Virginia still refused to leave Red Rivers. Greg kept trying to offer incentives, but nothing seemed to catch her interest enough to get her to leave. I found it interesting that she was calling the people at Red Rivers her friends. If the feud between Virginia and Sylvia ran as deep as Sylvia suggested then why would Virginia remember Red Rivers as a friendly place?
The front door opened and Henry walked out. He surveyed the scene and then politely asked, “May I inquire as to what is going on out here?”
His question was mainly directed at me but, instead of answering, I said, “I know what happened to the Winters’ Family Bible.”
Henry’s eyes went wide for a second and he came down the porch steps. Without any more inquiries, he started to usher us all inside.
“Why don’t you and your mother come inside for some lemonade? And you too, Kari. I know you’ve walked a lot today.”
Greg looked back at me and I just nodded. He seemed very confused, but he went along with the sudden change in atmosphere. We all went inside, and I got ready to lay out all the facts.
Chapter Ten
We were all in the living room, waiting for Henry to bring in the lemonade. Sylvia, Delilah, and Virginia were all seated, while the dogs were unleashed and laying at the foot of the couches. Greg was standing next to me, clearly trying to figure out what was going on and coming up empty.
He leaned over next to me and asked, “What’s this all about?”
Henry walked in with the tray of drinks at that moment, so I leaned a little closer and whispered back, “Sylvia hired me to sue your mother because she thinks that Virginia stole the Winters’ Family Bible.” I thought it best to let him know why he was there, since Greg was obviously worried. “It’s going to be fine, I promise.”
He nodded but didn’t really seem reassured. And I couldn’t really blame him, after I had just broken that little piece of news to him. He went to take a seat by his mother and I rolled my shoulders back, took a deep breath, and then got everyone’s attention.
“Hello!” The room turned towards me and I went straight into my explanation. “The reason we are all here is because Sylvia Winters has been looking for her family Bible and believes that Virginia Olsen had stolen it. But Virginia never stole it. She didn’t want to curse you, Sylvia, and she didn’t want to sell it to buy drugs. The real culprit is a Winters family member.” I turned to the member in question before saying her name, “Delilah.”
Sylvia let out a louder than necessary gasp before turning to her sister-in-law.
“Delilah! Is this true?”
She looked down at her feet not wanting to answer the question. I knew Sylvia could commandeer the entire conversation, so I didn’t leave too much of a gap for conversation.
Continuing, I said, “She didn’t take it for any nefarious reasons. In fact, Delilah wanted to keep the plantation from being sold off. Five years ago, she stole the Bible, sold it for its gold, and used the money to keep the plantation afloat. She was particularly worried about the back pasture, especially when you put it up for sale.”
“But whatever for?” Miss Sylvia asked.
“The back pasture holds the tree that has her and her husband’s initials carved into it and she didn’t want to lose that part of their history. But she was ashamed about what she had done, so she lied and told Sylvia that she saw Virginia with the Bible. She thought it was an innocent enough lie given their old feud. And, it’s likely that everything else that has gone missing around the plantation was also Delilah trying to keep it all from falling apart. It was the only way she could think of to save it all. Sure, Virginia technically stole Delilah’s delicious peach pie, but she didn’t mean to or know she was doing it— she was just confused and thought she was in her own house. But Deliliah decided to blame her for the theft of the Bible and the spoons while she was at it.”
I took a deep breath once I was done and turned all of my attention to Delilah. Her face was still looking downward, but her cheeks were very, very red.
Sylvia put a comforting hand on her sister-in-law’s back and softly said, “Delilah?”
She looked up and tears were coming down her face.
“It’s true. It’s all true,” she admitted. “I just wanted to make sure everything stayed the way it had been. That’s why I did it. We didn’t have the money to keep the plantation and I desperately wanted to save it. I couldn’t let it all slip through our fingers. It would have been too much.”
She was crying pretty heavily at this point, her shoulders shaking. Sylvia brought her into a big hug, patting her back.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said, in a comforting tone of voice. “You were just doing what you had to do. I know you wanted to help and I understand.”
They stayed like that until Delilah calmed down a little. She moved back some, and then wiped the remaining tears from her face.
“Thank you, Sylvia,” she sniffled.
Miss Sylvia said, “And once we sell Snickerdoodle and Macaroon’s puppies, we should be okay for a while.”
Sylvia offered Delilah a small and sweet smile. They both took a deep breath and then returned back to the group.
Sylvia looked up at me and said, “Thank you, Kari.”
The room kind of settled for a little bit and it felt like it was all over, but then Greg piped up, “I have a few suggestions,” he said, holding up his hand.
We all turned to him and he got flushed a little bit before continuing. He pushed up his glasses and offered his two cents’ worth. “For the tree, you guys could pay to have it taken down and preserved. The whole tree or just the part with the initials, whichever you want. And that way, once it’s off the back pasture, you can sell the land.”
Sylvia was nodding and she looked over at Delilah, who seemed to also agree.
“Perhaps,” Sylvia answered. “What’s your other suggestion?”
“This one is also a bit to my benefit, but if you all are willing to watch my mother during the day, I’d be willing to pay you for your time. I figure she’ll be happier here with you rather than sitting in White Oaks by herself all day. And maybe she’ll stop running around in the fields.”
Greg looked over at his mother, who seemed to be in her own world at the moment. Sylvia looked over too and took her hand. This got Virginia out of whatever daydream she was in and she focused on the woman next to her.
“I’d like that very much. I do believe that it is time for me and old Ginny to become friends again.”
Virginia smiled and put her other hand on top of Sylvia’s.
“Yes, let’s,” she responded.
It looked like everyone was happy and whatever grievances were previously held just vanished. I seemed to no longer be needed and was about to make my way out just to get some fresh air, when Greg stood up and walked over to me.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
He just stood there for a few seconds, not saying much, so I offered, “Do you want me to walk you out?”
He nodded and the two of us left the living room. We made our way to the front of the house, not having any real conversation. Once we got to the porch, he finally said something.
“I just wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done.”
I shook my head, not sure what he was talking about.
“I didn’t really do anything.”
“No, you helped my mother in more ways than you could imagine. She and Sylvia have always had a bit of a rocky relationship, but they were always friends at the heart of it all. It was weird when she suddenly stopped calling. Now that it’s all been laid to rest, my mom will be much happier now.”
“I’m glad I could help, Greg. I’ll make sure to check out the museum when it’s finished.”
This mini detour had gotten me rather interested in the area and I thought I’d like to learn a little more about its history. Since I would only be living an hour away, in Appleton, I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to drive back here and visit
.
“Well, you can always get in for free.”
I was about to say goodbye and head inside, when Greg started saying something else. “I wanted to ask you one more thing––”
But before he could finish, I saw a large tow truck coming up the driveway. It said Bud’s Towing and I knew my saving grace had just arrived.
“Oh, my goodness!”
I got super excited, and I couldn’t even wait to hear what Greg was going to say, telling him, “I have to go, but we can talk later, maybe? It was really nice meeting you.”
I gave him a quick hug and then ran over to greet Budrow. He had a huge smile on his face as he climbed out of his truck.
“You must be Miss Kari.”
“How did you guess?”
I was standing in front of a very jolly looking man whose whole presence had very much eased all the anxious feelings I had from earlier.
“The only time a lady as pretty as you is that excited to see me is because she needs a tow,” he said.
I almost blushed at his compliment, but I was too giddy because my car was finally going to get towed into town, where it could finally get fixed.
“I’m happy to see you, Budrow! And you fixed your truck earlier than expected. How exciting!”
He didn’t seem to believe me, but he took my word for it and motioned over in a direction away from the house.
“I saw your car on my way here. You can hop inside and I can give you a tow into town.”
“Okay. Let me just grab my stuff and then we can get moving.”
I also wanted to say goodbye to everyone before leaving. They had all been so nice and, even though I did end up working, I really enjoyed my momentary stay at Red Rivers Plantation. I wanted them all to know that before I left.
I ran back towards the house to make the rounds. Greg had already left to go back to White Oaks and we had already said goodbye. I know he said he wanted to ask me something else, and I felt kind of bad for running off the way I did, but he could always just give me a ring with that question and whatever other ones he might have for me. I went back to the living room and found everyone still sipping on their lemonade.
“Well, the tow truck got here early and I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you for everything,” I told them. “I really enjoyed staying here.”
Sylvia looked a little down, but she kept her voice sounding happy.
“Oh, we really loved having you here, Kari. Come back anytime. You are always welcome at Red Rivers.”
They all waved goodbye to me, Henry included. I think he even gave me a smile.
I ran up to my room, made sure to clean up everything and grabbed my bag.
As I left, Miss Sylvia called to me, “Leave me your forwarding address and I’ll send your payment along in the mail, Kari.”
I wouldn’t hear of it. Breakfast was enough payment for me.
Budrow was waiting in the truck, his arm resting on the door.
He poked his head out and said, “Are you ready, little lady?”
I nodded and he opened the door for me from the inside. I climbed in and we drove over to my decommissioned vehicle. Despite having a good time and being glad I could help solve the mystery, I was very glad to be getting on with my journey. I had a new life to start, in Appleton.
Epilogue
I had been in Appleton only a couple of days. Even so, Red Rivers Plantation had become a distant memory in light of an apartment full of boxes and a new job starting on Monday. I’d definitely hold on to that memory and hopefully get out there once in a while.
I was taking a break after setting up some furniture for my living room when I got a call from an unknown number. These weren’t unusual given my line of work, so I picked it up, not really giving it too much thought.
“Hello?”
A man on the other end responded by saying my name, “Kari Jacobs?”
“That’s me.”
“Hi. I have a delivery for you from Red Rivers Plantation. They ended up mailing it straight to the post office since they didn’t have your address, but they put your number on the box.”
I almost laughed at Sylvia’s clever thinking. When I had left, I couldn’t remember my address off the top of my head, and I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to my car, so I left a note with my number by the foyer.
I didn’t really want payment for solving the mystery, but I was interested in keeping in touch with the people I had met while I was stranded there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sylvia had also left a kind of cheeky note for the mailman as well.
“Yes! Um, let me give you my address.”
I rattled it off, now having committed it fully to memory, and he said that he would here in about a half hour. I wondered if Sylvia had sent me a check for my services. I’d basically decided that that wasn’t going to happen. If she sent me a check, I planned to tear it up. They’d let me stay with them and had fed me delicious Southern meals for free. I considered any debt to have been settled fair and square.
I used the time before the mailman’s arrival to make myself lunch and waited until the doorbell rang. He was pretty spot on with his time estimate because almost right at the half hour mark, the mailman was there.
I went to the door, and when I opened it, I saw that he had a large box in his hands. He set it down and held out a clipboard.
“I need you to sign for it, Ma’am. Just right along the dotted line.”
I took the paper and pen, not yet signing because I wasn’t sure what I had just received. I was a little disappointed that what Sylvia sent me clearly wasn’t a check to tear up. I was going to have a harder time turning down whatever was in this box.
I considered just marking it “Return to Sender” but I didn’t want to be rude and not accept a gift. However, I couldn’t even guess at what it was. The box was fairly large, but I couldn’t pinpoint anything.
I looked at the delivery man and asked, “Do you know what it is?”
He gave me an amused smile and told me, “It’s a handful— that’s what it is.”
I could tell he wasn’t going to give me any more information, so I just signed for the thing and handed back the clipboard. He left soon after and I kneeled down to stare at the box.
That wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I took a full sit while I pondered what it could be. Before I could figure it out though, I heard whimpering from inside.
What in the world?
I saw that there were holes poked in the box, and a pink nose was trying to get through. I finally opened the lid. Inside, I found what I was beginning to expect but still couldn’t believe. Inside this box that Sylvia had sent was a little brown and black Great Dane puppy.
The little guy looked up at me with loving, sleepy eyes and then let out a tiny yawn. He was achingly adorable. I took him out of his box and hugged him to my face. So, this is what they meant by love at first sight!
Still, I was in literal shock at the fact that Miss Sylvia had just sent me a dog in the mail. I knew the Winters had talked about getting money from the sale of the puppies to further save the plantation.
I looked around the box a little more and saw a card taped to the side. I carefully took it out and opened it up to read.
Dear Kari,
Inside you’ll find one of the puppies from the prize-winning litter of my two Great Danes, Snickerdoodle and Macaroon. I’m sure you remember them. I had Henry ask you to take them for a walk so you could get used to them— and when you returned, I could tell you liked them by the way you looked at them and pet them to easy your anxiety during our talk. The little one I have sent you is a true show dog and definitely worth more than the five thousand dollars I promised for your services. However, it is my hope that you keep him and love him as I much as I do because he will bring great joy into your life. Enjoy him and your life, dear Kari, to the fullest! I do hope to see you— and the little pup— again soon. We will officially invite you to come back for our annual pie baking competition that we
hold here at Red Rivers Plantation.
With regards,
Your friend, Sylvia Winters
I put the card down for a second and stared at my new little charge. I really shouldn’t be surprised that Sylvia sent me a puppy as payment. It was so her.
Even though I had had no intention of getting a dog, my heart couldn’t help but warm at the sight of the little guy. He snuggled himself into my lap, curling up and resting.
I stroked his soft fur and sighed. I could use the company. Maybe he would make a good companion. Sylvia took the time to get him delivered to me, so I might as well enjoy my new pet. And he seemed pretty docile, especially for just being shipped.
I looked at the card one last time to see if she had written anything else. The second time around I noticed a P.S. scrawled at the bottom. It gave the puppy’s name, but it was much too long–– more suitable for if he were going to be presented in show.
I couldn’t be yelling that out every time the two of us were playing. Once I got to the end, there were parentheses surrounding a nickname: Shortbread. Much more manageable.
“Is your name Shortbread?”
He had been snuggled with his head down in my lap but when I asked him this, he sat up and licked my face. He obviously liked the name— and me.
Yeah, I could do this. Take care of a dog and everything.
I moved him off my lap, so I could stand and hold him to my face. Then we looked at one another for a few seconds.
“Do you want to come live with me?”
He just wagged his tail and I took it as a yes.
In the end it would turn out neither Shortbread, nor I, had any idea what we had signed up for. But then life would be pretty damn boring if you already knew what was going happen.
THE END
Succulent Southern Recipe
Miss Delilah’s Fresh Peach Pie
Ingredients:
2c sliced fresh peaches
1T lemon juice
1/4c sugar
Miss Sylvia's Stolen Bible Page 6
