"Take her back to bed," Polly said. "I'll be back around noon to take Rebecca to lunch and then to Sycamore House with me."
Hayden bent over and said quietly, "I'll be home by three. Honey, please don't try to go to school today. If anyone understands how kids will make you sick, Mrs. Wallers will."
"I've never felt so awful," Cat said with a whimper. "I want to die."
Hayden opened her purse and took out her phone. "Call Mrs. Wallers. You can't go in today. You'll be no good to her."
"Are the kids upstairs?" Polly asked him.
"They should be here any minute. Caleb spilled on himself and went up to change his shirt. It required a parade."
"Are you leaving right now?"
He shook his head. "I have a few minutes. I'll get Cat back into bed. Do you need something?"
"I want to corral them before they leave. If any kid shows up, tell them to stay in the kitchen. They sit and wait for me."
Polly ran up the back steps. Sure enough, Caleb had a room full. "You boys need to be downstairs putting your shoes on," she said. "I'm dropping this stuff off for Rebecca. When I get down there, I want you all in the kitchen with backpacks in hand and ready to go. Now, move it!"
"Are we going to be late?" Elijah asked.
"I don't know what time it is. Wait, I have a better idea. Go downstairs, put your shoes on, grab what you need for school and get into the Suburban. I'll take you."
"Yeah!" he yelled. "We get a ride to school."
"Where's Cassidy?"
The four boys looked around the room as if she might be hiding in a corner.
"Find your sister and make sure she's with you." Polly walked to the next door which was Cassidy's room and opened it to find her youngest sitting on the floor with her dolls. She'd taken her long pants off and put a pair of shorts on. "Honey, what are you doing?"
Cassidy looked up. "Playing."
"Why did you change your pants?"
"Those are tight. And they're ugly. Lara said so."
"Lara Waters from next door?"
Cassidy nodded.
"Okay." Polly dropped the backpack on the floor and strode in. "You can't wear those shorts to school." She opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of bright blue knit pants. "Put these on instead."
"But I want to wear these," Cassidy whined.
Taking in a deep breath, Polly closed her eyes. Not this morning. Please, not this morning. "Honey, not today. Wear the blue pants. Please."
With a huff, Cassidy threw one of her dolls across the room. "I never get to wear what I want." She stood up, stripped off the shorts and tossed them under her bed. Then she pulled the pants on backwards and walked out of the room.
"Cassidy," Polly snapped. "Come back here."
"What?"
"Honey, your pants are on backwards."
"So what?"
"So, they don't look right. Come here."
Cassidy stalked back in and stood in front of Polly, her hands on her hips.
Without a word, Polly reached down, pulled the pants to the floor and said, "Step out of them."
"Mommy isn't very nice."
"Not when she's in a hurry and Cassidy is being stubborn. Now, put them on the right way and don't argue."
Polly tried hard not to use that tone of voice with Cassidy because it could either go well or go very poorly. Today Cassidy chose to obey and pulled her pants on.
"Are you ready to go?" Noah asked from the door. "Polly is giving us a ride. We have to put our shoes on first."
Cassidy snarled at Polly, then turned a radiant face to her brother and gave him her hand.
Polly picked up Rebecca's backpack and headed for her oldest daughter's room. Whatever it took to get the kids moving this morning, she'd live with it. Not every fight needed her attention.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sitting in the line of cars waiting to drop her kids off was frustrating. Polly knew it was nothing like what her city friends experienced and that made her chuckle. There were so many things made easier because she lived in Bellingwood. When mailing a package in Boston, she waited in line for what seemed like hours, just to get to one of several postal workers behind the counter. They were always pleasant, but they didn't know who she was. They probably didn't care. But here in Bellingwood? Whenever she walked into the main office of the post office, Jodi smiled and said hello. They had conversations about any number of things while Jodi processed whatever mail Polly needed to deal with. If another customer came in, that person joined the conversation until it was their turn at the counter. What had once been a dreaded experience was now lots of fun. Small towns were so much different. So far, Polly preferred this.
She was surprised to find that even big-city girl, Sal, preferred small-town Iowa to the life she'd lived in Boston. Sure, she had to drive to get to large shopping outlets, but Polly reminded her that to get anywhere in the Boston metro area took forever. The only difference was, you drove through retail and residential, rather than past fields of corn and soybeans.
Noah, in the front seat beside her, opened his car door. Polly shook herself back to the present.
"I need love," she said out loud.
He reached across and she took his hand and gave it a squeeze. One by one her kids climbed out. She got hugs and love and watched as Noah took Cassidy's hand to walk across the street to the schoolyard. He was so tall and she was still so short. Polly tried to get her phone out to get a photograph of the two of them, but someone behind her honked and she didn't have time.
Thankful that she didn't have to do this every day, Polly drove slowly enough to see the kids walk inside the main doors of the school. Those chairs needed to be dropped off at the antique shop. She'd love to think that she had time to go to the coffee shop, but that might be a mistake. She’d hate to be late to that stupid meeting in Boone with the Secret Service.
"Who does this?" she muttered to herself? "Secret Service? Weird." Polly chuckled as she drove past the line of cars on the other side waiting to get to the front of the school. None of those parents knew where she was going today. What would they think? For the most part they would probably just write it off as one more strange Polly-thing.
She waved at Roger Carlson, who was dropping off his daughter, Julia. Those two had been terrorized by his wife, Jennifer, a lawyer who was now in prison for attempted murder. He worked part-time for Sycamore Enterprises and part-time for Elva Johnson. A smart man, skilled in so many things, he'd lived in hell for years while trying to protect his daughter from her mother's behavior. They were finally finding a good life and rumor was, he'd met a nice woman from Boone.
Julia was Noah's age, but he didn't much care for her. She still had a lot of things to work out from the years she'd spent under her mother's thumb. But Julia worked with Elva regularly and was starting to participate in regional horse shows. If Noah was interested in those same competitions, he'd end up getting to know Julia better than ever before. Polly almost felt guilty for the snarky grin she had on her face. She loved the idea that her children faced challenges in every aspect of their lives. She and Henry refused to make life their lives easy. That wouldn't help anyone. They needed to learn how to cope with whatever came at them, and they definitely needed to learn how to cope with difficult people.
She was confident that her kids, especially her four boys, were empathetic and kind. They'd each been through so much and none of it had destroyed them. They had a relationship with Alistair Greyson and knew that whatever they told him was private and safe. Cassidy was still a question mark. She'd lived in the house for such a short period of time and so much of that had been spent just bringing her to an understanding of how to live in the world and with other people. Every once in a while there were flashes of what Polly and Henry expected was her personality, but it was never anything Polly could point at and say, "That's who my daughter will be."
Polly pulled into the alley and stopped behind Simon Gardner's antique shop. After her b
usy morning, she wanted to sit for a few minutes in the quiet. Instead, she sent him a text.
"I'm out back with the chairs. Are you ready for me?"
"I'll be there in just a minute. Thank you."
She got out and opened the back of the Suburban, then lifted each chair to the ground and carried them one by one over to the cement dock. They weren't at all heavy, so she put them up on the floor of the dock and walked over to the steps and up, getting there just as Simon opened his back door.
"It's a beautiful day," he said, coming out, holding his cat, Crystal. "I always worry about her running away," he said. "If I have a large shipment, I lock her in the restroom. She's never very happy with me and scolds me soundly once I let her out."
"We worry about ours, too," Polly said. "Let me carry these inside for you."
He stood in front of the door as she carried two in and then the third.
"Do you have time for tea?" he asked.
She nearly told him no, but then remembered that he had reached out to her last week because he was lonely. There was nothing terribly pressing at Sycamore House today. Any work she had to handle could wait.
"I have a few minutes. Let me get the keys out of the Suburban." She ran back down the steps, made sure the back door of the vehicle was tightly closed, got her phone and keys out of the front seat and ran back up. In the few moments that took, he had buried his face in Crystal's neck and was talking softly to her.
"They're wonderful companions, aren't they?" Polly asked.
"I can't imagine you need any animal companions in your household filled with people."
"You'd be surprised. Sometimes, I want nothing more than to spend time with someone who loves me and doesn’t ask a million questions."
He chuckled as he led her into his small kitchenette. He'd decorated it with a small 1950s era dinette set and two chairs. A teapot sat atop a contemporary hot plate. Simon filled it with water, set the temperature, and brought two delicate teacups and saucers to the table. From the small dorm-room size refrigerator, he took out a red glass square dish with a glass lid, filled with butter cookies.
"This is sweet," Polly said.
"When I had a regular visitor, I made this room a bit nicer. Now, I find that I use it whenever I'm given the opportunity. Can you tell me anything more about Brad Anderson's murder?"
Polly blew out a breath as she shook her head. "No. This bit with the possible counterfeiting isn't anything I expected."
"In Bellingwood," he exclaimed. "The strangest things happen in this little town." Brushing his hand across her forearm, Simon smiled. "I'd like to say that many strange occurrences happened after you came to town, but you've been directly involved in only a few of them. It likely has to do with Bellingwood's growth. The Andersons never would have considered moving here had the town not been aiming toward the future."
"Can you tell me anything about them?"
"Like what?"
"I'm sorry to ask this, but did Brad Anderson have a mistress?"
Simon dropped his head. "Elaine made several comments alluding to that. You know, it was his idea to buy the newspaper. Lillybeth wanted to move to Bellingwood in order to get out of the city. Since they couldn't have children, she hoped to adopt one or two and thought that if they lived in a small community, it would be better for everyone." He shook his head. "I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I don't believe anything Elaine told me about her son-in-law would be gossip at this point. Brad wasn't interested in children, but when Lillybeth wanted something, she would move heaven and earth to get it. I never understood the two of them together. The first time you met them, they didn't make sense. She wasn't happy with him and from everything Elaine told me, he was nothing more than a mooch." Simon frowned. "What an ugly word that is - mooch."
The teapot on the hot plate whistled and Simon pushed another square glass dish, this time in yellow, toward Polly. "I have several nice flavors of tea," he said.
Polly smiled sheepishly. "I wouldn't know where to begin." She flipped through them and pulled one out. "Captain Picard drinks Earl Grey, hot."
Simon tilted his head. "Someone I should know?"
She laughed. "I'm sorry. It's the main character on a Star Trek show."
"You would like Earl Grey. Go ahead." Simon poured hot water into her cup and then into his. Instead of choosing a bag of tea from the dish, he lifted a scoop out of a tin, filled a small strainer, and dropped it into the water. "I like a stronger flavor and only have it in leaf form. If you'd like to try it, I'd be glad to share."
"No, this is fine," Polly said. "You know I'm a coffee drinker."
He grinned. "As in life, it takes all kinds. Now, what were we talking about? Oh yes, Brad Anderson. He never worked an honest day's work in his life. Elaine was often concerned with his frequent jaunts away from home."
"Where did he go?"
"It seems our Mr. Anderson was quite the gambler. Lillybeth had to remove his access to their joint personal accounts, giving him an allowance. She was generous to a fault with that man. This last year things became much more difficult. He sold several family heirlooms, and last spring, Lillybeth realized he'd discovered how to gain access to the household account which paid their living expenses, draining it completely."
Polly nodded. That had to have been the first time she asked Henry to stop construction on the house. "What did she do?"
"Well, she scrambled. Elaine has a healthy trust that her husband set up for her. Brad has no access to that. They were able to borrow against it. Then, suddenly, Brad came up with the money. And like any addict, he promised to stop gambling. But this had been going on for such a long time, neither Elaine nor Lillybeth trusted him. Lillybeth made a stronger effort to protect their accounts from him and things seemed to be fine."
"Until?" Polly asked.
"It was at this point that Elaine broke it off with me. Anything after that is only speculation."
"She thought he was having an affair?"
"One day, not long after they purchased the newspaper and began investigating locations in Bellingwood to build a home, she and Lillybeth had invited me to join them for lunch at the diner. I thought nothing of it when Lillybeth excused herself and ran across the street. I simply assumed she was meeting someone there to look at the building, though I will admit I was confused as to why she hadn't hired your Henry to do the renovation work. She wasn't gone long and came back, her face flushed and she could barely speak. I knew she was angry, but again, it was none of my business. In my naivete, I assumed it had to do with the purchase of the building. Several weeks later, Elaine informed me that Lillybeth had seen her husband speaking with a woman that she didn't know. I asked if he might be considering an editor for the new newspaper since he had no prior experience. She left it at that and we never spoke of it again. Why do you ask?"
"There was a woman …" Polly hesitated.
"You don't need to tell me," he said. "I understand that you are involved in the investigation."
"It isn't as if I am part of anything official," she said with a smile. "I saw a woman poking around the property next to ours early this morning. Albert Lynch, whose home is next door, said he saw her once before, arguing with Lillybeth Anderson."
Simon shrugged his shoulders. "Albert and Pat Lynch. Now there is an interesting couple. They are dear, dear people, but their greatest entertainment is watching the world outside their front door. However, if he says he saw something, he knows of what he speaks. I have never known him to lie about things. Exaggerate for effect, yes, but he would never lie. When was the encounter between the two women?"
"Last week."
"I didn't realize that Lillybeth knew who the other woman was. And why would the two of them be at the new house?"
"Why would this strange woman be there now?" Polly asked. "Henry is buying the property from Mrs. Anderson so he can finish the house and resell it."
Simon looked away.
"You were hoping they'd move to Bell
ingwood and things between you and Elaine might work out, weren't you." Polly put her hand out.
Simon laid his on top of hers. "I'm an old fool, but yes, I was."
"Why don't you reach out to her anyway?"
"She was very clear that we were finished."
"You don't think that's because she knew what was coming and was embarrassed, do you?"
He frowned as he looked up at her. "What do you mean?"
"If their lives were falling apart because of whatever it was Brad Anderson was involved in, Elaine might have gotten out of the relationship to spare you any embarrassment when it became public."
"That would be something she’d do."
"And Simon, if she's as sweet and genteel as you say she is, the poor woman would have been mortified knowing that her family's dirty secrets were about to be exposed."
He had brought his teacup up to take a drink. Holding it in front of his lips, he turned toward her, then back to his cup, then he looked at her again. "You don't suppose."
"I can't say for sure," Polly said, "but there is no reason you couldn't contact her to offer your condolences and any support she might need."
"That seems a bit forward."
Polly drained her cup and set it on the saucer, more forcefully than she intended. A giggle threatened to burble when it didn't shatter. She wasn't used to such delicate china. "Simon Gardner, you are a catch. Any woman would be lucky to have you be a bit forward with her. Elaine and her daughter are dealing with something far beyond what they understand or have any life skills to handle. From counterfeiting to gambling to a man in their lives who steals, lies and cheats. I would imagine that Lillybeth's father was none of those things."
His eyes grew big. "Oh, no. Not at all. From everything I understand of Harold Borden, he was honorable and generous, even as he was strong-willed and forceful when it came to his business dealings."
"Then how would either of those women be prepared to deal with a man whose morals were so far beneath them?"
"They would do their best to hide it from the world." He nodded. "And from me. I've been a fool. When she needed me most, I allowed her to push me away. We'll have no more of that. Even if she lives somewhere other than Bellingwood, there is no reason that the two of us can't find a way to spend time together."
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