They walked through the other door in the kitchen through a hallway with celestial night wallpaper and star sconces on the walls. They passed one door and Ursula murmured, "No, not this one." They paused in front of another to which she shook her head and at the third door they stopped, two women and one horse-dog, waiting for Ursula to decide. When she decided with a firm nod she turned the bronze and crystal knob, pushing it open to reveal a perfectly cottage-like room. "Here we go. Perfect. Well done," she said with a smile and Eloise wondered if her friend was talking to anyone in particular, but then she stepped inside the room and stared with an open mouth.
The floors were wide-plank honeywood with woven rugs of yellow and copper. The bed was a large four-poster of antique wood that matched the bedside table and the long dresser with a large, ornate mirror. The bedding was all fresh cream and plush with so many pillows she wanted to jump on them letting them swallow her, and a dark caramel thickly woven throw was carefully placed over the foot of the bed. The walls were the most delicious buttercream yellow. And anyone who has decided to decorate and especially paint with yellow knows, picking out the right yellow that doesn't look green, or like too-bright egg yolk is a difficult task. This was just the touch of yellow, like the creamy paint took on the whispered suggestion of lemon kisses.
The ceiling was a cream-painted wood beadboard that sloped up slightly into a point meeting the large windows, with stained color trimming each top with a brown stained glass tree taking up one half of the pane. It was historic and charming.
A rounded arch doorway led into a white-tiled bathroom with a warm wood vanity and gold-framed mirror with perfectly plump peach towels and a claw-foot tub that any woman would groan over.
"This room is...it's perfect. I would pick out everything in this room," she said in wonder as she walked around takingin the details. There was a wide and shallow cream bowl that sat empty on the dresser and a peachy pink vase standing tall with branches sticking out of it. Three jarred candles in various shapes and sizes smelled of mossy oak, vanilla cupcake and one was simply calledstarlight. There was a collection of six books standing sandwiched between two stone book ends in the shape of women dancing. She leaned down frowning as she read the titles then turned back to Ursula. "These are all on my to-read pile. All of them," she said with awe.
Ursula's face simply said it was normal. "Yeah, so this house is different, like I said. It kind of takes on the characteristics and needs of the tenants and its visitors." She leaned next to where Eloise stood and turned a raised eyebrow at her. "Is that a romance with the male lead as a shark?"
Eloise nodded her head slowly. "It is." When Ursula's raised eyebrow inched up further she shrugged. "Kind of a joke. Told one of my workers I'd give any book a try."
"Are you going to read it?" she asked with a laugh.
"Absolutely," she replied with sharp honesty.
"You're afraid of sharks."
Another slow nod. "Yep. Going to be one of the rockiest romances I've ever read," she replied seriously. "But, I am a woman of my word."
Her friend cocked her head with an old smile. "That you are." She looked around the room and nodded after taking it in. "The house did well. If I had walked in here yesterday and found this..." she shook her head with a sadness.
Eloise nodded, thinking to the articles she had found on her friend when she looked her up in Florida. There was mention of this house and its peculiarities, but from what she could find, that wasn't so uncommon in this strange town.
"Do you remember coming here and thinking that surely if magic existed anywhere, it would be here?"
Eloise tilted her head at the memory. Ursula had a habit of straightening her hair daily until that trip when she found the charm in its wildness. Then out of college she wore it shorter, straight and polished.
"Yeah, I do. That was an amazing trip."
What they didn't say out loud was that it had been their last trip together. Before everything went to dust. Eloise looked around at the lovely room and sighed deeply.
"Thank you," she said softly and Ursula hugged her, holding her pieces together.
She breathed in the scent of her friend. Sea salt and vanilla. She was going to start crying again. She wasn't sure her body could handle that much dehydration, so she pulled away.
"How about you take a hot bath? There will be everything you need. I'll finish dinner and you come out whenever you're ready."
Eloise sat on the puffy bed as the door clicked shut and she let out a breath. A bath sounded like heaven. She found peach blossom bubble bath and a jar of homemade dried lavender bath salts under the sink and soon the room was filled with the thick warmth of hot water and fragrant bubbles. She sank into the water, the tickling fingers of it running down her body giving her the most delicious shivers. Tension was pulled out of her as she closed her eyes and let the water do its magic.
A heavy, peach-colored robe was hanging in the closet and she wrapped it around her body before she dug through the suitcase someone had placed on the low, tufted bench at the foot of the bed and pulled on her fleece-lined leggings and a light pink sweater. Her auburn hair she twisted into a clip at the back of her head and she slid on what looked like new slippers, peach colored with a plume of peach feathers on the top, placed lovingly next to a bronze heating vent.
She stepped out of the room following the smells of an autumn dinner and the sounds of women's voices. When she walked into the kitchen five pairs of eyes found her immediately.
3. Dinner Club for Six
Atiny woman somewhere between her forties and sixties, with long silver-white hair and wearing a flowing kimono with matching loose pants stood and outstretched her hands toward where Eloise hovered in the doorway. When the woman pulled her into the room for a hug Eloise smelled sage and thyme with a hint of honeysuckle and home.
The woman pulled back and smiled happily, her eyes crinkling beautifully and said, "Welcome, darling. We are so happy to haveyou. You must like wide open spaces and laughter. I can see it in your face."
Eloise turned a happily curious look toward Ursula who laughed and waved her over to one of the empty green high-back bar stools. She sat next to a young woman, maybe in her early twenties and across from a woman around her age in red cat-eye glasses and a red sweater dress, her silky black hair up in a high ponytail, the ends an ashy blonde. The cat-eyed woman leaned over and slid a dish with a raven on it toward her.
"I'm Tilly. Ursula makes the best bread, and this is a honey sea salt butter."
"Babe, she needs some honey wine," a voice said and Eloise looked at a gorgeous dark-skinned woman who had on a black sweater with her braided hair wrapped into an ornate bun on top of her head. "I'm Jen," she said lifting her amber goblet in the air. "And Ursula has missed you something fierce, so welcome to our little coven."
"Coven?" Eloise asked as she took the offered goblet of honey wine from Tilly and broke off a piece of warm bread.
