“I happen to know the librarian in town,” Tilly says. “Would you and Charlie be interested in volunteering there while you’re here? I can think of a few youngsters who would benefit from that.”
“What do you think, Charlie?” I ask him. “Would you like to visit the library?”
He barks his reply.
“Splendid. I’ll ask Sarah tomorrow,” Tilly replies, deciphering his reply to mean yes.
After the tour of the house, Meg and Tilly leave me to my new, exciting task.
“So what do you say we go check out the yard and the horses that I have no idea what to do about?” I say to Charlie.
We walk through the kitchen…which has less pink than the rest of the house but is still heavy on mint, including the linoleum flooring. The cupboards are hunter green.
I open the back door and follow Charlie onto the patio.
“Oh. My.” It would seem that Charlotte wasn’t much of a gardener.
Half the square patio stones are split into several pieces, with weeds growing in between. Numerous planters, created from wooden barrels, sit on the perimeter. From the looks of it, nothing has bloomed in them for a while.
In the center of the patio is what was once a pond. I peer into the vast space. At some point it was emptied, keeping it from resembling a swamp.
Taking care not to trip on the uneven stones or catch my heel in another crack, I continue beyond the patio, down a path that is in equally bad shape. But at least the grass isn’t thigh-deep here. Someone has mowed it in the past month.
Charlie walks ahead of me, eager to explore the rest of the property. I slowly limp along. The stiffness has finally receded. Now the limp is solely the result of the injury and not because of the long car ride.
Breathing in the fresh country air, I turn my face skyward to the warm sun that kisses my skin.
Okay, maybe fresh is a bit of an exaggeration with the strong whiff of manure lingering in the air. I wrinkle my nose.
“What do you think Roberto would say if he saw the state of this place?” I ask Charlie. Roberto is the head gardener at my parents’ mansion. The man has been featured in several prestigious magazines. Which means my parents’ property has been featured in several prestigious magazines. “I’m not sure if he would enjoy the challenge of taming this mess or if he would have a heart attack at seeing it.”
Or maybe a little of both.
We arrive at what looks like a pasture. Two horses—one gray, the other black—chomp away on grass a couple of yards from where Charlie and I are standing.
“They must be Lady and Scoundrel.”
The two horses continue to ignore me, so Charlie and I head toward the closest of the two large wooden buildings at the end of the pasture.
At the sight of the barn, I release a longWhat-did-I-get-myself-into?sigh. “That doesn’t look any better than the house.”
Nor does the rusty car partially hidden in the grass next to the old building.
This time when I look skyward, it’s to ask my great-aunt what the heck she was thinking when she left me the house and the land and the horses and the falling-apart barn.
“Did I wrong you in a lifetime that I’m not aware of?” I call up to the sky.
A muffled noise comes from the other side of the car. A raccoon, maybe?
Before I can step forward to investigate, a man wearing a black cowboy hat stands up.
My heart slams on the brakes, Charlie barks, and I gasp.
4
Noah
“Sit,Charlie. Is there any particular reason you’re on my property?” a female voice says from the other side of the Thunderbird.
