Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (3 page)

"Well, I certainly don't mind. I'm glad to help."

"Thank you. I appreciate it. But, I'll be fine. And besides, I know you have a million other things to do every day, including the park and garden on my corner."

Anna came back with a pot of coffee and took their orders. She gave Polly a sideways glance as she walked away and Polly rolled her neck, sighed and said, "She knows, doesn't she."

"It's a small town, Polly."

Polly tapped the bag Lydia had carried in with her. "What do you have for that middle bedroom upstairs? I'd really love to finish that room and quit thinking about it."

Lydia pulled a folder out of the bag and opened it so Polly could see what she had printed out. The bed itself was incredible. It was a gorgeous maple sleigh bed with a sweep at the base on the sides and a tall headboard with wings on each side. The bedside table was opulent with inset cherry panels on the front and a marble top. The dresser had three drawers in the front and the rounded doors on the side opened to smaller drawers. A small chest and an arched mirror which would fit over the dresser were both available. A matching storage bench rounded out the set.

"I was thinking we could do the room in golds and whites with lots of color as small accents," Lydia said.

"You amaze me, Lydia Merritt. You absolutely amaze me. But, we need to find a desk as well."

"What about a simple cherry writing desk. It won't be an exact match, but will be elegant on its own. A leather blotter on top will protect it from most scratches."

"And that will also look pretty cool," Polly agreed. "Alright, do it. I'm excited!"

Lydia smiled, "It is so much fun to work with you. And it's even more fun knowing that a lot of people are going to see my creations. I never thought I'd get hired as an interior designer. Jill thinks it is a riot."

Jill was one of Lydia's daughters and as Beryl told it, Lydia had encouraged all of her kids to decorate their rooms using as much or as little color as they liked. She’d taught them to never be afraid of color in their lives. Lydia's tastes were classic and beautiful, but that didn't stop Jill’s from becoming an ode to the color pink when the kids were young.

Polly's phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. She had a text from Henry,
"You did it again, didn't you."

She showed the text to Lydia. "How did he find out so fast?" she asked.

Lydia burbled with laughter. "I have no idea! You don't suppose Aaron told him, do you?"

"It's not fair!" Poll
y whined. "It's just not fair!"

Before she could respond, another text came in, this one from their friend Beryl,
"You're getting a reputation. I'm going to have to go to the Elevator and get in on this pool."

She showed that one to Lydia as well and they laughed again.

"Apparently the story is getting around," Lydia said. "By the way, when is that boy of yours supposed to be back in town?"

"If by boy, you mean Henry, he said he'd be back sometime this weekend. He left yesterday from Arizona."

"You're going to be glad to have him back, aren't you?"

"I am. Having him gone for two months was probably good for me. It made me realize how important he is to me."

Lydia opened her mouth to speak and Polly held her hand up to stop her.

"Don't think for a minute that I'm ready to settle down into marriage. I'm not ready for anything like that. But, I might be willing to state that the rest of the single men in Bellingwood are safe for the time being."

"We haven't had a chance to really talk about this," Lydia said.

"No. I'm not talking about it at all. The universe can let me do what I'm doing without interfering. Right?" She pursed her lips and looked at Lydia, as if daring the woman to challenge her.

"So, you decided that Doc Ogden isn't your cup of tea?"

Polly giggled. "Don't get me wrong, the man is gorgeous, and I love having him around to help with the animals, but no, we don't feel right together." Polly leaned over to stage whisper to Lydia, "And besides, I think Sylvie has a little crush on him."

"What?" Lydia said, "Our Sylvie?"

"Yes. Our Sylvie. He danced with her several times at the hoe-down and I think her heart might have gotten a little trippy about him. She denies it, but when she picks up the boys and he's in the barn with us, she makes a point of talking to him. So, yep. She might be crushing a little on the vet."

"Has she ever told you about her ex-husband?" Lydia asked.

"No. She gets all sad-eyed when it comes up and then she avoids the topic. In fact, she refuses to talk about it."

"Alright. Well, I'm not going to say anything. It's her story to tell. But, suffice it to say, she's probably a little wary of men, especially since she's working so hard to raise good young boys."

Polly realized that Lydia wasn't going to tell her anything more and that was fine. When Sylvie was ready to talk about her past, Polly would listen. For now, it was enough that her friend was starting to come alive.

Anna startled Polly when she came up behind her and set the plates on the table and pulled a bottle of ketchup out of her pocket. "Can I get you ladies anything else?" she asked.

"In about twenty minutes, would you mind putting in an order for a club sandwich to go?" Polly asked.

The girl scratched a note on her pad and said, "Sure!"

After she walked away, Lydia pulled out a pile of papers. "We spent time working out a plan for the garden after we left you the other day. I think you're going to like it and I think it's going to be a perfect little spot for the community, too."

Polly had no idea what some of the abbreviations meant, but they had drawn a winding pathway through the space and then began building the design from there. At the back of the space she saw they had placed a pond and assumed that 'wtfl' meant waterfall. 

"This looks pretty cool," she said. "I don't know what all of it means, but you are the ones who will be doing the work, so I'm going to let you have at it."

"You aren't very good at micro managing people, are you Polly?" Lydia asked.

"Oh," Polly shuddered. "That sounds horrible. I have so many things to worry about that if someone wants to do something and I trust them, I'm glad to keep my hands off it. I don't know anything about gardening like this and I'm fairly certain I would kill everything I touched. Are you planning to put koi in that pond?"

Lydia laughed and said, "Where in the world did that come from?"

"It looks like it is big enough, so I was just wondering."

"No, I don't think we will. There is a lot of traffic that goes past it and since it is so far away from your house, I don't think it would be safe for the poor fish."

"That makes sense."

They talked about the garden a little more and Polly asked some questions about the vegetable garden she hoped to put in her back yard. Anna brought Jeff's lunch over with the check and Lydia took her back to Sycamore House.

Leaving a trail of filthy clothes from the entry way into the living room, Polly flopped down on her sofa, too tired to even crawl in the shower. She’d grabbed a long hoodie from the coat tree and made a beeline for the first soft spot she could find. Since Jeff's busiest times were the weekends, she'd taken to completely cleaning the stalls and barn on Friday nights so she could be available to help out around Sycamore House on Saturdays if necessary. She leaned back, dragged her computer from the coffee table onto her lap and logged in so she could be ready for the evening call from Henry. He planned to stop one more night and be back in Bellingwood tomorrow, but even on the road, he called before they both crashed. She turned the television on and after scanning through some channels, landed on an old Cary Grant movie. It only took her a few moments to realize it was
North by Northwest
. Perfect.

Obiwan jumped up and wriggled his way in between her legs to curl up at the end of the couch and the cats paced back and forth until Leia settled in beside Polly's head and Luke planted himself just past Polly's reach. She opened up a couple of browser tabs, checked email and the rest of her online world, found nothing that drew any more attention than necessary, lay her head back on the cushion and decided she needed to rest her eyes for a few moments. A shower and supper could come later.

The horses had been unusually skittish this evening. She'd had trouble getting them all to come back into their stalls and couldn't figure out what was going on. She hadn’t done things any differently than before and was even beginning to feel fairly proud of herself for getting things down to a science. She checked their water, everything was fine and they had plenty of feed and hay. They'd all had great days outside and seemed happy until it was time to come in for the night. She'd give Mark a call tomorrow and see if he had a clue what she might have done to upset them. She was going to have to go up in the hayloft again before Monday morning, her main level supply was getting low. Oh, how she hated dropping bales out of the loft and then hauling them around. Her shoulders and back ached every single time she had to perform that task.

She chuckled. If only her friends in Boston could see her now. Museums and cafes, bookstores and nights at the theater had given way to online shopping, quick swipes at the coffee pot downstairs, random lunches at Joe's Diner and big shopping excursions to the grocery store in Boone. Going all out meant a trip to Ames for bagels or frozen yogurt with one of her friends.

Obiwan sat straight up and the cats came to attention. Polly startled out of her nearly asleep state and listened. She didn't hear anything.

"Stop it. You scared me to death!" She turned the sound off on the television and still heard nothing, but the animals were alert.

Then she heard a knock at her door and leaped off the couch. She wasn't dressed enough to have someone show up and her apartment was a disaster! She ran into the bedroom and found a pair of sweats in the middle of a pile of clothes on her chair. Pulling them on as she tripped her way back to the front door, she shoved her dirty jeans and shirt out of the way and said, "Who is it?" as sweetly as possible.

"The boogieman," the voice said.

She flung the door open. "You're home early!"

Henry stepped in and hugged her. "I got up early and drove straight through." He held her at arm’s length, "Ummm, why do you smell like a barn?"

"I'm sorry!" she laughed. "I scrubbed down the barn and haven't taken a shower yet." Polly put her right hand on his chest and pushed him back into the hallway. "And my apartment is a dump. I can't tell you how much I don't want you to see it like this."

Henry removed her hand from his chest, pulled her in for another hug and said, "I can't tell you how much I want to see you any way I can. I don't care about your apartment. Surely you aren't going to send me away when I've driven all the way from Arizona to look at your cute face."

It felt good to have him hold her. "Alright, but if you say a single word about the state of my home, I'm going to do something awful to you."

She turned around, bent over and scooped up the clothes she had dropped in the entryway, rolled her eyes at the messes she could identify through the apartment and ran to the bedroom, picking up errant clothing and shoes. Dropping things on the floor, she pulled the door shut and stood in front of it with her hand still on the doorknob. Henry watched and smiled.

"Not a word," she repeated.

Obiwan was standing in front of him, wagging his tail and panting for attention. Henry knelt down and rubbed the dog's ears while Polly cleared off the sofa and coffee table.

"Get comfortable," she said. "I'll be right back." She ducked into the bathroom, picking towels up and tossing them into her bedroom. She opened the top drawer beside the sink and swept everything into it, ran back into the bedroom and picked up a towel. Running some water across it, she scrubbed the countertop and sink clean, then flung it back into the bedroom. She hung a fresh hand towel on the rack beside the sink and shook her head. "I'm such a slob," she muttered to herself before walking back into the living room.

Henry was sitting on the sofa, with Obiwan on the floor in front of him. Luke had curled up beside Henry, while Leia had jumped to the floor and was rubbing her face on his left boot.

"It looks like the animals missed you, too," Polly said.

Henry laughed, "I had no idea we were all such close friends."

"I've heard that we should trust animals when it comes to who they accept or reject. I'm glad they like you," she said, then asked, "Have you even been back to your own home?"

"Nope. You're my first stop. I couldn't wait to see you." He reached his hand out for hers and she sat down beside him, pushing the cat out of the way. Luke meowed and headed into the bathroom.

"I've missed you," Polly said.

"Me too," he agreed and pulled her close. Then he said, "Okay, whew. Your hair stinks."

Polly sat straight up. "I'm sorry." She thought for a moment, then said, "Have you eaten supper yet?"

"No, I drove straight through."

"I’ll make rice. I have chicken and leftover vegetables and can toss it into a fried rice after I take a shower."

"You don't have to work that hard tonight. I showed up unexpectedly and you've had a long week," Henry protested.

"I don't want to go out to find something to eat, do you?" She got up and walked into the kitchen,

"No, you're right. I don't. But, don't you have something simpler than that?"

"The longest this is going to take is boiling the rice and if I set the timer and you promise to check it if I'm not back out here when it dings, we're good."

"I can do that. Do you want my help with anything else?"

"In the shower or the kitchen?" she teased.

"Well, I've really missed you, so ...," he started.

"Stop right there. Keep an ear out for the timer and I can handle my own shower." She shook her head at herself. What was she thinking? She’d missed him terribly, but that was a little forward, even for her.

The water came up to a boil, Polly waited and then turned it down to simmer. She set the timer and when she walked past the coffee table, handed the remote to Henry. "Here, occupy yourself."

When she got to the bathroom door she stopped and turned around. "It's good to see all of you. Video chats were great, but it's nice to have you here."

Polly hurried through the shower and dug into her dresser for fresh clothes. All she had left were well-worn shorts and a t-shirt. She giggled and thought, "Bad Polly," but pulled them on and went back out into the living room. Henry whistled.

"I've never seen that much leg on you before!" he leered.

She picked up a stray sofa pillow and tossed it at him. "I'm out of clean clothes. I can't believe I let things get this far out of control!"

He followed her into the kitchen and stood behind her, pulling her in close again. "Now you smell really good." He turned her around in his arms and kissed her.

"I've missed you," he said.

"I've missed you too." She leaned her head against his chest and they held each other until the timer rang on the stove.

She broke away and turned the heat off under the rice, then went to the fridge to forage for additional ingredients, bumping Henry out of the way.

"What can I do to help?" he asked.

"Nothing. I've got it. I'm only going to whip this together." She moved everything over to the cutting board beside the stovetop and cracked eggs into her cast iron skillet, scrambling them while she cut up green onions and chicken.

Henry looked around the kitchen and began filling the sink with sudsy water, gathering up dishes, mugs and pans.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Helping. It seems like you might have lost control around here."

"This has been a long week," she sighed. "I've cleaned every other inch of this building and the barn, but ran out of caring when it came to my little hovel."

"I know you told me you were fine with finding him dead, but how are you really doing with all of this?"

"I feel awful. He drove both me and Jeff out of our minds." She said conspiratorially, "If I tell you that at some level I'm relieved to not have to fire him will that make sense? I can't say that to anyone else."

Henry chuckled as he rinsed out a mug and set it in the strainer. "It makes sense to me. You're terrible at firing people." Then, he looked at her and caught her eye, "but apparently, you're not terrible at finding dead bodies!"

"Stop it!” she cried. “I'm scared people around here are going to start whispering and pointing at me whenever I walk downtown."

"As long as you aren't actually killing anyone, I think you’re fine. I wouldn't worry too much about it," he laughed. "Do they have any idea what happened to him?"

"Not yet," Polly replied. "Ken stopped by yesterday to get some more background information from his employment file here. I didn't have much, but gave him what we had."

"I didn't know him," Henry said. "He wasn’t here very long and I don't think anyone ever mentioned a family."

"I don't know anything about that."

"Have you found anyone to replace him yet?"

"No and it's driving me crazy. Jeff has some temp agency providing help for the weddings, but I told him I'd take care of the guest rooms and the classrooms downstairs."

Once the eggs were done, she poured them into a dish, added some oil to the skillet and sautéed the onions, then added frozen peas and carrots. She tossed in the chicken and egg, followed by the rice, adding ginger, garlic, butter and soy sauce, sprinkling a few sesame seeds in.

Henry dried two plates and set them down beside her.

"Thanks," she said, then put the wooden spoon in the skillet, turned the heat down and reached out to pull him close. "Wow, I've missed you."

She felt tears come to her eyes and buried her face in his chest. "Don't go away for that long again, okay?"

"If this is the reception I get when I return, I might go away a lot more often," he teased.

"Hmph," she said and dished the rice up to their plates. "I'm going to keep you so busy around here that you won't have time to go anywhere else, how about that?"

"That sounds fine," he agreed. "Now, can I have one more before we eat?"

"One more what?" Polly was confused.

"One more of these." He took the plates out of her hand and put them on the peninsula, then wrapping his left arm around her waist, he threaded the fingers of his right hand into the hair at the base of her neck and tipped her back, kissing her. Polly quit thinking.

When he released her, she swayed and he helped her stand back upright. She stood still for a moment and said, "Oh my. Welcome home."

They pushed papers and books away from a corner of the table and sat down to eat. She pulled out one of the larger sheets of paper from the pile and set it in front of him.

"What do you think?" she asked, showing him the sketch that Lydia had given her of the garden area.

"This is for the corner of the lot?"

"Yeah. I told you about that, didn't I?"