Carla had caught the quilting bug and gotten a second job working at the quilt store to fund her new hobby. Unfortunately, she had lost her job at the vitamin factory Aiden's family owned and was living with her baby in a borrowed van until Harriet convinced Aiden to hire her to be his housekeeper.
'I stayed in my apartment over the clinic until a week ago,” Aiden explained. “I thought it would be better for her to get settled at the house before I moved back in.” He took another bite of pizza, and Aunt Beth waited patiently for him to finish chewing. “The first week I went to check up on her, and at seven o'clock at night she had the baby strapped to her back and was on the third floor scrubbing windows.'
'Poor little thing,” Aunt Beth said.
'So, I told her to restrict her activities to the first floor until we could figure things out. Then she didn't go upstairs at all, and one of the plants in the sitting room up there died and she was in tears over that.” He sighed. “I had no idea how hard this was going to be when I agreed to hire her as a housekeeper.'
'You must have had some idea-your mother had a housekeeper, didn't she?” Harriet asked.
'Of course, no one could take care of that huge house without help. I just didn't pay attention to who did what. And I was in school. I only know who took the garbage out-that would be me. And my sister was supposed to walk the dog, but she never did, so I did that, too.'
'I've got a little time,” Aunt Beth offered. “How about I go over and spend some time with Carla, and we can make a list of what she should do and a list of what things you should hire out. I know who your mama had do her windows and a few things like that.'
'That would be great,” he said with relief. “And could you ask her to stop calling me Mr. Jalbert? And also, when you make the list, you can give me some stuff to do, too. I never expected to have someone wait on me hand and foot. I know my mother still did some stuff around the house even though we had Rose. And like you said, she had other people who did stuff.'
'We'll get things straightened out in no time.'
'One more thing,” Aiden said. “See if you can find out who her new friend is.'
'Does she have a boyfriend?” Harriet smiled.
'Yeah, and he's not from around here.'
'Did you check him out?” Harriet asked.
'No, I didn't check him out. She's a big girl. Besides, I just moved back, and she was already seeing him. If Beth can find something out, that's different.'
Talk turned to Aiden's work and then the upcoming re-enactment. When they had eaten as much pizza and salad as they could, Aunt Beth got up and started clearing the remains.
'I'd better get out of here so you can get that quilt off the machine,” she said.
'I better go, too,” Aiden said. “Carla's friend was supposed to be dropping by tonight while I was at work.'
'Okay,” Harriet said. “I've got to go finish the quilt.'
Aiden brushed his lips over her cheek in a quick kiss and left. She stood at the door looking down the driveway long after his car had rounded the turn and gone out of sight.
How pathetic am I? she wondered.
Aiden had spent months assuring her their ten-year age gap was meaningless, yet here she was wondering what it meant when he rushed off to check on Carla, of all people. In her heart, she knew he wasn't interested in Carla in that way, but an irrational part of her was hurt that he couldn't spare just one minute to kiss her goodbye properly.
Chapter 4
Harriet was in her sunny yellow kitchen the next morning when someone knocked on the studio door. It was barely eight o'clock, and she wasn't expecting any customers.
'Coming,” she called out and set her empty cereal bowl in the sink and ran a splash of water in it before going through the connecting door and unlocking the exterior door.
'Hey, Chiquita,” Connie said as she came in. She held a garment bag in her left hand. “I have your costume ready to try on.'
Connie had volunteered to make Harriet's outfit since Harriet had no free time between making her own quilts and stitching everyone else's. After some discussion, they had agreed Harriet would quilt Connie's charity projects free of charge in exchange for the costume.
'Oh, Connie, I completely forgot you were coming this morning.” Harriet put palm to forehead in a mock smack.
'Is this a bad time?'
'No, I was going to go check on Mavis, but that can wait.'
'This won't take long,” Connie said as she unzipped the bag and pulled out three hangers, each holding an element of the costume.
'The bodice and skirt aren't connected. Since it's hot out, I decided to make two different bodices to go with the skirt so you can have one to wash and one to wear.” She had used simple cotton reproduction fabric in a pale brown that had a small light-blue flower in an all-over print. “Everything was in pieces in those days. Dios mio!” She pulled another hanger out of the garment bag. This one held a pale-blue apron. Clipped to the same hanger were three white cotton collars. “They didn't attach the collar to the shirt, so here are three of those. I was making one for each bodice, but they were so easy to do, I made you a spare.'
'They wore all this stuff every day?'
'This is a simple outfit,” Connie said. “The fancy outfits were much more complicated, with extra petticoats, under-sleeves and cuffs.'
'I could make a lap-sized quilt with the fabric in this skirt,” Harriet said as she pulled it on over her shorts.
'Take your shorts off,” Connie ordered. “The waist has to fit well if it's going to hold all that fabric up.'
'Yes, ma'am.” Harriet wriggled her shorts off under the skirt.
'By the by, chiquita,” Connie said around a mouth full of straight pins. “I went to coffee this morning with your aunt and Jenny and Mavis. It sounded like Mavis is leaving town for a couple of days. Her son in Portland called and said their babysitter had to go to an out-of-town funeral and asked if Mavis could come fill in until she gets back. I think she's going to do it. She told him she needed to be back for the re-enactment.'
'Wow, that's kind of sudden,” Harriet said, mentally scanning her remaining to-do list to see if she had any items with Mavis's name on them. She realized that what she'd needed from Mavis was moral support. Everything else was well on its way to being done.
Connie was just putting the last pins in the hem of the skirt when the door opened and Bebe Brewster came in without knocking, a cloud of designer perfume entering with her.
'Hi, Harriet,” she said. “I need Mavis to remake Carlton 's vest. She dropped it off this morning, way too early, I might add. Anyway, there must have been some mistake.” She pulled a wool vest out of the paper bag she was carrying. “It's all dull and gray.” She held it with two fingers as if it were contaminated then dropped it on a wingback chair. “This won't do. She needs to make another one out of a brighter fabric, something to match my dress.'
'What color is your dress?” Harriet asked, afraid to hear the answer.
'Why, pink, of course. I had a dressmaker in Seattle make it.'
'Men didn't wear pink in Civil War times,” Connie said.
'We don't know that. No one knows what every single person wore back then. I'm sure there was a man somewhere who wore a pink vest, and Carlton is going to be like that man.'
'Well, Mavis went to Portland, so I'm afraid you're out of luck,” Connie said.
'Am I still out of luck if I'm willing to pay you three times what Mavis charged for this thing?” Bebe asked.
'Make it four times, and you have a deal,” Connie said, knowing Mavis had charged a premium price for the first one and afraid of what Bebe might come up with if she
