AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Like something out of a dream,” Brad agreed as he fetched two mugs from another cabinet.
“OrThe Great Gatsby,” Maya said.
“Can you imagine throwing parties like that yourself?” Brad asked.
Maya gave him a funny look. “I hardly know enough people to invite over for a game of cards! I can’t imagine filling the dining room table. Heck, we haven’t even found the dining room yet.”
Brad stepped lightly across the kitchen and pressed one of the doors open to find yet another pantry. The next revealed a long hallway, which Maya suggested had once been the servants’ entrance, back when they’d been required to bring food up and down the back staircase to the rooms above.
But the fourth door Brad tried revealed the immaculate dining room. The table was long and thin and gleaming in the light that swept in through the stained-glass windows. It looked almost like a religious room.
“That makes sense,” Maya said when he suggested this. “Eating can be a very religious act, don’t you think? Bringing people together in prayer and reflection.”
Brad closed the door to the dining room and watched as Maya returned to the pantry, where she finally selected a wide array of tea boxes— fennel, anis, and ginger. She spread them across the counter distractedly. “My ex-boyfriend would have a field day in this kitchen.” She didn’t say it as though she wished he were there. Rather, she said it off-handedly, as though she couldn’t help herself. “I’m sorry,” she added. “The breakup was so recent. He comes into my head more than I’d like. I’m still reeling.”
Brad wasn’t sure what to say. He knew what it was like being unable to get people off your mind. Memories could be sticky. He palmed the back of his neck.
Maya touched Brad’s shoulder, her eyes glinting. “I hope you know how happy I am that you’re here with me.” She stuttered. “Back in New York, I was floundering. The letter from my aunt came out of nowhere— and it changed everything. The past week has been one of the most wonderful of my life. And about seventy percent of that is because of you.”
Brad’s smile widened. There was something so earnest about her expression, as though she just couldn’t help but speak the truth.
Maya and Brad returned to the library with a tea kettle filled with piping hot water and two mugs with tea bags. As Maya sat on the green couch, Brad set the logs up in the fireplace, along with a selection of small scraps of newspaper, and lit it with a long lighter he found in a nearby drawer. As the fire chewed at the edges of the newspaper, Maya clapped.
“That was wonderful to watch,” she teased. “You’re like a mountain man.”
Brad laughed and collapsed on the couch beside her. Through the library window, he saw that light was already dimming, turning that soft blue of early winter to grays and blacks. Snow fluttered and joined the white, rolling hills outside. Maya placed her head on Brad’s shoulder and followed his gaze. Brad’s heart shifted. He had the sudden instinct to kiss her forehead, yet held himself back. He didn’t want to ruin it.
“None of it makes sense,” Maya finally said softly.
“What doesn’t?”
“My mother must have been raised here,” she continued. “She must have known that family heirloom just as well as my Aunt Veronica. Maybe she used to wear it sometimes when she and Veronica played dress-up as girls.”
Brad remained quiet. In his mind’s eye, he could still see Veronica as a young woman, the thirty-year-old teacher he’d had a big crush on as a kid.
“I just can’t understand why we never had any of this money,” Maya continued. “Look at this place. Look at all this wealth. Look at all these empty rooms! Why did my mother and father have nothing? What happened?”
Brad placed his hand over Maya’s opposite shoulder and hugged her close. She was shaking.
“They died when I was really young,” Maya explained, “so it’s hard for me to remember them. But I know we didn’t have much, even then. My Christmas presents were beautiful, but they were normally handmade.”
“Do you have any of them left?”
Maya pressed her lips together. “I have a scarf my mother made me when I was a kid. It’s amongst my things back at the Hollygrove Bed and Breakfast. The first night I spent here in Hollygrove, I took it out and held it as though in touching it, I would be able to sense my mother. Of course, I felt nothing but her love. No answers.”
Brad wondered if Maya’s parents had died at the same time. Maybe her world had been torn apart in one fell swoop. His heart broke for the little girl, nearly half a century ago, who’d had to go on without them.
“You’re a very strong woman, Maya,” Brad said quietly. “I hope you know that.”
Maya’s chin quivered.
“We’ll find answers here in the mansion,” Brad went on. “Look at this place. It’s filled with secrets, just waiting to be discovered.”
Maya spoke so quietly that Brad could hardly hear her. “I only hope those secrets aren’t painful.”
Brad’s stomach twisted. He wasn’t entirely sure what they were after— but he had a hunch the journey wouldn’t be pretty. Something horrible had happened in Maya’s family’s past. But it was better to know than to not. As a teacher, Brad knew that better than most.
ChapterTen
