She didn’t know why she expected anything different. Tess was neither a child, nor that naive. Having suffered the loss of both her parents at a young age, she understood the concept of death and just how permanent it was. You could beg, borrow, and steal. Nothing brought the dead back to life.
The doctor, in his no-nonsense way, had been absolutely right. The sooner she accepted that, the better it would be. Yes, the first few days would be the hardest. She’d get past it.
She always did.
Her mother dying from cancer? Tess overcame it. Hospitals still made her nervous and the scent of a strong disinfectant left her stomach queasy, but she accepted that cancer was a bitch. Though you could fight it like the battle it was, cancer was never fair. Sometimes you just lost the damn war.
Her father, the victim of an automobile accident one short year later? She didn’t let her childhood fear keep her from buying her first car, or later driving across the country on vacation in a beater even older than her. She habitually checked her seatbelt, sure, but her father’s death taught her a very valuable lesson. You could be as cautious in life as possible. Didn’t mean a thing if only one person was careless.
Jack’s death would be harder to take in. She had no illusions about that. It was sudden and traumatic and so very, very violent. The nightmares hadn’t followed her when she finally fell asleep but that was only because she’d been too exhausted to dream.
Tonight would be another night, with thousands more to follow. She wouldn’t always get that lucky.
Wonderful. Something to look forward to.
In a bid to drown out her nagging thoughts, Tess got up and decided to keep herself busy. She finally found the clock in a far corner; a quick glance revealed that she had slept through breakfast and lunch. She was okay with that. Though she got down close to half of Maria’s delicious dinner last night, her stomach was still tight. She couldn’t imagine eating ever again. So, rather than find her hostess, Tess took a quick shower, changed her clothes and started to tidy up her room.
Once her bed was made, Tess tackled her luggage. She had the sinking suspicion that Sheriff De Angelis would require her to stay in Hamlet for much longer than she wanted to. Since she had no choice in the matter, the least she could do was make herself comfortable. There was an empty dresser in her room. After unpacking her duffel bag and putting all of her toiletries in the bathroom, Tess folded her clothes and placed them neatly in the dresser drawers.
Just when she was closing the last drawer, a burst of static filled the room.
“Hello? Mrs. Sullivan? Are you there?”
“Hello?” Tess felt silly responding to the disembodied voice. She recognized it by the huskiness and the Italian lilt to be Maria, even if she had no idea where she could be calling from. “Yes, I’m here.”
“If you can hear me, I’m talking to you through the intercom. Lucas wired them in every room since phones don’t work this side of town. I don’t have a radio to offer you, so this is the best we have. Your intercom should be near the bed. If you’re getting this, all you have to do is push the button on the top and you can talk back.”
Following Maria’s instructions, Tess turned to look at the bed. For the first time, she noticed a square box posted a foot above the headboard. It was plastic, about the size of an index card, and colored the same cream shade as the other accents in the Lavender Room.
She found the button on the top and pressed it.
“Hello?”
“Oh, good. You figured out how to make it work. Did I wake you?”
She shook her head, realized that Maria couldn’t see her, then pressed the button again. “No, I was up. Did you need me for something?”
“I’m just finishing up tonight’s supper and I wanted to know how you preferred to be served. Did you want me to bring it to your room now or should I wait?”
Tess’s stomach protested. She still wasn’t up for a heavy meal. But sitting down with Lucas’s sister, talking to another woman, getting a chance to spend some time out of her own head? That sounded perfect.
“Actually,” Tess told the intercom, “do you think I could come join you in the kitchen? If I’d be in the way, or if you have other plans, I totally understand. It’d be nice to have the company, though.”
There was a pause, then Maria answered, sounding surprised yet pleased. “Of course you can.” After giving Tess directions on how to find the kitchen, she added, “I can serve us both in the kitchen. That’s usually where I eat my dinner anyway.”
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
The kitchen was on the same level as her room. She passed the spiral staircase that would lead up to the second floor and made a left through the next doorway. The dining room she arrived at was as lavish and painstakingly decorated as the Lavender Room, only the color scheme was a mix of cyan and pale gold. There was even an unlit candelabra in the center of the long table.
A second doorway led off from the dining room. Following Maria’s directions, she went through that door and found herself in a homey kitchen that impressed her far more than the dining room simply because it wasn’t trying to be anything except a kitchen. The appliances were stainless steel and cutting edge, everything neat and clean, but the battered round table looked so much like the one at her apartment, she immediately felt at ease.
Red gingham napkins were folded in front of the two place settings. They were a perfect match to the dish towels by the sink, and the hand towels hanging over the oven door handle. As Maria set two plates of food on the table, Tess saw that the dishes had an apple design dancing around the rim of the dinnerware. It was adorable.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d like for dinner and you didn’t answer when I knocked for breakfast so I couldn’t ask. I figured, why not make something easy and delicious, something that settles the stomach and eases the soul.” With a flourish, she gestured at the steaming plates. “Ecco! Tomatoes and shrimp over polenta.”
Tessa blinked. The thick, yellow meal that served as a bed for the tomatoes and shrimp looked familiar but she had no idea what polenta was. She pointed. “Is that the polenta?”
Maria nodded. “Yes. It’s kind of like grits. Have you had those before?”