“See?” Danny put one arm around Alissa’s shoulders and held the other hand out toward Constance.
“It’s like The Secret Garden,” Constance said. “You remember that book, don’t you?”
“It would be a shame to lose this tree,” Danny said.
“I’d keep the tree,” Alissa said. “Just pull out the hedges and plantings. And get rid of this old seat.”
Ty was squatting at the side of the bench, his fingers tracing along the stone. Danny leaned over next to him.
“Have you seen these?” he asked.
Alissa crouched down to take a look. The bench was a simple, flat slab of stone, mounted on two rectangular pieces for legs. The sides were carved with an intricate pattern of vines and branches. Like Ty, Alissa couldn’t resist reaching out and feeling the curves of the vegetation. It was a shame that such skilled work had been wasted here, in a part of the garden where no one ever saw it.
Danny pointed to a few marks at the very edge of the seat. From a distance, they looked like random scrapes. But staring at them up close, Alissa could make out some letters.
“Emy?” Danny sounded out. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Tiny particles of stone had fallen away over the years, making the letters jagged and hard to decipher. It must have taken some effort to carve them into such dense material.
Alissa traced the lines with her finger. She felt a slightly wider space between the E and the m and y. Separate words. Carefully, she looked for a pattern. Then the markings clicked into place.
E. My love. W.
Evelyn. William. They’d been here.
How many times had she sat here, Alissa wondered, within inches of these letters, and not seen them? How had this simple declaration of love survived a hundred years of rain and snow and sun?
Then Alissa remembered that Will and Evelyn had returned to the house once, many years later. Will, by then a grandfather, could have sat here, painstakingly declaring his love for the woman who shared his life. This place must have meant something to them.
Alissa took Danny’s hand and traced his finger over the initials. She watched his eyes widen as he took in the significance of the letters.
“Danny, you’re right,” she said. “Let’s keep it just like this.”
“Good call,” he agreed.
“I have to tell Colin to carve our initials somewhere,” Constance said. “It’s so romantic—Ty!” She jumped up and raced after her son, who’d sprinted back out to the lawn. Their laughter filtered through the hedges. Alissa sat quietly on the grass beside the bench as Danny settled down beside her.
“Thinking about the Brewsters again?” Danny asked.
“Yeah. I think they’d be happy we’re here.”
“I think you’re right.”
They sat nestled together, fingers entwined, as Will and Evelyn had so many years before, listening to the wind rustle through the leaves above them.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3174-4
THE HOUSE OF SECRETS
Copyright © 2009 by Elizabeth Blackwell.
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