They were in the kitchen. It was a room that Billy had cared nothing about. Barbara had said it was so decrepit it was a health hazard. “Billy!” she’d yelled one day. “Next hurricane, open the kitchen door and let it sweep this away.” He’d just laughed.
But now it was modern and beautiful. “Wow,” was all Rachel could say.
Quinn puffed up his chest a bit. “Dad got the cabinets from a house he remodeled. The woman didn’t like maple and wanted black. He said he’d have them painted but she wanted all new.”
Rachel and Quinn exchanged looks of agreement on the absurdity of that. “But it worked out. I like the cabinets. And you kept the table.” She ran her hand over the gash in it. “I remember when Kate did that. I thought Lea was going to call the sheriff.” She looked at Quinn. “Is Kate still around? She’d be grown up now.”
“Yeah, she is. Dad said she and Jack are sort of engaged.”
“Sort of?”
Quinn shrugged. He had no idea what that meant.
He started to lead her through the house, but she knew it so well that she went first. The smell of paint was strong, and all the furniture had that look of brand-new, never been sat on. Besides the new things, there was art from around the world. A huge toad made of jade, Chinese embroideries, divine rugs everywhere.
“This is beautiful,” she said. “I always hated the old furniture. I think James Lachlan thought it was what rich people had.”
“He was rich.”
“But not born into it. There’s a difference,” Rachel said.
They went through every room on the ground floor. The little library had been stocked with books on history, and the office had a big oak desk. Before Quinn showed her how to open the door leading down to the cellar, she did it. She wanted to test her memory of the house.
It was an hour before they finished. They couldn’t go upstairs, not with Quinn’s father up there, but Rachel didn’t want to leave. She was a believer in houses feeling the spirit of their owners. When Billy was in charge, it had been a place to show off. Now it felt like a home.
She looked at Quinn. “I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. Would you like one?”
He was a teenage boy. Of course he was hungry. With a grin, he nodded at her and they went back to the kitchen.
She was happy to see that the big new stainless steel refrigerator was fully stocked. As she put six slices of bread on the flat grill, a wicked thought came to her. This might be her only chance to see something that had intrigued her for years. “When I was here,” she said slowly, “Billy kept one room upstairs closed off. No one was allowed to enter it.” That wasn’t quite true; onlyshehad been excluded from it.
Quinn looked blank.
“It was Mr. Lachlan’s private den and it wasn’t to be touched.”
“Oh,” Quinn said. She’d poured hot tomato soup into a tall mug and he drank it in one gulp. “That’s the movie room. Jack told us hands off. Dora cleaned it but it’s the same. I like the wallpaper.”
“Oh?” She pulled popcorn out of the microwave. “I bet it’s pretty.” She put the sandwiches, popcorn, more soup, and glasses of ginger ale on a big tray. When Quinn reached for a sandwich, she pulled the tray back a bit. “I wonder what the movies are.”
“Old VHS. Nothing new.”
Rachel sighed. “I bet no one today knows how to work a VHS machine.”
“I do,” Quinn said, and again reached for a sandwich. But this time when she held it back, he understood. “We can take this upstairs and watch an old movie.”
“What a great idea.” Rachel smiled sweetly at him.
He carried the tray and she followed him, pleased with herself for arranging to see the “secret room.” Billy had been such a jerk about it, saying she was too young to go in there. She might destroy something.
The old-fashioned room was better than she’d imagined. No wonder James Lachlan had retreated to it. There was a big couch, and Quinn set the tray on the leather ottoman before digging in. As she looked over the movies in their thick plastic cases, she came to one that had a cover that was nearly worn through. She pulled it out.Only Oncewas the title. When she saw that it came out in 1946, a mere two years after what Billy dramatically called “James Lachlan’s Year of Death,” she wanted to see it.
Quinn was busy eating, so Rachel popped the tape into the machine and turned out the room lights. It was a black-and-white movie starring Taylor Caswell. “Never heard of him,” she said, and Quinn looked at her as though to say he’d never heard of a movie not in color.
When the young actor came onto the screen, Rachel did a double take. “He looks like Roy.”
“Looks like Jack,” Quinn said sleepily.
“I guess when you get down to it, all TDH look alike.” He was starting to nod off and didn’t ask what TDH was. “Tall, dark, and handsome,” she murmured, and settled back to watch.
