Familiarity erupted in his eyes.“Oh yeah, the horse guy.Nice to meet you.”
“You … sew, Ansel?”Danica asked, a hint of humor in her voice.
Ansel, a tall, broad, blond behemoth, shook his shaggy head and sat back down after releasing my hand.“No.But I knit and crochet.I grew up with my mom and grandma, and they taught me.So when I found out they did more than just sew in this group, I asked if I could join.”
Sunflower patted his enormous shoulder.“Ansel is very talented.Has made some beautiful afghans.”
Ansel beamed and pulled out some yarn, knitting needles, and the start of a brown and bluesomethingfrom his bag.The guy couldn’t be a day over forty, if he was that.But the way he just settled in with the women, knitting away, was actually pretty remarkable.
“Ansel is the fire chief for the volunteer fire department,” Danica said to me.“He also runs the recycling and waste management pickup.”
“Just a garbage man who knits,” Ansel said with a half-smile that brought out a big dimple on his shaved face.
I was so distracted by this enormous man who knitted with all these older women that I almost forgot why I was standing there in front of them all until Danica nudged me.
I cleared my throat.“Signore,and Ansel,” I started, “I want to …”
Everyone blinked up at me, waiting.
“I want to extend my apologies to you, Jolene, if I came across as less than welcoming.I am so used to my privacy, to protecting the animals.”
A few heads bobbed in understanding.
“I want to do better for the island.Something that keeps me and the animals comfortable, but also shows the community that we are …opento them saying hello to the animals at the fence.”
One of Jolene’s very thin eyebrows rose a little.
“Do any of you happen to remember Arthur and Libby McIsaac?”
I could see on their faces that everyone but Ansel knew exactly who I spoke of.
“Libby was part of this group,” Hattie said, her voice rattling out as she reached a trembling hand for her cup of tea and took a sip.“Miss her every day.”
More heads bobbed.
“Terrible thing that happened to them all.Losing Erin like that,” Gertie added.
“Erin was my wife,” I said past a tight throat.
A few of them actually looked shocked.
“Is that how you came to be on the property?”Kitty Barrington, who owned the island apiary, asked.“I knew it passed to Libby and Arthur’s grandson, but we all thought he was just renting it out to you.Youmarried Erin?”
“Si.And my son is the owner of the property.However, he has a life in Milan and does not want to live here.So I am fulfilling his mother’s wish to run an animal rescue sanctuary, where neglected and mistreated animals can live out their golden years in peace.”
Sunflower elbowed Jolene on the other side of her.“I told you there was a reason he doesn’t want people bugging the animals.They’ve been through enough.”
Jolene rolled her eyes, but managed to look a little chastened.
“We will find a balance,” I said.“However, I … I need your help.Arthur’s sister—”
A few of them sneered.Particularly the very wrinkly woman on the other side of Jolene, with the pure white hair, ice-blue eyes, and dirt-stained fingertips.
“God, she was a nasty thing, even as a child,” Gertie said, shaking her head.“Miserable and entitled.Toogoodfor us here.Left as soon as she could, and I’m not sure she ever returned.”
“Millicent was certainly not someone who carried muchvaluein things without a definitive price tag,” the white-haired woman said.
“Keturah,” Danica said, addressing the white-haired woman, “Millicent wants the property Tom is on.Her son, Vincent Corcan, has been harassing Tom for a while now.He’s lawyered up and is threatening a petition of land acquisition, stating that Tom has no right to live on the land when he isn’t a McIsaac.”
