Frank held the will up to the light of the front window, read for a moment, then said, “Well. The five of us will be getting a little more than we expected.” He looked at Regina.
Bebe’s eyes glittered, and Mary looked concerned.
Frank continued. “Because he has divided among us five-sixths of the value of the house, which he has deducted from Regina’s share of the cash.” He looked at Regina. “In addition to the smaller amount of cash, he left you the house.”
After a moment of stunned silence, Frank read aloud. “‘To my youngest daughter, Regina Hannon, I leave the house called Blue Lake and all its land and contents, etc., etc., in recompense for her having been denied her place in that house as a child.’”
“What?” Bebe’s face contorted, gathering thunder.
In the silence that followed, Regina stood stone-still, then looked around at the walls and windows and ceilings. Mary’s lips parted. Pace sat with his eyebrows raised and exchanged a look with Fran, whose expression mirrored her husband’s. Al caught a movement from Robert but couldn’t see his face.
Edith, calm as ever, said, “It’s the same to us as if we sold the house.”
Bebe sputtered to life. “When did he do this?”
“Wednesday,” Frank said equably. “You know when.”
Bebe turned her fury on Regina. “Did you get to him? Did you influence him?”
She answered in a quiet, steady voice. “No, Bebe, you did that, remember? I didn’t see him until after he changed his will.”
Frank said to Bebe, and Al thought he detected satisfaction in his voice, “You told him she accused Robert of molesting her when she was a teenager. Apparently he believed her.”
Mary closed her eyes.
Robert emerged from the shadows, face reddening. “She’s a liar. She was wild, boy-crazy.”
It flashed through Al’s mind that Robert was talking about him.
Bebe jumped to Robert’s defense. “She ran away.”
“Stop,” Mary said. “Both of you.”
Frank said quietly, to Regina, “That wouldn’t have happened if you had been living here as his daughter. Where you belonged.”
The room broke into separate exchanges, Bebe appealing to Mary and Robert, Pace saying something to Fran that Al didn’t catch, Edith saying to Frank, “But what about Mary?”
Frank held up a hand. “Oh wait, listen up.”
Everyone fell silent.
“I need to tell you he also—” Frank returned to the will. “Mary, he leaves you the cottage. He leaves Regina, it says, ‘all the land etc. except the building known as the gardener’s cottage, and its immediate surrounding land in the amount of one acre, which land and building I leave to my eldest daughter, Mary Hannon Medina.’ Sorry, I should have read that part before.”
Regina, standing close in front of Al, was breathing hard, looking at Robert, whose lip curled.
Edith spoke again, talking to Frank. “Mary will have the money just as if the house were sold, and she has the house they’ve lived in all these years.”
Frank nodded, as did Pace.
Fran spoke up for the first time. “It’s a fair will. But what about Alice?”
“He leaves that up to us. It really isn’t something he can dictate in his will. She has enough money to live wherever we decide, and of course whatever remains of that money will be hers to leave to us as she wishes in her own will.”
“Alice has the right to live here as long as she wants,” Bebe asserted.
Frank sorted through the pages, shaking his head. “There is no such provision in this will.”
A muted reaction circulated through the room.
Bebe glared at Regina. “Are you going to put Mama out?”
“You were the one who wanted to put her out of her home, Bebe. You wanted to sell the house, remember?”
Edith said, “We planned for her to move to Westover Hall anyway, Bebe.”
“How would you think you could keep up this house?” Bebe said.
Frank answered for Regina. “That’s not your problem.”
Edith shrugged. “I suppose it’s up to Regina whether Alice can stay here.”
“Of course she can stay here.” Regina looked around and spoke to all of them. “For as long as she likes. He knew I would feel that way.” When no one responded, she asked Frank, “When will the house be mine?”
“I think, for all practical purposes, it’s yours now.”
She stepped closer to Frank, leaving the archway open. Al backed away and saw that her expression was stony. And focused on Robert.
“You leave now,” she said through clenched teeth. “And never set foot on this property again.”
It was as though the air were sucked out of the room. Everyone immediately looked at Mary, who sagged.
Regina softened and spoke to Mary. “Of course you can come and stay here any time you want. So can any of you.” But when she glanced around at the others, Al noted that her eyes skipped over Bebe. “But him, never. Go!”
Robert’s face quivered, reddened to the color of liver. “She has a devil in her.”
“Out. Now.”
Frank reached for her as if to calm her. Robert, ramrod-straight, took a direct path to the door, which brought him within two feet of her. Al tensed, on the brink of intervening.
“Devil,” Robert spat, then shouldered past Al and out the front door, slamming it.
The weight of three-inch-thick walnut shook the front windows, and all eyes traveled to the ceiling, where Alice lay in her room.
Mary’s eyes fell first.
Edith said quietly, “Alice can’t stay here by herself, even if she wants to. And you can’t ask Mary to stay with her if her husband isn’t allowed in the house.”
Regina answered—without confidence, it seemed to Al. “Alice won’t be by herself if I’m here.”
Mary and Edith exchanged a look that Al couldn’t read, but he had the sense that Regina followed an unspoken understanding.
“Well.” Bebe huffed. “I guess we’d all better clear out.”
“No.” Regina held up her hands. “You’re all settled in your rooms. Please, all of you, stay as long as you like. I have a room at Mrs. Marsden’s and I’m going back there. Sophie’s there for a few more days. I’ll stay with her until everyone leaves.” She was looking at Bebe and Al heard, until you leave.
Mary, looking pale but composed, said to Edith, “She’ll be okay with all of you here.”
Regina turned to Al for the first time since they’d arrived. “Let’s go.”
She trotted down the front steps briskly and got halfway to his car before she faltered and nearly fell. He caught her.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, closing her eyes and gasping.
“Are you okay?”
“Just give me a minute.” She pressed both hands to her chest, eyes still closed, taking shaky breaths that might almost have been sobs.
He put his arms around her, stroked her hair, and waited. After a minute or two, she stepped back, opened her eyes, and blew out a huge breath. Sniffed, found a Kleenex in her pocket, and blew her nose.
“Ah.” She gave a shaky laugh. “That knocked me for a loop.”
“Your sister didn’t seem too happy. The mean one.”
“Bebe? She hates me.”
“I don’t think your uncle-brother Frank hates you.”
“No, he doesn’t.” When Frank, who had followed them out, reached them, she said, “They’re upset, aren’t they?”
Frank shrugged. “It doesn’t make that much difference to us. Pace pointed out that we might have sold it for more than Papa allowed. It’s not bad news though. I’m glad to have the house in the family. Mary has the cottage, which is what she had to begin with, so I don’t see how she can complain. She’ll have to not let Robert spend all the money this time around. But that’s Mary’s problem. You know Robert’s only going to stay as long as she has something for him to take. I just hope she learns
to say no before she’s penniless.”
“I would buy the cottage,” Ree said, “if it came to that, and she could live there or here if she likes. But no Robert.”
“I don’t blame you. We’re going to have to make a decision right away about Alice. We had all but decided on Westover anyway, so it’s not as if she’s losing anything either.”
“But has anybody asked her what she wants to do? If she wants to stay here, it’s fine with me.”
“Do you plan on living here?”
Regina studied the house as if it could supply the answer. “I haven’t even begun to figure it out. I’m as shocked as anybody to find out that I could do that.” She turned to Al. “Maybe I could work in Richmond during the week and come home on the weekends? That is, if I still have a job.”
“You do,” Al said. “Ron’s worried that you quit, according to Rosa.”
“Anyway”—she turned back to Frank—“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Well, Mary says Alice can’t stay alone in the house. And”—Frank touched her elbow, as if to soften his words—“she says it won’t work for Alice to stay here alone with you either. I think Alice needs Mary. And while I don’t blame you for not wanting Robert around, you can’t ask Mary to stay here with Alice as long as he’s in the picture.”
“I’m not very good at calming her down when she gets upset,” Regina admitted. “But maybe I could learn. Maybe Mary would help?”
“Ask her. I’m heading out. Call me if you need me. Good to see you, Al.”
They watched, shoulder to shoulder, as Frank drove away, Regina waving.
Then she turned to Al. “Thank you. For coming with me. It meant a lot.”
“De nada. You said the other day you wouldn’t want to live in Piedmont. Are you going to change your mind about that?”
“I’m not sure how I could do it. I don’t make that much, and I won’t get so much money that I can afford to live off it. Especially since I’m basically buying the house out of my share of the money.”
“You could ask for a raise.”
“I wonder if I could?”
“Of course you can. You should. From what Rosa said, you’d get it. She also said Ron was worried that if you left, those clients would follow you.”
She was distracted. Following her eyes, he saw dark-haired Mary leave the house, her posture more letdown and tired than before the meeting. She spotted Regina and Al and came to them.
Regina spoke as soon as Mary was close enough to hear. “Mary, I’m sorry.”
Mary didn’t acknowledge the apology. “We explained to Alice.”
“What did she say about my getting the house?”
“I’m not sure she understands yet. Edith and Bebe are staying tonight. I think she’ll be okay with both of them here. We’ll talk more this evening. I don’t know how quickly we would be able to move her into Westover, but we do have a suite reserved for her.”
“How long are Edith and Bebe staying?”
“Just the one night.”
Regina clasped her hands in front of her. “I can stay with her after that. I know I can’t handle it very well if she gets upset, but maybe I can learn. I—would you help?”
She shook her head sadly. “Ree, I have to be free of this. It’s been a long time. And my husband is here. I can be available for now. But we have to move her to Westover Hall as soon as possible.”
“But what does she want? Would she be willing to stay here with me?”
Mary asked the same question as Frank. “Are you going to live here?”
“I’m trying to figure that out. I had no idea any of this was going to happen.”
“It’s hard, Regina, harder than you realize to care for a parent who, frankly, you have never understood. You’ve never known her. You’ve hardly spent a night under the same roof.” Mary’s eyes flicked to Al. “She’s very fragile.”
“Well, until we figure it out, why don’t I try?”
“We don’t really have any choice, at least in the next few days.” She scanned the house, speaking as if to herself, “This isn’t going to work for either of you.”
When Mary was out of sight and hearing, and no one else appeared, Al drew her hand under his arm. “Can we look around? I’ve never really seen this place.”
She sighed and leaned against him, her face hidden behind the red-gold hair. “Come look at the lake.”
They circled around the house to where the overgrown lawn opened onto an expanse of placid water. A cool, weedy-smelling breeze brushed aside the heat of the afternoon. For a long moment, they studied the lengthening shadows and listened to the calling birds.
Al laughed softly. “It’s beautiful.”
She shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe it’s mine.”
“How many acres?”
“A hundred. Papa used say it was the kind of house you could live in for the rest of your life. Look here.” She led him around to the other side of the house. “This was his pride and joy.”
She opened a wooden gate in a wall of brick that matched the brick of the house. Al stepped into a derelict walled garden divided by brick pathways. A wheelbarrow stood outside a wooden shed in the back corner.
“It was his rose garden. He must have had a hundred roses in the old days. They say the house was always full of roses.” She walked slowly down the middle path. “I used to like to help him with it when I was little. I wasn’t really much help, of course. But I loved it as much as he did. And by then, the garden wasn’t anything like it once was.”
“It must be a lot of work. My mom has a vegetable garden half this size.”
“It would be. Al.” She caught a breath and bit her lip.
“What?”
“I have an idea.” She reached the center of the garden, where an empty birdbath listed on bricks lifted by weeds. She turned to face him. “Tiberius Rawley is Sam Rawley’s son. Sam was Papa’s gardener in the old days. He was the one who made the roses so beautiful. Oh, Papa always liked to putter around and supervise, but he was too busy to keep a garden like this himself, and besides, it was Sam who really knew how.” Determination and self-doubt warred in her eyes. “I want to apologize and make amends. To both of them. I’d like to hire them. The old man can show Tiberius what to do with the garden, and Tiberius can do the work.”
Al stuck his hands in his pockets and considered.
“Papa left me some money, I don’t know how much. I don’t know how to work out the details. But I feel like I want to make it up to them. We did them real harm over the years. Not just me, but I added to it.”
He nodded, scanning the garden, wondering what she would have to pay a gardener by the hour.
“What do you think?”
He had to smile at the beseeching look on her face. “I think it’s maybe not a bad idea. You think you’re going to live here then?”
“I still don’t know, but I’m certainly going to keep the house, and I’d love to have the gardens restored, and I’d like to offer him a job. Both of them. Anyway, can we think about it?”
His smile widened when she said we. “I’ll help, if that’s what you want to do.”
“I’m afraid to go there alone. They’re furious with me, for good reason. Come with me. Would you do that for me? I’m sorry. I keep asking so much of you, like I expect you to fix everything.”
“But I can. I’m good at that.”
“But I shouldn’t keep dumping all my problems on you.”
“It’s not dumping. I wish you would have let me help you back then.”
“Well, I can’t talk to the Rawleys, but I want to make it right. Would you do it for me?”
“I would do anything for you. I would—” He cast around for an example, and his smile became a grin. “I would sell cars for you.”
26
Alone with Her Mother
Sunlight flowed in the windows over the kitchen sink. Regina looked out at the lake while washing dishes. She was try
ing to make a go of it, staying at Blue Lake with Alice in the house and Mary back in the cottage with Robert, who remained, and would remain, banished. Mary had been scarce since the funeral and the reading of the will. Her words—this isn’t going to work for either of you—echoed in Regina’s mind every day. Sophie was of similar opinion. “She will want you to wait upon her hand and foot. Can you do that, Ree? Do you want to?”
She wanted to try, at least for a while. More of an issue, could she stand living next door to Robert? His presence was like a foul-smelling eyesore built smack up against the property line. He’ll leave again. He always does. She was a wrench in his spokes, for sure, not only owning Blue Lake outright, but also forbidding him to even visit. Al had made her laugh about it. “Better make a will and cut him out before he murders you.”
After the funeral, they’d retrieved Regina’s car and gone back to Mrs. Marsden’s to wait for the rest of the family to clear out. She and Al had spent the afternoon walking in the country, laying in plans. She paused over the dishes, a smile on her lips, caught between happiness and longing. A whole world of possibility had seemed to open up, as if a life that had been taken from her had been given back. They’d had dinner with Sophie and Mrs. Marsden, both of whom now loved Al, because how could they not?
She’d told herself she would give up on the whole murder idea. Take that nice Doctor Carter’s advice. Questions lingered in the back of her mind: Did Alice know something, see something, maybe something that she didn’t even understand? Had Regina herself seen something she could remember if she had a clue? If the two of them could just talk through it once. But no. Let it go.
The days had taken on a halting rhythm, with Alice drifting through the house a flawless wraith in silk and jewels, allowing Regina to place food in front of her three times a day. Stepping into Mary’s housekeeping role was not hard. What was hard was taking Mary’s place as Alice’s companion. This was not a woman who had ever been much left to herself. She didn’t read or knit or write or sew, draw, or call on friends. She had gone from her mother’s house to her husband’s, where she was surrounded by servants and children. And since the death of her daughter, she’d been attended almost constantly by either Mary or William. Alice would have that sort of constant company available at Westover Hall. But Regina wanted it to be Alice’s choice whether to stay or go. Didn’t want her placed against her will as she herself had been.
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