Reflecting Love's Charms (Bellingwood Book 14) (11 page)

As much as he would have loved being part of Sycamore House's renovation, he wouldn't have been able to contain himself at the opportunity to work on the Bell House. She smiled. What fun it would have been to have him there with her every day. When he got older, she would have asked him to move in, but until then, he'd have had his hands in everything they did to restore that old house to its former beauty.

She brushed a tear from her cheek. Sometimes she really missed him. Tears didn't come as often anymore, but every once in a while, something reminded her that he was gone. Polly pulled out the passport that she'd wondered about three years ago. She still had no clue as to why he'd traveled to England and France and wondered if she would ever know. The necklace of her mother's was still in its box and she rubbed her thumb over the clasp. Photos of her family when she was a child. Polly couldn't help herself and turned to glance back at the bookshelf again, seeing the photo album that Ruth Ann had given to her. That could stay where it was. Maybe someday she'd be able to look at it again and not be disgusted at what that woman had tried to do. She'd insinuated herself into Polly's family many years before, and then tried to do so again with Polly two years ago. Never again would she be allowed near those that Polly loved.

Polly touched the folded edge of a love letter that she knew by heart. Her father had written beautiful words to his bride to be. She opened an envelope filled with dried rose petals from the bouquet he'd given his wife and daughter when they came home from the hospital. Everett had saved the sweetest things. Polly picked up a manila envelope, knowing without looking that it contained certificates from all of her music contests. He loved to hear her practice, even when it was just scales. Polly always thought he was a little nutty about that, but it certainly had kept her returning to the flute night after night. He was a very smart man. She hadn't tried that tactic with Rebecca yet. Practicing was still a challenge. Polly needed to take her flute back out pretty soon and get ready for the summer band.

Her fingernail snagged on the ragged edge of a piece of paper and she lifted a small stack of papers. When she couldn't find what it was she'd touched, she flipped the stack over and saw a piece of paper caught in the tape of an old family picture.

"What's this?"

"What's this, is right."

Polly nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Henry's voice. She looked up at him guiltily as he walked into the office. "I couldn't sleep and was thinking about Dad."

"And eating chocolate cake at my desk, no less."

"Milk, too." She held up the glass with a grin.

"What sent you into Rebecca's room? Did something upset her?"

"I'm sorry," Polly said. "I forgot to tell you." She shook her head. "No, that's not right. I just fell asleep. Kayla called and wanted to talk to Rebecca."

"Were you able to find out where they were?" he asked. "Did you talk to Stephanie?"

"No. Poor Kayla wants to come home, but Stephanie is terrified. She's just not thinking right and I don't know how to help her if she won't let me. I can't get past her fear."

He walked over to stand beside her and stroked her hair. "I think it's a good sign that she let Kayla call Rebecca, don't you?"

"But it's not enough." Polly leaned against him. "I just wish I knew where they were."

"Give her time. The longer she has to think about the choices she's making, the better decisions she'll make. The first choice to leave Bellingwood was made out of fear. Stephanie needed space to think. She's a smart girl and will figure it out." He reached over and closed the box, then put it back on the shelf. "Come to bed with me. The dogs miss you."

"Just the dogs?" she asked.

He laughed. "So far. If they knew you were in here eating dessert, they'd be jealous too." Henry picked up the tissues and empty glass, then swept chocolate cake crumbs into his hand. "You're a slob," he said with a laugh.

"And you love me for it."

"More than I can say."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Henry turned to Polly. "Do you have plans this morning?"

She'd sent him questioning looks all through breakfast since he was generally out of the door long before the kids left for school, but he was still here.

"Uhhh. No?" she said. "Wanna mess around?"

He laughed out loud. "Always, but I have a small surprise for you over at Bell House."

"I was going over anyway," she said. "Me and the rake. We're about to get cozy-friendly." Polly flexed her arm. "I'm building these muscles back up. You'd better be careful."

He waggled his eyebrows at her. "I'm always careful, baby." He dipped his head in mock shame. "That
so
didn't work, did it?"

"Nope, but I appreciate the effort."

Henry picked the plates up from the table and carried them into the sink in the kitchen. "How can I help you get out of here?"

Polly looked around and shrugged. "I'm ready to go now, I guess. Are we in a hurry?"

"Maybe a little."

"Do I have time for coffee from Sweet Beans?"

He glanced up at the clock on the wall and rolled his neck. "Only if you don't spend time chatting with everyone you see there. Can you do that?"

"One truck or two?" she asked, heading for the back door.

"Better take two."

"Then I'll race you." Polly ran down the steps and through the doors to the garage. She hit the button to raise the garage door as she raced to her truck. After she backed out, she hit the button to lower it again and giggled. Fair-shmair. He didn't need his fix as bad as she needed hers.

Picking up her phone, she dialed the coffee shop and when Sky answered, she breathlessly gave him her order. "Can you hurry this for me? I hate to ask, but I'm racing Henry to the Bell House."

"It will be ready when you get here," he replied with a laugh. "The two of you are weird. He just called me, too. Said I was supposed to give you his coffee."

"That fink," she said. "I'll be right there."

She pulled out onto the highway, waving at Henry as he backed out of the garage, trying her best to drive within the speed limit. Polly knew that when challenged, she would do anything to win. Running into pedestrians in downtown Bellingwood or getting picked up for speeding by people she knew was not a precedent she wanted to set.

When she got to the coffee shop, Polly gritted her teeth and cursed since the parking spaces in front of Sweet Beans were filled. "What in the hell?" she yelled. "All of a sudden, today, you all want coffee? We're never this busy!"

She parked in front of Pizzazz and ran across the street, then pulled up short when the normal allotment of customers was inside. "Where is everyone?" she asked Sky at the counter.

"There's a retreat at the quilt shop next door," he said, gesturing with his head. "They started early this morning. We had quite a rush there for a while. Lucky for us, they thought to tell us it was coming. That's why you get to see my pretty face today." He held out two cups and Polly put money on the counter, then took them from him.

"Thanks. I'll talk to you later. In a rush," she said and ran back to the front door.

"Good luck!" he called.

As she ran across the street, Henry stopped to let her pass and waved. She walked to the driver's side and waited for him to roll the window down, then handed him his coffee. "That was mean, making me pick yours up, too."

"I'm dawdling, so you won't be late," he said. "Hurry!"

"I'm hurrying. But why?" she asked.

"You'll see. Go on, get going." He waved her in front of him and she ran to her truck, jumped in and jammed the coffee into a cup holder.

Henry drove on down the street, tapping his brakes as he slowed his truck while waiting for her.

"He is such a weirdo," she said, backing out and following him. He pulled over to the right, put his hand out and waved her around. As she drove by, she shook her head and laughed. Henry just waved again.

Several cars were parked on the street in front of the Bell House when they arrived, but there was room for her to pull into the driveway. She parked, took up her coffee and jumped out, waiting for Henry to do the same.

"Now what was I in such a rush to get here for?" she asked.

"Come with me." He took her hand and led her behind the garage to where there was a group of people already in the room-sized hole in the ground.

"What's going on?"

"Just wait." Henry walked over to an older man, shook his hand and then beckoned for Polly to join them. "This is Professor Argual from Iowa State. He and his students are here to help me with the surprise."

Polly shook the professor's hand and then the man stepped forward. "Go ahead, James." He walked to the far wall of the room and motioned for Polly and Henry. "I think you can see better over here."

"What is this?" Polly whispered.

"You'll see."

She looked down into the room and realized that the students had dug out lines surrounding a rectangle in the wall. "Is that a...?"

Henry nodded.

James slipped what looked like a trowel in the right side of the space they'd delineated and ran it up to the top and around, then down to the bottom. Once he was satisfied that it would come free, he pushed the door and surprisingly, it swung open to the inside of another room.

"It worked," he said, loud enough for them to hear.

"What's in there?" Polly asked. Her feet moved before her brain and she headed for the ladder that had been dropped into the room.

Henry stopped her. "Let them do their job."

"But I want to see." As soon as it came out of her mouth, she knew it was ridiculous and stepped back. Turning to the professor, she asked, "Wouldn't the air be awful in there?"

He nodded. "With the images we received from the GPR, we knew that it was as close to the surface as this space, so early this morning, we poked holes in the ground to allow the atmosphere to clear." He smiled. "It also has the added benefit of allowing natural light into the room." The professor bent over. "Ella, what do you see?"

"Not much, professor," a girl called back. She stepped into the doorway. "No more bones, that's for sure. "Empty kegs and shelves of empty bottles. He had quite a production going on here, whoever it was."

"It has to be Franklin Bell," Polly said.

One of the other young people pressed past Ella and climbed the ladder enough to hand something to his professor. "We just found a stack of these. Thought you'd find it interesting."

Polly stepped over to see what he'd been handed and Argual passed it to her. "You'll like this," he said.

She found that she was holding a label for Franklin Bell's Corn Whiskey.

"Bell's Whiskey

Distilled and Bottled in Bellingwood, Iowa

Better than Good, A Balm for the Soul

None finer for medicinal purposes."

"This is fabulous," she said. "Are any of the bottles full?" She turned to Henry. "That would be some seriously aged whiskey."

James came back out into the main room and looked up. "We didn’t find any actual whiskey in there. Maybe the poor guy drank it all before he died."

Polly nodded, a little disappointed.

Then Henry took her aside. "They're going to be here for a while and after they've been through that room, they'll leave things as they are for us. You can do whatever you want with the bottles and kegs."

"Really?" she asked.

"Another group of students is coming over this afternoon from the engineering department to make sure the tunnel is safe and these kids will trek through it, checking to see if there's anything else of interest."

"That would be terrific," she said. "Can you believe it, Henry? This place had to have been a speakeasy. How fun is that?"

Professor Argual put his hand on her elbow. "It's good that you look at it that way."

"It's history. Whether it's good or bad," Polly said, "it's history. Prohibition was a pretty significant time for America. Women finally started insisting on their rights and before anyone knew what was happening, they were voting. Just like men. It's hard to believe that women had to..." she paused. "And some still have to fight for equality." Polly hugged Henry. "I love you."

"I love you, too. What's that for?"

"You're just a good guy."

The professor looked at them and smiled when Polly realized that she'd said all of that in front of a relative stranger. "If you'll excuse me," he said, putting his hand on the ladder. "I want to get a look at this."

Polly and Henry walked back to the front of the house and when they got to his truck, she reached up and kissed him. "I forget sometimes how lucky I am to be married to a man that has never thought of me as less than anyone else."

"You shouldn't ever have to think that you're lucky to have that," he replied, touching her nose with his. "It disgusts me that any woman would worry about a man treating her that way. Anyone treating anyone that way." He gave his head a quick shake. "I can't think about it or I get too angry."

"Like I said," Polly replied. "I'm lucky."

"So am I." Henry put his hand on the door handle of his truck. "Am I safe to leave you here alone? Promise you won't go down there until someone tells you that it's safe?"

"Because I'm a poor weak woman?"

He laughed. "Hoisted with my own petard. I asked for that one, didn't I?"

"I'll be good and I'll be safe. Thank you for setting this up for me. It was fun. I can't wait to do something with that label."

"Because you will do something, won't you. Tell me you haven't already researched how to run a whiskey distillery."

Polly bit her lip with a grin.

"You did," he exclaimed.

"Yep. And it will never happen. It's harder to get a license to distill whiskey than it is to brew beer or make wine. I'm just not
that
interested in restoring history. But I think Lydia, Andy, Beryl and I could come up with something fun with the bottles and labels."

"Okay," he said, nodding. "I'm heading to work. Heath and I will be back again this afternoon."

As he drove away, Polly wandered over to the porch. Much of it would be finished by early next week if they kept up this pace. There were so many interesting and exciting things to be done here, but danged if they weren't all going to exhaust her. She walked back to the garage, opened the door, and took out the rake Eliseo had brought over. That side yard wasn't going to clean itself and he was planning to come over with the horses to run a tiller through the entire yard. At least they now knew where it was safe to traverse. She shuddered at the thought of one of those horses falling into a hole in the ground.

While Polly raked the yard, she thought about the bones she'd found on Monday. Those had to belong to Franklin Bell. No one knew what had happened to the young man. All of a sudden, one day, he was gone. She didn't believe for a minute that he'd drunk all of the whiskey in that room. It was too well sealed for him to have been in and out of it prior to dying. If it was Franklin, he was the one who built this place and would have never allowed himself to get trapped in that room.

She took out her phone and dialed the sheriff's office in Boone again, this time asking for Anita Banks.

"This is Anita. How may I help you?"

"Hi Anita, it's Polly Giller. What's up?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Polly wanted to take them back. What a silly thing to say to someone.

"Not much. What's up with you?"

Polly chuckled. "Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way. I was wondering if you could tell me anything more about those bones I found on Monday."

"You've been busy this week and it's only Thursday," Anita said. "Tell me you're done."

"I hope so. I was ready to be done after I climbed out of that hole in the ground. Do you know how he died? Was it even a he?" Polly asked.

"Let me see what I can find," Anita replied. "I just need to shut these two windows and open this program..." Anita cursed.