The Tapestry in the Attic (15 page)

The time passed quickly. When Annie glanced at her watch it was nearly two o’clock. Just then, Professor Howell came striding across the stage to stand just a few feet from Annie. He asked for everyone’s attention in order to make an announcement.

“Attention everyone! I’ve just received word that Main Street has been cleared, and the ban on car traffic has been lifted. We’ll suspend rehearsal for now. You all did a great job yesterday and today under very difficult conditions. Thank you for all your hard work! We’ll plan to meet here at our usual time Monday evening. You’re free to go.”

Annie stepped out to the side of her “little box” so she could stand up straight. She usually needed to do some stretches after sitting for so long, but the little set of stairs outside the box was not conducive to safely doing that, and she didn’t like lingering in the under-stage storage area, so she hurried over to climb the stairs up to the backstage area.

When she reached the top of the stairs she didn’t see anyone else around. That wasn’t unusual. The time it took her to reach the stage was enough time for the others to leave the stage, and since everyone wanted to get home as soon as they could, no one was going to hang around now. Alice was probably getting her things together and would be waiting for Annie in the main-floor lobby. Now Annie just wanted to take a good stretch. She extended her arms out to her sides and then over her head; she moved her shoulders forward and backward, and then her head side to side.

Suddenly she heard a strange twangy noise. Glancing right and left, she couldn’t quite make out what it was. Then she heard a loud snap above her head. Rather than look up, she instinctively moved to get away from that spot, but her foot caught on the bottom of the stepladder she had pushed to the side earlier, and she started to fall forward. Before she hit the floor, she felt something heavy fall on her leg, knocking her down even harder. She heard the crash of the weighty object and the sound of her own voice crying out in pain.

Her body ached from hitting the floor, but what really hurt was her left leg. She tried to look toward her legs to see what had fallen on her, but when she raised her head, she felt dizzy and nauseated. She wasn’t sure how long it took for someone to come, but it seemed like ages.

The first one to reach her was Ian. She was relieved to see his face, as pale as it was. When he saw her, he whispered her name, “Annie,” as if he couldn’t catch his breath to speak; then he knelt beside her and quietly said her name again. “Annie, can you hear me?”

She answered, “Yes,” but her own voice sounded far away.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

She smiled a little. “Ian.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his cellphone and punched in some numbers. “Help is coming, Annie. One way or another.”

15

Annie spent the next few days in the hospital. She had suffered a concussion and the lower part of her left leg was broken. She had several bruises on the side of her face and over the rest of her body from the fall she had taken. She didn’t remember a lot about what had happened after Ian came to her side, and even the few moments before that were hazy in her memory. She supposed it was the result of her head injury.

After her broken bones had been set, and her leg put in a cast, and when she began to feel a little better, she was allowed more visitors. In turn, all the members of the Hook and Needle Club and several members of the play’s cast and crew visited her.

The first time Ian visited, he came into the hospital room carrying a beautiful arrangement of flowers for Annie. He didn’t say much, but he did hold her hand. She didn’t pull her hand away; she found his touch very comforting. She thanked him for coming to her aid. When it was time for him to go, he lightly kissed her cheek and said he would be back the next day.

Each member of the Hook and Needle Club brought a small gift. Alice bought an anthology of popular poems for Annie, saying that she thought it might be better to stay away from exciting mystery stories for a while. She assured Annie that she had been looking after Boots and that everything at Grey Gables was fine. Alice had put together a little suitcase of personal items from Grey Gables and had brought it along too.

With some help, Alice had gotten Annie’s car dug out of the snow in the parking lot and had driven it home to Grey Gables. Alice also told Annie that she had called LeeAnn in Texas and had given her Annie’s room number, so she would be calling very soon.

Peggy and Kate came together to see Annie. Peggy gave Annie a manicure set along with a bottle of lavender-scented hand cream. Kate gave her a pair of soft slippers she had crocheted, explaining she had placed nonslip strips on the one for the right foot, and had made the left one a little bigger so Annie could slip it over her cast to cover her toes which stuck out at the end.

Gwen gave Annie a pretty light blue flannel bathrobe with a satin fold-back collar, and Stella gave her a bed jacket that tied at the neck and had lace around the neck and at the end of the sleeves, “so you can look decent.” Mary Beth brought her a crossword puzzle book, and a small set of bamboo crochet hooks, and a ball of wool-blend sock-weight yarn in a pleasing dark shade of blue.

When LeeAnn called she insisted that she was going to come to Maine to stay with her mother when she got out of the hospital, but Annie told her that it wasn’t necessary.

“You know that I’d love to see you, and you’re always welcome,” said Annie, “but the truth is, I have plenty of help up here. With the twins in school and all that you have going on there, it’s just too much. I’d rather you take some time later, when I’m all better, and come up as a family. Then I can really enjoy your company. Herb and your kids need you at home right now, and I am well taken care of here.”

LeeAnn finally relented. “I wish you weren’t so far away, Mom. I miss you, and I worry about you.”

“I miss you too,” said Annie, “but please don’t worry about me. Accidents happen.”

“Are you sure this was an accident?” asked LeeAnn.

“What else could it be?” asked Annie.

“It’s just that Alice said something that made me wonder … .” LeeAnn’s words trailed off.

“What did Alice say?” asked Annie.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I’m probably imagining things,” said LeeAnn. “Sorry, but it’s almost time to pick up the kids. I’ll call you again this evening. Love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, honey,” said Annie.

The conversation with her daughter made Annie wonder. When she tried to talk to her friends about the accident, they hemmed and hawed, apparently unwilling to discuss it. Only Ian had talked to her about what had happened, a few days later, telling her that a cable had snapped and a counterweight had fallen on her leg. He had asked Annie what she remembered just before the accident. She told him she remembered clearly the professor’s announcement that the roads were open, and then climbing the stairs afterward, but after that her memory was a blank. He just patted her hand and assured her that was normal after head trauma like she had had. She shouldn’t worry about it.

The Fortescues stopped by to see Annie too. It was the day before she was scheduled to go home, and she was feeling much better. If laughter is the best medicine, Cyril and Dolores delivered it; they told her stories about their early years in touring companies that brought back her smile and made her chuckle and laugh out loud.

Professor Howell had been particularly apologetic when he came to see her, as if it were his fault she was in the hospital. He just kept repeating, “I’m just so sorry that this happened.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Annie. “Please don’t keep saying that.”

“I suppose you’ll sue the Cultural Center now, and everything will be ruined,” said the professor miserably.

Annie sighed. “First of all, I’m not going to sue anyone. It was an accident. Stella said my medical expenses are covered by the Cultural Center’s insurance, and that’s all I care about. Second, nothing is ‘ruined.’ The play will go on, and it’s going to be a tremendous success.”

The professor didn’t look convinced, but Annie thought that it seemed as if he was, in a strange way, “enjoying” the drama of it all. He didn’t want to seem to let it go, and Annie was so ready to be “over it.” She just wanted to get home to Grey Gables and to Boots, and to curl up on her own sofa with her new crochet hook and her new yarn and forget about the accident. She looked down at her cast;
Well,
she thought,
I’ll forget about it as much as I can.

****

Alice and Gwen brought Annie home after her stay in the hospital. That morning it was still very cold, but it was sunny and the great outdoors, with its thick layers of gleaming-white snow, sparkled as if it was covered with a million tiny diamonds. Though the driveway and the front walk had been shoveled, there remained a layer of hardpacked snow that was slick in places. Annie was mobile with her crutches, but she was still getting used to them. It took some time, but with her friends beside her she made it from the car to the front door of Grey Gables.

Once she was inside she took a deep breath. Home. It had to be the most wonderful place on earth. Alice took Annie’s coat, hat, scarf, and gloves, and then helped Annie sit on the hallway bench so she could take off her one shoe and put on the slipper Kate had made for her; the other slipper was already over her cast, keeping her toes toasty warm. Annie had worn a pair of navy blue flannel pajamas for the ride home, the pants leg being just loose enough to fit over her cast.

Gwen went into the kitchen to put on the kettle to make a pot of tea, and Alice walked beside Annie as she slowly hobbled into the living room. As soon as Annie sat down on the sofa, Boots leapt up to sit on her lap. Annie laughed and scratched the purring cat’s back. “Oh, I missed you too, Boots.” Her homecoming was complete.

Looking up at Alice, Annie said, “You and Gwen don’t have to stay here. I can manage.”

Alice said, “If you think we’re just going off and leaving you here alone, you can forget that. I’ll have to leave in a little bit for a Princessa party, but Gwen is going to stay to keep you company this afternoon, and I’m staying over the next few nights, until you feel a little more at ease with your crutches.”

Annie was grateful. She thought she probably would have been all right alone, but it was a comfort to have good friends she could depend on. The members of the Hook and Needle Club had made arrangements to come and spend time with her over the next several days, fixing her lunch and dinner, and doing some general cleaning and dusting around Grey Gables. They also ran errands to the grocery store and the post office, and picked up books and magazines at the library for her to read—it was like having a fully staffed manor house. Annie felt like she’d won some version of the old “Queen for a Day” game show.

Her friends talked to her about what was happening in town and how the rehearsals were going, but no one ever mentioned the accident, or hurriedly changed the subject if Annie started talking about it.

As much as she appreciated all their help, Annie knew she had to try to get into a routine of activity. The first few days after she got home, Annie felt like all she did was sleep. She was getting better with her crutches and felt steadier on her feet every day. She habitually made a circuit around all the rooms of the house on the lower level just for some exercise. After a week, she told Alice that she didn’t need to continue to sleep at Grey Gables, and that she was sure she could manage going up and down the staircase by herself just fine. Slowly, her friends allowed her to be independent again.

Annie hadn’t forgotten about the tapestry. She decided she would spend part of each day going through the two boxes of her grandmother’s letters that she had brought down to the living room weeks before. When Ian stopped by one day, she asked him to carry down the letter boxes for the intervening years—there were only four, but they were some of the largest among the boxes of letters that her grandmother had saved.

Since Annie knew what to look for now, she didn’t have to read each letter. She found several more letters from Lily Cornette, but none of them mentioned the tapestry. She came to the conclusion that she needed to go to the college to investigate further.

After two weeks inside, Annie was starting to get cabin fever. The first day of spring would soon arrive, and though the weather was cold and there was still plenty of snow on the ground, it just felt different to Annie, and she wanted to get outside. She approached Alice with the idea of going over to Longfellow College.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Alice.

“Why not?” asked Annie. “I thought everyone was for finding out what we could about Lily. That was part of the plan.”

Alice looked uncomfortable. “That was before. Now I don’t think you should pursue it.”

“Everyone’s been acting very odd whenever I bring up the tapestry since my accident,” said Annie. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Every time I bring it up, or anything to do with it, you all change the subject. What gives?”

Alice sighed. “I guess it’s time you knew. Your ‘accident’—it wasn’t an accident. Someone cut the cable that was holding up the counterweight, or at least severed it enough that it eventually gave way.”

“What?” said Annie. “No. That can’t be. The police would have wanted to talk to me.”

“Chief Edwards did want to talk to you,” said Alice. “But Ian talked Reed into letting him ‘interrogate’ you instead.”

Annie thought back to the hospital. Ian had been the only one who had asked her what she remembered. Her mind raced. She still couldn’t remember those few moments before she was injured. Was the falling counterweight meant for her? How could someone plan something like that?

“Alice, I appreciate that you were all just trying to protect me, but don’t you see that this makes it all the more urgent for us to learn what we can? If you won’t go with me, I’ll just drive myself. My right foot is fully functional,” Annie threatened, “and there’s no reason I can’t do it.” She knew that Alice would never consider letting her go to Longfellow by herself. And she was right.

****

The drive to Longfellow College took about thirty minutes from Stony Point. Mary Beth had finished her radiation treatments and was awaiting the next round of tests, so she insisted that she would stay at A Stitch in Time so that Kate could go with Annie and Alice to the campus after so many weeks of coming in to work at the store every day. Alice drove Annie’s Malibu since it was a little roomier than Alice’s Mustang. Kate sat in the front seat and acted as the navigator. She had been to the college many times over the last few weeks to confer with the girls who were helping with the costumes for the play. Annie was in the backseat, sitting at a slight angle so she could prop up her broken leg, which was difficult since she was also wearing her seatbelt. She wiggled her toes inside her new “cast protector”—as Annie called it—that she had crocheted using the ball of yarn and one of the new crochet hooks that Mary Beth had given her in the hospital. She was pleased with the result. It completely covered the cast and had the advantage of staying in place when she moved around a lot. Her crutches were lying across the backseat floor.

A few days before, Annie had looked up the phone number for the main office of the college. She asked the lady who answered if there was someone with whom she could make an appointment to talk about Lily Cornette, explaining that Lily had corresponded with Annie’s grandmother and that many of the letters she wrote had the return address of Wilson Hall at Longfellow. The receptionist told her that Professor Mabel Pettit was head of the folk arts department and that her office was in Wilson Hall, the building that housed the school of fine arts and crafts. She thought Professor Pettit might be able to help her and transferred Annie to the administrative assistant of the department. The assistant was efficient, but not chatty, so Annie just made an appointment.

In the car, Annie had brought along the small “Home Song” tapestry and the letters she had found that Lily had written to Betsy. She had also asked Cyril for copies of the photographs he had taken of the Proverbs 31 Woman tapestry. He sent them to her via her email, and Annie had copied them to a flash drive so she could take them to the college and show them to Professor Pettit on a computer screen. It was LeeAnn who had recommended that Annie should start backing up her computer files with the little devices that she could just plug into the side of her laptop. It still amazed her that such a small thing, no larger than a key chain, could contain so much information.

It was a weekday, so the campus was busy and parking places weren’t easy to find. Most parking spots near the buildings were reserved for faculty, but there were a couple of handicap spaces. Unfortunately, it hadn’t occurred to Annie to think of asking for a permit for that purpose. In the interest of saving time, Alice and Kate decided to drop off Annie as near to the entrance of Wilson Hall as they could get, so she wouldn’t have to walk so far, and then Kate would help Alice find the visitor’s parking area.