Share No Secrets
Page 37
Kit looked at Drew and Adrienne dubiously. “Are you sure you don’t have something horrible hidden in there? Something to scare the daylights out of me just for fun?”
“I swear,” Adrienne said, placing her hand over her heart. Then she gave Kit a little shove. “In you go!”
They watched Kit carefully climb into the van, then wait until her vision had adjusted to the dimmer light coming in through the van windows and the open back doors. Finally, she spotted a long object covered in canvas. With a cry of joy, she rushed to it, threw back the canvas, and revealed a six-by-three-foot oil painting of la Belle Rivière.
“Oh, Adrienne, it’s beautiful!” Kit exclaimed ecstatically. “You haven’t mentioned it for weeks and I thought you quit working on it. Then when Mother had the hotel demolished last week, I gave up all hope.”
Adrienne entered the van and stooped beside Kit, looking at the painting. “In spite of all the bad things that happened there, there were wonderful things happened, too. La Belle was a fabulous old hotel. I just couldn’t let it go unforgotten.”
Kit gazed at the painting, a genuine smile of pleasure lighting her face.
Adrienne stared at the painting, too. She looked at the graceful Georgian lines, the glass cupolas reflecting glints of the sun, the weather vanes, the large rooftop clock tower with its Roman numerals, the long porches with their hanging pots of colorful flowers, the glowing stained glass in the double doors. And for a moment, a moment Adrienne could have sworn was not an illusion, the hotel came alive again, its front doors swinging open as it welcomed guests into its beautiful, haunted halls.