The Secret of the Rose

Part Two

After dinner, Trixie gathered a few items together and set off for Manor House. She was looking forward to the sleep-over with Honey and Di, as it had been several weeks since the three of them had been alone together.

Miss Trask greeted Trixie at the door and told her that the other girls were already upstairs. Trixie bounded up the stairs to Honey’s room.

Trixie dumped her belongings in a messy heap and sat herself next to the other girls. The radio played softly in the background and Trixie recognised the Bangles singing ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’.

“What’s in that bag?” Honey asked once the girls had greeted each other.

“The diaries I found in the attic,” Trixie replied, “I thought we might like to look at them.”

Pushing the plastic aside with one lavender-polished fingernail, Diana picked up a small volume and opened it.

“What do you think we’ll find in them?” she asked, screwing up her nose.

Trixie considered for a moment. “Maybe something to do with Jim’s parents,” she said slowly, “or at least his great uncle and aunt.”

“This one’s too early for his parents,” Diana noted, putting it down. She selected one from the bottom of the pile. “Nineteen sixty-two. I’ll try this one.”

Honey selected one from 1968 and Trixie found one from 1973. The three girls started to read. Honey was the first to find anything of interest.

“Listen to this,” she said, “ ‘September 16, 1968. Visited Nell and James today. Their nephew Win and his wife Katie were there also. No children so far, but they have only been married a short time.’”

The girls read on in silence. Diana spoke next.

“ ‘February 15, 1963. Went to Nell and James’ Valentines party last night. Sat with James’ brother Thomas, his wife Ruth and their sons Win and Harlan at dinner.’ Do you suppose that might be Jim’s father?”

“It must be,” said Trixie, “but I didn’t know he had an uncle. Let’s go ask him.”

“No, I’ll get him,” said Honey, matching action to words before either of the others could object.

Minutes later, Jim was reading the passage for himself.

“I’ve never heard of someone called Harlan, but I know that Dad’s parents were Thomas and Ruth, although I don’t remember them. Maybe Miss Henley was mistaken.”

“Maybe he died,” Trixie speculated, “or your father fought with him and they never spoke again, or-”

Jim laughed. “Maybe you should talk about something else, Trixie. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

At that, he left the room and the girls were once again alone.

“All this reading is making me sleepy,” said Diana, with a yawn. “Lets play a game until bedtime.”

“I know just the thing,” said Honey enthusiastically. “I’ll just go down to the kitchen and get it.”

Trixie was reluctant to leave the diaries just as things were getting interesting but decided to go along with the idea to avoid disappointing her friends. A few minutes later Honey returned with a cardboard box.

“I heard about this a few months ago,” she explained, while clearing an area to set everything up. “I’ve been meaning to try it out for ages so I washed it all up ready, just in case.”

Out of the box came an odd variety of objects. Trixie recognised some of them as belonging to the game KerPlunk which she had often played with Bobby. Honey quickly set up the familiar cylinder on its revolving base and inserted the sticks but, instead of marbles, she filled it with Malt Balls.

“I’ve had them in the refrigerator to make them really hard,” she added.

“How does this work?” asked Di, intrigued. “I thought the idea was to let the fewest marbles drop at your turn.”

“It does mess with the rules a little,” Honey admitted. “After all, you can’t have any of the Malt Balls until some drop into your section and you can get a better score by eating some of them but I think it will be fun.”

The game was soon underway amidst a chorus of giggles. They soon discovered that Honey was right in her assessment and the correct rules were quickly forgotten.

“So, how are things going with you and Brian?” Di asked Honey, then popped a chocolate into her mouth. She raised an enquiring eyebrow, while beside her Trixie whistled and pretended not to listen.

Honey shrugged an elegant shoulder and pulled out a stick. “Same as always,” she sighed. To her disappointment, the Malt Balls all remained in the cylinder. “How about you and Mart? I thought I saw the two of you talking this afternoon. You looked… close.”

The other girl considered, a slow smile spreading across her face. “He’s interested,” she mused, “but nothing has happened quite yet.”

“Brothers,” Trixie muttered, pulling out a stick with great force and stuffing her cheeks with two of the three balls which fell. “I don’t know why you’re even interested in them. Both of them are dorks.”

“Brian is very handsome,” Honey contradicted, with a sly smile at Di, “and Mart is cute, too. Besides, you are interested in my brother, and you don’t hear me complaining about it.”

“That’s not the same and you know it,” Trixie accused, a blush heating her cheeks. “And who says I’m interested in your brother?”

The other two burst into a round of giggles, before Honey tactfully changed the subject so that the game could continue. When each had eaten more of the chocolate treats than they should have, the three girls got ready for bed. Soon both Honey and Diana were asleep, but Trixie couldn’t keep the events of the day out of her mind.

Maybe if I read something I’ll go to sleep, she thought.

She turned on a small lamp and picked up the diary she had been reading. It took her a little while to find her place. When she had found it, she discovered that the next entry was considerably longer than any of the others. Intrigued, she read:

‘June 27, 1974. A terrible tragedy occurred last night. James Frayne’s brother Thomas and his wife Ruth were killed and it seems that their own son was responsible. Their younger son, Win went to see them this morning with his wife and young son. He found Harlan cleaning blood out of the carpet, with the bodies of their parents nearby, wrapped in tarpaulins. The house was in a terrible mess.

‘The two of them fought bitterly and if a neighbour had not been close by to help I don’t know what would have happened. Harlan has been arrested.

‘I spent the day today at James and Nell’s, trying to comfort them in their loss. The police came and interviewed each of us and said they may call again. I didn’t know what to say to them.

‘I had no idea he was capable of such a thing. Of course, I knew he was troubled. The months he spent living with me showed me that quite clearly. I almost wish he had killed me instead. There would be far fewer to mourn my passing.

‘I promised Nell that I would not tell any of the neighbours that this has happened, or confirm that they are related if the names get into the papers. We both feel bad about letting someone like that live here, especially when there are so many children about.’

Trixie stared at the page in front of her, thinking about what she should do. Her first impulse was to tell Jim immediately. A glance at the clock confirmed her suspicion that he was probably asleep as it was well after midnight.

I’ll have to wait until morning, she thought, but I certainly can’t sleep now so I might as well keep reading.

The next few pages contained scant information but before long another important entry appeared:

‘July 18, 1974. Last evening a copperhead snake bit Nell and they couldn’t save her.’

Soon after, there was another:

‘August 23, 1974. I have made a new will. I have left everything to Win Frayne and his family since they are the closest thing to relatives that I have. I don’t think that James will last long now without Nell and he doesn’t need my belongings anyway.’

Trixie read for a few more pages, but by now she was feeling quite sleepy. She turned off the light and went to sleep.

When next she opened her eyes sunlight was streaming in the window. The other girls were still asleep and there was still more than an hour until breakfast but Trixie was keen to get the day underway.

She quickly dressed, found the place in the diary and went to Jim’s door. She tapped lightly on the door, without even a thought for what she’d say when Jim opened the door.

Trixie heard a muffled and sleepy-sounding “Come in.”

She opened the door a little way and announced herself. “Jim, it’s me. Can we talk?”

“Is it important? I was asleep,” Jim said, grumpily. “Well, I’m awake now so you might as well. Come on in.”

Suddenly, Trixie felt shy. Jim was still in bed and she suddenly saw that it might not really be appropriate for her to visit his room so early in the morning. It seemed that it dawned on Jim as well, as he corrected himself.

“On second thought, we’ll meet downstairs. I’ll be there soon.”

Trixie left quickly. Soon she was joined by Jim and they went out onto the terrace together.

“I found something else in the diaries, after the others were asleep,” Trixie began. “I thought you should be the first to know about it.”

Jim took the diary from Trixie’s outstretched hand and opened it where Trixie had marked. His face paled as he read and, for the second time in as many days, Trixie found herself comforting him. After a time, he spoke.

“Trixie, if it’s all right, I’d like to go to the library with you today. I’d like to try and find some more about this.”

“Of course,” she replied. “I’ll do anything to help you with this, Jim. Anything.”

Before he could respond, the door swung open and Honey and Diana walked out onto the terrace.

“Here she is,” Di announced, in exasperation. “Trixie, we’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Jim, is everything okay?” asked Honey.

Jim handed her the open diary and the two girls read in stunned silence. Honey was the first to speak.

“Oh, Jim, I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“Help me find out about this,” he replied. “I need to know what happened.”

Over breakfast, the four decided to go to the library together. Once there, Honey and Diana would concentrate on the accident at Rose Cottage and Jim and Trixie would find out about the murders. They also decided that they would not discuss either matter inside the library. Trixie had had too many run-ins already with Sleepyside’s rather overzealous librarian.

It was not long before the group found themselves in the newspaper file section of the library. The problem was, while Jim and Trixie had a date for their crime they didn’t know where it occurred. Honey and Diana knew where their incident had occurred but they didn’t know the date, or even the year.

The four worked carefully for several hours. Trixie went upstairs into the main section of the library to borrow a book before they left. At the end of the morning the four went to Wimpy’s to discuss their findings over burgers, fries and milkshakes, where Honey and Diana insisted that Jim and Trixie share their information first.

“We didn’t find out very much,” Trixie began, “just that the crime occurred in Rochester, that it was probably to do with gambling debts and that Harlan Frayne was sentenced to life in prison. Everything else we already knew.”

“We found out a little more than that,” Honey revealed, with shining eyes. “We found out that Harlan Frayne was the man who fell into the well.”

“It all fits, doesn’t it?” Trixie gasped, after a pause. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of that after we read Miss Henley’s account of the murder.”

“There’s more,” continued Diana, consulting her notes. “He escaped from an upstate prison on June 26, 1977 and was found in the hole on July 2. He was put in the hospital under guard and listed as ‘serious, but stable’. One of the articles mentioned that he had killed his parents to get money to pay his gambling debts.”

“And the way the accident was described to us sounded much nicer than what the newspaper said,” added Honey. “They said he was found about sixteen feet below the surface.”

“That does sound worse,” Jim said, grimacing.

“What are you going to do next?” Honey asked.

“I’m going to try to find him,” Jim replied. “He would be the closest family I have.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Honey asked, uncertainly.

Jim considered for a moment.

“No, but it’s what I feel I should do.”

Jim sounded so determined that the others left it at that.

The next morning Trixie set out early for Rose Cottage. The others weren’t due to arrive until eleven, but Trixie wanted some time alone to reflect and to read the book she had taken out from the library.

She settled on the back porch with the book resting against her raised knees and began to read. Some time later Trixie heard someone coming down the path towards the back of the house. She soon saw that it was Jim.

“You’re here early,” he said.

“I wanted some peace and quiet,” she replied with a smile. “It’s a little hard to come by at Crabapple Farm.”

Jim smiled. “What are you reading?” he asked.

Trixie showed him her book. “It’s about genealogy,” she said. “I thought it could help us get more information on your family.”

“It’s worth a try,” he replied. “I’ve been in touch with Mr. Rainsford and he’s agreed to find out about my uncle. In the meantime, though, I think I’ll concentrate my efforts on this property. I’m going to have a look at the barn. Do you want to come along?”

Trixie put her book down and stood up.

“I wasn’t getting very far anyway,” she admitted.

The pair walked along the path which Honey, Brian and Dan had taken two days previous. Not far from the house the path passed between two low brick walls.

“These must be the garden and orchard that Brian was talking about,” said Jim.

To the left, the garden was a mass of weeds with a few recognisable herbs and vegetables scattered amongst them. To the right were rows of ancient fruit trees, obviously unpruned for many years.

Shortly, they emerged from between the walls and caught sight of the outbuildings. An old-fashioned barn dominated the yard, with a chicken coop on its right-hand side. On the opposite side to the chicken coop was another building and between the two was a fenced area, using the walls of the two buildings as sides. Beyond the buildings the two could see glimpses of open fields.

“Let’s check the smaller building first,” said Jim.

He lifted the bar which held the door closed, opened it and the pair peered inside. The interior was dark and cluttered. It seemed that this building had been used as a sort of garage, with car parts and tools piled around the edges. Two car-shapes filled the main part of the room, each draped with cloth.

Jim stepped inside and lifted one of the cloths. A vintage car was revealed, in fairly good condition. He let the cloth drop.

Trixie carefully moved through the narrow walkway which led towards the back.

“It was a stable,” she called to Jim. “There are horse stalls back here, and this looks like the tack room.”

Apart from the dust, the tack room looked as if there were still horses in the stalls. It seemed to have been closed up and never touched again after the last horse was gone.

“One day, if I ever live here, I’d like to turn this back into a stable,” Jim decided.

After a few minutes the two moved on to the barn.

“It looks like Miss Henley started in here once the attic was full,” remarked Trixie once the door was open.

The inside of the barn was a mess. Old farm equipment was mixed up with furniture and boxes. In one corner there was a pile of what might have been animal feed, now dried out and useless.

“Do you think Miss Henley hoarded all this or did her house and other buildings come pre-filled?” asked Trixie, peering at a strange, black object and trying to discern its identity.

“I suppose she might have inherited the house,” said Jim, considering. “It seems unlikely that she could have bought all of the things we’ve seen in the house, the stable and here.”

“I wonder how we could find out?” Trixie mused.

“No time to think about it now,” said Jim, looking at his watch. “We’re supposed to meet the others in three minutes.”

When they reached the back porch of the house, all of the others were already there.

“And where have you two been?” asked Di, with a smile.

Trixie felt her face turning red. Jim conveniently ignored the question.

“Well, let’s get started,” he said. “Shall we have a look around the grounds first?”

He led the way back in the direction he and Trixie had come from, filling the others in on what they had discovered on the way. Once they had looked around the barn yard the group decided to take one of the trails leading out of it to see where it went.

After several minutes walk they found themselves near the spot where Mart had almost fallen in the well. The ruins of a few small stone buildings stood in a rough semicircle. None had a roof and some sizable trees grew up through the earthen floors.

“That’s where Mart fell,” said Diana, pointing.

A little way from the buildings was a gaping hole, one side brushed clear of leaves. What appeared to be broken boards stuck out from the sides, holding the leaf litter suspended over space.

“I’d hate for anyone else to fall down there,” Jim commented, with a shiver. “I’ll have to get someone to see about covering it.”

“This is a sad place,” mused Honey, looking at the ruins. “Let’s move on.”

They walked back towards the cottage in silence, the mood of that scene having dampened their spirits.

“Who’s for lunch?” asked Mart as soon as the cottage was in sight.

“Mart!” cried Honey and Di together. Di continued, “Don’t you ever think of anything but food?”

“Should I?” asked Mart.

“Quit fooling around, then, and get it ready,” said Trixie.

“Foiled again,” sighed Mart.

He did, however, start preparing the lunch. Soon, everyone was satisfied and their thoughts turned again to exploring.

“Shall we check out the cellar next?” asked Dan.

As this idea met with general approval, they tidied up the lunch things and the whole group went into the house. A few minutes search, however, confirmed that the cellar was completely empty.

“It’s funny,” said Trixie, “how some parts of this place are so full they could burst and others are strangely empty.”

“Next, Trixie will solve ‘The Conundrum of the Senescent Denizen’s Domiciliary Observances’,” kidded Mart, making the others groan loudly.

“On a more serious note,” said Jim, “does anyone have any ideas what I can do with this place. I don’t want it to sit empty for years while I’m at college.”

“Let’s go somewhere more comfortable to talk about it,” suggested Honey. “If we go out through the front door we could sit on the front porch.”

The front porch turned out to be much smaller than the back one, and the climbing rose had impinged on its space considerably, so there was only just enough room for the seven young people.

“I’ll write down the ideas if you’d like,” Honey told Jim, who accepted gratefully. She took up a pen and paper, waiting for the first idea to be voiced.

“You could rent it out,” Brian suggested, after a pause.

“Or you could live in it during breaks,” said Mart. “Just think of the freedom you’d have!”

“Just think of the responsibility,” Brian contradicted, with a meaningful glance at his sister. Jim pretended not to notice, though his face reddened.

“How about we use it as a Bob-White house, like the clubhouse only bigger,” suggested Dan. “We could hold some great parties here.”

“Tom and Celia might like to live in it,” suggested Honey. They had recently announced that their first child was on the way and kind-hearted Honey thought that Celia might prefer to live in a house to a trailer once the baby was born.

“I agree with Honey,” said Di. “Why don’t you offer Tom and Celia the chance to house-sit for you. They would have somewhere to live which is close to their work and you would have someone to take care of the house. Everyone wins.”

“It does sound like a winner, but there’s a lot of work to be done first. Is everyone willing to help with it?” asked Jim.

“This sounds like our next project,” Trixie pronounced, before anyone else could speak. “You can count me in.”

The others agreed. Jim would offer the place to Celia and Tom that evening and arrange to show them the place as soon as possible. Once they had an answer they would start work on making the place livable.

Before the group left that afternoon, Trixie asked Jim for some information on his family.

“From what I’ve read so far,” she said, “the first thing you need to do when you trace your family tree is write down everything you already know.”

“There’s not much,” he replied, “but I’ll think about it and let you know. I would appreciate it if you would research it for me.”

“I’d be happy to,” she responded.

The next few weeks were very busy. Tom and Celia gratefully accepted the opportunity to house-sit and the Bob-Whites suddenly had a lot of work to do. Trixie’s evenings were filled with reading and researching to try to find out more about Jim’s relatives while her days were taken up with working at the cottage and doing her chores at home.

The Bob-Whites met at Rose Cottage to decide how to proceed.

“I think,” began Jim, when all had arrived, “that it might be easiest if we divide into teams. Each team will have one area to work on and will make a list of what needs to be done. Once we all have our lists we’ll meet back to talk about how to get it done.”

“How about if we have three teams of two,” suggested Honey, “who all report back to you? There could be one team for the house, one for the gardens and one for repairs.”

This suggestion met with general agreement and soon it was decided that the first team would be Trixie and Honey, the second Mart and Diana and the third Brian and Dan.

The three teams set to work, with Jim establishing himself at the newly-cleaned kitchen table to list all of the professionals he would need to bring in.

“I’ll be here when you’ve finished your lists,” he told the others.

Mart and Diana finished their list first, and helped Jim get the food ready for lunch. They were soon joined by Trixie and Honey.

“I think we gave Dan and Brian the biggest job,” commented Honey half an hour later. “Oh, here they are now.”

The seven soon demolished the piles of sandwiches, cold chicken and salad which had been set out, but had plenty of room left when Honey brought out some cake.

“Now, pass the lists around so that everyone can read them,” directed Jim between bites of delicious cake. “Then we’ll decide what’s most important.”

“Are you going to get the old well professionally sealed?” asked Brian.

“Yes,” said Jim, “and I’ll be getting a plumber, an electrician and someone to clean the chimney, as well. We need to concentrate on the things we can do ourselves - minor repairs, cleaning, painting and so forth.”

“In that case, why don’t we stay in the same teams and work on the things we can do first. Dan and I will be finished with the repairs fairly quickly so we can help someone else then,” Brian suggested.

“And if we need extra help, each team can find someone who knows about what they’re doing,” added Honey.

Once this was agreed, each team wrote a work plan and gave a copy of it to Jim.

“These look great,” he said, after reading them. “Let me know what materials you need to buy and I’ll pick them up.”

The group soon scattered, gathering the things they needed from far and wide. Only Jim, Trixie and Honey stayed behind. Jim had decided to take some items back to the Manor House and he was sorting and loading them into the station wagon. Trixie and Honey had decided to begin their tasks by going through the house carefully and listing in detail what needed to be done.

By late afternoon, the girls had checked all of the ground floor and bedrooms and Jim had taken three loads back to the Manor House.

“Would you like a lift back?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” sighed Honey. “I’m utterly exhausted.”

“There won’t be as much work as we thought, though,” said Trixie. “Miss Henley sealed her boxes really well, so we think everything inside will still be quite clean, and she listed the contents on the top so we didn’t have to open them.”

“All the cupboards are empty,” added Honey. “We can get the exterminator in right after everything’s repainted.”

“We’re not sure what to do about the attic, though,” continued Trixie. “What do you think, Jim? Should we leave it, or clean it out?”

Jim considered for a moment. “I think it should be cleaned out, but I don’t know what to do with the things up there,” he said with a smile. “When were you going back? I’ll come and help.”

“First thing in the morning,” Trixie said. Honey groaned.

“I’ll pick you up,” Jim offered, as they pulled up at Crabapple Farm. “Let’s say around nine-thirty. I’ve got a couple of things to do before we go.”

Things did not go as planned, however. Each of the other pairs had made plans which conflicted with this and Jim wasn’t available until much later in the day.

By the time that Jim arrived, Trixie and Honey had carried numerous articles down from the attic to the floor below and had sorted them for Jim to view.

“You should see what’s happening outside,” he commented, “it’s like a circus out there. But first, what have you found?”

“Well,” began Honey, “we’ve discovered that Miss Henley was certainly methodical. Everything up there is packed just as carefully as the boxes down here.”

“And there doesn’t seem to be any old junk, like you’d ordinarily find in an attic. It’s all ordinary household goods,” continued Trixie.

Jim read some of the labels. “There seems to be everything here,” he said, surprised. “Tablecloths, cutlery, ornaments, kitchenware.”

“And there’s still more upstairs. We only carried enough down that we could see the rest,” added Trixie.

“I’ll speak to Celia about what she will want to use,” said Jim. “We’ll clean up the attic and then put everything she doesn’t want back.”

“I’m going downstairs,” said Honey. “I thought I was tired yesterday, but now I feel worse.”

“Me too,” added Trixie. “I hope there’s something good to eat. I thought I could smell hamburgers just before.”

On arriving at the back porch, Trixie found that in fact there were hamburgers being cooked. Mart had found a wood-fired barbecue and had cleared it off to cook on. His mother had supplied hamburger patties from the freezer and Jim had picked up bread rolls while he was out buying materials.

“Come and see what we found,” called Diana, excitedly. “You’ll never guess.”

The other two girls followed her around to the front of the house and along the drive a short way. Diana parted the bushes which seemed to fill the middle circle of the turn-around and Trixie and Honey gasped at what they saw.

“Mart thought your mother could give us advice on the garden, Trixie,” Diana explained, “and the instant she saw these bushes she knew it was an old hedge. She said we’d probably find a rose garden in the middle, so we found a space and here it is.”

The roses were tall and spindly from years of neglect, but many of them were in full bloom. They were so interspersed with weeds, however, that it was hard to imagine how anyone would ever be able to make the garden presentable again.

“The hedge is probably beyond help, but the roses look pretty good,” continued Diana. “We’ll be starting work here tomorrow.”

“What are you doing after lunch?” asked Trixie, hoping for some help with the house.

“Measuring up the rest of the beds, then starting on the planting diagrams,” replied Di. “I need to have them finished tonight to show Jim so we can start early tomorrow before it gets too hot.”

Lunch was delicious, and everyone was glad that Mart had discovered the barbecue. They all went back to work in their separate areas, and soon the day was gone. On the way out, Trixie and Honey stopped to admire Brian and Dan’s handiwork. The gates now swung freely and the area around the letterbox was cleared.

At the end of the next day, the group gathered on the back porch to report their progress.

“Dan and I have repaired the gates and the letterbox,” Brian began, “and cleared right along the front fence. Next, we’ll be putting up a hitching post and setting up a water trough so we can bring horses over here.”

“I don’t want to get Regan mad at us just because we’re spending a lot of time here. And Dad is getting some men out to clear the old path from here to the Manor House,” Jim explained to the others. “Also, I’ve arranged for someone to seal the old well. He’ll be here next week.”

“Mart and I have started on the gardens,” Di reported. “We’re working at the moment on the rose garden, then we’ll be moving on to the climbing rose at the front, then we’ll start around here.”

“Di has done some beautiful designs for the gardens,” said Jim, holding one up. “I’ve put them in this display book if anyone wants to see them.”

Everyone wanted to look at Diana’s designs. They all agreed that they were beautiful, as Jim had said, and she received many compliments.

“Honey and I have been cleaning out the house and sorting everything in it,” began Trixie. “We’ll be starting on the heavy cleaning next and then it will be time for Jim to make the decisions on how to redecorate.”

“Why don’t you two choose?” Jim asked. “After all, I’m sure you both know a lot more about decorating than I do.”

Trixie didn’t feel at all sure, but Honey readily agreed and the matter was settled.

“I think you all deserve a day off tomorrow,” said Jim. “How about you all take some time to relax, then meet tomorrow evening for a barbecue at the lake.”

“You’ll have to count me out,” said Brian. “Dad’s going out to see Uncle Andrew and I promised I’d go over some things with him before he goes away.”

“I’m out, too,” said Di. “It’s my sisters’ birthday. I’ll be pretty busy all day.”

The rest were available and it was agreed.

Trixie used her free day to catch up on her research. The work at Rose Cottage had been so strenuous that she could hardly keep her eyes open when she got home each evening and her other project had suffered because of it.

By lunch time she had a neatly-written chart of all of the relatives that Jim knew of, along with all of the information she had on each of them. Her book on genealogy included suggestions on whom to request birth, death and marriage certificates, and Trixie listed those for Jim to review. After lunch she intended to read the diaries, but her mother had other ideas.

“Trixie, could you please look after Bobby while I do the ironing?” her mother asked at the end of the meal. “With your father going away in the morning, I need to do his now.”

“Yes, Moms,” she replied, disappointed.

“When can I go to Jim’s house?” asked Bobby. “Will you take me Trixie?”

“Not today,” she answered. “How about we play with your dump truck in the sand pile?”

“Hooray!” he shouted, forgetting all about the house. “I’m gonna build a skyscraper and it’s gonna be taller than the house!”

The little boy ran off to get his truck and Trixie sighed in relief.

“I was hoping to get some time to read those diaries,” Trixie said to her mother as the two started to clear the lunch dishes. “Do you think Bobby would play quietly and let me read?”

“I doubt it,” Mrs Belden smiled.

“There don’t seem to be enough hours in the day,” Trixie continued, running the washing-up water. “I want to get the house ready for Tom and Celia, but I want to help Jim find out about his family too. Then, there’s always work to do at home, and Regan will kill us if we don’t start riding the horses more soon.”

“Life is like that,” her mother replied. “You need to balance all of the things that need to be done with what you want to do.”

“I’m sorry Moms,” Trixie cried. “You have lots more to do than I have and you hardly get any time to yourself. I won’t complain about helping with Bobby again.”

“That’s all right Trixie,” Moms replied, “if you mind him while I iron, I won’t need you again today. You’ll have plenty of time for reading before you go to the barbecue.”

That evening, five Bob-Whites met at the lake in time for a sunset swim. The day had been hot and they were all glad to cool off.

“So, what have you been doing today, Jim?” Honey asked, as they all lay in the shallows. “I haven’t seen you since breakfast.”

“I had a few people coming in today at Rose Cottage and had to be there to let them in,” he replied.

“What happened to the ‘day off’?” asked Trixie, with a smile.

“I said that you deserved a day off. I didn’t say anything about me,” he replied.

The others laughed.

“Besides, I think you’ll like the things that got done today,” he continued. “There’s now running water, electricity and a telephone.”

“However did you arrange all that?” asked Honey.

“Just lucky, really,” Jim admitted. “There have been some delays on that big new development on the other side of town. A lot of service people had put aside this time to work on it and when it fell through they were glad to get something else.”

“It will make our job a lot easier, at least,” said Honey. “I was wondering where we’d get water to clean with and I was really hoping it wouldn’t be out of buckets from the old well!”

“Oh, woe,” moaned Trixie. “I’d forgotten about that. Why did I get stuck with all that cleaning?”

“Would you prefer gardening?” asked Mart. “We could swap.”

“On second thought,” said Trixie, “I’ll stay where I am.”

The five had a pleasant evening, talking, laughing and eating. Trixie found time to update Jim on her work on his family tree and he agreed to write for the certificates she suggested as soon as he had checked through the rest of his family belongings. They all went home fairly early, though, as all had arranged to work at the cottage again the next day.

When Trixie arrived there early the next morning, she could hardly believe the transformation. Jim had neglected to mention that he’d had someone in to clear away the long grass and weeds from all around the house. They had also cleared away the old hedge with a chainsaw and the whole of it was gone, except for the stumps.

“Wow,” she said when she saw Jim. “This is different.”

“It looks better, doesn’t it?” he replied. “Dad sent the gardener from Manor House to help. He said it would be saving him time in the future not to maintain the area where the trailer is now.”

“Who will look after the gardens here when we’re done?” Trixie asked, thinking of the matter for the first time.

“We haven’t decided yet, but Diana says she’s making it as low-maintainence as possible. By the way, Honey’s waiting for you upstairs,” he finished.

“I’d better go see her then,” she replied.

Trixie went into the house and bounded up the stairs. She found Honey in one of the bedrooms, sorting through the boxes there.

“Oh, hello Trixie,” she said, looking up. “Jim and I have decided to put the boxes we’ll be unpacking into the rooms they belong to. Mother gave him a room at Manor House, so all of his parents’ belongings are there now. The room they were in has all of the boxes which will be going back into the attic. This room has the ones to be taken to other rooms.”

“Please don’t say we’ll be carrying boxes all day,” moaned Trixie. The room they stood in was piled almost to the ceiling in spots.

“No,” Honey smiled, “everyone will help carry boxes after lunch. We’ll be sweeping and dusting all morning.”

“I think that might even be worse,” Trixie crinkled her nose and slumped against the doorway. A moment later, she threw off the pretence and set to work.

The two girls dusted and swept out the tiny attic and its narrow staircase, ready for the boxes to be returned. After a short break they started on the master bedroom.

“The mattress on the bed was no good and Jim had it removed,” Honey explained. “He says we’ll need to order a new one when we’re getting the rest of the household goods.”

“What?” exclaimed Trixie. “Won’t Jim be choosing those things?”

“No, he says he has too much else to do, so we’ll be doing the furniture and white goods shopping,” Honey replied. “I thought we might invite Tom and Celia along with us, seeing as they will be using the things.”

Trixie nodded absently and started dusting.

As they worked, the two girls talked about what Trixie was reading in the diaries.

“I’ve started reading at the beginning,” Trixie told Honey, “and it’s been very interesting. Miss Henley started writing when she was eighteen years old, in 1921. She got the diary for Christmas. So far, it’s mostly about boys she’d like to marry and things that happened on the farm.”

“Did she live in this house back then?” Honey asked.

“I think so,” Trixie replied. “All of her descriptions sound like this house, and of course in those days girls lived with their parents until they got married.”

By lunch time, the two girls had dusted the bedroom and cleaned its furniture and floor. The walls and ceiling would need to be washed later so that they could be painted.

After lunch, Brian, Mart and Dan helped carry the boxes back to the attic and distributed the other boxes throughout the house. Jim started taking down the shutters and carrying them out to the barn, where he had set up a work area. Soon everyone was hard at work.

By evening, Trixie and Honey had cleaned all of the upstairs floors and furniture and had dusted each room. They sank down at the bottom of the stairs, tired but happy with their progress.

Downstairs, the house looked very different from when they had ascended. Jim had removed all of the shutters from the lower windows and light flooded the room. Diana was arranging roses in a vase and Dan was vacuuming the upholstery of the chairs.

Outside the front windows, the view was very different as well. More than half of the rose garden had been weeded and pruned, revealing an elegant design of pathways, and part of the drive was covered in piles of weeds and rose branches. Trixie saw her mother gathering something in a basket.

“I didn’t know Moms was here,” she said wearily.

“She’s gathering rosehips to make jelly,” replied Diana brightly. “She thought it would be terrible to waste them when there’s so many, so we called her when we were finished pruning for the day.”

“I hope she can drive us home,” said Honey. “I’m too tired to ride there.”

“Better still,” said Di, laughing, “she’s brought us food. Miss Trask thought we girls would like to stay here tonight, and I told her we’d love to, so she arranged it for us.”

“Where will we sleep?” asked Trixie, alarmed at the thought of sleeping on the floors she had spent the day cleaning.

“Tom just delivered some folding beds,” said Dan. “We’ll carry them upstairs for you before we go.”

A short time later, seven tired Bob-Whites gathered around the kitchen table to eat and talk about how they were going.

“We’ve got about two more days worth of cleaning,” said Honey, “then we’ll get onto the shopping.”

“We should finish the rose garden tomorrow,” Diana added, “and then we’ll start pruning the climbing rose.”

“We’ll be fixing the back porch roof,” said Brian. “Are you free to help, Jim?”

“I think so,” he replied. “Does anyone else need me?”

The others shook their heads.

“Then that’s settled. The girls will be staying here tonight. Where do you want the beds put, girls?” Jim asked.

The girls chose an empty bedroom and soon they were settled into it. Tired as they were, they still found the energy to talk for several hours before bed. The girls woke the next morning to the sound of gentle, steady rain. Diana looked out the window and sighed.

“So much for my plans for the day,” she said. “It could rain like this for hours.”

They went downstairs for breakfast and, as they were eating, the telephone rang.

“Oh, hello Jim,” Trixie said after answering it. “Let me just check.” She turned to the other girls, “Is there anything the boys can do for us inside today?”

“If they bring ladders and sugar soap they could wash the walls,” Honey suggested.

Trixie relayed the idea and soon hung up.

When the boys arrived, the girls had finished cleaning the stairs and had started on the living room. With seven people helping, the work was done quickly and by lunch time the dining room was also clean and all of the upstairs walls had been washed.

The seven talked and laughed over lunch and then got back to work. It was quite a productive day in the end: the whole house was swept, dusted and mopped, and almost all of the walls and ceilings were now ready to paint.

The girls had arranged to stay another night, and they spent the evening discussing the way the house would be decorated. As the garden would still be wet the next morning, they decided that the three of them would go on the first shopping trip for the house.

“I still don’t see why we have to choose,” Trixie sighed, settling herself comfortably on her bed. “It’s his house.”

Di smiled and glanced at Honey. “If you marry him, it’ll be your house, too,” she pointed out.

A splutter escaped Trixie’s lips. “Marry him? Who says I’d ever marry him? I wouldn’t marry him if he was the last man on earth!”

“S-u-r-e,” Di drawled, while Honey giggled uncontrollably. “So, what do you think, Honey? Should we have the house painted all in blue? Blue trim outside, blue walls, blue ceilings…”

“It is Trixie’s colour,” Honey agreed, over her laughter. “It would be appropriate.”

Trixie pulled the sheet over her head, found it inadequate and replaced it with her pillow. Seeing that the teasing had gone far enough, Di added, “Though, maybe it would be better to take the colours from the roses in the garden. Did you see the ones I picked while we were pruning? They were just gorgeous!”

“They were,” Honey agreed, with sincerity. “I love the creamy yellow ones, especially. I don’t think I’ve seen ones like them before.” To Trixie’s relief, the conversation turned to flowers.

The next morning, Tom picked up the three excited girls and drove them to the store which Jim had chosen to supply the paint. Trixie was dazzled by the display of paint sample chips and promptly forgot everything they had previously discussed.

“Oh, woe,” she cried, “how will we ever choose paint for an entire house?”

“I liked Di’s suggestion,” said Honey, “of choosing tones like the roses in the garden.”

“So did I,” said Trixie, “but how do we work out which ones they are?”

Diana picked out two or three chips, each banded with several tones.

“Just pick out a few you like,” she said, “we take them back and compare them.”

Each girl chose a few chips and Honey placed the pile in her purse. Before they left, the girls picked up a chart on exterior paints and a brochure on calculating how much paint would be needed.

The next stop was an electrical store, where they got prices and checked the features of the numerous appliances which needed to be bought. After seeing enough to get themselves seriously confused, the girls then went on to look at mattresses.

“I had no idea there were so many types of refrigerator,” Trixie complained, as they arrived back at the cottage.

“Or washing machine,” added Honey.

“Or mattress,” added Di.

The three girls laughed.

“We’d better interview Celia on her preferences,” said Trixie, “otherwise we’ll never be able to choose.”

“And we should talk to Jim about the budget,” Honey decided with a laugh.

The girls spent the next hour choosing paint for each of the rooms and for the windowsills, eaves and gutters. As the day was hot, the garden had dried out enough by that time for Di to go outside to work.

The next few days passed in a blur. Trixie and Honey decided to split up to get more done. Trixie tracked Jim down and figured out a budget for the electrical goods while Honey talked to Celia. They met back and decided which models were suitable and Honey telephoned some other stores for prices. Trixie then began measuring rooms to figure out the amount of paint needed.

Once both Jim and Celia had approved the choices, Trixie purchased the paint. Honey, with Celia’s help, found the best price on the electrical goods and mattress and they were ordered.

Trixie found time to read the rest of her book on genealogy and most of the diaries. She continued to add to her chart as new information came to hand and made arrangements with Jim to check through his parents belongings together for more clues the next week.

In the meantime, the boys had repaired the roof, finished washing the walls and had painted the ceilings.

The garden took shape, too. The roses were pruned and weeded, the climbing rose was pruned and its trellis was repaired; lawn seed was sown and the weeds in the old orchard were slashed.