First Impressions (Edenton 1)

Chapter Ten

STANDING in the doorway, Eden listened to Brad’s welcome speech. The notebook with the few ideas she could dredge out of her memory was in her sweaty palm. When Brad had asked if he could introduce her, she hadn’t known what he meant.

She came alert when he said that he wanted them to meet the new landscape designer, Eden Palmer, who was an expert in eighteenth-century gardens. Can he be sued for telling such a big lie? Eden wondered. How could she make these people want a garden that went against all modern-day ideas of gardening? How could she sell “difficult to maintain” and “wildly expensive”?

She looked back at Brad and willed him to say they could meet Ms. Palmer another day, but he didn’t.

“Now,” Brad said, talking easily, as though he were born with a microphone in his hand, “we’re not saying that you have to put in a garden that G.W. might have enjoyed. G.W. is what we call George Washington here in Arundel, because he came through here and slept around, so to speak. In fact, we’re pretty sure that he slept in Ms. Palmer’s house, Farrington Manor. Of course he was only twenty-three at the time, a long way from being president, and he was here surveying the Great Dismal Swamp. And we do not want to tell you what he said about the accommodations in North Carolina or we’d never sell you a house

.”

He paused while the audience laughed politely.

“Today, after lunch, you can consult with Ms. Palmer and decide what you want to do about your own garden. If you like her designs and want to put one in, then we have maintenance people to take care of it for you. By the way, the maintenance company happens to be run by my son-in-law, so let me know if he doesn’t do his job and I’ll tell his boss, my daughter.”

More laughter, then Brad held out his hand to Eden, and she went to the podium.

Twenty minutes later Eden stepped down from the podium and followed Minnie into a long room where tables had been set up.

“That was good,” Minnie said, referring to Eden’s speech. “Very good.” There was a respect in her voice that hadn’t been there before, and it made Eden feel good. She knew that in Minnie’s eyes she’d gone from being just an extension of Braddon to being a woman with her own mind.

“You can sit here,” Minnie said, walking to the far end of one table.

“I have nothing to show people,” Eden said. Her heart was still pounding from her speech. Had she said the right things? Minnie had liked it, but did Brad?

“Don’t worry about supplies. Brad has everything that was left by the two landscapers he fired.”

“If I’d known I was to do this, I could have brought some books to show people what I would like to do.” Eden grimaced. With the way her morning had gone, she should have done a presentation on poisonous snakes of North Carolina.

The tables had several seatings, each supplied with pencils, pens, pads, and notebooks, all with the name of Queen Anne on them. It was all very nice, elegant, even.

One side of the room was all windows, and just outside sat Jared McBride, half hidden under a shade tree. He had on dark glasses, and he was talking on his cell phone, but he nodded at Eden when she glanced at him.

The door to the room opened and a waiter brought in a tray of sandwiches and drinks.

“I told Brad you’d probably rather eat in here,” Minnie said, glancing out the window at Jared. “But if you’d rather…”

“No, this is great. I need more time to think about what the heck I’m doing here.”

“You can’t kid me. I’ve seen the Farrington gardens, so I know what you can do. Just BS your way into it. Act like you know more than they do and they’ll believe you. Besides, you’re saving Brad’s life. He was going to have to hire someone from outside Arundel or let his son-in-law do it. Brad would rather do it himself than let Remi have any responsibility.”

“What in the world did Remi do to make Brad dislike him so?”

“Married his daughter,” Minnie said. “Until she married, Brad and his daughter were very close. They traveled together, worked together. She ran that big house of his with an ease I’ll never have. Between you and me, I’d like to burn it down. Termites and peeling paint! Ugh! Anyway, after Cammie got married, Brad was left alone. I doubt if any man could have pleased him as a son-in-law, but a blue-collar hunk like Remi never had a chance.”

Once again, Eden could see both sides. Remi seemed to be a good person, but Eden knew what it was like to be ambitious for your child. She wondered if Brad would rather that his daughter had married someone like the clean, never-been-dirty young man Drake Haughton.

They had just started their lunch when Minnie said, “Everybody in town says that Braddon has the major hots for you.”

Eden nearly choked. “I think it’s much too soon to say that. And as for gossip—”

“Gossip, ha! It’s hope. If you knew what that man has been through with women you too would want him to find someone!”

Eden couldn’t help the little rush that went through her. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t help herself. “And what exactly has he been through?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you about Braddon’s wife?”

“Yes, but only quickly.”