Love Blossoms by Elizabeth Coldwell

Author:Elizabeth Coldwell [Coldwell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Lawns was a large imposing white mansion, perched high on a hill alongside the main road out of Holiday Falls. Matt found a space in the graveled parking lot and they walked up the long winding drive that led to the house itself. The drone of traffic faded into the distance, replaced by an oriole’s vibrant, melodic song high in the branches above their heads.

The day held more heat than Bonnie had expected when she’d left for the diner with Matt, any clouds nothing more than faint white wisps in the dazzling blue sky, and she took off her cardigan and tied it around her waist.

“You’ve got the tickets?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, they’re on my phone. Let me forward one of them to you, then we just have to show them when we get to the house.”

She grabbed her phone and opened the email with her booking confirmation. In a moment, Matt’s phone bleeped from his pocket, indicating that he’d received her message. They carried on walking until they reached the graveled forecourt where a number of other people waited to be allowed into The Lawns.

Bonnie looked around at the group of visitors. They were mostly elderly, dressed in the kind of neat pastel polo shirts and baggy shorts her dad always referred to as ‘cruise wear’ and she wondered if they’d arrived on the minibus she and Matt had parked up beside. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if Enid Wherry’s home had become a regular stop for tour parties taking in the sights of Massachusetts.

“Oh, Mom…” A voice floated over in their direction, pitched on the verge of whining. Bonnie glanced over to see a girl in her early teens, her face creased in annoyance, pulling an earbud from her ear.

“I’ve told you, Lily,” a woman Bonnie took to be the girl’s mother said in a flat, tired tone, “you are not listening to your music until we finish the tour. This is important for your grades.”

“That’s all you care about. Who gives a crap, Mom? There’s more to life than school…”

Bonnie tuned out the rest of their argument. She recalled being the same age, and her constant need to pick the smallest of battles with her parents as a way of asserting her desire for independence. It all seemed so long ago now.

“Oh, looks like they’re letting us in,” Matt said, pointing over to where people were filing through the entrance door.

They joined the line snaking into the building. Bonnie pulled up her e-ticket on her phone. A young man with braces on his teeth scanned the QR code and wished her a pleasant visit.

She and Matt walked into a light and airy entrance hall, with a cream and gray tiled floor and a high, vaulted ceiling. It smelled faintly of beeswax, and Bonnie couldn’t help wondering whether they used period-appropriate cleaning products to maintain the illusion the Wherry family still lived in this elegant house.

The docent who would be taking charge of the guided tour

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