Margot Dalton - A Family Likeness

“A compass!” he exclaimed, picking up the little object. “Does it work?”

“Of course,” Gina said briskly. “Ah, here’s the key,” she said in relief, sweeping the other things back into her pockets.

“Why do you carry a compass?”

“You never know when you might get lost in the woods around here. A compass is a really handy thing to have.”

His eyes sparkled. “You’re just like a ten-year-old boy. Pockets full of interesting stuff. I like that, Miss Mitchell.”

He handed Gina the compass and she returned it to her pocket, trying hard to look like the mature and professional manager of a successful business. But it had been so unnerving to have him examining that row of objects.

She resolved to clean out all the junk from her pockets as soon as Alex Colton left and to try harder in future to refrain from picking up every interesting thing that caught her eye.

“Is the patio room occupied at the moment?” Colton asked. “I’d hate to barge in on somebody.”

Gina shook her head. “There was a couple here for two days, but they left yesterday morning. I’m afraid they complained to Roger that Annabel was making a lot of noise,” she added.

“Steffi is going to love Annabel,” Colton said with a fleeting grin. “Although,” he added, “there’s a very real danger she might be tempted to sneak some food to the poor thing.”

“Oh, goodness, I hope not.” Gina unlocked the door. “Roger does that all the time. Mary gets very upset with him.”

“I think,” he repeated, following her into the room, “I’m really going to like this place.”

He was immediately charmed by the patio room, which had a curtained window seat, a walk-in closet and a small en suite bathroom.

“Perfect,” he declared. “I’ll take this room, as well as the gold room, all right?”

“You haven’t even asked about the price,” Gina said, leading the way back into the yard.

“I’m sure you’ll be fair.”

Gina paused by the retaining wall and looked up at him. “How can you be sure of that?”

He hoisted himself onto the stone ledge and smiled at her. “Because you carry feathers and a compass in your pocket.”

She hesitated, feeling awkward.

“Sit here with me, Miss Mitchell,” he said, patting the sun-warmed stone beside him. “I do have a few more questions about the hotel.”

“Gina,” she said automatically, settling on the ledge a couple of feet away from him. “We’re all on a first-name basis here.”

“Gina,” he repeated. “And I’m Alex.”

He extended his hand. She shook it, pleased by the strength of his grip.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alex,” she said formally. “I hope you’ll enjoy your stay at Edgewood Manor.”

“Yes,” he said, leaning back, his hands braced against the stone. “So do I. We could certainly use a holiday.”

He closed his eyes in the sunlight. Gina stole a glance at him, once again struck by his look of strain and weariness.

“When will you be arriving?” she asked.

“On the first of July, right at the beginning of the long weekend. I’ll book both rooms for all of July and August, but Steffi might choose to visit a school friend for the first week or two of July, so she’ll arrive later than I do.”

“I see.” Gina wondered why he didn’t say “we.” Maybe his wife would also be staying home until their daughter was ready to travel to Azure Bay. But it seemed odd that he would come by himself, ahead of his family.

“What’s the daily routine here?” he asked, bending to pet Annabel again as she huddled by their feet, nibbling one of her paws disconsolately.

“Well, there aren’t any rules. We serve breakfast at eight o’clock, and Mary leaves fruit and baked goods in the dining room all day for guests who like to nibble. Tea is set out in the library from about four o’clock on. Guests are welcome to build a fire in the drawing room or the library on chilly nights and go anywhere on the property that’s not marked exclusively for staff.”

“How large a staff do you have?”

“Mostly just Mary and Roger and me. But in July and August, our busiest months, I also hire a couple of college girls from town to help out.”

“What about the evening meal?” Alex asked.

“The staff eats here, but we don’t serve anything to the guests. They usually choose to walk or drive into town for dinner. It’s less than half a mile, and there are several restaurants catering to tourists, including a really good seafood place. They also have a Chinese restaurant and a pizza place that both deliver, if you prefer to stay and eat at the hotel.”

“Sounds great.” He glanced up at the vine-covered facade of the old mansion’s other wing. “Can we see the room where you were working from here?”

Gina pointed. “The gold room’s that second-floor balcony up there under the dormer.”

Alex squinted into the sunlight. “Ah, yes. Would there be an electrical outlet on the balcony?”

“No, but there’s an outlet just inside the door. I particularly remember,” she added, “because I had to take the plate off today to paper around it.”

“Good. I’ll probably work out there most days if the weather’s nice.”

“What kind of work?” Gina asked.

“Computer,” he said briefly.

She nodded, not pressing for further details. He seemed reluctant to divulge more.

But then to her surprise he said, “I teach economics at a private college near Vancouver. I plan to do some writing this summer.”

“Will your wife and daughter be able to amuse themselves all day?” she asked. “I’m afraid there’s not a lot going on in the town of Azure Bay—though Kelowna is less than half an hour away, and it’s a good-size resort city.”

“Steffi’s an outdoor girl,” Alex said. “She loves hiking and swimming, and she’s a pretty fair amateur photographer. She’s not the type to hang around malls or video arcades.”

“I see.” Gina paused, thinking about the reality of a two-month stay at Edgewood Manor for anyone unaccustomed to this kind of rural existence. “How about your wife? Is she—”

“My wife is dead,” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry.” Gina glanced at him. He was staring across the lake, his profile cold and unrevealing. “I thought…I was sure you spoke of this holiday as her idea.”

“In a way it was.” He continued to look at the shimmering expanse of blue-green water. “My wife died three months ago after a lengthy illness. When I was going through her papers, I found the brochure about Edgewood Manor.”

“I see.”

“My wife was the one who planned our vacations,” he went on. “I was always too busy to bother with details like that. Besides, she had a flair for finding the perfect place and organizing quirky off-beat holidays that were perfect for us. So when I found that brochure in her desk, I looked on it as a sort of message from her.” He gave Gina a tired smile. “And it seems she was right again.”

“I hope so,” Gina said with gentle sincerity. “I hope you and your daughter enjoy the summer.”

“It’s been hard for Steffi,” he said. “Really hard. I’m worried about her.”

Gina was silent, recognizing his difficulty with talking about his family’s trauma. He was a man who didn’t share his feelings easily.

“She’s at an age where a girl needs her mother,” he went on in a low voice. “It was bad enough for Steffi to lose her, but to watch how terribly Janice suffered at the end…”

He fell silent.

Gina glanced at him again, wanting to reach over and squeeze his hand, or put her arm around him and give him a sympathetic hug. But she kept her hands folded tightly in her lap.