Back Home Again (14 page)

“Aunt Ethel was here?” Alice felt her eyebrows going up.

“We were acting like children again,” admitted Louise. “I’m sure Aunt Ethel has already told Lloyd and half the town about our little disagreement by now.”

“Oh well.” Alice sighed. “It’s not as if there aren’t rumors going around Acorn Hill already.”

“We’re going to have quite a reputation before long,” said Jane with what almost seemed like pride.

“I have an idea,” said Louise. “Why don’t we all go out for lunch right now? My treat. We’ll put on our best manners and show everyone just how much we really love each other.”

“Give them something new to talk about?”

They took their paint samples and new décor book to the Coffee Shop and sat around a big corner table. Hope winked at Alice as she refilled their water glasses. “Everything okay here?” she asked.

“Couldn’t be better,” said Louise.

“What do you think of this color for our dining room?” Alice asked Hope.

“
Ooh
, that’s nice.”

Before the day was over, they had picked out most of their interior paint colors and had even agreed upon a few samples of some of the less intricate styles of wallpaper. If all went as planned, then the finished appearance of the inn would be fresh and clean and yet elegant.

“I think the colors we’ve chosen will feel nice and peaceful,” Alice said later on that evening as they sat around the kitchen table sipping cinnamon tea. “Our guests will just sigh deeply when they step in the front door. They’ll know this is a place where they can simply relax.”

“A place where one can be refreshed and encouraged,” said Louise.

“A place of hope and healing,” added Jane.

“A place where God is at home,” said Alice.

“I like that,” said Jane. “Maybe we should put those words on a plaque or something.”

“I have a special catalog that makes nameplates and such,” said Louise as she furiously scribed their words on a page of her notebook. “Shall I order us up a plaque with that on it?”

Jane nodded. “Yes, we can put it right by the front door for everyone who enters. I especially like what Alice said:
A place where God is at home.
”

Alice smiled. “I think Father would love that.”

Chapter Seventeen

O
nce the colors and general direction of the interior design were agreed upon, it became clear that Jane had a natural gift for decorating. This made perfect sense to Alice since Jane had always been the one interested in art, but Louise seemed slightly surprised about what she referred to as “Jane’s knack.” Soon Jane began making suggestions for rearranging pieces of furniture, or hanging a mirror on a certain wall, or even the careful placement of a potted plant. At first Louise would resist these changes, but she soon realized that Jane knew exactly what she was doing. Before long, both Louise and Alice decided that Jane should take charge of the interior design.

“That doesn’t mean you get to make
all
the decisions completely on your own,” Louise reminded her. “We all have to agree with anything major.”

Jane nodded. “Believe me, I know.”

“Not that you’ve given us anything to disagree with,” said Alice. “So far, we love what you’ve been doing, Jane.”

“But I’d still like a say,” said Louise.

“I’ve already thought about what I’d like to do in Mother and Father’s room,” said Jane. “I was sitting up there this afternoon and got hit with an inspiration. Don’t worry, I’ll run it by you two first.”

“I’m sure it’ll be nice,” said Alice. “It’s so dreary and faded looking now. Father never wanted to change a thing up there.”

“I got an idea for the other guest rooms.” Jane said this with a twinkle in her eye. “I thought perhaps we could each choose the décor for our old bedrooms. Since we used to live there, we would know them the best. It might sort of give them an individual identity, don’t you think?”

“Really?” Louise looked slightly stunned. “You’d actually allow us to pick out our own style of décor in a room, Jane?”

She grinned. “Sure. Who knows, we might even have a guest or two who really wants to stay in a frilly, old-fashioned Victorian bedroom.”

“Well, I wouldn’t need to make it overly fussy …”

“I’d like mine to be more of a country-styled room,” said Alice thoughtfully. “Perhaps with a patchwork quilt. Something cheerful and light.”

“See,” said Jane. “Your input will give the rooms more personality. We should probably give them some sort of names, so we can distinguish them from each other. I was
thinking of calling Father and Mother’s the Garden Room, since it faces the garden. Father always told me how much Mother loved her flowers.”

“What kind of names should we give our rooms?” asked Louise as she set aside her knitting.

“My old bedroom faces east,” said Alice. “How about if I call it the Sunrise Room?”

“That’s sweet,” said Jane.

Louise frowned. “My old room faces north. I don’t want to call it the Arctic Room.”

“Well, think about some sort of theme that you’d like to have in your room,” suggested Jane. “Some color you like, or something you enjoy.”

“Music?” said Louise.

Jane nodded. “That’s nice, but we might not want to call it the Music Room. That might be confusing.”

“How about the Symphony Room?” asked Louise. “I have a beautiful old violin that belonged to Eliot as a boy. I could display it on the wall.”

“That sounds lovely,” said Alice.

“Now how about your old room, Jane?”

“Hmm, Alice’s name gives me an idea. I used to enjoy sitting in my room and watching the sun set. I could call mine the Sunset Room, and that will go nicely with the palette of colors I’ve decided on.”

“I like that,” said Alice. “So we have the Garden Room, the Symphony Room, the Sunrise Room, and the Sunset Room.”

“That’s nice,” said Jane.

By the middle of the following week, Alice felt that everything was falling neatly into place. Other than their biggest project, replacing the slate-covered roof, Jim Sharp’s renovations seemed to be moving along like clockwork. The exterior painting was nearly halfway completed, and Alice thought it looked quite lovely. Other than an unsolved plumbing problem that left the third floor temporarily without water or bathrooms, life seemed to be running fairly smoothly—that is, until Alice came home one evening to find a man standing in their front yard.

“Hello, I’m Mike Wall,” the man said, handing her his card. “Are you one of the owners of this lovely home?”

“Yes. I’m Alice Howard.”

“Sorry to just drop by like this, but I heard about your property. As you can see by my card, I’m a real estate developer. My office is in Pittsburgh, but I work throughout the state locating and developing unique properties.”

“But I—I don’t understand …” Alice studied the middle-aged man carefully. His navy blue suit looked quite expensive and he drove some sort of fancy European sports car.

He smiled, revealing a straight set of perfectly white
teeth. “I’m sorry to catch you by surprise, Alice, but one of your relatives informed me that you might be interested in selling your home.”

She blinked. “Do you mean one of my sisters contacted you?”

He nodded. “Yes, something like that.”

“But that’s impossible. We plan to turn this into—”

“Now, let me assure you that I only make offers on the finest sorts of real estate. I haven’t seen the inside of your home yet, but I’m impressed with what’s been done on the outside, and I understand there’s a bit of land and a carriage house and—”

“But it’s
not
for sale,” said Alice quickly. “I don’t know where you got such an idea—”

“Your sister told a mutual friend, and I thought I’d come out to get a better look.” He smiled again. “I’m sure you’ll find my offer to be more than fair. I’ve checked local real estate values in your town, and I can assure you that I’m willing to do much better than what—”

“Hey, Alice,” called Jane from the front porch. Alice could tell by the curious expression on Jane’s face that she hadn’t met this pushy man yet.

“Jane, come and meet Mike Wall,” said Alice as her younger sister joined them. “He seems to think that our house is for sale.”

“Well, now I knew that you hadn’t actually put it on the market yet, but according to your sister—”

“
Our sister?
” Jane glanced at Alice as she pulled her thick cardigan sweater more tightly around her.

He looked uncomfortable. “I don’t recall her name. She’s older.”

“
Louise!
” Jane and Alice exclaimed simultaneously.

He nodded. “Yes, that sounds right. Anyway, according to your sister and my good friend Lloyd Tynan, you ladies might be open to hearing my more than generous offer for your property.”

“It’s
not
for sale!” declared Jane, much more emphatically than Alice had been able to do. Alice shook her head for additional emphasis.

“Like I told—er—was it Alice?” he asked. “Don’t be too quick to turn me away before you hear what I have to offer.”

“We don’t want to sell our house,” said Alice. “This is all some sort of a silly mistake.”

“Not according to Lloyd and your sister. They seemed quite certain that you’d be interested in hearing my offer.”

“Well, why don’t you come into the house,” said Jane in a stiff voice. “It’s getting quite cold out here.”

“Where’s Louise?” Alice whispered into Jane’s ear as they went up the front porch steps.

“I don’t know. She left this afternoon and she’s not back yet.”

Jane led Mike into the parlor while Alice put away her jacket and purse. She wished that Louise would hurry up and come home, and straighten up this crazy nonsense. Why on earth would Louise and Lloyd Tynan tell this virtual stranger that their house was for sale?

“I realize how folks can get an emotional attachment to a family home,” he was saying when Alice joined them. “But you need to keep things in perspective. A place like this can be quite expensive to keep up, and there are taxes—did you know that they’ll go up with every improvement? Right now while you’ve got the house almost fixed up it will have good value, but wait a couple of years and who knows?”

“But we have no intention of selling it.” Jane’s voice was growing increasingly irate.

“Are all three of you equal owners?” he asked as he opened a little notebook and jotted something down.

“Yes,” answered Alice.

“And all equal investors in this renovation?”

Alice glanced at Jane.

“I’m not sure that is any of your business.” Jane brushed some dust from the knees of her overalls and then quickly stood up, obviously hinting that it was time for him to leave.

He nodded and closed his notebook. “I see. Perhaps your other sister would think otherwise.”

“I’m sure this is just some mistake,” said Alice. “We’re sorry to have wasted your time.”

He stood now. “No problem. When do you expect your other sister will be home?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” said Jane as she moved toward the parlor door. Alice was surprised she hadn’t simply grabbed the fellow by his designer suit and tossed him out by now.

But he was in no hurry as he handed his business card to Jane now. “I’d like for her to give me a call.”

“Fine.” Jane nodded briskly. “We’ll let her know.”

“Okay.” He smiled again, directing his charm at Jane with what seemed to be full throttle. “Hey, I really like what you’re doing around here. It’s a lovely house. Lots of potential. You should be proud.”

“Thank you.” She had him nearly to the front door now.

“I’ll be in touch,” he said as Jane shut the door behind him.

“The very nerve of that guy!” Jane turned around to face Alice now. “What in heaven’s name is Louise up to, talking to realtors behind our backs? What could she possibly be thinking?”

“We don’t know any of this for sure, Jane. Don’t start imagining things.”

Jane marched toward the kitchen. “Did I imagine that realtor, Alice?”

“No, but it just makes no sense.”

“Think about it, it makes perfect sense. Louise has been investing the most capital into our renovation. What if she thinks she has the right to sell out if she wants.” Jane shook her head. “It’s partially my fault, because I’ve been so argumentative with her. Who would blame her for wanting out?”

“You don’t know that, Jane.”

“What if she thinks we can all make a lot of money on the deal? Remember how she said real estate was the best kind of investment. What if she’s just playing big sister and thinks this is in our best interest?”

“Louise wouldn’t do something like that without discussing it with us first. Don’t get yourself all worked up over nothing. I’m sure she has a perfectly logical explanation.”

“But it’s so—”

“Hello,” called Louise from the foyer. “Anybody home?”

“We’re in the kitchen,” called Jane in a slightly irritated voice.

“What’s wrong?” asked Louise as she removed her brown leather gloves.

“You tell us, Louise.” Jane peered at her oldest sister.

“What?” Louise took off her long camel coat and laid it
across the back of the chair and stared at her sisters. “What on earth is going on here?”

“That’s what we want to know.” Jane set a pot onto the stovetop. “Are you selling out on us, Louise?”

“What are you talking about, Jane?”

“Did you tell that Mike Wall fellow that we were interested in selling our house?” Jane turned and looked at Louise. With her arms folded she waited for her sister’s response.

“Mike Wall?” Louise looked to Alice with raised brows as she shook her head. “Who is that?”

“The realtor,” explained Alice, fishing in her pocket for his business card. “He wants you to call him.”

“A realtor? Why in the world do I want to call a realtor?”

“To sell our house.” Jane spoke slowly now, as if Louise wasn’t quite listening. “Apparently Mike Wall has some really great offer. He says that you and Lloyd Tynan told him that we might be interested.”

“Lloyd Tynan and I?” Louise looked truly stumped now. “Why, I haven’t spoken with Lloyd in weeks. Goodness knows, Aunt Ethel would’ve made it known to everyone if I had.”

“
Aunt Ethel
,” Alice said suddenly. “At first Mike Wall said he’d spoken to a
relative
. I guess I just assumed it was one of my sisters, and then when Jane pleaded innocent, we naturally thought—”

Louise looked scandalized. “You actually thought I’d try to sell our house without even discussing it with the two of you?”

“Well, it all happened so quickly,” said Jane as she twisted a dish towel in her hands.

“We didn’t know what to think,” offered Alice. “I’m so sorry, Louise.”

She sniffed. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

Jane put her arm around Louise’s shoulders. “Oh, Louise, it’s all my fault. I’m so sorry. Alice told me you would never do something like that. I don’t know why I didn’t believe her. That presumptuous realtor, well, he just got me all fired up. Please, forgive me, Louise—me and my big mouth.”

“It’s all right, Jane. Under the circumstances, I might’ve done the same.”

“But I should’ve known better.” Jane shook her head. “To be honest, I haven’t had the best day anyway. I spilt a whole gallon of paint in the Sunrise Room this afternoon.” She glanced at Alice nervously. “Sorry. But, don’t worry, I have an idea for doing a pickle finish on the floor anyway, and I think it will go nicely with the country theme you’re planning in there.”