Page 34 of Flippin' Cowboy
“Aha! That explains it!” he exclaimed in satisfaction.
Winnie and the cameras followed his glance up to a bit of original window trim, which had escaped renovation by hiding behind the curtains.
Nick pointed. “See that square-cut casing end? Look at the rosette.”
Winnie squinted up at the decorative detail on the upper left corner of the window trim. “Is that some kind of leaf inside the rosette?”
“Nope.” Nick’s clear gray eyes glowed with excitement. “It’s a dove.”
Winnie looked again. This time she recognized the stylized silhouette of a plump-bodied bird shown in profile, its wings spread as if coming in for a landing.
“It represents asoileddove,” Nick continued. “That’s what Victorians called prostitutes.”
Winnie stared at him in shock. “You mean Caroline’s house—?” she began.
“Was a parlor house, a.k.a. a bordello!” Nick finished triumphantly. “The layout makes sense now. These grand rooms downstairs for entertaining clients with drinks and music while they waited their turn to go upstairs with one of the working girls. And those cubicles upstairs for the girls to, um, ply their trade.”
“Oh, boy,” Winnie said, her mind racing with this revelation. “This is going to be big news in town!” She paused for effect, then continued, “But you’re right, it does make sense. Before the rail line was built, the old stagecoach stop used to be less than a block away. This place would’ve been conveniently located for visitors from out of town.”
“That makes me wonder,” Nick said. “What was Caroline Snowberry’s connection to this place? Instead of building thishouse, maybe she bought it after the bordello went out of business.”
“Let’s call my Grandma Abigail,” Winnie suggested. “And tell her what we’ve found. Maybe she can offer some insights.”
Chapter 12: The House of Ill Repute
“Idon’t think Grandma Abigail is going to be thrilled about this discovery,” Autumn warned.
She had arrived at the house a little while ago to take “before” photos of the house and grab some shots of the demolition work as a teaser for the new show.
“In fact, I think we should do this call off camera,” she continued. “It wouldn’t be fair to ambush her with something like this.”
“Really?” Karla asked, sounding dismayed. “But it’s sointeresting!Almost as good as a haunting.”
“Autumn’s right,” Winnie said. “Our grandmother is very, um, invested in Caroline’s reputation as a town founder. I think we need to give her a heads-up before we film her reaction to the news.”
Karla heaved a resigned sigh. “Okay. You two know her best. But it’s such a dramatic moment to catch on film! It won’t be the same if we have to recreate it later.”
“I know,” Winnie said. “Maybe we can call her now, give her the news, and ask her to come here for her official reaction.”
“That might work,” Karla said thoughtfully. “In-person always works better than trying to film a video chat.”
“This project just got a whole lot more interesting, that’s for sure,” Nick said, wandering over with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.
Karla had halted the demo work and sent everyone on break while she met with Winnie and Autumn.
Showing unexpected tact, Nick had joined the general exodus towards the Jenna’s Java coffee truck parked outside while the three women conferred on the best approach.
Or maybe he just needed a hit of caffeine, thought Winnie. She still didn’t trust the nicer Nick version 2.0.
“All right, let’s do this,” Karla urged.
Winnie pulled out her phone and started her video call app. Autumn and Nick crowded in behind her.
“Hi, Grandma!” Winnie and Autumn chorused as Grandma Abigail appeared on-screen. She was sitting in the living room of her retirement cottage at the ranch. Framed family photographs crowded the wall behind her.
“Good afternoon, my dears,” Grandma Abigail said, beaming at them. “Oh, and there’s Nick, too. Hello there!”
“Hi, Mrs. Snowberry,” he said.
