Carolina Mist Read online

  “Susannah?” Abby stepped onto the porch, barely able to believe her eyes.

  “Yes. I hope you don’t mind. You said to come anytime. We were on our way back from Disney World, and I thought since we were this close…”

  “But absolutely. I’m so happy to see you, Sunny. It’s been years… God, twelve at the very least.” Abby gave a welcoming hug to her favorite cousin. “Please come in, Sunny.”

  “Well, I have to get Lilly out of the car first.” She smiled and walked to where she had left her sporty little Mercedes at the end of the driveway.

  A curious Abby followed and watched as Susannah opened the door and gently nudged the shoulder of a sleeping child.

  “Sunny, I wasn’t aware that you had a child,” Abby said quietly as she peered into the car just as a little girl, with hair and eyes like coal and skin the color of walnuts, woke up.

  “Well, actually, I haven’t been a mom for all that long.” Sunny knelt down and whispered something to the little girl, who smiled and stretched, arms high above her, before getting out of the front seat.

  “Hello, Aunt Abigail,” the child said in careful, clipped words with a hint of a British accent.

  “Well, hello.” Abby smiled as the girl grinned shyly and took the hand Abby held out to her. “And what is your name, might I ask?”

  “Lilly Claire Hollister-Ross,” she said solemnly.

  “That is a lot of name for a small girl,” Abby noted.

  “Mommy said I’ll grow into it,” Lilly replied earnestly.

  “I’ve no doubt you will.” Abby suppressed a smile.

  “Would you like to come in and meet Belle and Meri Puppins?”

  “Are they your children?”

  “Sometimes I wonder. No, Belle is my friend, and Meri Puppins is her dog.”

  Lilly poked cautiously into the front hallway and waited until her mother caught up with her before venturing further into the quiet house.

  “Come this way, Lilly.” Abby gestured.

  “Belle, we have some unexpected company,” Abby announced from the doorway.

  Belle turned with a somewhat unwelcoming look on her face, as if the visitor would be the last person on earth she’d want to see. When she saw the well-dressed young woman and child in the doorway, she brightened somewhat.

  “Belle Matthews, this is my cousin, Susannah Hollister. You might remember her as part of that wild and woolly crew from Montana that occasionally descended upon Aunt Leila for a visit.”

  “Of course, dear. Susannah’s mother, Catherine, was your mother’s sister, if I recall correctly.” Belle beamed at the newcomer.

  “You’ve quite a memory, Mrs. Matthews,” Sunny told her.

  “Doesn’t she, though?” Abby could not help but add.

  Ignoring Abby’s barb, Belle motioned for Susannah to be seated on the small wicker sofa opposite Belle’s own chair. “What brings you to Primrose, Susannah?”

  “Abby invited me to come when I could arrange it.” Sunny sat as she had been directed to do and motioned for the tiny girl to follow her. “We’ve been in Florida, at Disney World.”

  “Well, hello there.” Belle was startled at the unexpected sight of a child in the doorway.

  “Lilly, please say hello to Mrs. Matthews.” Sunny prodded the child to remember her manners.

  “Hello,” Lilly whispered shyly, her eyes never leaving the ball of fur draped across Belle’s lap.

  “Meri, do go make friends with Lilly,” Belle told the dog, who promptly hopped from the lap of her mistress to investigate their visitor with curious sniffs.

  “Let me get something cool for you to drink,” Abby offered, “and then we can sit and visit. I’m so delighted that you’re here, Sunny.”

  “Now, Lilly.” Belle leaned forward slightly. “Tell me all about Disney World. I’ve seen it on TV, of course, but I’ve never been. So tell me what you saw there…”

  Lilly relaxed and began an animated recitation.

  “I think I’ll help Abby.” Sunny laughed and followed Abby’s path to the kitchen.

  “You didn’t mention Lilly in your letter,” Abby said as she removed ice from the freezer.

  “We’re still in the process of adopting her… at least, I am.” Sunny frowned and took the glass of iced tea Abby held out to her. “Better put Lilly’s in a cup. She’ll never drink all that.”

  Abby reached into the cupboard for a cup and eyed Sunny curiously. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

  “There is.” Sunny nodded and gazed out the back window. “I always loved this house, the view from the back, out over the river… can we walk out back?”

  “Sure. Do you want to see if Lilly wants to come? Or do you think she’d rather have a snack first?”

  “Snacks will do it every time,” Sunny told her. “Do you have a cookie or two?”

  “I do.” Abby pulled an old cookie tin from the pantry shelf and popped open the lid. She handed the tin to Sunny to make her selection.

  “I’ll be right back,” Sunny promised, taking the cup of milk and the cookies into the morning room.

  “Lilly would rather stay with Mrs. Matthews and the dog,” Sunny announced as she took her own drink and followed Abby out the back door. Draping an arm over her cousin’s shoulder, she sighed. “Oh, Abby, it’s so good to be here again. You don’t know how many times over the years I’ve thought about Aunt Leila and this house and you. It makes me feel more settled just to be here.”

  As they walked toward the river, Sunny admired Abby’s fledgling efforts to restore Leila’s garden, and she exclaimed over the view of the river. “Just like I remembered it,” she marveled. “Isn’t a wonder, how little things have changed?”

  “Bring me up to date,” Abby said as they seated themselves at the edge of the dock. “What have you been doing with yourself, besides adopting a beautiful little girl?”

  “She is just so precious, isn’t she?” Sunny beamed. “I just couldn’t not keep her, Abby. From the minute they brought her off the plane, I just knew she was meant to be my daughter. And nothing or no one is going to interfere with me adopting her.”

  Abby looked at her cousin quizzically.

  “Justin—my husband—had agreed to adopt a child. We’d been married for six years, and it didn’t look like we’d ever have a family. I’d read about this international agency that placed children privately, called them, and went through the whole process. Justin really could not have cared less, but he agreed to do this because I wanted it so badly. He turned on the charm for the social workers, and we were approved. Right about that time, there was a greater availability of children from Romania, and he agreed to adopt one of those cute little blond curly-haired baby boys whose pictures are always on the first page of the adoption books. That’s what he wanted, that’s what he asked for, and that’s what he expected to get. Lilly, you might have noticed, is neither blond, Romanian, nor male.”

  “I noticed. She’s, what, I’d guess Indian, Pakistani?”

  “Indian,” Sunny said. “Lilly was found in an alley in New Delhi, sitting alongside the body of her mother, who had died after giving birth to Lilly’s baby sister right there in the alley. A Western photographer found them and took them to the local orphanage. The baby sister, being a newborn, was placed with a family right away and shipped off to her new home in Los Angeles. Lilly, however, was older—she was around two at the time—and therefore less desirable, plus she had some serious health problems.”

  “How old is she now?”

  “We think between four and five, but we’re not exactly sure. No one ever came forward to claim her or her sister— or her mother’s body, for that matter.” Sunny sipped at her tea. “She spent almost two years at the orphanage—that’s where she learned to speak English before she came to us. The sisters at the orphanage were British.”

  “She must be bright to have learned the language so quickly.”

  “She is very bright,” Sunny said proudly. “And no
w that we are on the road to clearing up some other problems she has had—a severe infestation of intestinal parasites, for one—I think the sky’s the limit for Miss Lilly. And Justin be damned.”

  “I take it Justin hasn’t taken to Lilly.”

  “He has never held her, has never addressed her by name. He was in such shock when he saw her that first time— ‘Really, Susannah, you can’t be serious about keeping her. Tell them to take her back.’ ” Sunny’s voice dipped a few octaves to mimic her husband. “As if she was an ill-fitting pair of shoes or drapes done in the wrong color. And that was what it was, you know.” Sunny’s crystal-blue eyes looked straight into Abby’s without blinking, without apology for her bluntness. “Lilly is unacceptably dark-skinned as far as Justin is concerned.”

  “Sunny, I am so sorry.” Abby put an arm around her cousin’s shoulder.

  “Believe me, so am I. I took this trip with her to try to sort things out. You know, things between Justin and me have been rocky for the past several years. For a while, we looked past it because of the business—we own a business that makes specialty software for computers. Then I thought maybe if we had a child, things would be better— you know, I’ve always wanted a huge family and just assumed that I’d have a bunch of children, like my mother did. We went through all the infertility testing, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me—Justin, of course, refused to go through the regimen. I didn’t mind so much, I have no problems with adopting. But Justin has a problem with Lilly, that’s for sure.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Well, the purpose of this little trip was not just to take Lilly to see Mickey and Minnie. I needed time to sort out what I feel and what I want. I want Lilly. I do not want to be married to a man who cannot love a child simply because she doesn’t look the way he expected her to look.”

  “You’d divorce your husband because of Lilly?”

  “In a New York minute. But it’s not just because of Lilly. It’s been a long time coming. I think I just didn’t want to see it. I’ve had lots of time these past few weeks to take a serious look at the situation and put things into perspective. I’ve already called my lawyer with the deal I want to offer Justin. My lawyer feels it’s too generous, but if it gets me what I want, I don’t care.”

  “Sunny, do you think you might be moving a little too quickly?”

  “Not at all. Justin can buy out my share of the business at current value—which is a great deal for Justin, since I started the company with my money and my ideas—and all he has to do is act like a loving father for the social workers when they do their final visit next week, and show up to sign the adoption papers for the judge. Then he gets to keep the business and the house, and I will take my daughter and quietly leave Connecticut.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea.” Sunny smiled. “I’m actually looking forward to finding someplace new to start over. Maybe I’ll start another business, who knows? I think it’s great to be able to start your life over. I mean, look at you. You’ve left the craziness of corporate America behind, and you have all this.” Sunny spread her arms wide. “You are the luckiest person I know. You have this incredible house in this wonderful town, you have the peace and quiet and easy lifestyle that most folks would kill for.”

  “Are you crazy?” Abby turned an incredulous face toward her cousin. “I have no job, no income, and I’m working my fingers to the bone renovating this white elephant which I may or may not be able to sell.”

  “Abigail McKenna!” Sunny’s incredulity matched Abby’s own. “How could you even consider selling this place?”

  “Come with me, and I’ll show you. Then you can tell me again how lucky I am.”

  They checked in on Lilly and Belle, who were happily chatting away, and Abby gave Sunny the “construction tour.” They had gone through the entire house and around the outside, full circle around the house.

  “I think you are the crazy one,” Sunny insisted as they stood on the front sidewalk looking back at the house.

  “It’s taking all my time and all my money,” Abby lamented. “I can’t afford to keep this house. Even if I could find a job around here, I couldn’t support a house this size.”

  “Then put the house to work for you.”

  “What?”

  “Abby, this house screams ‘B & B.’ ”

  Abby looked at her blankly.

  “Bed and breakfast,” Sunny explained.

  “I know what it means,” Abby told her crankily. “I just don’t see myself in the role of an innkeeper.”

  “Why not? You have the facilities. It’s perfect. And the location is just wonderful. Why, once you get the painting done and the outside cleaned up, you can have garden parties and rebuild the dock and have a few small boats…”

  “I don’t want to be an innkeeper. I want to be a financial analyst.”

  “Well, then, that’s your choice, of course. You certainly know your own mind. I’m sorry if I stuck my two cents in, Abby,” Sunny said softly. “Since you said things were so tight, I was just trying to think of a way you could use what you have to keep going. And since you don’t seem to have much more than this house right now, it seemed like the logical place to start. But I’m sure you know what’s best for you.”

  “I do.”

  “Good.” Sunny smiled. “Then let’s go see what Lilly and Mrs. Matthews are up to.”

  Sunny started up the steps and was halfway across the porch when she realized that Abby had not accompanied her. She looked back over her shoulder to see her cousin standing on the front lawn, gazing up at her house in deep thought. When she realized that Sunny was watching her, Abby shook her head and repeated, “I have absolutely no interest in being an innkeeper. None at all.”

  Sunny just smiled and held open the door until Abby joined her in the doorway. As she led the way to the morning room, Abby fought off the sudden vision of how welcoming the entrance hall could be with bowls of flowers from the garden gracing highly polished tables in summer and garlands of pine winding up the balusters in winter.

  31

  “This has been so pleasant, Susannah,” Belle said with obvious satisfaction. “How lovely to have your company after all these years. And what a well-behaved young lady you have there.”

  “I think she’s simply too tired to act up.” Sunny smiled and stroked the dark hair of the child curled up on her lap, a gray bunny clutched in her hands and her eyes half closed.

  “Your room is ready, Sunny,” Abby told her as she came into the dining room where Belle and Sunny had sat talking around the table after a dinner of chicken pot pie, salad, and the carrot cake they had made together that afternoon. “Second door on the left past the top of the steps. The bathroom is clean, and the towels are fresh, if you can overlook the ancient fixtures and the total lack of decor. I’m afraid I haven’t done much with the baths as yet.”

  “Abby, for heaven’s sake, will you stop apologizing? I think it’s wonderful that you’ve offered to put us up for a few nights. Please don’t for a second feel that you have to make excuses for the accommodations. It’s a treat to stay in so handsome a house after being in motels for the past few weeks. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  And everything had been just exactly that, Sunny assured Abby in the morning. “We slept like logs, Abby. Beds that comfy should be outlawed as promoting sloth. I could never get out of a bed like that in the morning for something as mundane as going to work. And the bath is lovely, I don’t know what you were worried about.”

  “Well, the paint is peeling, and the paper is faded…”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Sunny scoffed, “that’s part of the charm of an old house.”

  “Once Alex gets the pipes replaced and the plumbing repaired, I’ll feel a little better about offering it to guests.” She realized what she had said. “Not that I plan on having any. Guests, that is. I meant showing it to prospective buyers. For their gue
sts.”

  “Umm.” Sunny bit off a piece of warm buttermilk biscuit which Abby had just minutes earlier removed from the oven for breakfast. “These are heaven. I haven’t had a breakfast this good since the last time I stayed here, in 1984, it must have been. These taste just the way I remember Aunt Leila’s.”

  “They should. It’s her recipe.” Abby grinned.

  Sunny buttered a biscuit and placed it before Lilly. “Wait till you taste this, Sweet Pea. Do you want some jam? Abby has some… let’s see, cherry?”

  “Sour cherry. Naomi made it,” Abby explained. “Our neighbor across the street. She’s in Belle’s old house. You’ll probably meet her later. She’s a good friend.”

  Later, while Belle entertained Lilly in the morning room with stories of vacations she had taken once as a small girl to the “wilds of West Virginia to visit a maiden aunt,” Abby and Sunny took their second cups of coffee onto the back porch to enjoy the morning breeze. Before too long, they were joined by Naomi and Meredy, out for an early-morning stroll to the river.

  Abby went in to get Lilly, who was close to Meredy’s age. The two little girls eyed each other shyly, albeit with great interest. Finally, Meredy asked, “I know where there’s some baby turtles. Just hatched. Wanna see?”

  Lilly looked to Sunny for approval, and the children took off to the river with instructions about how far they were permitted to go ringing in their ears.

  The three women gravitated toward the garden, and by ten A.M., they had weeded the perennial bed (properly protected from chiggers, of course), picked out the paint colors for the bath off the bedroom Sunny had slept in, and planned Drew’s birthday celebration. By noon, Lilly and Meredy were best friends, and Abby and Sunny had scoured the attic for something special of Thomas’s to give Drew for a birthday present. In an old trunk, they found what was reportedly the hat a very young Thomas Cassidy had worn when he accompanied Teddy Roosevelt on the ride up San Juan Hill, and they decided that the cap of gray wool felt was exactly right. By two o’clock, Lilly was playing in Meredy’s yard, and Abby and Sunny were seated in the bank vault.