“Objects d’art?” Addie asked.
“Yes, Miss. Small items like candleholders, trays, small lamps, paper weights, snuff boxes, old jewelry, odd pieces of fine china, silver, rare books, any type of curio. And although this is my business, for the time being I am traveling with what small inventory I have, looking for a new location, a new home. I no longer wish to live in a big city. I want to find a small town where I can live out the rest of my years in a leisurely pace of peace and quiet. There I will begin my business all over again.”
“I see,” Addie said, wondering what on earth she was going to do? She had to get Miss Mattie, but she couldn’t leave the little man standing at the door. Then she felt a presence behind her, and Miss Mattie said, “Why don’t we ask the gentleman in, Addie? I think we need to talk.”
Mattie sat at Miss Willy’s desk. Tobias, as he had asked them to call him, and Addie sat in chairs on either side of it. Mattie had sorted out the small, square white envelopes addressed to Miss Wilhelmina Stone, from the rest of the mail in the wooden tray. She had spread them out on the desk. There were twenty-five of them. She counted the acceptances. “Thirteen,” she said again. “I wonder what other surprises that woman is going to hit us with from the grave? What are we going to do?” She asked of Addie.
“And you didn’t know anything at all about it?” Addie asked.
“She told me what she wanted me to know, and when she wanted me to know it, Addie. But, about a month ago, she told me to be stocking up on supplies that I would need to prepare a very nice breakfast buffet. And about that time, she also had Ryker bring in a supply of fine champagne. And according to these invitations she was planning an early champagne brunch, at 10 A. M. on Monday morning.”
Tobias, who had been looking over all twenty-five of the cards, said, “Ladies, you have a more serious problem.”
“How could it get any worse?” Addie demanded as Mattie looked at the little man, waiting.
He held up a card. “Paul DeJarnette, the auctioneer. This is his card. He says, he tried to phone, but that he had to leave for Paris immediately. His wife had been in a serious car accident. Now you not only have an auction, but you have no auctioneer.”
Mattie had taken the card from Tobias and read it herself. “Now, what do we do?”
“Perhaps, dear Lady, what I had to do. While my wife was ill, I did not leave her. We lived over our shop, and our stock had dwindled until there was not enough to interest an auctioneer. So I held a silent auction where the bidders wrote out their bids. Then the item went to the highest bidder. However, I gave my three highest bidders the opportunity to bid again.”
Addie and Mattie looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. “Are you staying here in town, Mr., uh, Tobias?” Addie asked.
“I’ve taken a room at your hotel. I’ve been here since yesterday. I’ve been looking your town over. I don’t think much of the hotel, but I think I’ve found the place where I want to settle. I’ve thought of checking out an empty storefront on your town’s Square. The gentleman who owns the shoe store next to the vacant building let me into it through the upstairs of his building, where there is a connecting door. It appears that the second floor of the vacant store was used as living quarters. There is a shower bath, and a kitchen sink. That would suit me just fine. I’m thinking of locating the building’s owner.”
“Tobias,” Addie said, “we have a problem here that we don’t know what to do about. Apparently, you could help us. If you would, then I’ll help you. I own that building.”
Tobias smiled real big. “Perhaps this is a lucky day for both of us.” He looked around the walls of the library. There were five paintings and the portrait of grandpa Eli which hung over the fireplace.
“Do you know about paintings?” Addie asked as she watched him examining the paintings.
“I don’t have to. The buyers will know. Some very impressive names in the art world have accepted the invitation. If those paintings are an example of what you have to offer, this should be an interesting and profitable auction. If there is no auctioneer that you could call at the last minute, I will do what I can to help you ladies. Do you know how many painting there are?”
Addie looked at Mattie again. Mattie shook her head. “I guess the only thing to do is to start collecting them, then count,” Mattie said. She saw that Addie was looking rather dubious. “Addie,” she said, “think of what you’re planning to turn the mansion into. Do you want to have expensive paintings hanging on the walls of a nursing home? I sure don’t want to be responsible for them in the dinner club area.”
“I’m sure your right, Miss Mattie. And we don’t have much time.” She turned to Tobias. “What would you say to moving out of the hotel and into a bedroom upstairs?”
“Yes,” Mattie said. “That would seem like a good idea. We’re going to need as much help as we can get.”
Tobias happily agreed, and while he was gone to get his clothes, truck and trailer, the two of them began collecting paintings.
There were some that were too big for them to tackle, so Addie called down to the Mitchells for help. By the time Tobias returned, all the walls on the second and third floor were cleared. “Could there be any on the fourth floor?” Addie had asked Miss Mattie.
“Addie, don’t count on anything where Miss Willy was concerned. We’d better take a look just to be sure, but surely not.”
Addie, Mattie, and Tobias took the elevator to the fourth floor. Tobias became very excited over all that was stored there. William was getting dinner for his patients and help, so they even checked his walls. Mattie suggested that they even open trunks and drawers. And since she knew Miss Willy, they agreed that she may be right. In an old trunk of clothes of the turn of the century, they found three unframed paintings, not much bigger than a foot square, wrapped in the old gowns in the trunk.
Tobias didn’t think much of them, and he didn’t recognize the name of the painter scrawled in the lower right hand corner.”
“Recognize it?” Addie said. “You can’t even read it.” Still, they unwrapped them and carried them to the library. Tobias stood looking at Eli Gates portrait. “Are there any other portraits?” He asked. “The work of this artist brings handsome figures.”
Addie thought of the portrait of Julian Dane, still wrapped in the pillowcase and stored on the shelf in their laundry room, and the one of Miss Willy and her mother.
“We need to take this one down,” Tobias said.
“It’s not for sale,” Addie said.
“But it should bring in a good figure.”
“I don’t care what it might bring,” Addie said. “It’s not for sale at any price. But I’ll have the one from Miss Willy’s room brought down and I can get another one.” Suddenly, grandpa materialized on the wall beside the portrait, posing as he had in the painting. Addie had to put her hand over her mouth to hold back the giggles.
“Now why would you want to keep the portrait of an old geezer like that?”
“So, you’ve been here all along, and don’t call my grandpa an old geezer,” she said silently to grandpa.
Tobias suggested that the paintings be dusted and the frames polished as he made notes in a small spiral notebook. There were twenty-seven, if the three unframed ones were to be counted. He looked at Addie as he mentioned them. “I don’t want them,” she said. “They might bring something. And don’t forget the two portraits.”
After dinner, Addie worked until ten o’clock with her dusting and polishing. When she went to her room, she knocked on the dressing room door lightly, then went in.
“Not much on the news tonight. You seem troubled, young Addie.”
“I guess I am. I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing, or that Tobias knows what he’s doing. How can I be sure he’ll get what the paintings are worth?”
“Of course you won’t get what the paintings are worth. The buyers have to buy at a price where they can make some money and cover their expenses. But you can
rest your mind where the little man is concerned. He’s an honest man. At least as honest as people come.”
“You can tell if a person is honest or not?”
“I can tell if a person is good or evil. Tobias is a good person. Ryker was an evil person.”
“Too bad you couldn’t have let Miss Willy know that.”
“If I could have, she wouldn’t have listened. She was smitten with him. There’s just some things a body has to learn for themselves. Take this love thing. If you could tell me what it’s like to love your parents and be loved by them, and make me really feel it, then, maybe I could leave this world. But, no, I have to find out for myself.”
“I know what it’s like to love my daddy, but I’m not sure he loves me anymore.”
“Oh, young Addie, that’s not true. You know it’s not.”
“Grandpa, he doesn’t want me to have the inheritance. He didn’t want mama to have the Lincoln. I’ve left home because of his attitude. You know that. I live here now, but I want to be with my mother and daddy.”
“Yes. I know. But you can’t undo all that you’ve done. Too many people are involved. You’ve done a lot of good already, and just think of all you’ve got in the workings. A lot of people are going to be living much better lives real soon now. Think of all the families who can’t really afford two cars who can get rid of one when the trolleys are on the streets. By-the-way, where do we stand on them?”
“Mr. Sully is interviewing drivers now, and he’s getting the routes mapped out. He says not much more than a couple of months at the most.”
“Great! By then we should have the other businesses well on their way to becoming a reality. Think of all the people you’ll be putting to work then.”
She told him about plans to paint the fire hall like the trolleys, then said, “Grandpa, I need to get to bed now. I’m going to church with Miss Mattie in the morning.”
Chapter Forty
Ben had not come home when Della went to bed. Having cried herself to sleep, a deep, dreamless sleep. When she awakened, the bedcovers were a jungle. She could not tell if Ben had slept there. She looked at the clock. It was past seven, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t feel like joining Mattie and her daughter for church services, and she certainly wasn’t going to Community Church.
She didn’t feel like going anywhere. Her world had fallen apart. Her husband was infatuated with another woman. He was no longer interested in her, his wife, who was carrying his baby.
Strange, but she didn’t feel nauseated yet. Hopefully, she was over that part of her pregnancy. She threw back the covers and arose slowly. Sometimes she was slightly dizzy in the mornings, but no dizziness, just a headache. Not a bad one. She would take a couple of aspirin. She reached for her robe and slid her feet into her slippers, then headed for the kitchen.
Ben was sitting at the small table nursing a fresh cup of coffee. He didn’t say anything. “Good morning, Ben. I’m glad you made coffee. For once it smells good. I didn’t know if you’d be here,” she said quietly, sadly.
“And where’d you think I’d be, with Denise?”
“No. You’re a married man, and she’s still a married woman. I think you’d remember that. I just didn’t know whether you’d come home last night or not. I slept rather hard.”
“Did you remember that you were a married woman?” he asked.
She stopped pouring her cup of coffee and turned to her husband. Shocked, she asked, “What have I done that you’d ask that?”
For a short minute, Ben didn’t answer. Then he said, “The good Reverend Etheridge stopped by yesterday morning. I had left my watch and had come back for it. He made a slip and said the word ‘gossip’ in connection with your morning sickness. He didn’t want to, but I persuaded him to tell me what gossip he was talking about.”
So he had heard the gossip. It was inevitable that he would, but from Reverend Etheridge? “I can’t believe the Reverend would listen to gossip. You don’t think he believed it, do you?” Still that didn’t answer her question, or did it?
“I don’t know, Della. Should he have?”
“Ben! You sound like you’re wondering if there’s any truth to it? I can’t believe you!” she exclaimed, standing beside her usual place at the table.
“I don’t know what to believe, Della,” Ben said not looking at her.
“You don’t know what to believe! You think I’d ever be unfaithful to you – to my marriage vows? I’ve never looked at another man, and, Ben Martin, you know that.” She was hurt and she was angry, but she would not cry. “Are you accusing me because of your infatuating with Denise? Do you want to find fault with me, so you can excuse yourself to have an affair with her?”
“Leave Denise out of this!” he demanded.
“I can forgive you, Ben, because I love you, and I believe you love me, but don’t push me too far, or you’ll lose me and the son you’ve always wanted.” She turned and rushed to the bathroom. She had not been nauseated, but she was sure she was going to throw up.
It was big Bud’s day off as bouncer for the Pink Elephant. And although he had not had much sleep, he had gotten up to go to church with Wylene, and now they were headed out the Nashville highway. She wanted him to see the house and chapel on the bluff that she wanted them to buy and make into a wedding chapel and a home.
“Did they repair the truck to your satisfaction?” she asked.
“Good as new,” he answered. “And I’m sorry I acted so ugly about the accident. How is that Miss Simmons?”
“She’s doing okay. She wants to open a nursing home at Stonegate. Addie’s going to have to have a lot of alterations done to the mansion before any licenses are issued for the dinner club, or the nursing home, and child care- center.”
“Who is she getting to do the work?”
“I don’t know. Bud, I know you want to get away from that job, but, honey, this wouldn’t be permanent.”
“It could be a start back in the right direction. I got no business working in that place, honey bun. And I don’t want the husband of the woman I love doing that kind of work. Be okay with you if I talk to her?”
“Of course it will. She does have a lot of empty houses and buildings. She may have other jobs she wants done. You can ask her.”
“Well, let’s see the little house, see what needs to be done to make it the kind of home I want you to have. Even if it is small, when we need more room, we’ll add to it.”
“And my wedding chapel?”
“If that’s what you want, and you think you can make a go of it, then we’ll make it the nicest wedding chapel we can afford. What do your folks say about it?”
They had not stayed for Bible study after church services. Mattie needed to get back to her plans for the champagne brunch, and a snack around two to three. She felt sure the buyers would still be there that long.
Assured that Miss Mattie didn’t need her, Addie left the mansion after their lunch to go home. She was anxious to see what her mother and daddy thought of her new look. Billy Mitchell had said, “Cool, man, cool,” while Wylene had just asked, “What did you do to yourself, girlfriend?”
As she drove the Lincoln, she pulled down the sun visor to look in the mirror. She thought her mother would be pleased that the thinning and layering of her hair caused it to curl just every so lightly – just enough to make it look soft and feminine. If her mother liked it, surely her daddy would approve. But she knew that he was never in favor of change of any kind. She missed them so much. Maybe daddy will be rested by now, she hoped, and will listen to me. She had so much she wanted to tell him, and she needed his approval, if not his help.
But when she pulled into their driveway, his truck was not there. He’d probably gone out for a newspaper or something. She found her mother lying across the bed in her darkened bedroom. “Mama, are you sick?”
“I’m okay, honey. I just needed to lie down awhile after throwing up,” Della said flatly. “Come give me a hug. I miss you so
much.”
“I miss you and daddy too,” she said hugging and kissing her mother. “Want me to raise the shades?” She’s been crying, Addie thought. “Mama, is something wrong? Is it me? Am I ...”
“No, Dear. No.” Della hastily added, as she rose to a sitting position on the side of the bed. She sighed loudly. “We’re too close for me to lie to you. You’d know I was lying. There is something wrong, but it has nothing to do with you. It’s something I have to work out, and you’re not to worry about it. Promise?”
“If you say so, Mama. I’ll try. Where is daddy? I want to see him. I need to talk to him.”
“Honey, trying to talk to Ben right now isn’t a good idea,” Della said standing up and putting her arm around her daughter. “Let’s go have some toast and hot chocolate. I think it’ll make me feel better. Perhaps Ben will be back soon.”
Addie waited for her mother to go ahead of her, and it wasn’t until Della turned to the refrigerator to get the milk, that she saw Addie. She gasped. “What have you done?” she exclaimed.
“You don’t like it,” Addie said distressfully.
Della put her hands on Addie’s shoulders, studying her. “I don’t know. I’m just surprised right now. It – it makes you look older. I loved my teenager, my sixteen year old. But, honey, you’re beautiful! You’ll just have to give me time to get used to your new look. It really is becoming to you. But all your beautiful hair? Do you like it?”
“Oh, yes, Mama. Grandpa said since I had taken on adult responsibilities that I should stop wearing my hair in a ponytail like young teenagers do. That’s what prompted me to try something else. I’m so glad you like it. Do you think daddy will?”
But her mother didn’t answer her, as she made the chocolate and fixed herself a roast beef sandwich and some of Mattie’s potato salad, so Addie let it drop. She was glad to see her mother eating better. As the two of them sat at the small table, Addie began to tell her mother about the little man, Tobias and the expected art auction. “And I’ll take that portrait of Julian Dane back with me. It seems it was done by an artist whose work brings good prices, according to Tobias.”
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 63
