Clare O’Donohue - The Lover’s Knot

"What things?" I interjected.

"We can do something simpler. Keep as many of the old materials as possible. I can work without an assistant, but it will take longer."

"That won't do," Eleanor said. "This can't take longer than a few weeks or it's not worth doing." She seemed to be genuinely considering just returning the shop to its previous, overcrowded state.

"Oh, Eleanor, we've gone too far to turn back now," Nancy said.

Tom looked as his feet. "I know a young guy who works practically for free just to get some carpentry experience," he said. "And as far as my labor is concerned, I can lower the price a bit, for a trade."

Eleanor smiled just a little. "Trade what?"

"Well, I passed this shop many times when I visited my sister. And someone here made her a quilt when she went to the hospital."

"The quilt club," said Eleanor. "The ladies outside, Nancy and myself."

"Well, it was really nice, and it cheered up my sister throughout that whole ordeal." Tom looked toward Jesse, who nodded slightly and looked away. "It got me to thinking. My wife is home with our twin boys all day, and she's awfully stressed about it. I thought maybe if I… if you… made her a quilt, she could curl up in it at the end of the day and it would be, you know, something special just for her."

"That's the trade you would like?" Eleanor said.

"If it's not too much trouble."

"What are your wife's interests?"

"Um," said a puzzled Tom, "she likes to garden, or she did before the boys."

Eleanor steadied herself on one crutch and held out her hand. "It's a deal," she said. Tom reached out his, and they shook on it.

"You'll start tomorrow?"

"Yes, ma'am… Mrs. Cassidy."

"So will I. On the day I'm done with the quilt, I'd like you to be done with the shop."

"She's fast, by the way," I warned.

Tom just nodded. "First thing we should do is get paper over the picture window. I'll need to leave tools and supplies in here overnight, and people sometimes help themselves to things on a construction site. Especially if they can get a clear view in like this."

I turned bright red, remembering my afternoon with Marc.

"I've got the paper in my truck," Tom said. "I can do it now, if that's all right."

"It's fine," Jesse said. "We've done all the fingerprint and blood work here, but I'm not releasing the scene completely until tomorrow morning. I want to give it one more look."

"We'll stay out of your way until tomorrow," Eleanor said. "In fact, we should all go now."

Eleanor headed for the door, and the others filed behind her, like a rock star's entourage. But my attention had turned to the hole in the wall. I walked over and examined the space.

"What?" Jesse was suddenly behind me.

"The hole… it's larger," I said.

"You remember the size?" He looked at me, a bit impressed, maybe, but mostly skeptical.

"Yes," I said. "Marc and I discussed it. I remember it was about the size of an orange. It's bigger now, grapefruit size, maybe."

"Well, you know your fruits," he said lightly, but he bent down and examined the hole more closely.

"Are you coming?" Eleanor called back to me.

"In a second," I said. Then Jesse and I both turned and followed the others out of the shop as Tom came back in with a large roll of brown paper.

Tom felt he would need two weeks, with one helper, to complete work on the shop. I agreed to supervise the work while Nancy helped my grandmother out at the makeshift shop at her house. helped my grandmother out at the makeshift shop at her house.

"We have some work to do," she said to the ladies as she exited the shop. Then she told them about Tom's extra charge for the work. "Construction on this place starts tomorrow morning, and then it's a race to see if we finish before Tom. I don't want to give him any excuse for delays."

"I say we keep it simple, maybe small squares in color-wash effect, greens, yellows, pinks, purples… a kind of Monet's garden," said Nancy, immediately sketching out a quilt on the back of an envelope. "If you all work on that, maybe Eleanor and I can applique flowers and vines along the borders."

Everyone had gathered around to see her design, and then just as quickly they dispersed to their cars, ready to get started.

"We should get to Eleanor's and pick the fabrics," said Maggie.

"Natalie," Jesse called out. "Can I speak with you a second?"

Natalie stopped and turned to Jesse. "Sure," she said nervously. "What for?"

"Just a quick question."

"Well, we'll wait," said her mother, Susanne.

"That's not necessary," Jesse said firmly. "I can drop her at Eleanor's."

Susanne took a long look at her daughter, then climbed into her car. Ryan was all but kidnapped by Bernie, who insisted repeatedly that he join her for the ride over. After a few protests, he went along.

Eleanor was taking her time walking toward our car. The hard-nosed businesswoman of a minute before suddenly seemed tired and fragile.

"Just give me a minute, dear," she said. "Maybe this has all been too much for me."

So while Tom took measurements in the shop, Eleanor leaned against the car as if she needed to catch her breath and Barney and I stood by, waiting. I watched as, inches away from me, Jesse moved close to Natalie.

"Where did you go the other night?" Jesse asked.

"Home," she said quickly.

"Not according to your husband. And why didn't you return my calls yesterday?"

"I was busy," she said, even more quickly.

"Try again," Jesse almost snapped, in an uncharacteristic show of emotion.

"After what happened I went for a walk," Natalie said, her voice quivering. "I could hardly go home. I needed time to… grieve, I guess."

I watched Jesse blink slowly, deliberately. "Where did you walk?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know where you walked? You've lived in this town your entire life."

"So what?"

"It's not much of an alibi, Natalie," he said coldly.

"Do I need an alibi?"

"Yes, I think you do, considering your history with Marc."

Marc, I suddenly realized, was the man with whom Natalie had had the painful affair my grandmother mentioned-not an old boyfriend from before her marriage but an old boyfriend from a time when she, like me, had been vulnerable. And maybe Marc had been taking advantage of her, as Jesse suggested he was about to do with me. My mind was racing and I leaned toward Jesse and Natalie unconsciously, only to pull back when I saw Jesse look over at me.

"I have to go to Eleanor's now," Natalie said stiffly.

"We'll drive you," I found myself saying, not even pretending I wasn't eavesdropping.

"Thanks," said Natalie, and she hopped into the back of the car.

Jesse paused, then stepped toward my grandmother. "Feeling better, Eleanor?" he said without obvious sarcasm but with a tone that suggested he didn't quite believe her need for rest.

"Yes, thanks," she said, and smiled. With a sudden burst of energy she got herself into the car.

Jesse looked at me, his face slightly flushed.

"Are you okay?" I asked, and then felt intrusive.

He nodded. Then he turned and walked back toward the shop without saying anything else.

In the car on the way back to the house, Natalie burst into tears and sobbed, "He hates me."

"Who hates you?" I asked, but Eleanor touched my hand to quiet me.

"Don't let him get to you, dear," she said to Natalie.

"I'm not a perfect person. I admit that," Natalie said. "But I did my best. I really did."

"Of course you did," Eleanor said soothingly. "Jesse is just very sensitive on the subject."

"It was hard on me too," Natalie said through her tears.

"Of course. It was a terrible thing," Eleanor said. "But you can't take it so personally."