Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  Polly brought out another plate and silverware and set them down at the place across from Sal. "So what have you been doing this morning?"

  "Don't I get coffee?" he asked.

  "Oh, good heavens!" Polly exclaimed. "Get it yourself."

  She sat down in her chair and he laughed, but got up and obeyed, saying, "I met Len in the workshop this morning. They're going to start hauling the base cabinets over to Beryl's studio so they can begin assembling them. After that I met Ruby Lindahl at her house to look at an old built-in hutch she has. It's beginning to pull away from the wall and she's worried it will fall on her. That thing isn't going anywhere, but I need to spend some more time there. I think the floor is sagging. I told her she was fine, it's been like this for years, but I'll get started on it next week. Then, I ran over to Beryl's place to make sure it was unlocked and ready to go for the day and now I'm here."

  He gave Polly a puppy dog face and said, "And I knew you would be making breakfast, so I thought I'd beg from you."

  She shoved his arm and laughed. "Where are we going tonight for our big double date?"

  "Oh!" he said. "I figure Mark knows Ames as well as I do, so he might have a good idea about where we could eat. Or, we could head over to Story City. Have you taken Sal to your home town?"

  Sal looked at Polly with wide eyes and said, "That sounds interesting. I haven't been there since that spring break of our junior year."

  "There isn't much fun to do there, everyone always leaves town on Friday nights. Let's go to Ames," Polly replied.

  Henry glanced back and forth between the two of them. "Sure, that's fine. Are you up for barbecue, Sal?"

  "Anything is great."

  "Hickory Park is a tradition around here," he began and Polly interrupted him.

  "And you can get ice cream, too!" she laughed.

  Sal shrugged. "Really. Whatever you want to do, I'm ready for it. I'm here for the experience."

  "I'll text Mark, then," Polly said. "Henry, can you drive?"

  "My truck?" he asked.

  "Well, it's either your truck, my truck or Mark's truck. Yours has the easiest access for four people and is probably the cleanest of all of them."

  He looked a little bemused, "Sure. Tell Mark to meet us here and I'll drive my truck."

  Polly texted Mark with the details and he wrote back, "And here I thought this might not happen."

  "Why would you think that? I never cancel plans," she wrote back.

  "You're right. I should have known better. I'll dress in my best overalls and see you later."

  "Brat."

  "And you love me for it."

  "We're set," she said to Sal and Henry.

  They had finished eating and were cleaning up when another knock was heard. Before Polly made it past the kitchen peninsula, Sylvie stuck her head in. "Did I miss breakfast?" she asked.

  Polly looked guilty and said, "I should have brought it all downstairs, shouldn't I!"

  "Oh stop it, you crazy girl! I caught the scent when I opened the door just now and it smells heavenly."

  "It was," Henry laughed. He handed Polly the dish towel and said, "I need to get downstairs and move people along or you will never have a garage."

  He touched Sylvie's arm as he passed her and was out the door and gone before Polly could say anything more.

  "What's up, Sylvie?" she asked.

  "I was coming up to say good morning and see if you heard anything about Beryl. Will she go home today? I thought I'd take food over for her."

  "The doctor's appointment is at ten thirty and both she and Andy are pretty certain he will tell her that she's fine. We're meeting at Davey's for lunch if you want to join us."

  "I don't have time for that today, but thanks," Sylvie said.

  "Did you know Eliseo was working this morning? He beat me to the barn," Polly said.

  "He told me last night that he wasn't going to be able to lie around any longer than a day. I'm not surprised. Did you talk to Henry about a room downstairs for him?"

  "Darn! No I didn't. And I should do that right now. Maybe we can get something in place yet today."

  "Do you have any extra beds around?"

  Polly thought for a moment and shook her head. "I don't. And it takes so long for them to deliver something up here. Shoot, I should have spent more time thinking about this yesterday."

  "We'll come up with something."

  "You know, he told me this morning that he would manage. I don't know if he'd particularly like a couple of women trying to figure his life out for him," Polly said.

  "He can get over that," Sylvie snapped. "Stupid men. They think they don't need anyone and then they end up in a little town in Iowa all by themselves with no place to live. There isn't a woman I know who would put up with that crap."

  Polly laughed and heard Sal snickering behind her. "You're right! You know what? You go talk to Henry, will you?"

  Sylvie looked at her in confusion. "Me? He works with you."

  "No, you go talk to him because Sal and I are going to haul ourselves down to Boone and buy a bed. They'll load it up in my truck and before Eliseo even knows what happened, we'll find a way for him to stay here until he gets his own place."

  Polly turned around and said, "Are you okay with this, Sal?"

  Sal put her dish towel down on the counter and said, "Wherever you want me to go, I go. I'm ready."

  Sylvie left and Polly made sure the coffee pot and oven were all turned off. Sal went across to her room for a jacket and they headed downstairs. Henry met them outside by her truck with a handful of rope and bungee ties.

  "Make sure they strap things in tightly. I know it isn't a long trip back, but you don't want to lose anything. Be safe, okay?" He put the items in Polly's truck behind her seat and said, "We'll be ready when you get back, but you know he could have stayed with me for a while."

  "He wasn't going to stay with you. I don't even know if he'll let me do this for him. I think he'd rather sleep in my barn than allow people to help him, but that changes today," Polly announced.

  "You go get 'em, girl," Henry said. "We'll clear the space and be ready."

  Polly and Sal made their way to the furniture store in Boone and went inside. Of course, they wanted to sell her more than she was willing to buy. Fancy was not what she wanted. She finally settled on a simple frame and headboard and a comfortable mattress. She chose a bedside table and lamp as well as a rug to put on the concrete floor.

  Sal asked, "Do you have bedding?"

  "No!" Polly cried. "I'm glad you remembered."

  With the bed tightly strapped in, they made one more quick stop to pick up bedding, then hurried back to Bellingwood. She pulled up to the front door and Jeff and Henry came out to meet them.

  "I told Eliseo what you were doing," Jeff said. "I figured you wanted me to deal with him. Is that alright?"

  Polly said, "As long as he isn't upset with me, it's perfect!"

  "He's surprised and not too pleased, but I told him you're this way with everyone."

  She laughed, "Maybe a little. I'll give you that. Let's get this inside and set up. Sal and I are going to lunch at Davey's and I want this to be done before we leave."

  Sal pulled the bags of bedding out of the cab of the truck and Polly reached in to grab the lamp. Sylvie showed up and took that from her, so Polly waited for the bed of her truck to be unpacked. As soon as the box springs were out, she was able to muscle the mattress enough to get to the frame and grabbed parts of it and headed inside and down the steps.

  Henry and Jeff had cleared out one of the back rooms. She set down her load and went back up to help bring the rest down. Soon, it was unloaded and she and Sylvie unrolled the rug. It filled the room and they arranged the bedframe on top of it. When everything was set into place and the lamp was turned on, the room actually looked quite warm.

  "This will be fine for the short term," Polly said. "Thank you."

  Jeff said, "Eliseo is avoiding us. He's in the au
ditorium setting up for this evening's reception."

  "Would you send him down," she asked. "I want him to hear from me that he has to accept this with grace."

  Jeff smiled and rolled his eyes, "I'll tell him. He won't like it, but I'll tell him."

  Sylvie said, "I'm out of here. I don't want to be around for this." She grabbed some of the plastic wrapping and headed for the stairs.

  Henry and Sal did the same. Sal turned around and said, "I'll be playing with your animals. Come find me, okay?"

  "I’ll be up in a bit," Polly acknowledged. After they left, she sat down on the bed and looked around. This would work.

  In a few moments, she heard footsteps on the stairs and soon, Eliseo walked in. Before she could speak, he said, "Miss Giller, this is too much. I would have figured it out on my own."

  She didn't move, just sat on the bed and looked at him, then said, "You know. I've had it pretty easy all my life. I didn't have to do things I didn't want to do in order to make a living. When I bought this building, one of my dreams was to be able to make it possible for other people to find relief from the things that stopped them from being creative. I'm not an artist or an author; I don't shoot beautiful photographs or design homes. I can cook, but I'm not a chef. I'm just Polly and I've been fortunate. But sometimes people have to kill themselves in order to live and when they have a few free moments, they use themselves all up trying to create beauty they can share with the world.

  "So, I fixed this place and as we grow, I hope people will come here for a short time and feel like we took care of them so they could be creative without worrying about all those things that make life stressful.

  "At the same time, though, I want this to be a safe place for the people who work with me to make that happen for our guests. I like you a lot. I want you to be here for a long time. You are good with my animals and this morning I watched Nan react to you in a way she never has with me. She loves you. Jeff likes you and Sylvie reacted to your pain yesterday like I've never seen her react to anyone before. In a short period of time, you've created relationships with both my animals and my staff and you're doing a great job around here.

  "I can offer a lot to my guests and my friends and Eliseo, you have to let me give this to you, even if you find your own place and move out in a few weeks. I don't feel sorry for you and I'm not giving you charity. This is how I live around the people who are in my life. It's not a big deal unless you make it into a big deal. You have to trust me on this.

  "Sycamore House isn't only about me or about the guests; it's about whoever needs or wants a place of safety and shelter. Does this make sense to you?"

  He had stood in the doorway while she spoke and finally said, "Then I will assure you that you'll never have reason to be disappointed in my work. I will be out of here as soon as I can afford it, but for now, thank you."

  Polly stood up, crossed the room and took his hand to shake it. "Thank you for not making this difficult for me, Eliseo. I didn't want to have to get pushy."

  He laughed. "One of these days I'll find a way to repay you for this generosity."

  "Don't do anything for me," Polly said. "Take care of someone else who needs it and we'll be square."

  She moved past him through the doorway. "I don't know what you have brought with you, but this room is yours, so feel free to settle in. I'm sorry there aren't bathrooms or a shower down here, but you know where they are. Bring a chair down from the conference room if you want a place to sit."

  Polly went upstairs to her apartment and before walking in, she stopped and took a breath, looking around her home. Then, opening the door, she went inside, ready to start the next part of her day.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It was later than she’d hoped when Polly finally rushed out of Sycamore House with Sal to meet up with her friends for lunch at Davey’s. Beryl's appointment with her doctor was finished, stitches removed, and she was ready to return to her own home.

  When they walked in, the hostess greeted them and said, "They're waiting for you, follow me."

  Sal leaned in and whispered, "She knows who you are. Do you eat here a lot?"

  Polly giggled. "I probably do. But, remember, it's a small town. Everyone knows everyone and Lydia would have told her to keep an eye out for us."

  The hostess showed them to a round table in the back of the main room where Lydia and Beryl were seated.

  "Where's Andy?" Polly asked, surprised to see that she was missing.

  "She's probably run over to my place to have a quickie with her boyfriend," Beryl smirked, then said, "Hi. You must be Sal, I'm Beryl Watson, the invalid. Here. Sit down by me and you can tell me all about Polly's lurid past."

  Sal looked at Polly, who shrugged and said, "If you sit by her, I will not take responsibility for what's to come."

  Lydia had stood and reached across the table to shake Sal's hand. "I'm Lydia Merritt. It's nice to meet you. Have you had a good time in Bellingwood so far?"

  "It's been lovely," Sal replied and sat down beside Beryl. "Now I have a better understanding as to why Polly will never come back to live in Boston. She's told me why she loves it here, but after seeing the way she has become such a part of this community, it all makes much more sense."

  "We love her," Lydia said, "and probably wouldn't let her leave anyway. Has she given you the ten cent tour?"

  Sal nodded. "We had lunch downtown yesterday and wandered through a few of the stores. Then we drove around Boone in the afternoon and made another trip back down this morning."

  Lydia looked at Polly, "Because it's there?"

  "No. I needed to buy a bed."

  Lydia was perplexed. "A bed? Do you have someone coming in before the bedroom set I ordered arrives?"

  "Oh, not for upstairs, for the basement."

  "Sure," Beryl interrupted. "For the basement. Because your basement needs to sleep."

  Sal grinned, "It’s a roller coaster of events over at Sycamore House. I'm almost ready to return to my quiet life in Boston. Polly has more going on than one person should."

  "No kidding," Beryl laughed. "We just sit back and wait for the bodies to fall."

  "Stop it!" Polly protested. "I put together a bedroom in the basement for my custodian. He doesn't have a place to live and he had been sleeping in the hayloft of my barn. It was either this or Henry's house and he didn't want to bother Henry."

  "So you made a room for him." Beryl poked Sal. "We love her, we really do, but she won't be happy until everyone has moved into Sycamore House. I will protest loudly and with most foul language if she makes me leave my home again. I don't want to live with her!"

  Polly rolled her eyes and shook her head. "It's only temporary until he can find his own place. And besides, it has been bothering me that I don't have a place where people can stay if they show up."

  Sal picked up on Beryl's attitude, "So you would have put me in the basement?"

  "No!" Polly said. "Oh, forget it. I'm not going to win with this, am I? I bought a bed," and she stopped because Sal interrupted.

  "And a lamp, and a rug and a bedside table and if we're not careful she'll find a way to put in a shower and bathroom down there, too."

  "You're going to walk to Des Moines tomorrow if you aren't careful, you brat," Polly said.

  Sal pursed her lips and sat back in her chair.

  "Anyway, I bought a bed. So there." She picked up her menu and began flipping through the pages.

  Andy walked in and joined them. Introductions were made and Polly asked, "Beryl said you were meeting Len for a nooner. How was it?"

  Beryl looked appalled and Andy's mouth dropped open in shock. "I wanted to make sure that things were ready at her house. I picked up her mail and took things inside, then ran out to the studio to check on their progress," Andy responded, then said, "Beryl!"

  "Those are not the words I used!" Beryl laughed. "Not exactly, at least. I might have implied it, but I certainly didn’t call it a nooner. That's a terrible word."
>
  "Right," Polly said, "because quickie is much better."

  They laughed and told stories on each other through lunch. Andy described Beryl's morning walks to the cemetery behind her house. One morning, she had snuck up on a poor man who was replacing the flowers at his wife's headstone. He didn't hear her coming and when she had wished him a good morning, he fell over and rolled partway down the hill before he could catch himself. Beryl insisted that he was in his eighties, Lydia assured them that he was only a few years older than Beryl and Andy. The worst part of the story was that when he fell, he had knocked his toupee off his head. Beryl had quietly picked it up, shook it off and before he could stand up, placed it back on his poor, bald pate, adjusting it for him until it looked as it always did.

  "He's going to be glad she has gone home," Andy said. "He's there every Thursday and I'm certain that next week, he will approach with great trepidation.

  Not to be outdone, Sal pitched into a story about one of Polly's study dates in college. Polly wanted to crawl under the table, it was one of her more horrendous evenings, but she listened as Sal began.

  "He was in your American Lit class, wasn't he?" Sal asked and Polly nodded her affirmation, then Sal asked, "Why was he even in there?"

  "Because he'd registered late, I think. Go on and tell the story."

  "Well, he called Polly in a panic one evening because there was a paper due on some author,"

  "Henry James," Polly interjected.

  "Anyway, he hadn't done any work and wondered if Polly could sum up his writing in a few sentences so that he could get the paper written the next day. Didn't he give you two days’ notice?"

  Polly nodded.

  "Oh, I didn't tell you that this kid was gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous. Big brown eyes and soft, curly hair that hung to his shoulders. He was a knockout. Poor Polly couldn't turn him down, so she told him that if he would commit to six hours the next day, she'd take him through the process and help him get a paper written.

  "He was living off-campus in an apartment and invited her to come over. She dressed up for him and packed her backpack with books by Henry James and books about Henry James, tossed in her laptop and headed over."