Out in the Country (4 page)

Molly nodded, her mind
and eyes still on the papers in front of her, and Lynne decided to go upstairs and unpack.

It had been several years since she’d been back to the farmhouse, and yet it was wonderfully the same. The narrow, steep steps of the back stairs led to a hallway still papered in cabbage roses from at least three generations ago. She’d heard about the history of the farmhouse before, of course... how Adam’s grandparents had bought it at the turn of the century, when Hardiwick had been put on the map with a rail station and a mill.

They’d run the general store until it closed down in the 1970s, when a large new supermarket was built in a wasteland of concrete on the other side of town.

Deprived of its train and factories, Hardiwick had turned to tourism to finance its little existence.

Kathy had put Lynne in Adam’s old bedroom, where they’d always stayed. Little remained from his boyhood besides a baseball pennant tacked to the wall and a few boyhood sporting trophies on a shelf, next to a photograph of Adam in his Cub Scout uniform.

Lynne peered at the picture and blinked back sudden tears. She hadn’t expected to be affected by coming to Hardiwick. She’d only come a handful of times in her twenty-five years of marriage to Adam, so she had precious few memories of the place.

And yet the very fact that she knew this was where Adam had been born, where he’d grown up, where he’d played baseball and been a Boy Scout and crafted his first buildings--even if they’d only been in his mind--made her miss him again. Made her miss him more.

“Are you all right?”

Startled, Lynne turned around and saw Kathy smiling in the doorway.

“Yes... just looking at the photos here. We never came here enough, Adam and I.”

“You were both busy.”

Lynne nodded, even as she silently acknowledged that Adam had been the busy one.

“I never really think about Adam as coming from a little town in Vermont,” she admitted with a little laugh. “When I met him, I supposed he’d sprung from the city, fully formed.”

“He loved the city,” Kathy agreed, moving into the room. She let her fingers drift over the still-polished surface of a baseball trophy. “But he loved this house, too. He and Graham did the repairs themselves, you know. Adam was a genius for finding just the right bit of wire or piping or even a bit of cornice or banister rail that had fallen off--he’d match it perfectly. Graham used to laugh at him for being so meticulous, but he said you’d be able to tell in the long run.”

“And you can,” Lynne said, touched and a little discomfited by this new revelation into her husband’s history. When she and Adam had come for those quick weekend jaunts, they hadn’t spent much time reminiscing. The future, so wonderfully bright and exciting, had held far more allure.

“The house looks wonderful, Kathy.”

Kathy made a little face. “We do our best, but the truth is it’s becoming too much for us to manage.”

Lynne felt a little lurch of fear. Even though she hadn’t come to Vermont very often, she liked knowing that she
could
... that it was here, serene and waiting. “What are you thinking?”

Kathy shrugged. “This house is part of our history, our legacy to our grandchild.”

“Molly,” Lynne murmured and Kathy smiled.

“We’re not going to sell up anytime soon,” she assured Lynne, “not if we can help it. We’ve a few ideas rattling around, but I won’t say anymore just now. I need to make sure there’s a hot meal on the table for our weary travellers.”

With another little smile she slipped from the room, leaving Lynne alone with her thoughts... and her memories.

Kathy didn’t mention the plans for the house for the rest of the evening, or even the next day when they all went to a local farm to pick apples and go through the corn maze.

Lynne became hopelessly muddled and lost, but Jessica had managed to find her way out of the twisting paths through the corn stalks in record time, and called encouragement from the outside, breathless with laughter.

It gave Lynne a sweet pang of joy to hear her friend sound so happy.

By the time they returned home laden with apples, sugary donuts, and several quarts of fresh-pressed cider, the sun was a flaming, golden ball low in the sky and the air was sharp and cool.

“First fire of the season?” Graham queried, and Lynne helped him carry some logs into the sitting room.

Within minutes a cheery blaze was crackling, the flames casting long, leaping shadows around the room.

Lynne curled on a sofa, Jessica opposite, and Molly sat in a rocking chair by the window. Kathy came in with mugs of hot chocolate for everyone.

“This is lovely,” Jessica murmured as she took a sip of her cocoa. “I don’t think I’ve felt this wonderfully relaxed in ages.”

Kathy beamed and after a moment Graham cleared his throat. “Kathy and I have an announcement to make,” he said in an official-sounding voice, and even Molly, who had been lost in thought, looked up in wide-eyed curiosity.

“We’ve decided to retire,” Graham continued, looking a little sheepish as he explained, “not from work, as that happened awhile back, but from this house.”

Lynne remembered her conversation with Kathy the evening before. She saw the twinkle in Graham’s eye and wondered what was coming.

It didn’t take her long to find out.

“We’d like to move to a bungalow on the outskirts of town,” Graham explained. “It’s all arranged--just a matter of when we decide to up sticks.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Lynne forced herself to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“What about the house?”

Graham turned to Lynne with a smile that managed to be both determined and appealing. “We want you to take it, Lynne. Do with it what you would have done in Scotland--turn it into a hotel, a bed and breakfast, whatever you like.”

The announcement was greeted with an astounded silence, and Lynne opened her mouth, although
she didn’t know what to say. It was so different from her plans in Perthshire, and yet somehow so much more...
complete
. She glanced around the room with the leaping shadows cast by the fire, everything so cozy and lovely and dear. She swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes,” Kathy said gently. “Unless you really don’t want to. But you have the raw material right here, and we’d do everything we could to help you. We’d love to see this house alive again, with people and food, love and laughter. And if it helped you in realising your own dream...” She trailed off, and for a moment the only sound was the crackling of the fire as a shower of orange sparks hit the hearthstone.

Everyone waited, smiling and expectant, looking at Lynne.

“What do you say, Lynne?” Graham asked, his eyes alight. “Will you do it?”

CHAPTER TWO

Lynne gazed around at the ring of smiling faces, everyone expectant and happy... for her. A lump rose in her throat
at the obvious sign of their support and encouragement.

Yet even so, she also felt a lurch of fear, and it was that she gave voice to now. “I don’t know the first thing...”

“You can learn,” Kathy argued with cheerful optimism. “And it would be putting the house to good use.

“Hardiwick doesn’t have a bed and breakfast, if you can believe it,” Graham added. “The Firefly Inn closed last year when the Grants retired. Their kids didn’t want to keep it going.”

“City people,” Kathy confided with a shrug, and Lynne let out a little laugh.

“Is that supposed to make me feel guilty?”

Kathy looked genuinely startled and alarmed by the idea. “Oh, no, Lynne! We didn’t mean--”

“I’m just teasing,” Lynne told her with a smile. “I’m honoured you’ve thought of me, Kathy, and that you trust me with your home. It’s such a special place, and it deserves a special future.” Another lump rose in her throat, and she swallowed it down. “Thank you.”

“Think about it,” Kathy urged. “Seriously. We ‘d be so thrilled for you take it on.”

Lynne nodded. Already her mind was spinning; even as she looked around the room, she was mentally redecorating, picturing where the front desk would go, how to arrange the living room to accommodate more chairs. She gave a little laugh as she realised how far ahead she was leaping. “It’s a lot to think about,” she told Kathy and Graham. “I’d like to sleep on it for a night, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.” Graham stood up. “We should all sleep on it, come to that. I’m bushed.”

As everyone rose and made for bed Lynne glanced at Molly. Her daughter hadn’t spoken a word since Kathy and Graham had made their extraordinary offer, and now Lynne could see she looked tired, shadows under her eyes, her mouth drawn into a thin, worried line.

She moved next to her and slung an arm around Molly’s shoulders. “All right, darling?”

“Fine.” Molly smiled, although Lynne could still see the train. “Just tired.”

“What do you think about Vermont?” Lynne asked, half-teasing, half-serious. “Would you like to keep this old boat afloat?”

Molly looked startled and she drew back, so Lynne was forced to drop her arm. “This is your project, Mom.” She gave an abrupt little laugh. “Not mine.”

Lynne opened her mouth to apologise, explain--but what? She didn’t know what to say, or why she felt like an apology was even needed, and after a brief moment she closed her mouth, gazing thoughtfully at her daughter.

This is your project, Mom. Not mine.

Why did that seem like a strange thing for Molly to say?

Lynne shrugged off her concern as she climbed the stairs to bed. She was tired, and so much had changed in the last few weeks. It was impossible to process it all, or how she felt about it.

The morning, she hoped, would lend some clarity.

“What an exciting offer, Lynne,” Jessica told her as they said goodnight on the upstairs landing. The old grandfather clock began its long, laborious chimes: ten o’clock, but it felt much later. “Aren’t you thrilled?”

“Overwhelmed,” Lynne admitted. “It’s hard to even know what you’re feeling when something comes out of the blue like this. But you’re right, it is exciting.”

Jessica’s smile was a little wistful as she said, “I think you should definitely go for it. You don’t get these opportunities often.” Her smile hardened at the edges as she added, “I should know.”

“Oh, Jess...”

Jess shook her head. “Never mind. We should all get some sleep. It’s
been
a glorious, but long, day.”

Lynne gave her friend a quick hug before heading to her old room. Her last thought before drifting to sleep was that she’d have to find someone to restore the old cabbage rose wallpaper.

Saturday had been crisp and sunny, but Sunday dawned grey and wet. The Green Mountains were blanketed in a dank fog, but even so Lynne found the gloomy weather couldn’t shake the optimistic mood she found herself in upon waking.

Morning--and a good night’s sleep--had brought
clarity
and a fresh sense of exhilaration at the possibilities Kathy and Graham were giving her with the gift of their house.

As she dressed for church and headed downstairs, she found both her eyes and mind roving over the house’s interior, noting where the bathrooms were, where another could possibly fit, how many smaller tables the dining room could hold...

“You look like you’re buzzing,” Jess remarked as Lynne poured herself a cup of coffee. They were the only two in the kitchen, and the rain kept up a steady patter on the porch roof. “Did you sleep a wink last night?”

“Actually, I slept wonderfully,” Lynne admitted. “But I’m buzzing now! Everywhere I look I see possibilities.”

“This house has good bones,” Jess agreed, gazing around the big, roomy kitchen with its Welsh dresser and wide pine table.

“You sound like Adam,” Lynne said with a little laugh. “He was always talking about buildings like they were people.”

“They certainly have personalities,” Jess said. She took a sip of her own coffee, her gaze light and mischievous over the rim of her mug. “I’d say this house is a cozy old aunt, finally ready to put on her dancing shoes.”

Lynne laughed at the image. “And a tiara,” she added with a conspiratorial grin. “She’s going out on the town!”

“Does that mean you’re going to do it?” Jess asked more seriously.

Lynne shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s easy enough to get excited about something like this, but the reality is always far more taxing. I’m sure there’s a host of complications with turning this place into an inn... disabled accessibility, bathrooms, fire safety... I don’t even know the half of it.”

“That’s true,” Jess agreed, “but lots of people do it. It’s possible.”

“You have the expertise,” Lynne said, smiling. She poured herself another coffee and went searching in the fridge for some eggs and bacon. “Of course, the sensible thing to do would be for you to go in with me.”

Lynne turned around, her arms full of cartons of eggs and packages of bacon, and saw Jessica still. “Do you mean that?” she asked quietly, and Lynne realised with a jolt that her friend’s confidence must have truly been shaken by her fiancé’s defection if she could ask such a question now.