The Lakeside Inn

by Leeanna Morgan

  Penny followed her sisters toward the house that Wyatt had rented. “What are we doing here?”

  “Wyatt wanted us to show you something.” Diana took a key out of her back pocket. “Don’t worry. The realtor knows we’re here.”

  Since Wyatt had left, Penny had kept an anxious eye on the home he’d lived in. Each day, she expected new tenants to move in. But, so far, she hadn’t seen anyone around the property.

  Katie ran up the wooden steps to the front door. “You’re going to love your surprise.”

  Barbara held her finger to her lips. “Shh! You can’t say anything.”

  “I wasn’t going to,” Katie said as she waited impatiently for her sisters. “But you have to admit it’s awfully exciting.”

  Penny looked at each of her sisters. “Do you all know what the surprise is?”

  Diana glanced at Katie. “We do, but we aren’t allowed to say anything.”

  Barbara unlocked the front door. “Close your eyes. That was a strict instruction from Wyatt.”

  Penny sighed. “Is this really necessary? He isn’t here. Wyatt won’t know whether I closed my eyes.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Katie said. “He has a sixth sense when it comes to you.”

  Penny pulled back her shoulders. “He has a funny way of showing it. If he even remotely cared about my feelings, he wouldn’t have gone to Berlin.”

  Diana gave her a hug. “That would have been so much more believable if your bottom lip hadn’t trembled.”

  Hot tears filled Penny’s eyes. “I love him.”

  “I know you do. But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it just isn’t the right time.”

  Penny wiped her eyes. “He could have tried harder.”

  “Maybe he did, but he didn’t tell you.” Katie jumped when Barbara poked her in the ribs. “What did you do that for?”

  “Shh!”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Katie whispered. “Anyone would think none of us have been in love before.”

  Diana unwound the bright orange scarf from around her neck. “Not everyone’s happy-ever-after ends happily.”

  Katie blushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

  “That’s okay. My ex-husband was a jerk.”

  Barbara grinned. “Good for you. That’s the first time you haven’t made excuses for his behavior.”

  “It must be living beside the lake. I feel…liberated.” Diana smiled and waved the scarf in front of Penny’s nose. “I’m tying this over your eyes so you don’t peek. That way, when you speak to Wyatt, you won’t have to lie about it being a surprise.”

  “Okay. Fine. Cover my eyes, but make it quick. I still have to call Pastor John and collect the paint from Dad.” As soon as the scarf was on, Penny lifted her chin toward the veranda ceiling. “If I was really sneaky, I could walk like this and see where you’re taking me.”

  Someone’s hands landed on Penny’s nose, squashing the scarf close to her face.

  “What about now?” Barbara asked.

  “I should have known it was you,” Penny muttered. She lowered her head and turned to where her sister had been standing. “I promise not to peek.”

  “Good.”

  A key clicked in a lock. “All right,” Barbara said. “Diana, you take Penny’s arm and move her to where we need to go. Katie, you lock the door after us. I don’t want reporters coming anywhere near us.”

  Moving through Wyatt’s house without him being there felt wrong. There was an eerie silence to each room. It made his temporary home feel abandoned and unloved.

  “That should do it,” Barbara said from behind her. “Don’t take the scarf off yet,” she warned when Penny lifted her hands to her head. “We still have a few things to do before you see the surprise.”

  Somewhere behind Penny, a switch flicked on and a glow of light appeared through the scarf.

  Diana moved her slightly to the left. “That’s better. How are you feeling?”

  “Worried.”

  “You don’t need to be. Are we ready?” Diana waited a heartbeat before squeezing her hand. “Okay. You can take the blindfold off now.”

  Penny lifted the scarf off her head and blinked a few times.

  Looking straight ahead, she saw the shelves Wyatt had added to his studio. There were no brushes, but all his paints were there. “Why did you want me to see Wyatt’s storage shelves?”

  Katie grinned. “It’s not the shelves you need to see. Turn around.”

  Slowly, Penny turned to face the other side of the room. Sitting on an easel was the finished portrait of her grandma and great-grandmother. It was even more beautiful than she remembered. “I don’t understand. I thought Wyatt sent this painting to Chicago.”

  “He never intended it to go anywhere except to us.” Barbara smiled. “He knows how special this is and he didn’t want it sitting in a room somewhere gathering dust.”

  Penny doubted dust would get anywhere near it. The painting was exquisite and every detail made her grandma and great-grandmother’s images seem more real. So real that she could imagine them stepping out of the painting and talking about their lives.

  “He’s given us the painting?”

  Diana nodded. “He’s a good man.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Penny said in awe. “The portrait must be worth a fortune.”

  Barbara shrugged. “He had it insured for more than one hundred thousand dollars before he left. A security company was here a few days ago, installing cameras and a special alarm. If we want to move the painting to our house, Wyatt said he’ll pay for a high-quality alarm system to keep the painting and us safe.”

  “I thought the people in the van were doing some maintenance on the house.”

  Diana pulled her gaze away from the portrait and looked at Penny. “I spoke to them before they started. They don’t put advertising on the outside of their vans. The fewer people who know they’re installing a security system, the better it is for everyone.”

  “That makes sense.” Penny sighed. At that moment, it was the only thing making sense. Why would Wyatt give them the painting? It was an absurdly generous gift that she wasn’t sure they deserved. From the first moment he’d seen the photo of the woman and child, he’d connected with them. This portrait belonged to him in a different, but equally important way.

  “What are we going to do with it?” Penny asked her sisters.

  Barbara wrapped her arm around Penny’s waist. “Until we’ve finished our remodeling, I think we should leave the portrait here. It’s safer than taking it to our house and having dust and paint floating around it. We can decide what to do with it after we see how the Bed and Breakfast goes. What does everyone else think?”

  Diana nodded. “I’m happy with that.”

  “Me, too,” Katie added.

  “In that case,” Barbara said. “I think we should get back to work. We can look at the portrait again tonight after we’ve organized a few more things.”

  Penny took one last look at the magnificent painting before turning to her sisters. “I still can’t believe Wyatt didn’t send the portrait to Chicago.”

  “He wanted us to have it.” Katie handed her a piece of paper. “This is his cell phone number with all the international codes at the beginning. We thought you might want to call him to say thank you.”

  She looked down at the crumpled piece of paper.

  Katie smiled. “You came downstairs before I got the chance to hide it. It got a little scrunched in my pocket.”

  Penny didn’t care. She was just grateful she had an excuse to call him. “I’ll talk to him tonight.”

  Diana handed Penny her cell phone. “You’d better call him now. Berlin is eight hours ahead of us. By the time you call, it could be the early hours of tomorrow morning.”

  With a pounding heart, Penny took the phone.

  “Text me when you’ve finished,” Barbara said. “I’ll need to reset the alarm before you leave.” And as silently as her
sisters had walked through the house, they left. And now it was up to Penny to thank Wyatt for the painting. Except she didn’t know where to start.

  Chapter 18

  Wyatt closed the door of the hotel’s business center and walked toward the elevators. The one thing he disliked above everything else before an exhibition was talking to the media. And the more well-known he’d become, the longer it took.

  His agent had been on hand to answer any questions he wasn’t willing to discuss. But, unlike other interviews, most of the sessions today had focused on the letter Wyatt, Penny, and her sisters had found in the dresser in Sapphire Bay.

  It was an easy topic to discuss because they still hadn’t heard from the Smithsonian Institute. Diana was keeping him updated with any relevant news, and Barbara was looking after Penny.

  His first week away from Sapphire Bay had been stressful. Not because of the exhibition—the gallery owner was one of the most efficient he’d worked with—but because of the way he’d left Montana.

  He missed Penny more than he thought possible.

  On his first day in Berlin, he’d downloaded an app that took him on a self-guided walking tour of Museum Island. Filled with several world-famous museums, the island was full of wonderful architecture, statues, and trees. Penny would have loved the gardens. The carefully chosen plants added shape and form to the green spaces between the buildings.

  Since then, his time in Berlin had been filled with one meeting after another. At least his paintings had arrived safely and looked their best in the gallery.

  He pushed the elevator button and waited to be whisked to the tenth floor.

  Tonight, all going well, he was meeting the person who managed the residency program for the Berlin Academy of Arts. It would be a chance to ask questions and hear first-hand what was required of him during his twelve-month contract.

  As he left the elevator, his cell phone rang. “Wyatt Johnson speaking. How can I help you?”

  “Hi. It’s Penny.”

  Her call was so unexpected that he nearly dropped the phone. “Are you still there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Good. That’s good. How are you?” Wyatt closed his eyes. Surely he could have thought of something else to say? It was almost as bad as asking about the weather.

  “I’m okay. We’re working hard to finish Grandma’s house before our first Bed and Breakfast guests arrive.”

  “Diana said you were…” Jeez. Now he was admitting he was keeping tabs on what she was doing.

  “It’s okay, Wyatt. Diana and Barbara told me what you’d asked them to do. Though you might have to talk to Katie. She’s slightly put out that you didn’t ask her to do anything.”

  The heat of a blush streaked across his face. Thank goodness she wasn’t here to see him. “I didn’t think you’d appreciate me calling you, so Diana and Barbara were the next best thing.”

  He heard Penny sigh.

  “You’re probably right. How are the preparations for your exhibition going?”

  After a slight hesitation, he decided not to tell her they would be going better if she were here. Penny had enough happening without having to deal with his insecurities. “They’re going well. I finished the last of the media interviews this afternoon. I have a meeting tonight, then a free day before the exhibition opens.”

  “It sounds as though you’re busy.”

  “I am. But not too busy for you to call me,” he added quickly. If he sounded desperate to hear her voice, he couldn’t help it. Just knowing she’d taken the time to talk to him meant a lot.

  “You’re probably wondering why I called? I wanted to thank you for giving us the portrait.”

  Wyatt opened the door to his room. “That’s okay. I couldn’t imagine it staying with anyone else except your family.”

  “But you spent months painting the picture. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  “I’m positive. You told me you don’t have a lot of photos of your grandma when she was young. Now you have the photo and a large portrait to remind you of where you’ve come from.”

  “That’s really generous of you.”

  Wyatt sat on the end of his bed wishing he could give her what she really wanted. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

  “It’s all hands on deck for a painting extravaganza in the attic.”

  His lips twitched. “You make it sound exciting.”

  “It would be if you were here.” He heard Penny’s sharp intake of breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “It’s okay. I’m sorry I’m not there, too.” The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. “Are you still there?”

  “I’m here.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. “Forget I said that.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  Wyatt rubbed his hand across his forehead. “I don’t want you to, either. I miss you, Penny. Are you sure we can’t be friends and see what happens when we next see each other?” More silence. His last-ditch attempt to keep in contact with her had probably ruined whatever relationship they still had.

  “What would being your friend mean?”

  He wanted it to mean everything, but he was willing to grovel at her feet just to hear her voice. “We could call each other. Talk about what’s happening and things like that.” He shook his head. No one in their right mind would want to speak to someone who was having trouble stringing more than two sentences together.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  Penny laughed. “Yes, I will be your friend, Wyatt Johnson. But I have to go. I need to talk to Pastor John about some curtains.”

  “Will you call me tomorrow?”

  “All right. What time?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  There was a brief hesitation before Penny said, “I’ll call you at noon, your time.”

  Relief surged through him. “That sounds perfect.”

  After he ended the call, he dropped the phone onto the bed. He’d spoken to Penny and healed a little of the hurt he’d created. Now all he had to do was figure out what to do next.

  Penny and her sisters gathered around her laptop in the dining room. They were on a conference call with Chloe Anders, the woman who had taken the letter back to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C.

  Chloe had given them some background information about the people analyzing the letter and where they were up to in their investigation.

  Penny found the whole experience fascinating. She hadn’t realized how much work was involved in authenticating items people found.

  “So, what you’re saying”—Barbara said as she looked up from the notes she was taking—“is that you’ve completed some aspects of the analysis but not everything?”

  “That’s correct,” Chloe replied. “A full statistical, historical, and scientific analysis will take months to complete. The only thing I can do at this stage is give you an update on whether our staff think the letter could be authentic.”

  Penny glanced at her sisters. They were all waiting to hear what Chloe would say.

  “So far, our investigation looks promising. In order to complete a statistical analysis, we compare the document we’ve been given to other verified documents. In your case, to letters and journals we know Abraham Lincoln wrote. We also do a stylistic analysis and look at the purpose of the item, in this case the letter.”

  Barbara leaned forward. “How did our letter compare to the others you looked at?”

  “It compared very well. So far, our forensic team has been unable to detect any forgery. That’s a very good sign. The composition of the ink is consistent with what would have been used at the time the letter was written. The paper is consistent with other paper used by Abraham Lincoln in his correspondence. We still need to complete a variety of scientific procedures but, overall, the team is very excited about what you’ve found.”

  Penny grinned. “I can’t believe it.”

  Katie high-fived
Diana. “This is amazing. Who would have thought there would be a letter written by Abraham Lincoln in a dresser our great-grandparents owned?”

  Chloe’s voice came through the speaker. “This is probably a good time to ask if we can examine the dresser and everything in your great-grandmother’s chest. It won’t make any difference to the authenticity of the letter, but it may give us a greater understanding of how the letter ended up in Montana.”

  Penny looked at her sisters. Each of them nodded. “When you’re ready,” she said to Chloe, “we would be happy to send the dresser and chest to you.”

  “That would be marvelous. We won’t need them for a few months. I’ll talk our transportation team and ask them to contact you when we’re ready for them. I’m sure you realize this but, if the letter is authentic, it’s not only worth a lot of money, it will have significant historical value. Have you thought about what you’ll do with the letter if Abraham Lincoln wrote it?”

  Diana spoke into the microphone. “We’re still thinking about it. If it’s real, we won’t keep it here. We don’t have the security we’d need to keep it safe.”

  “I’m going to do a little PR for the Smithsonian now.”

  Penny heard the smile in Chloe’s voice. Even though they’d only met once, she seemed like a nice person.

  “We have a program whereby you lend the Institute the item for a specified period. In return, we provide world-class archival storage and security for the letter. Although it would be kept at the Smithsonian Institute, your family would still own the letter. Another option is to sell it. If that’s your preference, I can recommend some good auction houses that specialize in historical documents. And finally, you could lend it to other museums.”

  Penny didn’t know about her sisters, but the thought of selling the letter didn’t sit well with her.

  “Could you send us some information about the different options?” Barbara asked. “That way, we’ll have a better idea of what’s involved before making a decision.”

  “Of course, I can,” Chloe said. “If it makes it any easier, I’m happy to fly back to Sapphire Bay and speak with you in person. If you have more questions or need clarification about anything, I’m here to help.”