Carla Neggers - That Night on Thistle Lane

Who could have predicted such a thing?

She wanted to know more before she told anyone. Who had set up the room? Who had worked there, left everything behind? Why?

Did anyone else know about it?

She’d started volunteering at the library as a teenager and working there in college, and she’d never heard a word about a hidden attic room.

Finally she said, “Everyone’s been going through trunks and boxes in closets and attics for the fashion show. It’s been loads of fun so far.”

Olivia nodded. “I helped Gran load up her car trunk with old clothes from her and her friends. They’re all getting a kick out of the idea.”

“I can think of several dresses that would be perfect for a costume ball,” Phoebe said. “Two in particular. I’m not positive about sizes, but we can alter them if we need to.”

“Easier to take in a seam than let one out,” Maggie muttered.

“If we need to let out seams, we could add a strip of similar or contrasting fabric,” Olivia said. “It’s a costume ball. No one’s going to kick us out if our costumes are a little quirky.”

“You’ll be wearing masks, too,” Phoebe said.

“Ah, yes. Plausible deniability.” Olivia grinned, obviously liking that idea. “No one else has to know it’s me trying to pass myself off as Audrey Hepburn.”

“Not as Audrey Hepburn herself,” Phoebe amended. “As one of the characters she played.”

Olivia laughed. “Well, that just makes all the difference, doesn’t it? Hey, if one of these outfits works, I’m all for it.”

“Me, too,” Maggie said, with somewhat less confidence. “You’re sure it’s all right? We won’t be stepping on anyone’s toes borrowing a couple of the dresses?”

“It’ll be fine,” Phoebe said, leaving it at that. “Why don’t you come by my cottage later? We can open a bottle of wine and you can see if the dresses work for you.”

“What about you, Phoebe?” Olivia asked. “You have to come with us now. We can’t go off to the ball like the wicked stepsisters and leave you sweeping the ashes out of the fireplace. Dylan left a half-dozen tickets. No one will use them if we don’t.”

Whenever Olivia mentioned Dylan, Phoebe could see how very much her friend was in love with him.

A happy ending.

Phoebe’s favorite books and movies were ones with happy endings, and she welcomed a real-life romantic happy ending, as rare as it could be.

She waved off a bee that had found its way to her. “It’s very generous of Dylan. A neonatal ICU is a great cause, and it’ll be a wonderful night for everyone, I’m sure, but I can’t go.”

“Why not?” Maggie asked, obviously skeptical.

“I have things to do.” Phoebe glanced at her watch and winced. It really was later than she expected. “I have to get back to the library. I have story hour, but I’ll be home by six if you want to come by then.”

“We’ll be there,” Olivia said, then turned to Maggie. “I guess I shouldn’t speak for you.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Maggie said. “I want to see these dresses and I need a costume.”

Aware of her sister’s eyes on her, Phoebe offered to help clear the table of the iced-tea glasses and plates of tarts they had sampled for possible addition to the Carriage Hill catering menu, but Olivia shooed her away. “You need to get to story hour. The kids will get restless if you’re late.”

“An understatement,” Phoebe said with a smile as she snatched a tiny apple-pear tart. “This one’s my favorite, but they’re all fabulous. I’m off. I’ll see you later.”

Instead of going back through the house and disturbing Olivia’s dog, Buster, asleep in the mudroom, Phoebe followed a bark-mulch path through basil, oregano and dill plants soaking up the summer sun, then crossed a patch of shaded lawn and went around the side of the house to the front yard.

She had the door open to her Subaru, which she’d owned since she’d started commuting to the University of Massachusetts in nearby Amherst, when her sister burst out from the kitchen ell, a later addition to Olivia’s old house. Phoebe didn’t have a chance to get into the car before Maggie flew down the front walk and caught up with her.

“Phoebe, what on earth is wrong with you?”

She knew exactly what her sister was getting at. “I pay my own way, Maggie. You know that.”

“It’s not as if Dylan offered to pay off your mortgage for you. The tickets are his donation to a worthy cause. It looks good if the ball is well attended. It’s great publicity for the neonatal ICU and what it does, and it gets other people thinking about giving. Everyone wins.” Maggie sighed at her older sister. “We can’t be grinds all the time.”

“I’m not a grind,” Phoebe said. “I love what I do. I have fun—”

“And you live within your means and never take a false step,” Maggie finished for her, then winced. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”

“It’s okay. It’s just...” Phoebe stared at the tiny tart in her hand, suddenly wishing she had left it on the table. “It’s a slippery slope, wanting more than you can have, but I take lots of false steps. We all do. I’m not being morally superior.”

“Oh, Phoebe, I know. You’re the kindest person in Knights Bridge. Probably in all of New England.” Maggie’s rich turquoise eyes shone with emotion. “I just don’t want you to miss out on a good time.”

“Dressing you and Olivia for a masquerade will be a great time,” Phoebe said, smiling at her sister. “I have to go. Those boys of yours will be tearing up the library.”

Maggie groaned. “They’ll be full of energy after spending the day with Mom. She lets them do whatever they want. When I picked them up yesterday, they were helping her muck out the goat barn. Knee-deep in you-know-what. I wouldn’t care except they didn’t have a change of clothes. I’ll never get the smell out of my van.”

“It’ll wear off in time but you probably don’t want catering clients to get a whiff.”

“No kidding.”

Phoebe commiserated even as she was amused at the image of her mother and her young nephews. “I’ll see you in a little while. I hope I wasn’t rude to Olivia—”

“You weren’t, and she’d understand if you were. Don’t worry. She’s trying to figure out things herself. This is new territory for her. For Dylan, too. He never pictured himself living in a little town like Knights Bridge until he met Olivia. He obviously still loves San Diego, too.” Maggie stepped back from Phoebe’s car and waved a hand. “They’ll figure it out. I should have such problems.”

“What would you do with a fortune like Dylan has?”

Her eyes flashed with humor. “Get someone to paint my house. I hate ladders.”

Phoebe laughed as she climbed into her car, but she also felt a pang of uncertainty about what was next for Dylan and his millions, and what it would mean for quiet, picturesque Knights Bridge.

She left her car windows open and drove back toward town. She could smell the clean, cool water of a stream that ran along the edge of the narrow road. Carriage Hill was the last house on the dead-end road, two miles from the Knights Bridge village center. The road hadn’t always been a dead end. Once it had wound into the heart of the picturesque Swift River Valley. That was before four small valley towns were depopulated in the 1930s and deliberately flooded to create Quabbin Reservoir. The reservoir now provided pure drinking water for metropolitan Boston.

Boston must have seemed so far away back then.

It seemed far enough away now. Barely two hours, but so different from her life in Knights Bridge. She’d never lived anywhere else. Olivia and Maggie had both lived in Boston for a few years before returning to their hometown, Olivia in March, Maggie last fall. Phoebe’s biggest move had been from her mother’s house—or madhouse, as she and her sisters would say fondly—to her own place on Thistle Lane. It was a cottage, really. Perfect for just her. She could even walk to her job at the library.