"Come here," she told me, and drew me closer to the bed. "When you get back to the house. I want you to go directly to my bedroom. In my closet on the floor you'll see a brown wooden box. It has a tiny lock on it that is far from strong enough to keep Rhona or that Skeeter out of it, and inside I have some valuable jewelry and some money. Actually, a lot of money. Take it and ask Trevor to hide it somewhere for me. Be sure Rhona doesn't see it."
"I will," I said.
"Be sure," she emphasized.
The nurses began to surround us. so I told Echo to kiss her good-bye. I promised to bring her back after dinner.
"Wait," Mrs. Westington said. "I have a stew in a container in the freezer. You just have to defrost it. Echo likes the creamy corn with it and there's some apple pie left over and fresh bread in the pantry. When you heat the stew, don't make the fire too high because--"
"We'll be all right. Mrs. Westington. Don't worry. I cooked for my uncle for a long time and helped my mother, too, for years."
"Good. Good," she said. "Confound this getting old!" she cried at the nurses, as if they were somehow responsible.
I smiled at them. They were in for it. I thought, and guided Echo out of the room, to the elevator and out of the building. I was afraid Rhona and Skeeter would be back before we got home, but they weren't. Trevor came running out of the winery to greet us when he saw Mrs. Westington wasn't with us.
"She's in the hospital," I told him quickly, and explained it all.
"Well, that's best, and good for you for making sure she did the right thing for herself. She's the last one she thinks about these days."
I then told him about the wooden box and went into the house quickly to find it and get it to him.
And I didn't do it a moment too soon. Right after the handover, Rhona and Skeeter's van appeared in the driveway. I went back inside and told Echo she could help me with dinner preparations. At least that would keep her mind off things, I hoped.
Skeeter and Rhona came bursting into the house, laughing as usual and sounding a little high on something. They stopped first in the living room to look for Mrs. Westington and then appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"Well, look at our little cook working away. Where's my mother?" Rhona demanded,
I paused and turned slowly, "Your mother had a bad dizzy spell. I took her to the doctor and he wanted her to go to the hospital for some tests. That's where she is now."
"My mother's in the hospital?"
"After dinner. I'm bringing her some of her personal things," I added, and returned to the dinner preparations.
Echo was signing at her. but Rhona ignored her completely. "What happened exactly?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen.
"I told you. A dizzy spell."
She exchanged a look with Skeeter, who raised his eyebrows. The news appeared to sober them both quickly.
"Well now, it looks like things are going to change around here," Rhona said. She looked at Echo, who was still signing her concern for her
grandmother. "Stop that. You're being annoying." Rhona told her.
"How can you yell at her like that? She's just afraid for her grandmother. She wants you to comfort her, to--"
"Don't tell me how to talk to my own daughter. What nerve! I want you out of this house tomorrow. Tomorrow, understand? Do you?" she screamed.
"No one's going anywhere unless Mrs. Westington tells them so," I heard.
And so did Rhona and Skeeter. They both turned to Trevor, who had entered the house.
"We don't want to do anything that will upset her anymore than she is, now do we?" he added, walking toward Rhona and Skeeter.
Rhona stared at him and then she smiled coldly. "Of course not," she said. She turned back to me. "Once someone sees she can't get anymore out of my mother, she'll probably hightail it out of here anyway." She stepped closer and looked at the food. "I imagine my mother prepared all that before she got sick."
"Yes, she did." I said.
"Good. Call us when dinner is ready. We're both ravishingly hungry, aren't we. Skeeter?"