The Double Wedding Ring (24 page)

T
he bachelor and bachelorette parties were postponed until after the honeymoon so Oliver could rest. Instead, on Thursday night I worked on the double wedding ring quilt for Jesse. I was alone in the shop, and at peace.

I hadn't formally decided to keep it open, and to run it as my own, but I knew that I would. Someday Quilts was my home and my sanctuary. There would be time enough, I told myself, to figure out how I could do it.

I put the last stitch in the quilt just after midnight, left a note for Natalie to quilt it ASAP, and then I locked up. This time I was careful to remember my keys. There would be no more grandma there to rescue me. Eleanor and Oliver were leaving for the new house a week after their honeymoon. They had gotten a scare, and it reminded all of us that life is too short to waste.

I drove to Jesse's house, where he had made dinner. A little over a week had passed since I'd done the same thing. This time the streetlamp was working and there were no unfamiliar cars parked out front.

We still didn't know why Roger had come to Jesse's that night, or where the missing money was—by some estimates more than four hundred thousand of the original sum was unaccounted for—but there were some mysteries that were not mine to solve.

Instead I enjoyed dinner with Jesse and Allie, then went to his computer to work on the slide show of photos for the wedding.

“How do I get these from your desktop to my laptop?” I asked. “It's too big a file to e-mail.”

“Use the zip drive you left here when you brought the photos over,” he said.

“I didn't leave a zip drive.”

Jesse grabbed a blue zip drive from the desk. “This isn't mine,” he said.

“It isn't mine, either.”

He went white. “You don't think?”

“It must be. Where else could it have came from?”

“He was here,” Jesse said. “And he wasn't looking for something. He was leaving me something, just in case. It's been here the whole time. But why wouldn't he leave it somewhere I'd notice it? It could have been here for months. . . .”

“It was right on the keyboard, but I knocked it over,” I admitted. “I guess Roger didn't account for my being clumsy.”

We opened the zip drive, and just as we suspected it contained one file. “For Jesse.” When I tried to open it, I was stopped. “It's asking for a password.”

“I don't know what it could be.”

We sat and thought, when the words Roger had said to Jesse on the night before his wedding came back to me. “Your secret code,” I said.

“Vigiles keep vigil.”

I typed it in, my fingers clumsy and nervous. When I clicked “enter,” the file opened. On it was a letter.

Jesse. I made a mistake. A bad one. I don't know a more honest cop than you, or a truer friend. I'm going to the police with some information. I talked to a lawyer about all of this and he says I'm probably going to prison for a long time. But in case I don't make it, in case something happens, I want to explain two things.

The money I gave you for Lizzie's hospital bills really was from some stocks I sold. On my honor, if that means anything to you. Check my safe-deposit box for the papers that prove it. I've left the money you've paid me back in a trust for Allie. It's honest money and it shouldn't be mixed up with the rest of my mess.

The other thing is that I've learned true love brings out the best in people, not the worst. You had that kind of love once and I hope you will again. It was my mistake not to see this earlier. I don't know if you'll ever speak to me again, but I want you to know that I've missed you. Roger.

Beneath it was the information for a safe-deposit box and the number of a bank account in the Cayman Islands. As Jesse read the words, tears rolled down his face. Just when he thought he'd lost his friend, he'd found him again.

“ I wish—” Jesse started one of those sentences that doesn't need to be finished.

“You found his killer,” I told him. “Vigiles keep vigil.”

“
You
found his killer,” Jesse said.

“We're a great team.”

“Jesse kissed my forehead. “Yes, we are, Nell Fitzgerald, in every way.”

“D
o you, Eleanor, take Oliver to be your lawfully wedded husband as long as you both shall live?” the minister asked.

“I do.”

“And do you, Oliver, take Eleanor to be your lawfully wedded wife for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” he said. “And I intend to be here for a long while.”

We all laughed.

“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

As Eleanor and Oliver kissed, I looked over at Jesse and felt, for the first time in a long time, sure that I was on the right path with my life. In my career, in the town I chose as my home, and in the man I loved.

At the reception, Greg and Kennette danced, and while he was terrible at it, she didn't seem to care. Dru and Charlie held hands even when it made drinking coffee a little complicated, and my parents snuggled in a corner. Even Barney and Patch stuck together, working on ways to get scraps from the table to the floor and their waiting mouths. But the bride and groom took center stage, laughing and talking, and looking every bit like young lovers about to embark on a wonderful adventure.

There was a lot of talk about the case, of course. Jesse had turned over the zip drive to the New York City police, who found the remaining four hundred thousand. In Roger's safe-deposit box was his will, the papers that proved he had sold stocks when Lizzie was ill, and a digital tape recorder. Shortly after the theft, Roger had taped a conversation he and Marshall had had about the money. It was the second “insurance” policy Anna had mentioned to me that day in the shop. The recording gave police everything they needed to charge Marshall. He was barely out of prison, and he'd be going back for a long time. That fact helped me breathe a little easier.

I wandered into the kitchen and saw Patch and Barney playing together with a ball of tinfoil, batting it back and forth. When Barney would trap it between his paws, Patch would jump to retrieve it and be momentarily trapped there, too. But she didn't mind. She rubbed her body against Barney's fur, and he rubbed his snout against hers. I called Barney's name, but he didn't hear me. Patch did, though. She looked up at me, then swatted Barney. The poor, almost-deaf dog looked over, surprised but happy to see me.

“She's going to be his ears,” Eleanor said, sneaking up behind me.

“They do seem inseparable. Which begs the question, are you taking them with you to South Carolina?”

“It would be a lot to ask of old Barney, to adjust to all those new smells and sights. He might be happier here, with you and the town he knows. I don't think he'll miss me too much with you around.”

As if he knew what she was saying, Barney got up and buried his face in Eleanor's dress.

“I think he's decided he'd rather move than be without you for half the year.”

She kissed his head. “Me too, dear one.”

Patch followed Barney to Eleanor's leg, and rubbed against it. It looked like all three of my roommates were heading south for the winter.

After the cake, Eleanor and Oliver got ready to leave for their train trip to Montreal. Susanne, Bernie, Maggie, Natalie, Carrie, and I grabbed the bride and took her upstairs to the sewing room, for the last quilt group meeting that would include all of us—at least until summer.

“We didn't have a chance to give this to you before, because of all the excitement,” Maggie said. “So here.”

We piled quilt after quilt on her lap. Each of us had chosen a special one from the quilts in our own personal stash, and Eleanor oohed and aahed at each. When she got to my blue and white bow tie, she laughed. “I was going to steal this from you, Nell. And now I don't have to.”

Though Eleanor was now nearly covered in quilts, we had one more. On top of the pile, we placed the group quilt we had made.

Eleanor looked at it with amazement, then tears rolled down her face. “I can't pretend I didn't know you were doing something,” she said. “I almost peeked a few times under that muslin Natalie had on the frame but . . .” The tears overwhelmed her. “I just had no idea it would be anything as beautiful as this.”

Finally I gave her my gazebo quilt. “The first pattern of the new company,” she said. “I feel I've inspired an empire.”

“A one-woman empire,” Natalie noted.

“Funny you should say that.” I turned to Susanne. “Susanne, you design your own quilts, don't you?”

“You know I do, Nell.”

“Ever thought of making patterns?”

Susanne looked at me, puzzled. “I thought you were going to do that?”

“I don't want to be a one-woman empire.”

She looked stunned, then hugged me. “I'd be thrilled. And I was thinking, if I help out at the shop a few days a week, maybe I could get in a few lessons from Natalie on how to use that longarm machine.”

Natalie laughed. “You'll have to let me be in charge, Mom.”

“I'll help, too,” said Maggie. “I'm there nearly every day anyway. Might as well be of some use.”

“Carrie and I have a lot of businesses experience,” Bernie said, “so we can show you whatever you need. Anytime.”

“And Greg told me Kennette's thinking of staying in Archers Rest, now that they've become our latest town romance,” Natalie said. “I wonder if she'd like her old job back?”

We talked about what Someday was and what it was turning into. “Just like quilting,” Eleanor said. “It builds on tradition, but it keeps up with the times.”

We were all about to break into tears when Oliver found us and told Eleanor it was time to go.

I walked them down to the car. My parents had volunteered to drive them to the station just a couple of minutes away. I hugged Oliver tightly.

“See you next week,” I said, a tear rolling down my face.

He wiped it away. “We'll have a few days here before the move to South Carolina, so we'll have plenty of time for that. Let us know if you solve any murders while we're gone.”

I smiled. “I'll keep you posted.” Then it was Eleanor's turn. “You're a married lady again,” I said.

“It's funny that it doesn't seem strange,” she said. “Seems the most natural thing in the world. But I suppose when something's right . . .”

“I know what you mean.” This time I couldn't stop the tears, and neither could she.

“I love you, Nell.”

“I love you, too, Grandma.”

“Don't mess up the shop while I'm gone.”

I laughed. “No promises.”

As they drove away, I thought about the day I came to Archers Rest, tired, sad, and feeling very much alone. And now I had a house full of friends, a business to run, a man I loved—and one more quilt to give away.

I went back into the living room and watched the festivities. People were laughing, dancing, helping themselves to a second slice of cake, and sharing a wonderful day. Carrie was doing her best to pile used plates and bring them to the kitchen, but I stopped her.

“I can do that. It's your day off,” I said.

“Nonsense. It's what friends do.” She looked around and whispered. “Did you hear that Glad Warren's husband went to New York on business Thursday and hasn't been seen or heard from since? I was thinking we could look into it for her, kind of informally. Since it's not really a police investigation at this point, I don't think Jesse would mind.”

I laughed. Knowing Glad, her husband had probably just taken a few days to himself for peace and quiet, but on the other hand . . . “Maybe we can get the group together tomorrow to talk over what we know,” I said. Eleanor always said it was good to have a hobby. And now that quilting was becoming my profession, I guessed amateur sleuth could move up to become my favorite pastime.

After a while, I snuck into Eleanor's bedroom, where I'd kept the double wedding ring quilt hidden, rolled it up tightly and held it behind my back. I went back downstairs into the reception looking for its new owner.

“Where've you been?” Jesse found me as I was looking for him.

“Looking around, saying good-bye to Eleanor.”

“Five days,” he said. “It's only five days.”

“And then almost five months,” I pointed out. “Eleanor's been my only family in town since I moved here.”

“We should change that.”

I kissed him. “Wait right here.”

I left a perplexed Jesse and went searching again. This time for Allie. I found her dancing with my mom and dad.

“Come with me,” I said to the little girl.

We went back to her dad, and the three of us stood in a circle, holding hands.

“What's this about?” Jesse wanted to know.

“There's a quilting superstition, or a tradition, I don't remember which. Anyway, if you wrap a newly made quilt around the one you want to marry, you'll be hitched within a year.” As I spoke, I unfolded the quilt and wrapped it around Jesse and Allie.

Jesse looked at me, tears in his eyes. “You're really sure?”

“It's a double wedding ring quilt. If that isn't a hint, I don't know what to tell you.” I laughed.

“Are you going to marry us?” Allie asked.

“If that's what you want.”

Jesse put his arm around my waist and drew me close. “It's the only thing I want,” he said.

As Allie ran off to yell the news of our engagement to the crowd, Jesse and I wrapped ourselves tightly in the quilt. For a moment anyway, we were completely alone. Until I heard Maggie say something about designing a wedding quilt for me, and my mom mention a honeymoon in Europe. Everyone came rushing toward us offering congratulations, hugs, and kisses.

Maybe you don't need a quilt to feel surrounded by love.

But it helps.