Ten minutes later, he turned onto a wide road with a discreet sign that said QUEEN ANNE and nothing else. There were no words that shouted the number of houses being built, or that they offered water views and docking for boats. There was nothing but a small sign that by its very plainness declared elegance and wealth.
They drove through trees that had been saved from the builders’ bulldozers, then had been pruned to be neat and tidy. To the right and left of them was empty land, with several trees, all of them of old growth. Someone had gone through the land, marked the best trees, then had the undergrowth cleared.
“Later in the spring, these meadows will start sprouting wildflowers. It all looks very natural, but it took years of work.”
“Yes,” Eden said, “get rid of the weeds first, then plant the wildflowers and nurture them until they take over.”
“Exactly,” Brad said, smiling at her.
As she looked out at both sides of the road, she saw no buildings anywhere. “So when do you start building?”
“What a compliment! Actually, we’ve sold eighty-two percent of the houses, and nearly sixty of them have been completed or at least started.”
Eden twisted in her seat. “Where are they?”
At that moment, Brad drove over a little hill, and when they got to the top, he stopped the car. Below them was Arundel Sound, the huge body of water that conn
ected the many freshwater lakes and rivers in the area to the ocean. The sound was part saltwater and part freshwater, and was great for boating and fishing. Between them and the sound was an enormous building, partly hidden by old-growth trees. Behind it was a parking lot, also nearly hidden. To the right and left of this building were houses facing the water.
“Beautiful,” Eden said and meant it. Next to unspoiled wilderness, this was the best. It looked as though every big old tree that had been on the site had been preserved. Every subdivision of new houses that Eden had ever seen had started with land being bulldozed flat. Empty land was easier for the builders to get their trucks and machines onto. No one had to be careful with a backhoe when digging foundations if there were no trees in the way. No one had to think about concrete hurting roots. No one had to worry about harming anything if it was just barren land.
“Either you have an environment-loving builder or he hates you,” she said.
“Both,” Brad said, smiling at her. “By the end, though, it was hate. I even kept some natural shrubs, and to do that I had to have wooden barriers put around the plants. I wasn’t popular.”
“No, I can’t imagine that you were.” She raised her hand to indicate the coastline. “But it was worth it. So how many awards have you received for this?”
“A few,” he said modestly, but Eden could see that he was pleased.
He parked in a space marked FOR THE DIRECTOR, and they got out of the car.
Jared caught her arm. “Stay near me,” he said softly. “I don’t want you out of my sight for even an instant.”
All she could do was nod as Brad turned to her. “I’m sorry if I won’t be able to spend much time with you today, but there is going to be a lot of people here. Do you mind if I introduce you?”
“No, of course not,” she said, moving away from McBride and leaving him to follow beside Remi.
Once they were inside the building, she paused and looked about. Had she been told in advance about this she would have imagined one of those modern buildings with windows that almost reached heaven. The room would have dwarfed human beings by its size and grandeur. Rather like a cathedral that was meant to awe the occupants.
But this building wasn’t like that. If she hadn’t seen from the outside that it was huge, she wouldn’t have known it from the inside. True, they were in a two-story lobby with huge windows that looked out to the sound with its picturesque sailboats, but the room didn’t dwarf her or the furnishings—which, by the way, didn’t look like the usual public building furniture. There was a mixture of chairs and couches and tables that looked as though someone’s attic had been cleaned out. Standing in front of the windows, she looked at the furniture and knew without a doubt that not one piece of it was new. True, the couches had been reupholstered, but there was no mistaking the look of age. On the walls were pictures and framed pieces of fabric, and here and there was a quilt. There wasn’t a single reproduction anywhere, and as a result the room had a cozy feel that made it welcoming and personal.
“Who did this?” she asked, and Brad knew what she meant.
“There wasn’t an auction in North Carolina or southern Virginia that we didn’t attend over the course of two years. By ‘us’ I mean my daughter and my assistant, Minnie. You’ll meet her. She has the fastest auction hand in three states.” Brad leaned toward Eden. “Want to know the truth? We started going to country auctions as a way to save money. We always planned to buy the couches and chairs new, then add a few old things as decoration. But Minnie found an old couch that she loved, had her friend’s husband reupholster it, and that was that. Do you like the result?”
“Very much.”
Smiling, Brad took her arm in his and squeezed it.
It made her feel good that he was pleased with her. Actually, the more she saw of him, the more she liked him. She glanced over her shoulder at McBride to see if he was impressed by the building, but he was looking about as though he was searching out hiding places. Remi had disappeared through a door as soon as they’d entered.
“Shall we go?” Brad asked just as a door at the end of a hall opened.
“There you are,” said a young man, his face showing his obvious worry. “We thought maybe you’d run away and left us.” Turning, he looked at Eden. “You must be Eden Palmer of Farrington Manor,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Drake Haughton, and I work with Brad on his project.”
“He’s being modest,” Brad said. “He’s the architect.”
“I merely draw whatever Brad envisions.”