On Sunset Beach (6 page)

“A lawsuit against the town.” Ed stated the obvious.

“Exactly. Also, there’s no real gallery space here. These are important works of art and they will need to be displayed in a specific way, and that wouldn’t be possible here.” Carly turned to Ed, who had the fullest, whitest head of hair she had ever seen. She tried not to stare. “I don’t really think this house is suitable, as magnificent as it is. I couldn’t recommend it as being an appropriate venue to display your paintings, Ellie. I’m sorry. I know how much you wanted to share them with everyone.”

Ellie nodded. “I understand.”

“That’s my assessment.” Carly’s voice reflected what she hoped would sound like the appropriate amount of apology. “And we still haven’t discussed possible security.”

“I know that Curtis has a system installed.” Grace pointed to a keypad on the wall near the front door.

Carly came down the steps to inspect it. After a moment, she said, “This is a very common system for residential properties, and I’m sure it was adequate for Mr. Enright’s needs. But when you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars—perhaps a million dollars or more worth of artwork, you need to be much more diligent. Any experienced thief could disable that system in seconds.”

“We simply can’t take that sort of risk,” Grace told Ed. “We can’t expose the town to that liability.”

“Well, there’s probably insurance that could be
purchased to cover the paintings for theft, right?” Ed asked.

“Insurance would cover the financial loss, but it couldn’t replace the art.” Grace’s forehead creased with concern. “We certainly wouldn’t want to see Ellie lose the life’s work of her great-great-grandmother. Maybe this just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Which means our exhibit will consist of Elmer Dougherty’s watercolors and Hazel Stevens’s paintings of her cats,” Ed said drily. “I’m sure those two will pack ’em in when the exhibit opens.”

“I’m really sorry,” Ellie said. “I was hoping we could work something out.”

“I know you were, dear, but really, we can’t be careless with Carolina’s work.” Grace patted Ellie on the hand.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing more to say.” Ed went out through the front door and the others followed. Once outside, he locked the door behind them and the four walked toward the driveway, where they’d parked their cars.

“It really is a beautiful property,” Carly commented. “I love the way the gardens are filled with so much color and the way the beds are laid out.”

“Jason Bowers designed them,” Grace said.

“Sophie Enright’s guy,” Ellie told Carly. “You met him last year at Pirate Day.” She glanced sheepishly at Grace and Ed. “I mean, First Families’ Day. Mr. Enright hired Jason to re-create the gardens as they had been in the late 1800s.”

“I remember Jason. He did a beautiful job here.” Carly stood near the bumper of Ellie’s car and gazed
at the property as a whole. “This place would be fabulous for weddings and as a community center.”

“All being considered,” Grace told her.

The stone structure at the end of the driveway caught Carly’s eye. She paused to study it. Two stories high, the building had small windows on the first floor and a single, simple door in front.

“What is that building?” Carly asked.

“Oh, that’s the old carriage house. Mr. Enright hired us—that is, he hired Cameron’s company—to restore it.” Ellie smiled with pride. “We did a bang-up job inside and out, if I do say so myself.”

“What’s inside?” Carly asked.

“Not much. One big room—one floor, tall, open beamed ceiling.” Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know what Mr. Enright had in mind for it originally, but once he decided to give it to St. Dennis, he just had us finish the basic restoration. Walls, floor, roof, that sort of thing. Oh, and we had the exterior stone repointed.”

Carly turned to Ed. “Would you happen to have the key?”

“I don’t know.” He fumbled with the ring of keys. “Maybe one of these …”

“Let’s take a look inside,” Carly suggested.

“What are you thinking?” Ellie whispered to Carly as their pace took them well ahead of their companions.

“I’m thinking that there are probably a lot of blank walls in here.” Carly pointed to the side of the building. “And very few windows.”

“Just one on each side in the front, two on the back.”

They reached the door and waited for the others to catch up.

“I have a good feeling about this place,” Carly told Ellie. “A really good feeling. It gives off great vibes.”

“Wait. I can see where this is going.” Ellie grabbed her arm and pulled her aside. “Wouldn’t you rather display the paintings at your own gallery?”

“That was my first choice, yes, of course it was. But I have thought a lot about what you said, and I have to admit, the idea of displaying them in St. Dennis—right here, where Carolina painted many of the subjects that still exist—that really appeals to me. It’s a unique concept. I can think of only a few galleries that display works by famous artists where you can actually go and see the subjects. The Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania with its collection of three generations of Wyeth paintings is the one that comes immediately to mind. It takes my breath away to think that we have an opportunity to do something similar here. And as much as I wanted this exhibit in my gallery, I want to be fair,” she continued. “Which means we need to look at the spaces that could be available. Maybe this place won’t be any more appropriate than the house, but like I said, I have a really good feeling about it.”

“Let’s see if any of these keys work.” Ed tried first one, then another key in the big iron lock. The fourth key opened the door.

Inside the carriage house, the air was very still. Dust motes drifted in the light that spilled in from the few small windows and the opened door.

“There’s a light switch on the wall.” Ellie pointed
to it. “We had the electric brought up to code when we were working on the place.”

She switched on the lights and at once the place came alive. “We had a lot of detail work to try to preserve the old floor, so we needed as much light as we could get.”

Carly walked the entire length of the building, studying the height of the ceiling and the expanse of wall on each side.

“I wonder if it would be possible to install a sort of half wall right down the middle,” she said to no one in particular.

“Like a partition?” Ellie asked.

“Exactly. Not to go all the way to the ceiling—the beams are gorgeous and it would be a shame to obscure them—but to divide the space.” Carly appeared lost in thought.

“It’s lovely,” Grace said. “Nice and airy and spacious.”

“I think this could work.” Carly joined the others near the door, where they still stood. “Ellie, could Cam work up a floor plan if I gave him some specifications?”

“You’re not thinking that this place could be the gallery?” Ed frowned.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking. The necessary elements for climate control could be installed here much more easily than in the main house, and at a fraction of the cost. The walls will need to be insulated—right now there’s only the exterior stone wall between us and the great outdoors, but that’s a simple fix. You can control the lighting and there’s only one door.” She frowned. “There should be another door. You
can’t have people coming and going through the same doorway.”

“It’s not a big deal to put another door in,” Ellie told them.

Carly pointed to the side wall. “Right here. If there were partitions down the center of the room, the natural egress is right here.” She walked to the wall and tapped on it for emphasis.

Grace followed Carly’s gaze around the room. “I think Carly’s right. I think this building could be perfect.”

“I don’t know.” Ed put his president of council’s hat back on. “We’d need to know what the cost would be.”

“Cam can work up the numbers,” Ellie assured him. “I feel certain that we can make this place work for way less money than it would cost to retrofit just the HVAC alone into the mansion. We’ll crunch some numbers over the weekend so that we can have them ready for Tuesday night’s meeting.” She paused to defer to Ed. “That is, if you’re okay with this idea.”

“Get us some numbers and we’ll see. I’m not sure how we could manage the expense.” He clearly was concerned. “There’s money for maintenance in the trust that Curtis set up, but not for improvements.”

“How would you have paid for the changes that would be necessary at the mansion?” Carly asked him.

“I don’t think anyone really considered that we’d be looking at huge expenses. I think we all just thought we’d hang up the paintings and charge people to come in and look at ’em.” Ed shrugged. “But I understand why you made the suggestions you made, and I have to agree that we need to do this the right
way, or we shouldn’t do it at all. I’m just concerned about the money.”

“Let’s wait and see what Cam and I come up with. Maybe it won’t be too bad.”

“If we’re going to charge for tickets to the exhibit, we could make up some of the money that way,” Grace said.

“There is one other way the money might be raised,” Carly offered. “I’m writing Carolina’s biography—actually, it’s almost completed. Perhaps I could share a portion of the proceeds from the book sales with St. Dennis.”

“That would be very generous, dear.” Grace was clearly taken with the idea.

“Do you have a publisher lined up? Have you sold it already?” Ed inquired. “Is the book finished?”

“No, but I don’t expect I’ll have much trouble selling it. Especially since the plan all along has been to put the book on sale in conjunction with the opening of a major exhibit.”

“That’s a bit optimistic, don’t you think? You’ll have to find a publisher and that will take time.” Grace spoke up. “Then it’ll have to be printed and so on. I don’t know exactly what’s involved, but I can’t think it would be all that easy.”

“I can publish it independently,” Carly told them somewhat defensively. “I’ve already looked into it. I can do this.”

“Well, without knowing what the renovations would cost, this is all academic,” Ed said. “And keep in mind, even if the numbers are reasonable, we’ll need council’s approval. They may just vote to pass on the entire idea of a gallery, or they may go ahead with
exhibiting those cat paintings of Hazel’s and forget about Carolina’s.”

“I think they’ll need to give a great deal of consideration to this,” Grace said thoughtfully. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put St. Dennis on the map as a cultural destination. It would bring a new dimension to our little bay town, and would attract a different demographic. Art patrons, collectors of American artists, collectors of women artists—I would expect many would want to come to see such an important collection.” She looked at Carly for confirmation.

“I think we could publicize this in a way that would make the movers and shakers in the art world sit up and take notice. I think they’ll flock to St. Dennis if for no other reason than to say that they were here.”

“And a good portion of them will want to stay for the weekend. Think of what that could mean for the restaurants and the B&Bs.”

“Not to mention your family’s inn,” Ed said pointedly.

“The inn is always booked to capacity the week of the holiday tour.” Grace ignored the implication. “But for others in town, this influx could make a real difference in their bottom line at the end of the year. Plus, I expect that Dallas’s studio will bring in some VIPs. A trendy art gallery will give them just one more reason to stay.”

“Dallas MacGregor has opened her own film studio in town. She’s already cast her first movie and will be starting to shoot by early fall,” Ellie explained to Carly. “As a huge movie star herself, Dallas has a lot of influence with a lot of people. I’ll bet she’d be happy to invite
some of her Hollywood friends to the grand opening of the gallery.”

“I’m certain she would,” Grace agreed. “Dallas loves St. Dennis and is always looking for ways to promote the town. She’s been a steady patron of Sophie Enright’s new restaurant out on River Road. Sophie tells me that the orders she has every day from Dallas’s studio are keeping her in the black.”

“I’ll have to bring all of this up to the others on the council and see what they think.” Ed turned to Ellie. “Let me know as soon as you have some numbers to go over. If the costs are reasonable in proportion to the expense, I’ll back the project and see if I can bring the others in line.”

“We’ll do the best we can,” Ellie assured him.

“Hopefully,” Grace said, “it will be enough.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll be waiting to hear from you and Cam,” Ed said before turning to Carly. “I checked you out on the Internet and it looks to me like you know your stuff. This would be a big move for a small town like ours. I’m trusting that you’ll be able to pull this off.”

“Thank you. I’m confident that this could be a big moneymaker for St. Dennis, and as Grace pointed out, a windfall for the town’s merchants as well.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Ed turned to the others. “Grace, Ellie, thanks for your time.”

“We’ll chat after we see the numbers, Ed.” Grace gave a half wave as the man headed toward the end of the driveway and his car.

“That went well,” Ellie said when he was out of earshot. “All things considered.”

Grace nodded. “Better than I expected, particularly
after you said the old house wouldn’t be suitable. Ed’s a tough nut to crack, so I was encouraged when he said he’d sign on if the numbers are good.” She tapped Ellie on the arm. “That’s your part in all this.”

“I can’t see the cost being prohibitive, which it certainly would be if we were to try to turn that old house into a proper art gallery.”

“Well, there may be some on the council who don’t think the town needs an art gallery.” Grace frowned.

“I can’t wait to hear what they decide,” Carly said as the three walked up the driveway.

“Grace, about that list of paintings that Carolina gave away …” Carly began.

“Yes, Ellie gave me a copy. I’m afraid I haven’t had much time to study it. My son just recently arrived home and I’m trying to get this week’s paper out.”

“I understand.” Carly forced a smile. “Whenever you get a minute, if you could go over it with me, I’d appreciate it.” She reached into her bag and pulled out one of her business cards. “Just give me a call when you can. If there are other paintings out there, we should track them down. Who knows, someone in town might have a small fortune stashed in their attic or hanging on their guest bedroom wall.”