Ties That Bind by Marie Bostwick

Author:Marie Bostwick [Bostwick, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781611734072
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

30

Margot

It was starting to drizzle when I pulled up in front of the Beecher Cottage Inn. The hand-painted sign next to the brick walkway said NO VACANCY and every light in the place was on, making the stately Victorian look warm and welcoming in spite of the rain.

I wiped my feet on the mat before stepping into the inn’s bright, elegant foyer. It was hard to believe this was the same dreary space that I’d seen on my first visit to Beecher Cottage. Madelyn had transformed the run-down ruin, and she’d done it on a shoestring budget. For instance, she’d spent hours sanding the ornately carved staircase and replaced the dark mahogany stain with a rich cherry color. And, after stripping off rolls and rolls of truly awful paper, she painted the walls a warm ivory and hung a collection of elegant framed floral pictures from the floor to the ceiling. They looked like something you’d find in a very expensive interior design store, but the “pictures” were really just pieces of wallpaper samples. The frames, painted with an antique silver color on the outer edges and a thin strip of ebony on the beveled interior edges, had been salvaged from the attic of the house. In terms of sweat equity, those pictures were priceless, but in terms of dollars and cents, they were practically free.

I walked from the front door toward the back of the house, peeping first into the living room with its eclectic mix of antique and modern pieces, including the dollhouse Madelyn had played with when she was a little girl, and the wall hanging she’d stitched and hung only recently, an abstract, paper-pieced creation with hundreds of brilliant, jewel-toned patches of fabric in various shapes and sizes outlined with thin black fabric leading that remind me of cathedral windows. In the dining room I spied the huge table Madelyn refinished herself, and more silver-framed florals, but no people.

“Is anybody home?”

“In here!”

Tessa was in the kitchen placing slices of cake on china plates. “You’re just in time to give me a hand.”

“Where is everybody? The place is lit up like a Christmas tree, but I don’t see any guests.”

“Madelyn didn’t take any bookings this week. Made it easier for the construction crew to finish up. She’s out in the addition, giving everybody the grand tour. Can you get a couple of tea trays out of the cupboard? I’ve got frosting on my hands. Over there,” she said, pointing with the cake knife toward one of the lower cabinets.

Before she started making herbal bath amenities for boutique hotels, Tessa worked for Madelyn at the inn, so she knows where everything is.

I pulled out two trays and carried them to the counter. “Do we need anything else? Teacups? Wineglasses?”

“Nope. We’re good,” she said, continuing to slice the cake. “So, how’re things? How is Olivia? Any good news on the custody front?”

“More of the same. My parents and I aren’t speaking except through lawyers. But Olivia is getting better every day.

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