Tea Shop Folly

by Carrie Fancett Pagels

  “I’ll be on my way.” Theo turned away.

  “Theo!” Lilly’s voice pinned him there but he didn’t turn. “I need to talk with you.”

  “Come on back here and sit a spell and tell me all about yourself.” The man laughed. He had the audacity to laugh at Theo.

  “Garrett Christy!” Lilly’s aggrieved tone sounded much like his sisters’ did when Theo had offended.

  “Ya ain’t got any brothers here to protect ya so I guess a cousin will have to do.”

  Her cousin? Theo inhaled the sweet fragrance of a nearby rose bush as he slowly swiveled around.

  “If ya sit down by me I’ll show ya some pictures of my sweetheart, too.” Garrett reached into his lightweight poplin coat and drew out a small leather encased photograph. “And my children.”

  “I want to see that, Garrett.” Lilly stepped onto the porch in her bare feet.

  Garrett waved a beefy hand. “Get on back upstairs and get dressed before I force this fella to marry you after seein’ ya like that. Don’t forget about Jo and Tom and all the trouble Moose and I gave those two.”

  “I heard about your antics from Mama,” Lilly grumbled, before she slammed the door shut.

  Theo approached the porch and heard the patter of her feet up the steps. Another door slammed

  “She’s got a bit of a temper,” Garrett drawled.

  Theo laughed. “Does she now?”

  By the time Lilly came down, about a half hour later, Theo had learned about Lilly’s family including cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and all about their life in Kentucky and the cousins’ upbringing in lumber camps.

  “I don’t usually talk this much.” Garrett rubbed his chin. “It’s just. . . I got a feelin’ about you and Lilly.”

  “A feeling?”

  “Can’t explain it, but. . .”

  The door swung open again. This time Lilly’s damp hair was secured up, looped loosely, with pins. She wore a muslin dress that emphasized her form and pretty coloring. “I’m taking you two fellas out tonight.”

  “To a restaurant?” Garrett’s skeptical tone was accompanied by a faint scowl. “This here is a single fella. Dontcha know he probably eats out a lot. Plus a lady doesn’t take a fella out. It’s the other way around.”

  Lilly scowled at her cousin. “Same old bossy Garrett.”

  “Same old silly Lilly.”

  They each threw playful fake swats at one another and laughed.

  “I do have another idea.” Mrs. Elsner had encouraged him to invite Lilly for dinner sometime. Since three of the boarders had gone home for the weekend she’d likely not mind these two at the table. And he’d compensate his landlady for the cost.

  “As long as we have a little time to speak tonight.” Her voice held an edge he’d not heard before.

  “I apologize for making a nuisance of myself.”

  Garrett laughed. “The only way you’ll make headway with a Christy or a Christy cousin is to make a nuisance of yourself.”

  Exhaling a puff of air, Lilly glared at her cousin. “Are you tryin’ to wear out your welcome right quick?”

  The thickness of her accent recollected the day of her arrival. “As long as I get to speak with you, too, Miss Smith.”

  Lilly picked at her food. The other boarders had left the table, giving the four of them some privacy in the gas-lit room, with a fancy chandelier hanging over the table. The landlady knew Theo well. He’d boarded there several years. She tried to be quiet lest she say something wrong. And she wanted to hear more of Mrs. Elsner’s comments. She especially wanted to know why the woman implied that Theo’s mother rotated between her daughter’s homes. But if she was wealthy, or at least prominent, why didn’t she have her own home?

  “These victuals are right good.” Garrett grinned at Theo’s landlady, who continued to wear the bemused expression she’d had when he’d brought them there.

  “Thank you, Mr. Christy. I imagine it is nothing compared to eating at the Grand Hotel.”

  “The Grand Hotel does have some mighty fine fixin’s.” Garrett nodded and bent over his plate. He still consumed as much as a lumberjack. How did he stay so trim?

  “Theo is my most thoughtful boarder.” Mrs. Elsner dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. “And he’s the only one I’ve had who worked on the locks.”

  On locks? Lilly glanced across the table at Theo, who was serving himself another slice of chocolate cake. “I thought you were an engineer.”

  “My dear, have you not gone to see our marvelous Soo Locks?” The boarding house owner’s facial features tugged in confusion. “Theo hasn’t taken you?”

  “No.”

  “Why, they’re an engineering marvel!” Mrs. Elsner gestured to Theo to cut her a slice of cake, too.

  “Do you enjoy your work, Garrett?” Theo passed the cake to his landlady.

  “Well, it may not be as excitin’ as building the Locks for those huge boats to go through, but I’d say I love my work.” He wiped his face with his napkin. “Seein’ something come alive out of the wood, that is an amazing feeling.”

  Theo smiled. “That’s how I feel when I see the boats coming into and out of the locks. It is an engineering miracle and I get to be part of it.”

  Mrs. Elsner took a bite of the heavily frosted cake and then set her fork down. “And you, dear, do you enjoy running a business?”

  “What?” Lilly and Garrett exchanged a glance before she stiffened and looked to Theo for explanation.

  “Your shop,” he offered before sipping his tea.

  “Ya openin’ up your Aunt Lillian’s place as a shop?” Garrett frowned.

  “I think there’s some confusion.” That head of steam Lilly had worked up earlier resurfaced. “We really need to talk.”

  The boarding house door chime rang. Mrs. Elsner rose and went to the door.

  A strange expression came over Theo’s face and his eyes seemed to glaze over as he peered past Lilly at Mrs. Elsner’s retreating form. “No. Please not now,” he muttered almost to himself.

  “What’s that?” Lilly’s question was ignored as Theo hastily departed the table, a dumbstruck look on his face.

  He joined Mrs. Elsner, whose soft words didn’t carry down the hall.

  “Wonder what that’s all about?” Garrett shifted, beside her. “If you ain’t eatin’ that ham, I’d gladly take it.”

  Sighing, she held up the plate for him to spear the untouched ham slice with his fork.

  “Mighty tasty. Better’n Rebecca’s attempts at cookin’ ham.”

  “You better not let her hear you say that.” Lilly tried to give him a stern look, but he was too busy bent over his slab of ham, slicing it into chunks.

  Exclamations rang out from the hallway. Lilly was tempted to turn around and look out the dining room’s entryway and toward the front door.

  “Mother!”

  Lilly stiffened. Mrs. Elsner’s comments made it clear that Theo was educated, which Lilly had figured, and from a prominent Detroit family, which she hadn’t known. What was he doing skulking around looking for secondhand teacups for, then? And why did he tell those awful women that she sold tea sets?

  When she returned, Mrs. Elsner wore a somber expression. She was followed by a dour-faced but elegantly attired woman whose nose wrinkled as though she smelled skunk.

  “So this is where my son lives?” Her high nasal voice fit her narrow shrewish face.

  Garrett stood and offered his hand, which the woman looked at until he dropped it. “Your son is gettin’ a good feed bag on at this place, ma’am.”

  Her light eyes widened against her pale wrinkled skin. She glared at Theo, who appeared dumbstruck. “Who is this man?”

  Her cousin’s smile faltered. “He pointed to Lilly, this here is Lilly Smith, my cousin and I’m Garrett Christy, master craftsman for the Grand Hotel.”

  “Oh. . .” Was that fear on her face? Distress? Theo’s mother reached out for him and she clutched his hand. “I’m a little
dizzy.”

  Theo pulled back a chair for her, at the end of the table. “Mother, what’s wrong?”

  She waved him away. “I’ll be fine. Your sister fouled up my tickets so I took things into my own hands.”

  The grandfather clock in the corner chimed eight times.

  Mrs. Elsner cleared her throat as she took her seat. “I hate to bring this up, but with the hour so late I must tell you, Mrs. Reynolds that I have no extra rooms.”

  The matron blinked at her son. “Theo has a cottage rented for me, don’t you dear?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t.” His lower lip puckered up over his upper lip.

  “He only received your daughter’s letter today and your telegram, too.” Mrs. Elsner rose from the table. “We’ll leave you in privacy to discuss your plans.”

  Garrett’s dark eyebrows drew together and he took Lilly’s hand and squeezed it.

  Lilly knew what Mama would have her do. “Your mother can stay with us. With me. My sisters aren’t here yet.”

  What had she just gotten herself into?

  Chapter 5

  Dawn came early, accompanied by songbirds warbling outside Lilly’s third story window. She yawned and stretched. With no maids nor any kind of servant, would Mrs. Reynolds expect to be waited on hand and foot? Theo’s mother certainly let Garrett tote and carry for her the previous night.

  Rising, Lilly nibbled her lower lip. Should she hire help? Just the thought unnerved her. Her, Lilly from the mountains of Kentucky and a log cabin that housed a family of seven when Pa was alive. But she had no sisters here to help her. She’d do it. She’d place an ad that day. And maybe she should get a handyman, too.

  After getting washed and dressed, Lilly went downstairs and prepared breakfast for the three of them. She returned upstairs to the second floor, where Garrett was emerging from the bathroom, his face damp and hair slicked back.

  “I’ve got breakfast ready.” Lilly waved to him to follow her downstairs.

  “Theo’s ma is still snorin’ up a storm in there.”

  Lilly would not make breakfast twice. But, the poor woman had traveled a long way the previous day. “Let’s let her sleep.”

  Garrett followed her, both of them stepping carefully on the stair treads. “Let’s get all caught up by our lonesome before she rises.”

  Soon, they’d gathered their breakfast of bacon, biscuits, cheesy eggs, and hot coffee with cream and carried it outside to the backyard.

  “It’s so lovely out here.” Lilly sighed as she set down her plate on the wrought iron table top.

  Garrett held her chair out for her. “Be a might prettier if you’d put somethin’ between the garden and that there tool shed.”

  “That’s what Theo said.” Lilly adjusted her skirts around her as Garrett repositioned the heavy chair.

  “Well, he’s right smart, ain’t he?” He laughed and then sat down across from her, where he’d set his plate.

  She smiled at him. “Will you say the blessing?”

  “Sure thing.” He bowed his dark hair, a lock falling forward across his forehead. “Lord, Mrs. Reynolds has traveled a far distance and I can feel in my spirit that somethin’ ain’t right with her. But You know, Lord, and we ask you to help her.”

  Lilly lifted her head and peeked at her cousin, whose head was still bowed. She’d been too rattled by the woman’s arrival to notice anything wrong with her. What did Garrett mean?

  “And, Lord, we ask you to bless this food that You supplied. Give me travel safety home to my family and bless the children and the little one growin’ inside her Lord. In Jesus’s name, amen.”

  “Thank you.” Lilly sipped her coffee. “I wonder what you mean about Theo’s mother.”

  Garrett bit into his biscuit and chewed, gazing across at her with those dark eyes, so like Mama’s. “I don’t know if that lady is ill or if she’s just given up hope.”

  How well she knew that feeling. With Mama dying and her sisters about to become her wards. Lilly had given up hope when the letter had come from Aunt Lillian’s attorney. She folded her hands in her lap and looked down. Her hands may be chapped from cleaning but compared to the chipped nails and red rough hands, always seeming to attract dirt, constant when she dwelt in the mountains, they looked fine. What about her sisters? Were they hoping she’d hurry and get them up north, or was that Mama’s hope?

  “Lilly? You all right?”

  “Hmm? Yes.” Lilly met his gaze. “Just thinking about Mama and my sisters.”

  “They comin’ soon?”

  “I’m not sure.” She inhaled the scent of lilacs, carried by the light breeze.

  Garrett sipped his black coffee. “You said last night that your Ma was better.”

  “She is, but I think Daisy and Camellia got it in their heads that life might be better here.”

  “Awful cold in the winter.” He pointed to the house. “But I think your cabin could fit in your new home maybe four times over.”

  “And more.” What a blessing.

  Stone crunched beneath someone’s feet on the path on the side of the house.

  “Lilly and Garrett?” Theo called out. “Are you there?”

  The side gate opened and Theo entered the garden, pushing aside overgrown lilac bushes. “No one answered the door.”

  The right side of Garrett’s mouth tugged upward. “The butler ain’t in just yet.”

  “Ah.” Theo, dressed in tan gabardine pants removed his brown wool slouch hat. “And I take it Mother is still asleep.”

  “Take a load off.” Garrett gestured to the empty chair beside Lilly.

  “Would you like breakfast?” Lilly made to rise but Theo raised his palm to stop her.

  “Already ate at the boarding house. I’m here to help with that screen.” He narrowed his eyes, gazing to the far back of the property where a faded cedar structure that looked ready for the woodpile stood.

  Surely Garrett wasn’t planning on taking on that venture. The rickety thing would make a good bonfire.

  “I reckon I can stay and help ya.” Garrett shoved a huge forkful of eggs into his mouth.

  “There’s wood stacked overhead in the shed.” Theo jerked his thumb in that direction. “And also what looks like enough firewood to last a few months.”

  So much for chopping up what her neighbor called a folly, to burn. Why the irritable older man called it that, she didn’t know. Seemed unkind. At one point that shelter must have been right pretty.

  Theo rubbed the side of his handsome face. “I wish I knew more about fixing everyday items.”

  Garrett frowned. “You’re an educated man fixin’ up one of the wonders of our time. No shame in not knowin’ about everything.”

  Instead of relaxing, Theo ran his hand repeatedly along his cheek.

  What would it be like to touch his face? To stroke her fingers along his firm jawline? Would he lean in and kiss her?

  “Lilly?”

  “Hmm?” She blinked back at Theo.

  “I said, I wonder if your aunt planned on doing something more with this garden.”

  “I have no idea.” Lilly smiled at Theo as he sat beside her, his knee jostling her skirt.

  The faint spicy scent of men’s cologne and the tang of shaving soap mingled with the breakfast’s aroma and garden’s perfume. What a pleasant combination, but one that promised something that felt just beyond her reach. Longing welled up in her for something more from this man. A home. A future.

  “You look deep in thought.” Theo touched her shoulder lightly. “I hope Mother hasn’t been too much trouble.”

  “No.” She cupped her coffee mug in her hands, feeling somewhat traitorous at not drinking his favored drink of tea.

  Garrett threw back a swig of coffee, finishing off his cup. “That was right good coffee. If only that was enough to cure what’s ailing your mother.”

  Theo arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  Lilly sighed. “Garrett thinks something is troubling her.”


  “Indeed.” Theo glanced between the two of them. “Mother has her secrets to reveal in her own good time, but I can tell you she’s not been the same since my father died.”

  “My mother lost the will to live.” Lilly blinked back tears.

  Theo took her hand in his. “I’m sorry.”

  “But ya said she’s doin’ fine now, right?” Garrett patted at his mouth with his napkin.

  “She is.” But maybe she wasn’t telling the truth. Maybe she’d only partially recovered and was trying to ease Lilly’s mind. Maybe she was sending eighteen-year-old Delphinium and sixteen-year-old Camellia up to be sure the other girls would be fine. Maybe she was planning on sending the youngest, twelve and fourteen, to Aunt Jessamine.

  “She asked my father if he could take the two younger ones, if she. . .” Garrett pushed back from the table and stood.

  “She did?”

  “Yup.”

  “When was that?” Her gut tightened.

  Both she and Theo looked up at her cousin. He scratched his chin. “Musta been right before ya got up here.”

  She exhaled a whoosh of relief and Theo leaned in to kiss her cheek. A thrill shot through her at the warmth of his lips on her face, brief though the contact was.

  “Ya gotta give your Ma a reason for hope, you two.” He winked at them. “Plannin’ for a wedding might take her mind offa things.”

  Lilly gasped but Theo only laughed.

  Her cheeks grew hot and she rose from the table, Theo following her.

  Theo stretched. “Mother nearly exhausted herself planning my sisters’ weddings in the last few years.”

  “There,” Lilly glared at Garrett and waved her hand toward Theo, “you have it. She’d not be buoyed up by planning a wedding.”

  “The planning wasn’t the only problem. Mother and Father constantly quarreled over the budget. . .” Theo’s countenance drooped.

  “A preacher, a license, and a couple of witnesses don’t cost much.” Garrett tugged at his suspenders. “And if the church ladies throw you a banquet, that’s free.”

  Once again, Lilly shot her older cousin what she hoped was a silencing glare. He just laughed as he turned and headed off toward the shed.