Nightingale Way: An Eternity Springs Novel (16 page)

Early on Friday morning—Cam Murphy Day—Cat left Nightingale Cottage wearing shorts, a T-shirt, sneakers, and a smile. It promised to be a beautiful day weather-wise and a fun one to witness. The town was abuzz with excitement. From what she could gather, the people of Eternity Springs were accustomed to having summertime, tourist-oriented festivals, but today’s event—thrown together in a few short days—was a celebration for the townspeople.

From Angel’s Rest, the walk to the newspaper office was a twenty-minute stroll, or a ten-minute power walk if she wanted it to count toward her daily exercise. Today, Cat was of a mind to stroll. She stopped at the Mocha Moose for a cup of coffee to go. She brewed a decent cup herself in the coffeemaker in her cottage, but the barista at the Mocha Moose was a master. She stopped to chat with LaNelle Harrison as she opened her quilt shop and waved at Mayor Townsend, who was taking his morning constitutional. It was a gorgeous
morning and she’d had a great night’s sleep and she was downright happy. When was the last time that had happened?

Today at the
Eternity Times
, she got to be the boss.

Emily Hall had called her last night in a panic on her way out of town to deal with a family emergency. Cat had assured her that she’d be happy to fill in. While she sincerely wished Emily’s family the best, she couldn’t help but be delighted to have a shot at being editor-in-chief. She didn’t care that the
Times
was only a little mountain newsweekly. Emily had already arranged to do a Cam Murphy Day special edition. As Cat slipped her key into the newspaper’s front door, she murmured, “And now it’s mine, all mine.”

And she took a wicked pleasure in assigning the official
Eternity Times
photographer to document Cam Murphy Day events like the horseshoes competition and the hot dog eating contest. She had Sarah Reese to thank for that.

Ordinarily Emily took all the photographs that appeared in the newspaper. Such was the work of a one-woman newspaper. But because Sarah’s daughter was in Virginia on a veterinary internship and couldn’t come home for her father’s big day, Sarah wanted a thorough documentation of events to share with Lori. Sage Rafferty had suggested she ask Jack to man the camera. Since he’d ditched the crutches the day after their late-night mineral spring soak, no physical limitations prevented him from helping. Still, Cat had been surprised when Sarah told her he’d agreed.

She’d been shocked when he called Emily and volunteered to take pictures for the extra edition. Cam was Jack’s cousin, so it made sense that he’d go the extra mile for him, but his relationship with the town was apparently a bit more strained. Cat had learned that that was in part because of the way he’d used Eagle’s Way for
so long—flying in and out and visiting town so rarely that for the most part he remained anonymous. It also went back to the founding of the town somehow, though she still wasn’t straight on that.

Cat sat at the desk Emily had assigned her, removed her personal laptop from the tote bag she’d carried from the cottage, and booted it up. She’d just accessed the day’s calendar when the front door opened and set the bell tinkling. Celeste Blessing swept inside. “Good morning, dear.”

“Good morning, Celeste.”

“I intended to catch you before you left the grounds this morning, but I had an exciting phone call from a former guest. Molly and Charlie Malone got married in Eternity Springs last Christmas, and she called to tell me they are expecting their first child. Even more exciting, her mother and father are expecting, too. It’s a
Father of the Bride II
moment!”

“I liked that movie,” Cat said.

Celeste pulled a folded sheet of paper out of her bag and handed it to Cat. “I’ve revised the schedule a tad. With Sage being so far along in her pregnancy, I just didn’t think it was a good idea for her to spend two hours doing face painting for the little ones.”

“I can’t believe an artist of such renown as Sage is going to use her talent on finger paints and children!”

Celeste laughed. “Gabe teased that he’ll rent out Meg and Cari to the Denver art museum until they wash their faces.”

As Cat glanced at the schedule, her thoughts returned to the history that led up to today’s celebration. “Do you have a few minutes, Celeste?”

“I do.”

“I’ve been doing research for an article about the history of Eternity Springs. I understand you are the town’s guardian angel.”

“Oh, I’m not a guardian angel, dear. They are much farther up the food chain than I.”

“Um … of course.”

“ ‘Angel’ is a term used these days to describe someone who supports a project or company financially. Eternity Springs was failing economically, and after the town council tried to land a new state prison and failed, I decided to invest my nest egg in this town and its people and establish Angel’s Rest.”

And thus save the town
, Cat thought. “Angel’s Rest revitalized the town, I know. What I don’t understand is why people blamed Jack for its decline.”

“The Davenport family. And the Murphys, of course. It all goes back to the Cellar Bride mystery. Have you learned that particular piece of our town’s history?”

“No.”

Celeste related the story of a skeleton dressed in the remnants of a wedding gown that was discovered in the basement of Cavanaugh House—the centerpiece of Angel’s Rest—following a fire. “This was back when Gabe was staying at Eagle’s Way, before he and Nic were married. We eventually discovered that the bones were the remains of town founder Daniel Murphy’s runaway bride. She’d been murdered.”

“Really! Who killed her?”

“That we don’t know. We may never solve that particular mystery. Anyway, way back when, Lucien Davenport had returned to England, and poor Daniel lapsed into alcoholism after his Angel—that was his nickname for her—disappeared. He was in a terrible way, flat broke. He wrote to Lucien and offered to sell him the land he’d purchased after the Silver Miracle discovery.”

“Murphy Mountain,” Cat surmised.

“Yes. Jack has the letters. You should ask him to let you read them. Lucien wanted Daniel—or, if not him,
his heirs—to be able to recover the land he’d lost, in the same condition as it had been when sold. He had his lawyers write a sales contract and a codicil to his will that made sure the land wasn’t changed.”

That’s when it clicked for Cat. “I get it. The Davenport heirs wouldn’t allow roads to be built from this valley to the ski resorts, and isolation without any industry was killing the town.”

“Yes. Of course, even if Jack had agreed, no one knew where Cam was living then—he came home not long before Jack brought you to Eagle’s Way—and to break the covenant, the signatures of the heirs of both families had to be obtained.”

“That’s an interesting piece of town history, Celeste. Thanks for educating me.”

“My pleasure. I spent some time learning the history of Eternity Springs myself, but I’m no writer. I look forward to reading your article when you get it done.”

Cat wanted to get her hands on those letters. She found this history fascinating. She already had an interview scheduled with Cam; she should see if she could squeeze some information out of Jack. Who knows, maybe his talkativeness hadn’t ended with the hot tub revelations.

The morning after their talk, he’d left a note on her front door saying he no longer needed the crutches and he and Fred had returned to Eagle’s Way. She’d been surprised by the pang of disappointment that had fluttered through her heart, but she’d put him out of her mind—for the most part—and gone about her business.

The plan was for them to work together today. Being honest with herself, she looked forward to it. How stupid was that? So they’d passed a nice little interlude in the hot springs and he’d talked to her. Big deal. He’d talked to her once in all the years she’d known him—after they were divorced.

But he had talked
, the little subversive voice whispered. That’s something he’d never done before. Something had changed. Jack had changed.

So what? “What in the world does it matter to you if he’s changed or not?” she muttered. “You’re not his wife. You’re his ex.”

So when the door finally opened and Jack strolled in, she scowled rather than smiled at him.

“What’s that look for?” he asked.

“You’re late,” she lied.

“No, I’m not.” He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. “I’m early. The parade doesn’t start for another half hour.”

She improvised. “I wanted to interview you before we got started covering the day.”

His brow furrowed. He spoke warily. “What do you mean, interview me? I don’t do interviews.”

“Fine. I won’t quote you. I want to ask you what you know about Lucien and the Murphy Mountain land deal.”

“Oh. That. I can talk about that.”

He repeated much of the same information that Celeste had given her earlier, and when she asked him what his personal feelings were about the strings his ancestor had tied, his response surprised her. “I didn’t know I owned land in Colorado until your mother told me.”

“My mother?”

“Part of the background check she conducted when I joined her team. Once I built here, I could see what was happening to the town. I didn’t see how building a road on the Murphy property to connect to ski resorts would really hurt anything, so I went looking for Cam. In the process I found out how Eternity Springs had treated him, so I decided not to interfere.”

Another instance of trying to save his family
, Cat
thought. “Now that Cam is Eternity Springs’s favorite son, do you anticipate the road being built?”

“Don’t know. Things have changed since Celeste opened Angel’s Rest. Could be that everyone is happy with the status quo. Time will tell on that question.”

The wall clock chimed a quarter till the hour, and she said, “Speaking of time, we should probably be leaving. Sarah would kick us both if we missed the beginning of the parade.”

“True. I suspect Cam would be happy, though.”

The thought of Cam made Cat grin. “I think he’s torn between being pleased and embarrassed by the fuss. So, any questions before we get started?”

“Just one.”

“Okay, what’s that?”

“Smile for me?” Jack lifted his camera and took her picture.

Jack didn’t know what he had expected from being the official photographer for Cam Murphy Day, but he hadn’t anticipated everyone’s being so … nice. Except for the Callahans and their group of friends, his reception in town had always been distinctly chilly. Today Mayor Townsend shook his hand and Dale Parker cuffed him on the shoulder. Nobody ever cuffed him on the shoulder. Even tart old Pauline Roosevelt gave him a friendly wave. By the kickoff parade’s halfway point, he realized he had a smile on his face.

What a difference a few days could make. He’d gone from self-destructive despair to grinning like a fool as he focused his camera on the wide-eyed delight of children’s faces.

“Must be magic in those mineral baths,” he murmured.

Cat’s eyes gleamed with amusement as she looked
away from the parade of pets coming up Spruce Street. “What was that?”

She looks so beautiful, relaxed, and happy
. For an instant there, he couldn’t think of what he’d said. When he did, he reworded the thought a bit. “Eternity Springs is a good place.”

“Yes, it is.”

He followed the path of her gaze, then asked, “Cat, what do those golden retrievers have strapped to their backs?”

She actually giggled. “Those are Sarah’s dogs, Daisy and Duke. They’re wearing shark’s fins.”

He thought about it. Drew a blank. “They’re wearing shark’s fins why?”

“In honor of Cam, of course. He returned to Eternity Springs from the coast of Australia. Now, don’t just stand there, take some pictures!”

So he did. He took photos of big dogs wearing shark’s fins and a little dog dressed in what he guessed to be a princess costume. “That’s Sage Rafferty’s Snowdrop,” Cat informed him.

“I almost feel sorry for her baby,” Jack observed.

Cat cuffed him on the shoulder.
That’s twice
.

The parade ended with a band of schoolchildren playing kazoos marching ahead of an antique car, a convertible, driven by Devin Murphy with the man of the hour seated beside his bride-to-be in the backseat. It was obvious to Jack that Cam had decided to jump into the spirit of things, because he sat with his long legs outstretched, his sneaker-clad feet propped up on the passenger door, his fingers laced behind his head, his elbows outstretched, and an unlit cigar clamped between rows of gleaming teeth showing in his wide smile.

Jack lowered his camera long enough to comment. “Now I get the shark reference.”

“Oh, that’s not his shark’s smile,” Cat replied. “I saw
that last night when he showed up at the quilting bee looking for Sarah and intent about changing her mind about her no-sex-before-the-wedding decree.”

Jack arched a brow. “Oh, really? He hasn’t shared that particular bit of news with his cousin. So, how did that work out for him?”

“She said something about a Cam Murphy Day reprieve.”

“No wonder he looks so content.” When the cheering stopped and the parade crowd dispersed as people began making their way to Davenport Park for the next event, Jack added, “I’d forgotten how annoying kazoos are. Eternity Springs should have a marching band for its parades. Does the school need band instruments?”

“I don’t know.”

“I should look into that.”

“There are a lot of things around this town you could look into. I’ll make a list for you, if you’d like.”

He gave her a sidelong look. “Looking to spend my money, Catherine?”

She shrugged. “Someone should. You don’t seem to do it very often.”

For some strange reason, he felt compelled to share. “I have people whose entire job is to spend my money.”

“You’ve remarried?”

He laughed. “I have a foundation. We award scholarships and fund research grants.”

“I didn’t know that. Why did you never tell me that? That’s not top secret government information.”

He shrugged. “I don’t talk about it.”

She gave him a searching look. “What’s its name?”