Page 51 of The Magical Bed & Breakfast

Kate blinked at him. “What?”

He tilted his head and grinned. “Halloween! Are you ready? Because trick-or-treaters will start arriving in about an hour and a half.”

“Oh, I, yes! I need to get ready.” She jumped up. “I picked up the treats earlier this afternoon. I just need to get dressed and do my hair. I can’t believe I forgot that was tonight!”

“Go get ready. I’ll set the scene down here and then get into costume.”

“Set the scene?”

“You’ll see.”

*

Wondering what Rorymeant by that, Kate dashed upstairs and took a quick shower. She wanted to wash off her day as Katrina. Yes, she was good at that job, but she needed a moment to reset her equilibrium. Tonight was her first staging of the inn for visitors. Even though they wouldn’t be coming inside, she needed to create the right impression. So as she washed away the stress of the day and primped and powdered and transformed herself into an eighteenth century woman, she pondered again what Rory had meant by setting the scene. Twisting her hair into a partial updo with loose curls tumbling down in the back and around her face, she studied herself in the mirror. She used light makeup to enhance her eyes, making them appear large and luminous. She powdered her complexion smooth and lightly rouged her cheeks and added just a touch of pink to her lips.

She stepped back to view herself in the full-length mirror. The sea-blue of the striped gown gave her a sense of calm, despite the tightness of her laces. But she stood tall and took a breath, adjusting the lace at her neck and wrists. With one last touch, she added the lace-trimmed cap to her hair and blinked at her reflection. She belonged to the past dressed like this. She belonged in her inn, her home, the very home that had stood tall for centuries. Oh, how she loved belonging to both past and present.

After lacing up her little boots, she fairly glided down the staircase and caught her breath.

Rory had turned off all the electric lights. The inn was lit solely by candlelight. He had hung lanterns from ceiling hooks along the hallways, and candles flickered as she stepped down the stairs into the foyer. She followed the sound of music to the parlor to find Rory dressed as a rebel soldier, playing classical music on her piano. He must have heard her light steps because he turned and his fingers stilled.

“Breathtaking,” was all he said.

“Thank you. The lighting is…perfection. Surely you don’t plan to play the piano all night?”

“No, I cheated. I made a recording earlier this week.” He clicked his phone, and she could tell it was of him playing her piano.

“That’s lovely. I’ll grab the treats.” Kate glided her way to the kitchen and arranged the cookies that she’d picked up from the tea shop. On a silver platter she arranged molasses crinkles, cinnamon chocolate chip, and pumpkin spice sugar cookies in individual sealed plastic packages with Ivy’s logo on them, hoping the display would be unique and memorable.

“And here I was hoping for full-sized candy bars, and you’ve outdone even that.”

“Well, I had help.” Kate shook her head and grimaced. “Istillneed baking lessons.”

The doorbell chimed. “Oh!” Kate hustled to the door, took a breath, and opened it up.

“Trick or treat!” shouted a tiny fairy princess, Spider-man, and a toddler ladybug. Kate exclaimed over their costumes and let them pick one cookie each before waving to their parents on the sidewalk. And so it began. The door chimed throughout the night, the children getting progressively taller as the evening wore on, transitioning from cute little superheroes to vampires, Freddy Krueger and Ghostface. When the numbers dwindled, and the cookies began to run out about nine, Kate turned out the porchlight and motioned Rory to come back to the kitchen with her. “What would you like? I have two left,” she asked him as she set about brewing a pot of her special tea blend made for the inn. “Pumpkin spice or cinnamon chocolate chip?” When he hesitated, she said, “Really, choose.”

“Chocolate.”

“I didn’t see her hovering tonight,” Kate said, breaking the lighthearted mood.

“I’m hoping Sunny gave up.”

Kate raised a skeptical brow.

“But that’s probably not realistic.”

“You could report her stalking to the police. I’m surprised you haven’t already.”

“Nolan advised against it with that intense look he has, and said it would reflect poorly onmeif it got out. He never seemed worried about the stalker story itself getting out. He always insisted she hadn’t done anything actually threatening.”

“I reviewed the letters and pictures she sent you. This is not a mentally healthy person.” Kate poured, and they sat and sipped. She actually didn’t mind combining her two lives and personas with Rory. It felt right, somehow, discussing his problems. He had certainly aided with hers, and she was enjoying helping with his. After they’d dwelt long enough on his tenuous situation, they slipped back to the front of the inn where he had left the lanterns lit. To soft lighting, and as if in mutual agreement, they both settled themselves comfortably side-by-side on the piano bench.

Kate found herself letting the words of the blessing run through her mind as they played the stanzas. There were several of them, each with a musical interlude in between which was the more difficult part. The four lines from the blessing repeated in her mind each time they played the chorus, and she increasingly felt there must be more words to the song. Still, only the four lines were engraved on the plaque below the statue in the square. Rory was a perfect picture of Captain Hazard tonight. But who was she? Who was Captain Edwin Hazard’s lady love? He must have married which led to Hazel being his descendant. So who was the mysterious woman he married, the one who started the blessing?

Who had he loved? Not Prudence, as she was said to have run off with her British officer. Kate tried to imagine who else the captain’s love could be. And how did the mysterious Selah fit in?

Kate held her breath hoping, images from the past flowing in her imagination. As they neared the closing measures, she found herself wishing it would go on forever, but forced herself to focus on this difficult section. Rory had redone the score, thinking that if they each played the other’s part at the end, it might go smoother.

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