’t you want to think about it, Hannah?”

“No, I do not.” She shook her head. “Gina is coming today at two to start the procedure to use my place as a safe house,” she said and went on to tell them what she’d decided, even adding the bit about the song that had been sung that very morning. “I’m going to do this, because it’s been laid on my heart and I want to help others get away from abusive spouses. And Travis, I don’t expect that women in those kinds of circumstances care if those upstairs bedrooms are gorgeous. They want a safe haven, not a five-star hotel, so after you get Sophie’s room done, please go on and help Calvin.”

“And when you have guests, Travis will be staying over at your place. You never know when a crazy husband or boyfriend might find his way to your place,” Aunt Birdie said authoritatively. “It’s either him or me and my shotgun. Take your pick.”

“Okay, then,” Hannah said. “But Aunt Birdie, Travis and I already discussed this and decided that he would stay with us during those times.”

“Yay!” Sophie pumped her fist again. “Someone special is coming to our house and Uncle Travis can have my bed and I’ll sleep with Mama. You will love sleeping in my rainbow room with the clouds and the sky in there with you. And Uncle Travis”—her expression went totally serious—“can I have a star in the sky, too?”

“Of course you can, sweet baby girl, but I’ll be staying in one of the rooms upstairs. Your rainbow room is yours,” he said.

“My room is going to be like the lullabies Mama sings to me like ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Too-Ra-Loo,’ isn’t it, Mama?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Hannah agreed.

Calvin held his empty plate out toward Liz. “More please, ma’am. What is too-ra-loo, Sophie?”

“It’s what Mama sings to me when I can’t sleep. It’s something Irish because we’re Irish folks. Father didn’t like us being Irish, but it didn’t make us stop singing our song.”

“It’s an old Irish lullaby that goes back generations in our family,” Aunt Birdie said. “I remember when my mama sang it to me.”

Hannah pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. “I’m excited about this. When something is laid upon an Irish girl’s heart, she can either fight with it or listen to it. I’m tired of fighting, so I listened. There’s a reason for everything. In a few years or maybe even in a few months, I’ll understand better what the reason for this is, but right now I’m going to follow my heart.”

“That’s the Hannah we all know and love.” Calvin held up his tea glass in a toast. “May we all find new beginnings that bring us great happiness.”

Hannah noticed that Liz was the last one to raise her glass, and when she did it was with sadness still in her eyes.

Sophie used both hands to lift up her glass. “What y’all said sounds like big-people talk to me, but I want us all to be happy.”

Travis draped a hand around Hannah’s shoulders. “She’s a brilliant child. I wouldn’t mind having half a dozen just like her.”

Hannah slid a pan of brownies in the oven as soon as she got home and put a pot of coffee on. Just in case Gina changed her mind, she made a pitcher of sweet tea and sliced up a lemon. She was in the process of arranging the pieces in a pretty bowl when the doorbell rang.

“Oh, my, this place smells wonderful,” Gina said.

She was a tall, rawboned woman with red hair worn in a bob right below her ears. Her green eyes and thin mouth were set in a long, narrow face with a kind expression.

“Come right on in.” Hannah threw open the screen door and stepped to one side. “Coffee and brownies are ready. I hope you like chocolate.”

“It’s a sin not to like chocolate. I’m not sure that you can get into heaven if you don’t like it.” Gina laughed. “Shall we set up at the kitchen table, then?”

“Yes, that would be great. I’ve got a couple of pens and two pencils sharpened. Which one should I use?” Hannah asked.

“None of the above. I brought my laptop and you’ll do your questionnaire on it, and then we’ll take care of your fingerprints and I’ll plug them into the system. Might as well tell me right now if you’ve got a record and save us both some time.” Gina’s eyes darted around the spotless living room as she made her way to the kitchen. “You keep a nice home.”

“Thank you. It’s habit, but I’m trying to be more flexible,” Hannah said.

“I understand.” Gina removed a small laptop from her briefcase and hit several keys before she turned it around.

“Coffee or sweet tea?” Hannah asked.

“Coffee to go with those brownies.”

“Perfect. They are ready to come out of the oven.” Hannah brought the pan out with a couple of hot pads and set it in the middle of the table. Before she sat down at the computer, she put two small plates, a couple of forks, and a knife on the table. “Now coffee,” she said as she filled two mugs and handed one off to Gina. “Tell me what I need to do while you have the first warm brownie.”

“Just sit down and start filling out the form. It doesn’t take nearly as long on the computer as it does on paper. Mainly after the first page, when it asks for all your information, it’s checking boxes.” Gina groaned when she took the first bite of the hot brownie. “Lord, these are good. I’m going to gain ten pounds this afternoon.”

Hannah smiled and started typing. Name, Social Security number, address, and all kinds of other questions, some pretty damned personal. Why did they need to know how much she weighed? Only God and her doctor knew that information! Half an hour later, she looked up from the screen to find Gina reading a thick romance book with a cowboy on the cover.

“I don’t get to read very often, and your house is so quiet.” She smiled. “All done with the questions?”

“Yes, ma’am. Now what?” Hannah asked. “Do you want to see the house?”

“Not just yet. Your fingerprints next.” Gina turned the computer around, clicked a few keys, took a small device about half the size of a mouse pad from her purse, and plugged the USB port right into the computer. “Just lay your whole hand down on this and wait until the light turns green to remove it.”

“Pretty fancy,” Hannah said as the machine transferred her prints to the screen.

When it finished, Gina tapped a few more keys and then put the device and the computer back into her case. “That’s it. Didn’t hurt too bad, did it?”

“Not at all,” Hannah said.

“Now let’s take a look at this place. I can already tell you that if the rest looks like your living room and kitchen, the ladies I send here will be in good hands,” Gina said.

“Thank you. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.” Hannah led the way up to the second floor. “This was my grandmother’s house. We lived down the street in a smaller place, but I was here a lot as a kid. She died years ago, and then my father passed away and I inherited it. I’m glad that it can be used to help others.”

“It looks like a perfect place for a safe house,” Gina said.

“This is the room I intend to make into a sitting room,” Hannah said, pointing to one on the left.

“Excellent idea,” Gina said. “I don’t think you’ll have a bit of problem. We need more just like you who are willing to volunteer their homes for safe houses. Everything should be cleared in a week to ten days, and I’ll call you as soon as I get word. You’ve already got a rail for the porch steps, and I won’t send anyone who can’t maneuver the stairs.”

“If you do, they can have the master bedroom and I will stay in one of the rooms up here,” Hannah said.

“Thank you,” Gina said.

Hannah’s heart felt lighter than it had in years. Tears formed behind her thick lashes, but she wouldn’t let them fall. This was not a time of sadness. She had just passed the first step in doing something important with her life. Joy surged.

As soon as Gina was out the door, she called her mother. Patsy answered on the fourth ring.

“Hello,” she said breathlessly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mama. I just did all the paperwork for the safe house. Were you running?”

“Left my phone on the table, and Mama and I were watching a movie in her room,” Patsy explained. “But tell me all about this new thing.”

Hannah rattled on for ten minutes talking about the fancy fingerprint machine, the song at the dinner table, what the preacher talked about, and every other detail she could think of. “Mama, please come for the Fourth of July. Last time I saw you was Easter, and that was only for the weekend. Besides, you had to stay with Aunt Birdie because of the problem here.”