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Miss Sissy narrowed her eyes at Beatrice.
“Sorry,” said Beatrice. “Too many questions at once. Can you describe the woman Olive was arguing with?”
Miss Sissy glanced over at the cheese, still slowly defrosting on a nearby table.
“That cheese is going to take a while to defrost,” said Beatrice.
Miss Sissy sighed. “Tired-looking.”
That could describe most of the women in the group, including all the Village Quilters. Beatrice prodded a bit more. “Tired. Okay. Was she one of the younger Sew and Sews? Or one of the older ones?”
Miss Sissy was looking more distracted now, perhaps thinking about the food Meadow was going to try to grill. She tried to pull her attention back to the task at hand. “Middle.”
The age sounded about right for Ivy, as did the tiredness. Beatrice asked, “Is she pretty?”
Miss Sissy gave her a canny look. “Used to be.”
Definitely Ivy then. “Did you hear what they were arguing about? It could be important.”
“Don’t know,” muttered Miss Sissy.
“Was it something about Aspen? Did the name Aspen come up?”
Miss Sissy’s eyes narrowed even more. “Don’t know.”
Beatrice could tell she wasn’t going to get anything else from the old woman. “Do you want to head over to the lodge with me? You probably need to warm up in front of the fire for a while. I know I do. I can give you a hand to make sure you don’t fall down outside. It might be slick under the snow.”
Miss Sissy shook her head violently. “Food.”
“You’ve been up for a while. Why not just eat some of those cornflakes until Meadow can make something a little more filling?”
Judging from the sound coming from Miss Sissy, this suggestion was anathema to her, to say the least. Beatrice stood, bundling herself back up into her many layers and headed out into what felt like a snow globe, except with more wind.
Everyone was indeed stirring now. Many of the women had tidied up their bedding so that there was more room to walk through the room. The current conversation seemed focused on whether taking a hot shower was possible. The consensus was that it was powered by gas.
Posy had also clearly mentioned stockpiling quilting fabric and supplies because there was some chatter about that, too.
While the lively discussion continued, Beatrice quietly approached Ivy. “Could I speak with you for just a second?”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “I just spoke to you, you know.”
“Yes. But there’s one more thing I need to ask you about.”
“Go ahead,” said Ivy, looking annoyed.
“Let’s talk in the office if you don’t mind. It’s more private there.”
Ivy continued looking annoyed, but sighed in a resigned manner and stood up.
Just then, however, the door to the lodge opened and Nicole stood there, looking half frozen. Her eyelashes had snow stuck on them and she wiped her eyes off with an equally frozen coat sleeve. “I need help!” she called.