• four •

“Diana said they would both consider themselves rich with a thousand pounds, so with five thousand, they will do very well.”

—Jane to St. John Rivers, Jane Eyre

The next morning, Dr. Sam Griffiths called. Emily heard her voice with dread but tried to act as though she didn’t know what was coming.

“Hi, Sam, what’s up?”

“Come down to the new place. Something to show you.”

Emily sighed. Whatever Sam had to show her would surely translate into a request for more funds. The new Stony Beach clinic had been funded initially by a bequest in Beatrice’s will, augmented by another large donation from Emily herself. But either Sam was a poor prognosticator or she had deliberately lowballed what she needed in the beginning, thinking it would be easier to extort the money from Emily in stages. Since the remodeling work began, Emily felt she was being nickel-and-dimed to death.

Still, she’d begun this, and she’d better see it through. “I’ll be down in an hour or so.”

She took her time, not wanting to give Sam the impression she was at her beck and call. The weather had cleared, so she took Beatrice’s vintage Vespa into town and pulled up in front of the new clinic location around eleven o’clock. Beatrice had deeded the clinic a piece of prime real estate, right next to City Hall in the middle of downtown.

Sam met her at the door with her usual gracious charm. “Charlie says it’s going to take another ten grand.”

Emily fell back a step. “Another ten thousand just for the remodeling? When is this going to end?”

“Come back.” Sam led the way into what would become the X-ray room. Charlie Cartwright stood in the middle of the floor, scratching his cropped head with his cap in his hand.

“Hi, Charlie. What’s this about another ten thousand?”

“See that?” He pointed to the lone standard electrical outlet in the outside wall. “Gonna need a heckuva lot more power than that to run an X-ray machine. Have to rewire the whole place, top to bottom. And listen to this.” He stomped on the floor. It trembled and gave back a hollow sound. “This floor’ll have to be reinforced. Those machines weigh a ton.”

He pushed past Emily toward the door. “And lookit here.” He led the way into the tiny restroom crowded into the back corner beside a broom closet. “This here’s the only plumbing in the whole damn place. Gonna need a sink in every exam room, minimum, plus a john that’ll take a wheelchair.”

“But, Charlie—I can see all this is necessary, but surely you must have known about it when you gave your original estimate. Why didn’t you factor all this in?”

Charlie glared at Sam, who flushed purple. “I, uh—sorta forgot to mention the X-ray machine in the plans. And the sinks were kind of an afterthought, too.”

Emily dug her nails into her palms. Luke had warned her she ought to bring in a professional with experience in medical facilities to draw up the plans for the remodeling, but Sam had been adamant she and Charlie could handle it between them, and Emily had not been unwilling to save a little money. Beatrice would never have been so foolish. “Never scrimp on quality,” she’d always told Emily on their annual clothes-shopping trips to Portland. “You’ll only pay for it in the end.”

But this mistake was going to cost her a lot more than the price of a poorly made dress. “The thing is, Sam, I have my own remodeling going on. I can’t spend my whole capital all at once.”

“Can’t go on without that ten grand,” Charlie growled. Sam shot Emily a mute puppy-dog entreaty that was all the more heart-wrenching for being ridiculous on her broad, mannish face.

Emily was beginning to feel like a walking checkbook. “The whole town’s going to benefit from this clinic. Wouldn’t it be better if they all had a chance to contribute? Give them a sense of ownership.”

Sam’s eyes widened like a cornered rabbit’s. “You want me to go hat in hand to every house in town? No time for that. Still have a practice to run.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of holding a fundraiser.”

“Even worse. Wouldn’t know where to start.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Emily quailed internally. She knew nothing about running fundraisers. But she could find someone who did.

From the clinic she puttered around the corner to Luke’s office. He was just leaving.

“Hey there, beautiful, want to join me for lunch?”

“Sure, but I have a question for you. Who in this town would be good at running a fundraiser?”

“Huh. That’s a tough one. Beatrice always did that kind of thing in the past. What do you want a fundraiser for?”

She told him about the clinic. “And before you say ‘I told you so,’ I’ve already given myself that lecture, so don’t bother.”

He grinned. “Y’know, I bet Katie’d have some good ideas.”

“I bet she would.” And it would take her mind off the situation with Jake and Roman. “I’ll start there.”

Over lunch he told her he would be going to Portland for a few days toward the end of the month. “Firearms certification. Have to do it every year.” He gave her a wistful look. “Why don’t you come with me?”

“To Portland?” She’d lived in Portland for thirty years, and it was only a two-hour drive away. But somehow, coming from Luke, traveling to Portland sounded like trekking to the South Pole.

“Sure. You could say hi to Marguerite, check on your renters, hang out at that bookstore you like. Powell’s, right? And when I’m done for the day, we can do—whatever you used to do in Portland. Restaurants, symphony, whatever.”

It should have been the perfect plan. Combining everything she loved and missed about her old life with her new life—Luke. But instead it appealed to her about as much as garlic-flavored ice cream.

“I don’t know, Luke. It doesn’t seem like a good time to be away, you know? With the remodeling, and now a fundraiser to plan. I feel like I need to be here to keep things running smoothly.”

“You don’t think Katie can handle it? That girl’s got competence oozing out her pores.”

“Normally, yes, but right now she also has Jake to contend with. And the other worker, Roman—he seems to have some weird thing for her, too. That’s another reason I can’t leave. I need to keep an eye on Katie.”

He sighed and dropped the subject, leaving her to chew over her own feelings along with her sandwich. Why should Luke and Portland seem like such a bad combination? Was it because Philip’s ghost haunted Portland for her? But surely he was laid to rest by now; he hadn’t spoken to her in months, and the last feeling she’d had from him was a blessing on her relationship with Luke.

No, it was just that she couldn’t picture Luke at Reed or at the symphony or even at Powell’s. He was too big for those places—not in physical dimensions, but in presence. He needed the open air, miles of beach and infinite expanse of ocean, with only enough people to keep life interesting. Morally and emotionally he was nothing like Heathcliff, but they had that one quality in common—they needed space.

A relationship in which she and Luke split their time between Stony Beach and Portland—an idea Luke had floated when they first got back together—would never work. Luke and Stony Beach were a package deal. Was she really ready to take them on for life?

*   *   *

After lunch, Emily found Katie painting the kitchen of her new apartment. Her younger sisters Abby and Erin called greetings from the bathroom and bedroom, respectively.

“Wow, you have a whole crew working here!”

Katie dimpled. “Yeah, it goes faster with help. Besides, the three of us used to do everything together. The Three Musketeers.”

From the other rooms came the cry, “All for one and one for all!”

“It’s been tougher since I’ve been living here. So I rope them in whenever I can.”

“That’s good news, actually, because I have an idea that I think we’re going to need a lot of help with.” Emily related her thoughts about putting on a fundraiser for the clinic. Abby and Erin, paint rollers in hand, crept closer as she talked.

“Hmm…” Katie pondered as she brushed on a sunny yellow between the backsplash and the upper cabinets. “My high school drama class did a murder mystery dinner once for a fundraiser. I bet I could get them to do one here.”

Emily grimaced. “This house has seen two real murders. I’m not sure I could get into the spirit of a pretend one.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But people love that stuff. We charged a hundred bucks a head and made ten thousand dollars.”

“Lots of people would pay just to get a good close look at Windy Corner,” Erin chimed in. “And if we did it on Halloween, that would really go over big. We could even make it a period costume thing.”

Emily did some quick mental arithmetic. “Ten thousand at a hundred a head—that’s a hundred people. We couldn’t seat a hundred people for dinner at Windy Corner. Could we?”

Katie brushed a stray hair out of her eyes, leaving a smear of yellow paint on her temple. “I bet we could. Four tables of six each in the dining room, the parlor, and the library. And we could use the downstairs bedroom, too—Lizzie and I’ll be out of it way before Halloween. That’s almost a hundred—make a couple of the tables seat eight and you’ll have it.”

The thought of all those people in her home made Emily’s palms sweat. And the ticket price made her cringe. Not so long ago it would have been painful even for her.

“I want this to be a way the whole town can participate in the new clinic. Lots of people can’t afford a hundred dollars.”

“You could raffle off a couple tickets—five bucks a go. Probably get more than the regular price of the tickets that way.”

“That’s a thought.” Deep breath, Emily. You can do this. “What would we have to do on our end?”

“Well, the food, of course. Unless you want to have that catered?”

Emily winced, remembering the bill for the catering of Beatrice’s funeral reception. “Catering would really cut into the profits. But dinner for a hundred—I couldn’t ask you to handle that on your own.”

Abby spoke, so quietly Emily almost didn’t hear. “I work at Gifts from the Sea. They do catering. I think they’d give you a discount for a fundraiser.”

“And I can do the publicity!” Erin cut in, bouncing on her toes in excitement. “I’m awesome at graphic design.”

Katie nodded. “She really is. Even people who aren’t related to her think so.” She flashed a grin at Erin.

“But where would they stage the whole mystery thing?” Emily was still doubtful. “Downstairs would be too crowded.”

“Yeah, we’d have to use the second floor for that. That would mean putting off redecorating the author rooms, unless you think we could finish in time.”

“No, we’d better wait on anything big. I can use the time to finish planning. Then we can jump in after the fundraiser.”

Katie’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, and the secret stairway would come in handy.”

“I’m not sure I want to give away that secret to the whole town.”

“I know. But it’s part of the romance of the place, y’know? It would add a lot.” Erin and Abby nodded their agreement.

“I’ll think about it. So you really think we can pull this off?”

“Sure we can. I’ll call the drama teacher tonight.” The three Parker girls leaned in for a high-fifteen. “All for one and one for all!”

Emily kissed Katie’s cheek and beamed at her sisters. “You are a treasure, Katie Parker. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”