Persuaded

by Alicia J. Chumney

  “Still…”

  “Charles,” she interrupted. “It’ll be fine. I’m just tired of being in this empty house. I have only a few more things to finish on this list, pack up my things, and then I can vacate the premises. Mr. Shepherd and the real estate agent,” she didn’t want to say his name aloud, “said that the Crofts would be perfectly happy and agreeable to moving in sooner. They’d like to get settled in before the Fall semester begins as well.”

  “I’d love to know how Ed Worth knew a pre-law professor,” Charles mumbled to himself. “Anyway. If you do need some help, I’m sure I can figure something out.”

  “No,” Anne insisted. “You have finals coming up soon. You need to focus on that so you don’t get even further behind.”

  She was proud of how she didn’t react when Charles said Ed Worth’s name. The last time she’d heard anything about the real estate agent was back in North Carolina where he was handling rental properties.

  It wasn’t possible that Derek was in town too… was it? She could easily guess why his brother had set up offices here.

  “Thanks, Anne. I’ll see you soon,” her brother-in-law’s voice said, drawing her away from her wayward thoughts.

  “Bye, Charles.”

  Sometimes she wanted to admit that talking to Charles was weird. Anne knew that he had been kind of interested in her before that fateful campus visit Mary had made. But at the time Anne hadn’t been interested in dating anybody after the disaster that had been the ending of her relationship with Derek Worth.

  If she was honest with herself, and she wasn’t sometimes, she kept his number just in case he called. Occasionally she would still pull up his contact information and would be tempted to send off an e-mail or a text or call him and see how he was doing.

  She had even looked him up on Facebook to see if he had a profile and ‘stalk’ him a little. He didn’t. At least not an account that she could find.

  Anne’s own account went unused mostly except to see the pictures of the boys that Mary would constantly post. She had unfollowed Elizabeth after the various elitist ‘I’m better than you’ posts got to be too much for her to ignore.

  Certainly, on occasion, Mary would post the same types of posts. Or the ‘I’m ill and nobody cares’ posts that were mere cries for attention more than anything else.

  Charles would complain about classes – especially the history class that he couldn’t seem to pass – and other things, post pictures of the boys, of his hunts he took with his father – they never shot anything – and other important business people, and shared posts from the Musgraves Furniture Facebook page.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Oh, Charles is in class. I haven’t seen him since seven when he left the house. He said something about meeting his new history tutor, so he’ll be late. I’m sure if he wasn’t struggling in his class he’d be here,” was the first thing Mary said as soon as she opened the door.

  “It’s fine,” Anne grunted as she tugged a suitcase through the doorway. “I do have three more suitcases and a trash bag with my bedding in the car…”

  Before she could finish, Henry Walter let out a cry and Mary disappeared into the living room where she had him set up.

  “…and if you could help me get some of it, that would be great,” she finished, more for herself than for anybody else.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t arrive last week,” Mary returned, carrying Baby Walter in her arms.

  “I had a ton of stuff to do,” Anne answered, pulling her suitcase into the house and lining it up against the wall. Maybe she could get her things inside before it rained. “I had to pack up my clothes, sorting them by season as I packed. Then there was my shower supplies and makeup, my books, my art journals, my…”

  “I get it, I get it,” Mary dismissed her sister with a wave of her free hand.

  “I still have to go back and get my books!” she exclaimed, remembering the boxes she had stacked in her bedroom floor.

  “Your room isn’t that big, you know.”

  “It’s the attic. It runs the entire length of the house,” Anne laughed, loving the privacy the converted room afforded. “I have some nice thick rugs at the house that I’m bringing over to help buffer the sound of me walking across the floor, and Mr. Musgraves said he was bringing me a desk for in front of one of the windows.”

  She’d hoped that there would be a bookcase or two included in the things he was bringing by. He frequently told her that he considered her to be one of the daughters he never had, despite having at least three girls and three boys that she was aware of. Two of them were still in middle school and one in high school.

  The elder girls – Henrietta and Louisa – were, respectfully, a sophomore and freshman in college. Louisa would be starting her first year soon and both girls had insisted on giving dorm life a chance.

  Anne suspected they wanted to try life without the Musgraves aware of their comings and goings at night.

  After dragging her things up to her room while Mary rocked a sleeping Baby Walter, Anne left once again to grab the two boxes of books she had left behind.

  Less than an hour later, she looked up at the house. Even as she snapped the trunk of her car closed, she felt as if she was missing something else besides these two boxes of books.

  On the drive home, she mentally acknowledged that the Crofts would be moving in soon and she’d have no more claim to entering the house without ringing the doorbell. No more indoor pool to occasionally work off some of her stress. No more massive library to find new worlds to lose herself in.

  Soon Kellynch Place would not be her home. Just one more week.

  And then less than one month before school started at the end of August. If she didn’t get charged with killing Mary first.

  But first things first, she recalled. After lugging her things up two flights of stairs, she started looking around the room, she wondered where she could hide the shoe box she had once carefully hidden in the top of her closet in a corner where her curious sisters would not try to look.

  Releasing a deep breath, she removed the lid and lifted up the last picture she had of her and Derek together. “It seems as if you just won’t go away,” she whispered to the frozen image. Putting it back in the box, she closed the lid on her past.

  Too bad actually putting the past in the past was a lot easier said than done.

  Scanning the room, she knew that under the bed was the first place Mary was likely to look if she got bored and decided to snoop. Then she remembered Mr. Musgraves’ warning that not all of the floorboards had been nailed down yet, especially in the corner of the attic where few people ever went thanks to a draft. Anne planned on plugging it with one of those giant pillows that also served as a seat.

  Careful to step in the middle of the boards, Anne noted that she should get some nails and hammer down the floorboards in order to maximize her usable space. However, for now, she would use these loose boards to her advantage. Lifting up one of them, she slipped the box into the insulation foam carefully, before dropping the board back into place.

  Hopefully, she would remember where she had stashed that box later and not nail down that particular board.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The new tenants seemed nice the first time she met them to finalize any paperwork that needed to be handled, Anne mused to herself. Mr. Robert Croft – he’d told her to call him Bob – had taken up an interim guest professor position at the college while the original professor went on sabbatical for some unknown reason. While not originally from the area, he’d jumped at the chance to rent Kellynch Place from her father.

  Who wouldn’t want to spend a year living on the massive grounds of Kellynch Place with its indoor swimming pool, massive gardens, chef-inspired kitchen, and five bedrooms? Added to the benefits was the fact that it was an easy commute to campus without being too close to where many of the off-campus students lived. No wild parties over at the neighbors’ houses. And even if there w
ere, the closest neighbor was too far away to be able to hear if they were throwing a wild party.

  Her father loved the idea that a childless college law professor was going to reside in his house. He would rather have an actual lawyer, or doctor, renting the place, but a law professor was just as good. He didn’t even care when the professor’s wife told them that her younger brother was a student at the college and would be staying in one of the rooms to get him out of the dorms.

  Although that piece of information had not been shared with his middle daughter.

  As long as no painting was done, the brother remained away from Walter Elliot’s own law books – although Robert Croft, never called ‘Bob’ by Walter Elliot, was allowed to ‘peruse them at his leisure’ – and they made no serious changes to the decorating scheme, Walter Elliot would be perfectly content with his new tenants.

  Bob had graciously thanked his new landlord – even though Worth Real Estate was handling the technical aspects of the renter/tenant situation – and promptly moved three of the mirrors that were hanging in the master suite to one of the guest rooms.

  “I wasn’t comfortable with my reflection looking at me from every single angle,” he explained to his wife later after she had returned from stocking the kitchen.

  “It’s fine, dear,” she smiled at him, patting his shoulder as she left the room. “I just hope you took pictures of where the mirrors went before you moved them.”

  “I don’t understand why somebody needs five mirrors in their bedroom,” he stated. “Five, Sophy! I like to make sure everything is in place myself, but I don’t need more than one mirror to do that!”

  “Then why did you leave two mirrors in here?”

  “I thought you might want to use one while I use the other one to give myself pep talks in the morning before class.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “Exceptionally,” Bob admitted. “Although not as much as when I had to stand in front of Judge Buchannan for the first time.”

  As requested, multiple times by her father, and once by Elizabeth because it would be ‘good manners’, Anne reluctantly pressed the doorbell on her family home. It felt weird, but the Crofts were now the residents of Kellynch Place and Anne couldn’t just go barging in as if… as if she owned the place. Not anymore.

  And technically, with her college funds paying almost a fourth of the mortgage, she could stake a claim on a fourth of the house, as tempting as that was. Certainly, her father would argue that he had supplied her college fund with the money that had been in there and that it was his legal right to take it back out. Which, technically, he had done.

  However, Anne also knew that Kellynch Place was not the same ever since her mother had died. She would be perfectly fine with selling the house and erasing all of the memories that had happened there in the five years since her passing.

  Still, the fact remained that, even with her father pushing her to go visit the Crofts, even though she had already met the husband and wife team three days before, Anne had realized that she had left a much needed and necessary box of books in her closet.

  Throwing open the door, Sophy Croft beamed down at Anne. “Why if it isn’t Anne Elliot as I live and breathe! Bob,” she called back into the house. “Anne came to visit!”

  “Anne? Anne who?” Bob’s voice echoed from her father’s… from the study.

  “Anne Elliot!”

  “Oh, that charmingly sweet girl from the paperwork signing at your brother’s offices?”

  “Brother?” Anne softly asked.

  “Oh, yes!” Sophy grinned, directing Anne into the house. “Ed Worth is my older brother. He’s the one who told us about this place.”

  “Oh. I didn’t realize. I mean… the last time I saw Mr. Worth was in North Carolina about 6 years ago. I was seventeen and my aunt, Cassandra Russell rented a beach house from him for a few weeks.”

  “Yeah,” she trailed off. “He sold his rental properties after Ava died.”

  “Oh!” Anne gasped. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Yeah, he manages others properties now, mostly. Does some selling. Does some flipping. Does quite a bit of watching over our younger brother, Derek. You probably met him if you rented from Ed six years ago. You probably heard that my brother recently married,” Sophy Croft leaned over and whispered.

  “No, I didn’t,” Anne managed to answer despite the lump of disappointment in her throat nearly choking her words.

  “Yeah, Ed married the sweetest woman, but she doesn’t speak much,” Sophy sighed. “She’s nothing like his first wife, Ava, but nobody can be Ava.”

  Anne could see why Edward’s second wife didn’t speak much; Sophy Croft had the personality that could dominate any conversation. She’d need to have a strong personality being stuck in the middle of two brothers. Anne briefly wondered if Sophy ever took a break to breathe in the middle of her ramblings.

  “I can’t really blame him for remarrying though,” Sophy mused, breaking into Anne’s thoughts about her new acquaintance’s personality. “Edward and Ava did have two young children, girls, and he would be confused out of his mind if he attempted to raise those adorable girls alone. Derek can’t help because he’s just as clueless about children, especially girl children, and he is so close to finally graduating college that we don’t want to hinder him. And I can’t help because Mr. Croft was just offered a position to teach a few of the pre-law courses at the university.”

  “Oh… that’s…”

  “And of course, Kellynch Place coming up for rent was just perfect. Not only does Bob get an easy commute to campus, but we can also get my brother out of the dorms. Your father probably told you about Derek…”

  “Actually, he didn’t,” Anne interrupted, trying not to visibly react to the news.

  “Oh yes,” Sophy continued on, oblivious. “He has been living in the dorms for the past two years. Took a lot of online classes, so he was able to enroll as a Sophomore and skip most of those boring English Composition and Literature classes.” Leaning forward she loudly whispered, “My husband is the reader. If it isn’t a law book or the news, I’m not interested.”

  “That does remind me,” Anne managed to interject. “I realized that I left a box of books in my closet. I was hoping that I could retrieve them.”

  “That’s not a problem, my dear,” Sophy grinned. “In fact, we can call Bob and he can carry them down for you.” Turning towards the study, she called out, “Bob!”

  “That isn’t necessary. The box isn’t that heavy and…” Anne tried to say before Bob entered the room.

  “Yes, Sophy?” he asked. Turning towards Anne he asked, “How are you, Anne? I hope something isn’t wrong and that’s why you came over.”

  “No,” she shook her head. “Nothing’s wrong. I just left a box of books in my closet and I need to get them. It has some of my textbooks for this year in them.”

  “Oh dear,” Sophy interjected. “We can’t have you leaving those here, now can we? Now, go show Bob the box and he can carry it out to your car.”

  “That’s not necessary. I’ve been lifting boxes of books all summer. I can assure you, the box isn’t that heavy.”

  “No, no. We insist,” Sophy smiled. “Don’t we, Dear?”

  “If you insist, Darling,” Bob grinned down at his wife. “Lead the way, fair maiden,” he directed, pointing towards the stairs. “Did I hear Sophy mentioning Derek and North Carolina? You must have met him then. I’m surprised you haven’t run into him on campus.”

  “Campus really is bigger than it appears. Most of my classes are in one of two buildings. If he doesn’t have any classes in those buildings, it’s unlikely that I’ve ever run into him,” Anne replied.

  She didn’t want to tell them that she might have been the girl that had broken Derek’s heart over five years ago when she gave him back his ring. If they knew about that.

  “We, Sophy and I that is, were in New York right about then. I think it was New York…” h
e trailed off, trying to remember. “I can remember everything related to the law that I ever learned or studied, but ask me where I was six years ago and I couldn’t tell you. Sophy probably could, but not me. She’s my memory, that one. I’d be lost without her.”

  “We were in Charlotte six years ago, Dear,” Sophy corrected Bob. “We went to visit Derek and Ed that Fourth of July weekend since we were so close. Derek was simply gone over some girl he had met, but she had to go back home. I wish I knew who she was. I’d have a few choice words to say to her.”

  Anne froze in place. Silently sending the words up in prayer, she hoped that Sophy would not ask if Anne knew who this girl had been.

  “Oh, well. It doesn’t matter. He started dating somebody shortly after that, and it might not have even been the same girl. He never was too clear about the details, but who would confide in an older sister,” Sophy shrugged. “Need any help with the box, Bob?”

  “No. It’s not even that heavy.”

  “I can handle it if you want to get back to work,” Anne offered.

  “Nonsense. I don’t get to be gentlemanly enough these days,” Bob dismissed her as he lifted the box and carried it out of the room.

  Following behind him, Sophy continued talking. Anne wondered if Sophy even knew what she was saying herself.

  “You must come to dinner one night when Derek comes in. He’ll be here the week before school starts. You two can catch up.”

  “I… Ummm…”

  “Don’t force her, Sophy,” Bob called out from the base of the staircase. “She might already have plans. And we don’t even know if Anne and Derek got along or even met that summer.”

  Turning towards her, they both waited for her confirmation or denial.

  “Actually, we did meet that summer…” she confirmed.