Page 177 of The Seven Rings
“Molly’s room, right?”
“Yes.” Sonya leaned against Trey. “I finished going through the ballroom, and when I took a look in here, it all started rolling.”
She pulled him out again. “And this one? Clover let us know through the Beatles, this is Rita’s.”
“‘Lovely Rita,’ meter maid?”
She laughed at Owen. “Got it in one. Then since we really don’t know Rita, she gave us a clue with the Beatles again. ‘When I’m Sixty-Four.’”
“So an older woman.” Cleo chimed in. “We found that rocking chair, the table, the lamp. And we went with that landscape—one of Collin’s—and the longer rectangular rug works with it.”
“You’ve been busy,” Trey observed.
“And not done yet. Next room, she stuck with the Beatles for ‘Eleanor Rigby.’”
She gestured into the room with its curvy armchair and little footstool, the square mirror.
“Since the washstand’s over here, and the armoire there, we went with the still life for that wall.
“We’ve got a bathroom across I’d want to update, but keep old-timey in style,” Sonya continued. “And…” She lifted her hands. “Lots of rooms and possibilities.”
Hands on hips, Cleo gave the room a look of satisfaction.
“It struck as obvious, female servants up here, males down below.”
“Yes, more servants’ quarters downstairs, and I hope we find Jerome’s, but Collin took most of those for the theater and the gym.”
“Good start, solid progress,” Cleo said. “And we’ll keep it up, but right now, I’m ready for food.”
As they started out, Sonya tipped her face up to Trey’s. “I’ve figured out what I want in the ballroom, how I want to set that up. And more, that I need to hire John Dee and at least one other burly guy to help move things out, things in.”
Owen let out an exaggerated sigh. “Thank God for that.”
“I’m going to measure, draw it out on graph paper to be absolutely sure.”
“I’m going to add thank God we’ve got a graphic artist on it.” Treyskimmed a hand down Sonya’s ponytail. “And that it makes you so damn happy.”
She stopped on the third floor. “It does make me happy. I know she’s not going to be quiet for long. I’ve got that pattern. But the happier I am, the more I know I can fight back. And the more we bring the manor to life, the less it’s hers and the more it’s ours.”
Cooler days passed in the quiet, so Sonya took advantage of the lull. She started work an hour early to justify shutting down an hour early. With that hour she worked on the servants’ quarters.
Since Molly took care of cleaning, she carried tables, chairs, lamps, arranged, rearranged.
When the day came to turn her vision for the ballroom into reality, she stood with Cleo, Trey, Owen, John Dee, Manny, and Bree.
“I know it’s a lot,” Sonya said.
“It’s a giant mountain of lot.” Bree put her hands on her hips. She had a black cap over her bright red hair and wore a baggy sleeveless Metallica T-shirt that showed off her tats.
“A chunk of the giant mountain stays.”
Manny adjusted his Buddy Holly glasses, tossed back his flop of hair. “Which chunk?”
“Okay, anything with blue stickies goes in the attic, red stickies go in the basement, I tagged the yellows for specific rooms, and the whites stay here.”
John Dee gave her his easy smile, scratched his beard. “You’re an organized soul, aren’t cha?”
“Oh,” Cleo confirmed, “she is. She is.”
