Return to Summerhouse (The Summerhouse 2)

“I would think that you went to her for money.”

“Don’t tell me that’s true,” Zoë said. “I would have walked the streets before I asked her for money.”

“That’s because you can go into a gallery, show them your work, and instantly, you have a job.”

“Not quite,” Zoë said, looking up from her drawing. “It takes more work than that and I have a lot of supplies to buy.”

Faith and Amy looked at her.

“Okay, so Russ bought them and, yes, I did sell rather quickly to a gallery. Stop staring at me! It just seems to me that going to Eddie’s mother to ask for money would be like my going to my sister to ask for money.”

“Where did you get the hundred and fifty dollars that got you to New York?” Faith asked.

“Stole it from my sister,” Zoë said, grinning. “But didn’t she owe me?”

“And so did Eddie’s mother,” Faith said. “But I didn’t just borrow money, I gave her a piece of the business I wanted to start.”

“And what business was that?” Amy asked.

“Right,” Faith said, “you’ve been in this house and haven’t seen how I’ve changed the world.”

“You changed the world?” Amy asked.

“Changed it a bit,” Faith said as she got up and went to get her bag on the hall table. She reached inside and pulled out a jar of what looked to be face cream. It was a jar of dark blue glass, about two inches high, with a silver lid and silver writing on it. She handed it to Amy.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Amy said. “Indigo,” she read on the label. She unscrewed the lid and smelled it, then her eyes widened. “Beth. The seeds.”

She glanced at Zoë and saw that she was staring at Faith with a look of astonishment on her face.

“Did I miss something?” Amy asked.

“Indigo?” Zoë asked. “You don’t know about this stuff? No, right, you’ve been in here. That company is yours?”

“All except the seven percent that Eddie’s mother owns. I tried for five, but she held out for seven. She uses her millions to do charitable works in Eddie’s name. He died on the same date he died when I was taking care of him.”

“Destiny,” Amy said, then, “Millions?”

Zoë laughed. “More like megamillions. It’s hard to believe that you haven’t seen these bottles on the store shelves. There’s shampoo, face cream, you name it. It’s a whole line and they’re everywhere, on TV and in magazines. There isn’t a movie star who doesn’t use it.” She looked at Faith. “If you run this company, how do you have time for a life?”

“I let a bunch of people in New York who wear suits all day run it. I just stay home with my kids. And…” She hesitated. “I run the charity part of my company. We give a lot of money away. And—”

Faith seemed to pause, as though for a drumroll. “One of the first things I bought was Tristan’s house and the old medieval house next to it. I found out that after we left, William ran the cows out and restored the house, so it’s still there today.” Faith smiled. “I read that he never married, but he lived to be ninety-five. If you look deep in obscure books on landscaping, you’ll see his name.”

“That’s great!” Zoë said.

“The houses are mine and I’ve spent a lot on putting them back to the way they were. When my kids are out of the house, I hope to have the time to oversee the re-creation of an eighteenth-century estate and open it to the public, but for right now, it’s private housing. I don’t get to stay there very often, so maybe you two would like to visit. Amy, would your kids like that?”

“They’d love it. All of us would. What about the tower?”

Faith shook her head. “Part of it was still there, but the glass roof was gone and of course there were no plants.”

“You really did save them,” Amy said.

“I want to know what happened between getting money from Eddie’s mother to becoming a multimillionaire.”

Faith smiled in memory. “I talked to Eddie’s mother and I told her the truth, that I had come by some seeds from a plant that is extinct today and was mentioned in the Bible, and I wanted to grow it and make cosmetics with it. She wasn’t interested until I told her I planned to move to California to grow the plant there.”

“So she was paying you to get out of town,” Zoë said.