Joshua snorted. “I went to school with ‘other boys’ and they’re pissant mean.”
Mike nodded in agreement but looked at Ethan with a heavy frown. “Boys are mean, but are you sure this won’t make them hate us even more?”
Sara kissed her son on his forehead. “You can never be afraid of being too nice, Michael. With goodness comes courage. For every ounce of goodness you got, the angels gave you an equal amount of courage. You just have to reach in deep and find it.”
He breathed in deeply and nodded.
“Then are we all in favor of publishing?” Sara asked.
All the boys nodded.
Ethan’s heart swelled with love for his new family. “Then that means we can look for a bigger house, closer to the University.”
That brought a loud cheer from the boys. They didn’t mind their new school in Fayetteville, but they hated the long hours of driving each day.
***
The certainty that Ethan would publish brought about a bidding war, resulting in the final price for the book topping at $1.2 million.
The BC Times, upon hearing of the publication, tried to sue for rights, but lost during the first hearing. Ethan had attempted to reach a reasonable settlement, but their greed and vindictiveness caused the case to go to trial. There, the documents Jacobs had created to fire Ethan six months before he quit came back to bite them.
The judge was outraged by the audacity of their suit. “You cannot fire a man and then want the rights to a book he wrote four months later. Ethan Long didn’t even know the subjects of his book until he left the paper. You have no grounds, none whatsoever, to file this claim. I therefore find in Mr. Long’s favor and require you to pay for all costs associated with these legal proceedings. In addition, I levy your company with a two-hundred-thousand dollar fine for filing a spurious and frivolous legal proceeding.”
With an advance check, after tax, of six hundred thousand dollars in the bank, the family looked for a house in Fayetteville.
***
The house search party consisted of Ethan, Sara, Joshua, and Mr. Dunn, the real estate agent. While Sara wanted the boys to have a say in their new home, Mr. Dunn feared carting about seventeen boys and keeping watch of them while they inspected the homes would be too much for his nerves. Thus, the boys stayed with the Hodgkins and sent Joshua as their representative.
The first house visited was a majestic old mansion, a block from the university.
Mr. Dunn drove up the driveway and parked before a carriage house beautifully renovated into a double wide garage. “This house just came on the market today, and we are the first to see it. Property in this neighborhood goes very quickly, so if you like it, we’ll need to act fast.”
Long rows of pink and white peony tulips backed by vibrant green rose bushes, not yet in bloom, created a border around the parking area. Mr. Dunn led them through a double wide wooden archway onto a red brick pathway around to the front of the house. White daffodils surrounded the giant old oaks and blue forget-me-nots nestled at their feet.
As beautiful as the sea of green grass with islands of flowers were, it was nothing compared to the majestic old house. Five stories tall with rust red ceramic roof shingles, it soared into the sky, as tall as it was wide. Dark green trim stood out against wood painted a soft pale green. The various rooms and turrets, jutting out from all parts of the house, created a grand sense of adventure and whimsy.
Sara smiled with pure happiness. This was as far away from a rectangular box as a house could get. She imagined all the fun her boys would have searching about such a place. She could see three different porches on the first floor. The second story’s turrets both had little balconies, and a very fine-size balcony opened to wide French doors. The third floor had balconies on the side, and the fourth floor had small balconies beneath several of the windows just large enough to hold the ivy-potted plants.
She figured this house took a lot of love and care, but that was okay. She had lots of helping hands to keep it pretty. “This is the house I want.”
Ethan hugged her and laughed. “It’s beautiful from the outside, but let’s look inside before you set your heart too firm.”
Sara nodded, but she knew her heart was already set. This house was meant for them.
***
Mrs. Maddy Winston opened the oversized mahogany door with its stained glass inset of an angel and stared at the smiling couple and Mr. Dunn.
Mr. Dunn had been working on the door lock and appeared surprised when she had opened the door. “Mrs. Winston, this is Ethan and Sara Long. They’re here to see your house.” He then frowned. “I thought you were going to visit family this week.”
The old woman sighed. “Something came up. But never mind, come in and call me Maddy.” She stepped back and let them enter the entrance hall. Truthfully, she was having second thoughts about selling the house. Everyone insisted she was too old to stay here by herself. If she were being honest, the maintenance had become a struggle. Her back would give out long before the weeds in the flowerbeds. And to fix anything in the house now cost a fortune!
Everyone kept telling her, “You’ll make millions on the house, Maddy. Just take the money and buy a condo in Florida.” Only thing was she didn’t want to live in Florida. She wanted to live here, close to her sons and the University where her husband taught for forty years.
Unfortunately, in a moment of weakness, she’d signed a contract to show the house. Thus, for the next three months, she’d have to go through the motions.
Maddy had thought she’d hate having strangers traipse through her home, peeking in cabinets and criticizing her curtains and wallpaper selections. However, Sara’s happy expression at the sight of the curved staircase to the second floor warmed her heart.
She approached the lovely young woman. “In the old days, both the first and second floors were used for entertaining. Bedrooms for the main family were on the third floor, guests on the fourth, and servants on the fifth. However, my husband converted the whole second floor into bedrooms and a master suite.”
“How many bedrooms?” Ethan asked.
“Counting all the floors, there’s twenty-one. There would have been more, but the servants’ quarters were renovated so the rooms are the same size as the third and fourth floors bedrooms.”
The large number of rooms seemed to excite them. She wondered if they were hoping to open a Bed and Breakfast. If she really planned to sell the house, she would have warned them the city wouldn’t allow it. She had tried to do that ten years ago and her neighbors objected. They didn’t want a bunch of strangers traipsing in and out of their neighborhood.
Maddy led them through sliding doors on the right, into the ‘receiving room’ as her husband called it. She stared at the massive stone fireplace on the far end. She could not count the number of young people that Edward had advised. He would sit in his favorite leather chair while the student would perch on the edge of the matching chair seated across from his.
Running her hand gently down the baby grand piano poised in the corner, she recalled all the fine parties they had, where inevitably Edward would insist she play for the guests. He was so proud of her musical ability. Glancing at the fine crystal-teardrop chandelier hanging from the sixteen-foot ceiling, she recalled many a night when the settees would be pushed back so the couples could dance as she played.
With reluctance, she left the piano and walked to another pair of five-foot-wide panel doors in the center of the sidewall. Even after a hundred years, the doors slid open with remarkable ease into their pockets, revealing the dining room with matching chandeliers. She stared at the eighteen-foot-long lion pawed mahogany table. She recalled happy memories of her sons and husband laughing as a train of dishes were passed from one end to the other and back up the other side. She recalled her youngest once complaining the food was always cold before it reached him.
“You have a table even larger than mine,” Sara said as her hand caressed the wood to
p. “How do you keep it so nice?”
“Corkboard and a plastic table cloth when my boys were young. Now, I just use table linens.” Maddy opened a cabinet her husband had built into the side of the room and showed the young woman her planks of corkboard, neatly stored away. Seeing Sara’s genuine interest, she pulled one out and showed her how it held tight to the wood, protecting it from accidental scarring.
“This is really clever. Ethan, come look.”
The husband walked over.
Maddy noticed how his hand affectionately rested on Sara’s back. She liked this young couple. If she were going to sell this place, she would have sold it to them. She sighed. She needed to tell them the truth before they got their hearts too set upon the house.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Yes, but only if you’ll allow me to make it,” Sara insisted.
Maddy laughed at Sara’s boldness. Never in all her years had a guest asked to—no, insisted—on making her own tea. But it might be easier to break the bad news without Mr. Dunn present. “I guess it’ll be all right.”
***
Once Sara and Maddy stepped off to the kitchen, Mr. Dunn led Ethan back to the receiving room. He then spoke in a soft whisper. “Sorry about this. Mrs. Winston promised she wouldn’t be here this week. However, it could be a good thing, since she’s taken to your wife. There will be a lot of interest in this house. In a bidding war, having the owner prefer you can swing the decision.”
Ethan admired the perfectly preserved, never-painted, carved wood that trimmed the stone fireplace and beams in the ceiling. “I just hope we can afford it.” He then paused and looked at Joshua who had just come down from investigating upstairs. “That is assuming the representative of the boys likes it as much as his mother.”
Joshua laughed softly. “Love the rooms upstairs. There are three bathrooms a floor.”
***
The moment Sara stepped into the kitchen, she knew this house was meant for her family. An old scarred oak table stretched the full length of the large kitchen and could easily hold her entire crew. Cabinets lined all the walls.
She found the tea and sugar right off because Maddy ordered her kitchen the same as she did.
Maddy stepped out to get her best china. When she returned, she looked as if she’d seen a ghost.
Sara left the water boiling and rushed to her, helping her sit at the table. “What’s wrong?”
“I…” She shook her head. “Would you go look and tell me how many people are sitting in the receiving room? There seems to be one extra now.”
“That’s probably my son, but I’ll go check.” She poked her head out and spotted her eldest boy sitting by Ethan. “The handsome blond young man is my eldest son. He was admiring your garden when we first arrived. I’m sorry if he scared you.”
“Your eldest. How many do you have?”
Sara breathed in. “I have seventeen, and another on the way. That’s why this house is so perfect for us.”
Maddy stood up. “Come here, I want to show you something.”
The old woman led Sara out the kitchen and to a long hallway leading to another room on the first floor. She pointed to the pictures hanging on the wall. “These are my sons. Twenty-one of them in all. Not one has ever given me a moment of grief.”
***
Sara frowned in confusion. Except for the clothes and hairstyles, Mrs. Winston’s boys looked just like hers. She bit her lower lip. Had the same angel visited this nice old woman, too?
Maddy pointed to a dark-haired man. “This was my husband. I was very young when we married.” She caressed his picture. “We were so blessed. He loved his boys very much.” She gripped Sara’s hand. “You seem to have married a good man as well.”
Sara nodded.
“Does yours know?” she whispered.
Sara froze for a moment, realizing what the woman was asking. She wanted to know if Ethan knew about her angel. She nodded.
Mrs. Winston patted her arm. “Good for you. I never had the nerve to tell my husband. It always hung as a dark secret between us. I’m almost positive he would have stayed if he had known the truth, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure and couldn’t risk my boys’ happiness without certainty.”
Sara grabbed the woman’s hands. “Stay here with us.”
Maddy stared at her in shock and then her eyes saddened as she shook her head.
Sara stared at her with intensity. “But this is your home. You don’t really want to leave it, do you?”
The old woman sighed. “No, I don’t.”
“Then we’ll buy it and you’ll stay here with us.”
Their eyes met and after a long moment, the woman smiled. “I’ll sell you the house, and as for staying—we’ll try it out and see if it suits us.”
Chapter 21
Darren entered Ethan’s new home and his jaw dropped. “My God, did you buy her furniture as well?”
Ethan laughed. “We did. Maddy couldn’t bear the idea of her belongings being sold for pennies at a garage sale.”
Darren studied the fine Victorian pieces. “Garage sale! These belong in a museum.”
An ancient old woman entered, carrying a silver tea set. Mike ran from the kitchen and took it from her hands just as her strength was giving out.
“Thank you, dear,” the old woman said to the boy. She then smiled at Darren.
Ethan introduced them. “Darren, this is Mrs. Maddy Winston. Maddy, this is the Dean of Journalism, Darren Whitaker.”
“A dean. Well, you are most welcome. My husband was the Dean of Philosophy. But that was many years ago.” She pointed to the settee. “Please be seated and have some tea.”
Darren’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Winston. Was that not the name of the prior owner?”
Maddy laughed. “Yes, that’s me. Now, I am the resident guest. Someone has to help poor Sara keep this giant old house intact. You men have no idea the difficulty of keeping such a place spotless.” She then patted Mike’s arm. “Although, I must say, these boys are the neatest young men on earth and not afraid of scrubbing floors or dusting china.”
Mike grinned as he steadied the teapot Maddy poured. “We prefer scrubbing over dusting. Waxing’s fun, too.”
Ethan glanced at his watch. “Shouldn’t you be at school?”
Mike’s expression darkened. “I got sent home for cheating.”
Maddy set down the pot with a decided clunk. “That’s not possible!” She looked to Ethan. “Your boys would never cheat.”
Ethan placed his hand on her arm. “I know that, Maddy.” He refocused on Mike. “Why did they think that?”
“The three of us missed the same question with similar answers.” He grimaced. “Peter and Ed are home, too.”
Ethan frowned. “What was the question?”
“What’s the smallest particle? I said the smallest discovered particle was the neutrino, but Mr. Jones said the correct answer was the electron, because that’s what he taught us in class.”
Darren pulled out a small pad and made a note. “Mr. Jones.” He then looked at Mike. “I’ll talk to the Dean of Physics tomorrow.”
Mike chewed his lower lip. “We’re only suspended for three days, sir. It’s no big deal.”
Darren huffed. “Well, it is a big deal! First of all, he shouldn’t be teaching outdated information and secondly, he shouldn’t punish students who know the proper answer. This isn’t at all the sort of teaching we want at Bradley’s. Our prep school is known for its superior education.”
“Good for you!” Maddy waved her forefinger at Darren. “When my boys went there, my husband was at the school every month giving them a lecture over something.”
“I still can’t believe you sold your house, but then stayed on,” Darren said.
Maddy chuckled. “I have to say, when Sara first suggested it, I didn’t think it would work. But she was so insistent that I didn’t have the heart to tell her no.” The old woman glanced at Ethan. “I can’t s
peak for the master of the house, but for my part, I think we’ve settled in nicely.”
Ethan nodded. “I think you are a godsend, Maddy.” Or more accurately, a guardian angel-send. The boys had never known their real grandparents. Sara’s second father had disowned her during her first pregnancy. Maddy was the closest thing to a grandmother these boys would ever know.
He looked at Darren. “Just because life doesn’t give you the family you desire, does not mean you cannot assemble a grand family on your own. Here I was, a lonely, sad bachelor and now I’m blessed with seventeen boys and another on the way, the best wife a man could want, and the kindest, most respectful mother-in-law in the whole world. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Darren nodded. “It’s rather the once in a lifetime story you’ve always sought.”
Ethan laughed. “It is, and fortunately, I am living this wonderful story, rather than simply writing about it.”
If you enjoyed this story, please give it a review.
Reviews are candy to a writer’s soul.
Want to know when I write a new book?
Follow me on Amazon and you’ll get an email.
Other books by Liza O’Connor
CONTEMPORARY
A Long Road to Love Series
Humorous Contemporary Disaster Romance
Worst Week Ever
Oh Stupid Heart
Coming to Reason
Climbing Out of Hell
The Hardest Love
CONTEMPORARY SUSPENSE
White Oak Mafia Series
Snarky, Romantic, Suspense Thriller
A Fortune to Die For
Unexpected Love
Dance or Die
Requires Rescue Series
Often Humorous, Contemporary, Romance/Suspense
Standalone books with a special twist
Even the strong can use a helping hand when life gets hard.
Saving Casey
Saving Molly
SINGLE CONTEMPORARY BOOKS
Ghost Lover
Humorous, Contemporary Romance with Ghost & Ghost cat
Luck Be an Angel
Contemporary Romance with a Paranormal Twist
Luck Be an Angel Page 11
