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It really had been neglected For a moment she felt al that had once been so grand and beautiful had fallen into such a state
The boards of the stairs creaked wearily beneath her feet as she climbed the three steps to the covered porch and took a key fro carefully, Abby silently prayed that the floor was ter the key into the lock and pushing the solid wood door open with the groan of long-unused hinges Hesitantly Abby stepped inside, searching along the wall for a switch in the dioodness the arrangements to have the poitched on before her arrival had been a success
The place was strangely silent and her shoes made hollow sounds on the hardwood floors as she went farther inside She shivered With the house shut up and all the curtains closed, it reminded her of a tomb
The first thing she needed to do was get solow of the wall sconces barely penetrated the dust and stale air She entered the roo roo the heavy brocade curtains wide and tying theap and she went to the next , and the next, until the rooh the dusty s
Turning around to finally get a good look at the roo table and chairs, which she’d only seen in outline, were now clearly visible and utterly nificent, ornately carved, and even under the layer of dust she could see they had to be real any The table could easily seat a dozen A set like this would have cost a fortune Worth even more now if it was as old as she suspected
Who on earth were the Fosters? And why had this all been kept a secret frorandmother had barely made ends meet
A fireplace with a white raced one end of the roole, fra over the silver fralass The wo dark hair and full lips Her dress appeared to be chiffon, cut in a vee at her throat, a necklace of oval stones at her neck Even in the black-and-white photograph her skin see chair with a baby dressed in unending ruffles cradled in her arms
Abby turned the fraers on the edge of the paper There was nothing written on the back, no indication of who the woman was or when it was taken Disappointed, she put the picture back inside and placed it precisely in its spot on the mantel Was this Marian? Perhaps Marian’s er at being left in the dark about her own farandmother had been very, very close How could Gra as a fahter?
Shaking off her melancholy, Abby turned her attention to the rest of the roo above the fireplace and it reflected an unlit chandelier over the table For a briefsounds of silver on china and crystal She’d figured out that the Fosters had been well off when she’d seen the value of the estate But this … this was living on a grand scale
Eager to explore now, she made her way back to the wide hall There was another chandelier here, prettier than the last It would be gorgeous all lit up, but on closer exahts within were oil and that it hadn’t been wired for electricity It seemed a shame to waste its beauty simply because it was stuck in the past
Across the wide hall she found what could only be called a drawing roo an irrepressible need to let light into all the dark corners There see heavy and dark, like a terrible secret
It was just her overactive iination, she chided herself She turned her attention to the fireplace, identical to the one in the dining roo if each room had one and if they still worked It probably wouldn’t be safe to light a fire anyway Birds or bats or so She hated bats
Abby returned her attention to the space around her It was too for room, and the warm yelloalls were in dire need of a fresh coat of paint The furniture was old and frayed around the edges but she could tell it had been opulent in its day An upright piano was pushed against one wall and she went over and lifted the cover, her fingers pushing a few keys as she played an arpeggio A tinny, twangy sound erupted fro She shut the cover again with a shudder as the dissonant notes echoed uncoh the air
According to the records, Marian had put in central heating in the sixties, and the house had been coaze took in the scarred floors and dingy rugs, not to mention the faded and chipped paint, she was at least thankful for that Maybe the ht now it looked as if it had been forgotten Discarded It would take a lot of work and a lot of Marian’s et it into marketable shape It orse than she’d feared It didn’t just need tidying up It needed fixing
Abby went back to the main hall Past a small powder room was a kitchen with modern appliances—modern compared to the rest of the house, at least There was a four-burner stove and a refrigerator that sat quietly The fridge and stove were the only concessions to modernity There was no microwave, no dishwasher The tile floor was faded and the walls were painted a very dated—and dowdy—avocado green