Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
I watched Miss Martha with Claudia and Aunt Ophelia, waiting for a break in the conversation so I could give them their instructions before I went to get Nicky and Savannah. I didn’t think Miss Martha spent that much time with Ophelia and Claudia, but there’d been a few afternoons I sent up a tea tray and gave the kids and the ladies their tea together in the sunroom.
Aunt Ophelia had declared that the boys needed to learn some manners. I suspected Ophelia and Claudia both wanted grandchildren, but were willing to settle for a crew of sort-of grand nephews.
The women must have hit it off because they’d asked to have tea together regularly since that first experiment. Their openness to Miss Martha still surprised me. I was too used to my father’s disdain for anyone he considered staff. I liked that the rest of the family didn’t share his attitude.
Maybe they were taking Griffen’s cue. Griffen treated Miss Martha like a surrogate mother. Definitely not like a member of staff. When I thought about it, it was the same way he treated Savannah. Not that he treated Savannah like a mother. More like a sister or something. It made sense, I guess, since she’d been a kid when he left, just like me.
“Let me see what you’ve got there, Finn,” Aunt Ophelia said, shaking me out of my mental wanderings.
I handed both her and Claudia their trick-or-treat bags filled with goodies. “Oh, you got some of Daisy’s truffles!” Claudia noticed.
“Am I the only one who didn’t know about Daisy’s truffles?” I asked.
“She popped by the other day when she got back from the bakery and had tea with us,” Aunt Ophelia explained. “She has a hand with chocolate.”
“I’ll say,” Claudia agreed. “Those champagne truffles were divine. We have to go to town tomorrow and pick up some more.”
She and Claudia smiled at each other before Ophelia continued. “Wonderful idea,” Aunt Ophelia said before looking back to me. “I didn’t mean the candy. I want to know what that is.” She pointed to the scavenger hunt map in my hand.
“Oh, yeah. So we have the trick-or-treating upstairs, and whoever’s at the last door will also have a map.” I held up the map drawn with bright colors and clues I hoped weren’t too obvious.
“Finn Sawyer, what have you done?” Miss Martha exclaimed, plucking the map from my hand and examining it. “This is wonderful!”
I shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m not much of an artist, but I hid some things downstairs. I thought it would be fun since he doesn’t get to do the apple bobbing or the haunted maze or any of the other stuff.”
“You’re a very kind man,” Miss Martha murmured.
I shook my head, keeping my opinions to myself. What Miss Martha didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. If I started in on all the reasons I was a shithead, she’d only disagree. Miss Martha had always liked me. God knows why.
If she knew the things going through my head about her daughter . . . But she didn’t, and she never would. She’d probably murder me in my sleep. I didn’t want to lose one of the few allies I had around here.
“What a sweet idea,” Claudia exclaimed, beaming up at me.
“Let me see that,” Aunt Ophelia demanded, holding out a hand.
Miss Martha gave her the map and turned to me. “Nicky’s going to love it, Finn.”
I shrugged, wanting to squirm under the eyes of the three older women staring at me, brows raised.
“You always were a clever boy, Finn. And a sweet one,” Aunt Ophelia said, sending me a beaming smile. Claudia and Miss Martha nodded, smiling along with her.
“Nicky will be thrilled,” Claudia added. “You’ve saved Halloween.”
I actually felt the heat of a blush hit my cheeks. Okay, that was enough of this. I was going to have to throw a head-chef-style tantrum or something just to get my equilibrium back.
It wasn’t a big deal. I was sliding the kid some candy and giving him an excuse to wear his costume. I wasn’t a saint or anything.
I wasn’t sweet, for fuck’s sake. I’d never been sweet. I’d been a pain in the ass as a kid. Claudia hadn’t been around, but Aunt Ophelia and Miss Martha knew the truth. I’d been in trouble all the time.
Didn’t they remember?
I’d been kicked out of Laurel Country Day for setting the headmaster’s office on fire.
I wasn’t sweet.
I didn’t have the heart to remind them I was still the same Finn they’d always known. Anyway, it was time to get Nicky and get things moving along. I still had to feed everyone after we gave Nicky his Halloween adventure.
Clearing my throat, I said, “Yeah. Anyway, Nicky’s going to head up in a few minutes.” Turning to Claudia, I asked, “Do you mind going back to your room? So he has more doors to knock on.”