She pulled out the champagne. "How about an early glass of champagne to toast my new job?"
"Oh, twist my arm. I'm so excited for you I could just pop!" Jolene slung an arm around Stella's
shoulders as they turned into the great room. "Tell me what you thought of Roz."
"Not as scary in person." Stella set the bottle on the counter to open while Jolene got champagne flutes out of her glass-front display cabinet. "Sort of earthy and direct, confident. And that house!"
"It's a beaut." Jolene laughed when the cork popped. "My, my, what a decadent sound in the middle of the afternoon. Harper House has been in her family for generations. She's actually an Ashby by marriage—the first one. She went back to Harper after her second marriage fizzled."
"Give me the dish, will you, Jolene? Dad won't."
"Plying me with champagne to get me to gossip? Why, thank you, honey." She slid onto a stool, raised her glass. "First, to our Stella and brave new beginnings."
Stella clinked glasses, drank. "Mmmmm. Wonderful. Now, dish."
"She married young. Just eighteen. What you'd call a good match—good families, same social circle. More important, it was a love match. You could see it all over them. It was about the time I fell for your father, and a woman recognizes someone in the same state she's in. She was a late baby—I think her mama was near forty and her daddy heading to fifty when she came along. Her mama was never well after, or she enjoyed playing the frail wife—depending on who you talk to. But in any case, Roz lost
them both within two years. She must've been pregnant with her second son. That'd be... shoot. Austin,
I think. She and John took over Harper House. She had the three boys, and the youngest barely a toddler, when John was killed. You know how hard that must've been for her."
"I do."
"Hardly saw her outside that house for two, three years, I guess. When she did start getting out again, socializing, giving parties and such, there was the expected speculation. Who she'd marry, when.
You've seen her. She's a beautiful woman."
"Striking, yes."
"And down here, a lineage like hers is worth its weight and then some. Her looks, her bloodline, she could've had any man she wanted. Younger, older, or in between, single, married, rich, or poor. But
she stayed on her own. Raised her boys."
Alone, Stella thought, sipping champagne. She understood the choice very well.
"Kept her private life private," Jolene went on, "much to Memphis society's consternation. Biggest
to-do I recall was when she fired the gardener—well, both of them. Went after them with a
Weedwacker, according to some reports, and ran them right off the property."
"Really?" Stella's eyes widened in shocked admiration. "Really?"
"That's what I heard, and that's the story that stuck, truth or lie. Down here, we often prefer the entertaining lie to the plain truth. Apparently they'd dug up some of her plants or something. She wouldn't have anybody else after that. Took the whole thing over herself. Next thing you know—though I guess it was about five years later—she's building that garden place over on her west end. She got married about three years ago, and divorced—well, all you had to do was blink. Honey, why don't we make that two early glasses of champagne?"
"Why don't we?" Stella poured. "So, what was the deal with the second husband?"
"Hmmm. Very slick character. Handsome as sin and twice as charming. Bryce Clerk, and he says his people are from Savannah, but I don't know as I'd believe a word coming out of his mouth if it was plated with gold. Anyway, they looked stunning together, but it happened he enjoyed looking stunning with a variety of women, and a wedding ring didn't restrict his habits. She booted him out on his ear."
"Good for her."
"She's no pushover."
"That came through loud and clear."
"I'd say she's proud, but not vain, tough-minded but not hard—or not too hard, though there are some who would disagree with that. A good friend, and a formidable enemy. You can handle her, Stella. You can handle anything."
She liked people to think so, but either the champagne or fresh nerves was making her stomach a little queasy. "Well, we're going to find out."
THREE
She had a car full of luggage, a briefcase stuffed with notes and sketches, a very unhappy dog who'd already expressed his opinion of the move by vomiting on the passenger seat, and two boys bickering bitterly in the back.
She'd already pulled over to deal with the dog and the seat, and despite the January chill had the
windows wide open. Parker, their Boston terrier, sprawled on the floor looking pathetic.
She didn't know what the boys were arguing about, and since it hadn't come to blows yet, let them go
at it. They were, she knew, as nervous as Parker about yet another move.
She'd uprooted them. No matter how carefully you dug, it was still a shock to the system. Now all of them were about to be transplanted. She believed they would thrive. She had to believe it or she'd be
as sick as the family dog.
"I hate your slimy, stinky guts," eight-year-old Gavin declared.
"I hate your big, stupid butt," six-year-old Luke retorted.
"I hate your ugly elephant ears."
"I hate your whole ugly face."
Stella sighed and turned up the radio.
She waited until she'd reached the brick pillars that flanked the drive to the Harper estate. She nosed in, out of the road, then stopped the car. For a moment, she simply sat there while the insults raged in the backseat. Parker sent her a cautious look, then hopped up to sniff at the air through the window.
She turned the radio off, sat. The voices behind her began to trail off, and after a last, harshly whispered, "And I hate your entire body," there was silence.
"So, here's what I'm thinking," she said in a normal, conversational tone. "We ought to pull a trick on
Ms. Harper."
Gavin strained forward against his seat belt. "What kind of trick?"
"A tricky trick. I'm not sure we can pull it off. She's pretty smart; I could tell. So we'd have to be really sneaky."
"I can be sneaky," Luke assured her. And her glance in the rearview mirror told her the battle blood was already fading from his cheeks.
"Okay, then, here's the plan." She swiveled around so she could face both her boys. It struck her, as it often did, what an interesting meld of herself and Kevin they were. Her blue eyes in Luke's face, Kevin's gray-green ones in Gavin's. Her mouth to Gavin, Kevin's to Luke. Her coloring—poor baby—to Luke, and Kevin's sunny blond to Gavin.
She paused, dramatically, noted that both her sons were eagerly focused.
"No, I don't know." She shook her head regretfully. "It's probably not a good idea."
There was a chorus of pleas, protests, and a great deal of seat bouncing that sent Parker into a spate of enthusiastic barking.
"Okay, okay." She held up her hands. "What we do is, we drive up to the house, and we go up to the door. And when we're inside and you meet Ms. Harper—this is going to have to be really sneaky,
really clever."
"We can do it!" Gavin shouted.
"Well, when that happens, you have to pretend to be ... this is tough, but I think you can do it. You have to pretend to be polite, well-behaved, well-mannered boys."
"We can do it! We..." Luke's face scrunched up. "Hey!"
"And I have to pretend not to be a bit surprised by finding myself with two well-behaved, well-mannered boys. Think we can pull it off?"
"Maybe we won't like it there," Gavin muttered.
Guilt roiled up to churn with nerves. "Maybe we won't. Maybe we will. We'll have to see."
"I'd rather live with Granddad and Nana Jo in their house." Luke's little mouth trembled, and wrenched
at Stella's heart. "Can't we?"
"We really can't. We can visit, lots. And they can visit us, too. Now that we're going to live down here, we can see them all the time. This is supposed to be an adventure, remember? If we try it, really try it, and we're not happy, we'll try something else."
"People talk funny here," Gavin complained.
"No, just different."
"And there's no snow. How are we supposed to build snowmen and go sledding if it's too stupid to snow?"
"You've got me there, but there'll be other things to do." Had she seen her last white Christmas? Why hadn't she considered that before?
He jutted his chin out. "If she's mean, I'm not staying."
"That's a deal." Stella started the car, took a steadying breath, and continued down the drive.
Moments later she heard Luke's wondering: "It's big!"
No question about that, Stella mused, and wondered how her children saw it. Was it the sheer size of
the three-storied structure that overwhelmed them? Or would they notice the details? The pale, pale yellow stone, the majestic columns, the charm of the entrance that was covered by the double stairway leading to the second floor and its pretty wraparound terrace?
Or would they just see the bulk of it—triple the size of their sweet house in Southfield?
"It's really old," she told them. "Over a hundred and fifty years old. And Ms. Harper's family's lived here always."
"Is she a hundred and fifty?" Luke wanted to know and earned a snort and an elbow jab from his brother.
"Dummy. Then she'd be dead. And there'd be worms crawling all over her—"
"I have to remind you, polite, well-mannered, well-behaved boys don't call their brothers dummy. See all the lawn? Won't Parker love being taken for walks out here? And there's so much room for you to play. But you have to stay out of the gardens and flower beds, just like at home. Back in Michigan," she corrected herself. "And we'll have to ask Ms. Harper where you're allowed to go."
"There's really big trees," Luke murmured. "Really big."
"That one there? That's a sycamore, and I bet it's even older than the house."
She pulled around the parking circle, admiring the use of Japanese red maple and golden mop cedar
along with azaleas in the island.
She clipped on Parker's leash with hands that were a lot more steady than her heart rate. "Gavin, you
take Parker. We'll come out for our things after we go in and see Ms. Harper."
"Does she get to boss us?" he demanded.
"Yes. The sad and horrible fate of children is to be bossed by adults. And as she's paying my salary, she gets to boss me, too. We're all in the same boat."
Gavin took Parker's leash when they got out. "I don't like her."
"That's what I love about you, Gavin." Stella ruffled his wavy blond hair. "Always thinking positive. Okay, here we go." She took his hand, and Luke's, gave each a gentle squeeze. The four of them
started toward the covered entry.
The doors, a double set painted the same pure and glossy white as the trim, burst open.
"At last!" David flung out his arms. "Men! I'm no longer outnumbered around here."
"Gavin, Luke, this is Mr.—I'm sorry, David, I don't know your last name."
"Wentworth. But let's keep it David." He crouched down, looked the rapidly barking Parker in the eye. "What's your problem, buddy?"
In response, Parker planted his front paws on David's knee and lapped, with great excitement, at his face.
"That's more like it. Come on in. Roz'll be right along. She's upstairs on the phone, skinning some supplier over a delivery."
They stepped into the wide foyer, where the boys simply stood and goggled.
"Pretty ritzy, huh?"
"Is it like a church?"
"Nah." David grinned at Luke. "It's got fancy parts, but it's just a house. We'll get a tour in, but maybe you need some hot chocolate to revive you after your long journey."
"David makes wonderful hot chocolate." Roz started down the graceful stairs that divided the foyer. She was dressed in work clothes, as she'd been the day before. "With lots of whipped cream."
"Ms. Harper, my boys. Gavin and Luke."
"I'm very pleased to meet you. Gavin." She offered a hand to him.
'This is Parker. He's our dog. He's one and a half."
"And very handsome. Parker." She gave the dog a friendly pat.
"I'm Luke. I'm six, and I'm in first grade. I can write my name." *
"He cannot either." Gavin sneered in brotherly disgust. "He can only print it."
"Have to start somewhere, don't you? It's very nice to meet you, Luke. I hope you're all going to be comfortable here."
"You don't look really old," Luke commented, and had David snorting out a laugh.
"Why, thank you. I don't feel really old either, most of the time."
Feeling slightly ill, Stella forced a smile. "I told the boys how old the house was, and that your family's always lived here. He's a little confused."
"I haven't been here as long as the house. Why don't we have that hot chocolate, David? We'll sit in the kitchen, get acquainted."
