Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
I slowly shook my head. “I feel like I’ve stepped back in time. Are all the pieces in this room from Sarah?”
“They are. Once Sarah passed away, my great-grandfather, Lawrence, had most of her things moved into the attic. My grandfather Flint and Grandmother Lilith never brought it back down. My mother found it all shortly after marrying Dad. By then, Flint had passed away and it was only my grandmother living here with my father, so after they got married, they, of course, moved into this house. Then my grandmother eventually moved to her cabin. Anyway, after Mom moved in, she asked if she could bring the furniture down and make up a guest bedroom. It was probably a good thing my grandfather never did find it.”
“Why is that?” I asked as I walked over to an old writing desk. On the parallel wall was a beautiful chest of drawers. All of the furniture was of the same wood and the same finish.
“He would have sold it if he thought he could get any money for it.”
I frowned. “That’s terrible. These were his mother’s things.”
Ladd shrugged. “He didn’t care. He sold off most of the items that belonged to his mother, or at least the ones that my great-grandfather had left here in the house. Sarah came from a very wealthy family, and some of her descendants still live in Boston. When she agreed to move out west with Lawrence, she wanted to bring her things with her. From what I’ve heard, her father spent a lot of money back then to send it all on the train, then by horse and carriage to the ranch.”
“Is there anything else left of hers?”
“Mom has some items scattered throughout the house, but she said there are travel trunks up in the attic that belonged to Sarah. She’s gone through some of them, but others she hasn’t touched. My grandmother thinks that some of the travel trunks were never even unpacked. Most likely just loaded up here into the attic.”
I grinned. “That would be so fun to go through them and see what’s up there.”
“I’ll let her know you’d like to do that.”
“No!” I gasped. “She’ll think I’m being nosy.”
He laughed. “She won’t, and it’ll be a good excuse for her to finally go through everything up there. We used to play up in the attic as kids, and there’s a lot of shit up there.”
I walked over to my small suitcase and was about to pick it up and put it on the bed when Ladd beat me to it.
Opening it, I took out the few nicer items I’d brought and hung them up in the closet while Ladd lay back on the bed, his feet hanging off so he didn’t get the quilt dirty.
“That quilt looks older than yours. Was it Sarah’s as well?”
He glanced down at it. “I’m not sure. Mom will know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was found with her things as well.”
After putting all of my bathroom things away in the guest bathroom, I walked back into the room. “Why did your great-grandfather pack away all of Sarah’s things?”
He sat up. “According to my dad, who asked his dad, Great-Grandpa Lawrence was so heartbroken when Sarah died, he couldn’t stand to see any reminders of her in the house. So, he had it all packed up and put where he couldn’t see it.”
My heart broke for a man I never knew. “That is so sad. You would think he’d want reminders of her, if he loved her so much.”
Ladd nodded. “The Wilde men are a strange bunch.”
“You’re telling me this now?”
He stood…and suddenly became very serious as he studied me. “I think our emotions run very deep. My grandmother told Mom something once, about Grandpa Flint dying before she did. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was sitting in the pantry, hiding because David and I were playing hide and seek. I couldn’t have been more than ten years old, but I remember that conversation that I was in no way supposed to hear.”
Intrigued by the story, I asked, “What did they say?”
“Grandma Lilith told Mom that she was glad my grandfather had gone before her, because if she’d passed first, he wouldn’t have been able to handle life without her. That, just like Lawrence, Grandpa Flint would have tried to erase all evidence of Lilith simply so he could go on with life. She warned Mom that once a Wilde man loves you, he loves you with everything he has…and sometimes a love like that can be too much.”
“Too much?” I asked in barely a whisper. “I can’t imagine that someone loving you too much could ever be a bad thing.”
He shrugged. “When someone loves you too little, that’s not good. Can you love someone so much that it hurts them in ways you never could have dreamed?”