Читать книгу Storm Warning - Linda Hall - Страница 8

The storm took her by surprise. Somehow, lost in a long and elaborate daydream on this sunny, glorious day, Nori Edwards hadn’t seen the sky blackening behind her. She was paddling across the silky water of Whisper Lake, oblivious. It should have been a clue when a sudden gust of wind whipped her hair across her cheek. It wasn’t. She merely sighed, stopped, braced the paddle on the top of her kayak, and wound her hair more securely back into its ponytail, and kept crossing the bay from Twin Peaks Island.

The distant rumbling of thunder concerned her only slightly. In the two weeks she’d lived here, she’d experienced only one brief five-minute thundershower. The thunder was nothing to worry about, she thought. She’d be home and dry in the lodge at Trail’s End before any serious rain fell. If it even fell at all. She was strong and her arms easily fell into the rhythm of her strokes.

She had taken a little time off from the backbreaking work of unpacking, cleaning, clearing brush, sweeping out cabins and unpacking in her lodge, for a relaxing paddle out on the lake. She’d gotten in the habit of doing this, heading out on the lake for an hour or two each afternoon.

When she’d bought this property, known as Trail’s End, she’d been assured by the real estate agent that people from Whisper Lake Crossing would be lining up to work for her on the cleanup and repairs.

What he hadn’t told her was that every worker, every contractor, every builder, tradesman and handyman from Bangor to Portland was working on the northern Maine highway infrastructure.

Maybe she was going to have to take her search further afield and put an ad in the Shawnigan Sentinel. The town of Shawnigan was nine miles farther down the lake and much bigger than Whisper Lake Crossing.

On the first day she’d walked through the place, she had fallen under its spell. She’d stood on the wide wooden porch and taken in the deep, green smell of the pines, the gently lapping lake. The sun shimmered on it and turned it almost golden. But it was when the agent took her up to the loft that there was no turning back. Log lined, with wide, high, sunlit walls, a massive brick fireplace and cathedral ceilings, it offered a stunning view of Whisper Lake. It would be the perfect orientation for her art studio.

She had stood at the windows and looked out on the lake and thought, I want this place. I have a good feeling about this place. This place can finally be a home for me and my family.

She would buy it. She and her daughters would live in the lodge. They would rent out the cabins. This would be a good place to start a new business, a good place to start over, a good place to paint again.

But that dream would never be realized unless she got some help.

It was getting cooler. She rested from her paddling and zipped her nylon windbreaker to her neck. It was the beginning of June and it was still chilly enough for a sweatshirt underneath. It wasn’t the howling wind, two-foot waves and claps of thunder that finally caught her attention—it was the sudden, curious quiet. She stopped, felt a ripple of unease.

The sky to her right was blackening. The distant droning of motorboats was gone. The trees had stilled. Even the birds had stopped their chirping. This sunny, pleasant afternoon on the lake had gone slate-gray and silent. She looked around her. She was farther from home than she realized, farther than she wanted to be. Kayaks should hug the shoreline, not go right out in the middle of the lake. Yet here she was, between the island and the shore.

She located her dock on the hazy horizon and started pushing toward it. She smelled the rain before she actually felt it. Heavy, humid, brassy, it caught in her nostrils. She choked, felt exposed out here, a tiny low-slung boat on a massive body of water.

Thick dollops of water fell here and there. And then the wind started. At first it merely ruffled the lake around her. Gradually, it increased into a snarl.

And then all at once it was bearing down on her and she found herself paddling directly into it. She seemed to be getting nowhere. She zagged a little to the right. Maybe she would have a better chance at the wind if she didn’t face it square on.

It’s not like she hadn’t been warned about the lake. That was a constant theme around Whisper Lake Crossing.

“Whisper Lake,” said a woman named Alma whom she’d met at Marlene’s Café. “You bought them cottages out there? Them Trail’s End cabins? Well, all I can say is mind the lake. She got a mind of her own, she does.” And then the woman had gone off shaking her head and muttering, “Bad place, bad place.”

Pete and Peach were next. Those two old men seemed to be everywhere; holding court at Marlene’s Café, the Chinese restaurant, the post office, Earl’s Gas and Convenience.

“So you’re the one,” Pete had said as he pointed at her about a week ago at the post office.

“The one what?” she’d responded.

“The one who finally bought the place out there. None of us thought anyone would.” He spit on the ground before he looked up at some place directly over her right shoulder and said, “Be careful of the lake, then.”

The wind whorled around her now, strong and fierce. Rain slashed at her cheeks. No doubt now, she was getting wet, and not just from overhead. Frothy white waves churned over her boat.

She paddled more furiously, wondering if she was making any headway at all, wondering if her new little lake kayak could withstand a thunderstorm of this magnitude.

God, please help me, she breathed.

All around her was sound—crashing rain, slashing lightning, growling thunder, howling wind. The lake was foamy white and no longer snarled; it yelped and snapped at her like a pack of wolves. She opened her mouth in her exertion and tasted cold rain on her tongue. It became harder to breathe.

Her muscles burned as she pulled, pushed, pulled, pushed through the waves. One huge wave rolled right over her small kayak from bow to stern. Would she tip over? What would she do if she lost her paddle? Her bare fingers were cold and cramped and hurting. If only she had worn gloves. She was wearing her personal flotation device, but what help would that be in this cold, cold lake? Plus, nobody would miss her for days. Her daughters were far away at a Christian camp for the summer. And no one else would miss her. She had no one else. Hot tears mingled with icy rain.

The trees along the shore were thrashing crazily, as if the very ground they were standing on had been shaken by a giant hand. Lightning seemed to strike not more than a couple feet away from her on the water. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and not for the first time she felt her skin prickle.

She began to pray. She hadn’t prayed in a long time and so this surprised her.

The lake was the color of bronze and sky turned into the kind of deep blue-black that nightmares are made of. She could barely make out the shore and ended up paddling off course for a little while before lightning lit up the sky enough for her to see her dock. Just up ahead. Beyond that, her lodge. And home. And warmth. And safety.

Dear God, she prayed, please help me. Don’t let me be hit by lightning. I need to be there for my daughters. It was bad enough to lose their father. They can’t lose me, too.

There was her dock. She was making progress. Just a little bit, but she was going to make it. A little more paddling. A few more strokes. Keep going. She could see her big wraparound porch and she remembered that she had left all her windows open on this day that had started out so sun filled, so fine. She counted strokes to keep her mind occupied.

Ahead of her and a little to the right it looked like a whirlpool was forming. Could this be possible? She skirted around the eddy as best she could and thought about waterspouts. She knew those tornadoes made of water could be deadly.

Another flash of lightning lit up something else. Or someone. A person? Standing astride at the end of her dock covered in a green hooded raincoat and wearing black boots. It was a person, a man, and he was waving toward her.

His hands were cupped around his mouth and he was yelling something that was immediately swallowed up by the storm. She paddled toward him, new hope surging through her.

When she was close enough she saw that he was a big man. A mountain of a man. Water streamed off the brim of his hat like a waterfall. She couldn’t see his face.

Miraculously, she surfed on a big wave and foundered only feet from the dock.

“Here!” he called on the wind. “Reach your paddle toward me!”

She did so. He lunged at it with rain-soaked hands. He missed and she thought he would fall into the water beside her.

She prayed her dock would hold. It was one of the things most in need of repair. Constructed of old gray boards with many missing slats, it was somehow anchored to the bottom of the lake with only two stanchions remaining at the end.

She called. “I’ll try to get closer.”

“Don’t let go your end!” he said.

“I won’t,” she yelled, but not much strength remained in her arms.

She tried again. This time he grabbed it, held on hard and pulled the kayak toward the dock with brute force. When she was abeam the dock, another problem presented itself. “I don’t know if I can get out,” she yelled up at him. “The wind is blowing me into the boards.”

As best she could she reached forward and pulled the rubber apron that encircled her waist and unfastened it from the rim of the cockpit. The entire bottom of the kayak sloshed with water. She was totally soaked through.

He said, “I’ll grab hold of you. I’ll hold you. I won’t let you go.”

The next time the kayak pitched toward the dock he reached out and grabbed onto her PFD and held fast. She hoped nothing would rip. He bent down, reached under her arms and brought her up onto the dock beside him. She held on to him while he grabbed the kayak’s line and shoved the boat hard up toward the shore. He took the paddle and threw it up onto the beach, as well. He was amazingly strong.

“Let’s get out of the rain,” he yelled over the wind.

She merely nodded.

“Careful now, careful there,” he said, taking her arm. “The dock is slippery. It’s not all that sturdy. Hold on to me. There. I’ve got you.”

His voice was gentle for so large a man. And when her feet wouldn’t work, when she shivered so much that she slipped on the slick, wet dock, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her. He didn’t put her down until they were up on her porch. “Let’s get you in and dried off. You’re freezing.”

She was, but she was also strangely warmed by his closeness.

Before they went inside, she looked up into the face of her rescuer and mouthed, Thank you.

Who was this man who had appeared out of nowhere?

The sound of the storm had changed. The lightning and thunder had moved on a bit, but the rain was coming straight down and steady, and so heavy she could barely see the lake.

She was still wearing her PFD and the weight of it added to her cold. She took them off and hung them on a hook just outside her door.

She slipped off her sneakers at the same time and left them there, too. She padded off to the kitchen in wet, bare feet, leaving tracks on the hardwood.

“You can leave your wet things here. Follow me into the kitchen. I’ll get you a towel.”

Her teeth actually chattered as she retrieved a large towel from a hall closet and handed it to the man who had saved her from the storm. “Here,” she said. He took off his wide-brimmed oilskin hat and ran the towel over his head. His hair was pale in color and fell well below his ears. Without his hat he looked younger. She guessed him close to her own age of thirty-eight, or not much older.

She was suddenly conscious of her own drenched clothes. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said to him. “Make yourself at home.”

She closed her bedroom door behind her. Make yourself at home? Who was this man she had just encouraged to make himself at home in her house? In her room she quickly shed her wet clothes and donned jeans and a big, comfy sweatshirt. She ran a towel over her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. Her daughters were encouraging her to grow it. It wasn’t quite long enough for a full ponytail, but she kept trying.

When she emerged, he was kneeling in front of the hearth laying in wood for a fire. He had taken off his oilskin jacket and underneath he wore a gray long-sleeved cotton T-shirt and khaki trousers. He had pushed up the sleeves of his shirt and she could see his forearms were all muscle. No wonder he’d had no trouble lifting her out of the water like he did.

Pieces of his hair fell forward over his eyes when he smiled up at her. His eyes were deep and very blue. He said, “I wondered if you’d mind if I made a fire. Warm the place up a bit.”

“Mind? That’s wonderful,” she said. Somehow it seemed perfectly natural that this stranger should be making a fire in her fireplace. She stood there for a moment while he silently lit a match to the newspaper and kindling. When he rose she said, “Now, is there something I can help you with? You drove out here because…?”

“Pretty lucky that I was out here. You were sort of struggling a bit. I’m glad I could come along and help. I was all set to get my canoe down if need be.”

She looked out of the window. Another truck was parked right next to her own truck. On his, a long green canoe was upside down over the cab. The two trucks, side by side, looked like a matched set. A dog’s head peered out of the truck window.

“You have a dog,” Nori said.

A slow smile began on his face. “His name is Chester.”

“He looks like he’s jumping all over your truck.”

“That’s Chester.”

She looked up at him. Here they were, talking about dogs, and she didn’t even know who he was or why he was in her living room.

“Your name is?”

“Oh, sorry.” He moved toward her. “I’m Steve Baylor. And you’re Nori.”

“You know who I am?”

She redid her ponytail more securely in the elastic.

“The rumor around town is that you’re looking for a handyman. I’ve come to apply for the job. That is, if you haven’t already got someone else lined up.”

“Well,” she said, and moved an errant wisp of hair out of her face. “I am looking for someone.”

“I’m your man, then.” He opened his arms wide and grinned deeply. He had a very expressive mouth that went up more on the right side than the left when he smiled.

“And you drove all the way out here in the middle of a storm because you want to work here?”

His expression became serious. “I was going to call you. Marlene from the café told me about the job. I was just canoeing the Kettle Stream and saw someone out on the lake and I thought I better go see. I was hoping it wasn’t you. You want to avoid thunderstorms on the lake if you can at all help it.”

She nodded. “I’ve been told that before.”

He said, “This lake can blow up into a frenzy and then be completely calm in the space of twenty minutes.”

She looked out at the lake. The downpour was unrelenting, but the lake looked remarkably calmer.

“So then, Steve, what are your qualifications?” She tried to keep her tone businesslike, yet the memory of being held in his gentle arms was still fresh in her mind.

“I’m strong,” he said immediately. “I’m a carpenter and cabinetmaker. I’m a good organizer. I can put in a good day’s work.”

Nori clasped her hands in front of her. Someone like him was who she needed. “Would you like a hot drink? Something to warm you up? I could make coffee. We can talk more then.”

“Coffee would be great.”

“Follow me,” she offered. “Don’t mind the mess. I’ve been here two weeks and I’ve been concentrating more on clearing a path to the beach and unearthing places to park.”

“That’s the sort of thing I could help with.”

“I think I need a whole crew.”

“My thoughts exactly. I know a bunch of young people—from the church actually—who I could round up.”

As they entered the kitchen she tried to see the place through his eyes—boxes leaning against walls, coffee mugs and plates stacked and balanced precariously on counters, piles of papers and books next to the coffeemaker, dirty dishes in sink, her laptop and more papers on the small table. She wanted all new cupboards and countertops. And a new sink while she was at it, and a dishwasher. Actually, she wanted an entirely new kitchen. She was reluctant, therefore, to unpack a lot into cupboards that eventually would be torn down.

The fire was already warming up the place and it felt good. She got a tin of coffee from her pantry, measured fresh grounds into her coffeepot, poured water into the reservoir and switched it on. He said nothing while she did this, and she didn’t know whether she should be talking or not. He seemed to be a quiet man, a nice man, but the silence was beginning to make her uncomfortable. She began talking, her back still to him. “I want to start with this kitchen. Since I plan to live here, this is where I want to begin—”

“For the summer?”

She turned around to face him. “Excuse me?”

“You plan to live here for the summer?”

“Year-round,” she said.

“Year-round?”

“Yes, year-round. This lodge is fully winterized. Maybe not the cabins, but the lodge, certainly. The real estate agent told me the road is plowed regularly. And the place is quiet. That’s what I’m looking for. A quiet place to live year-round.” A place to call home, she wanted to add.

Steve said, “He told you they plow the road?”

“Yes. He did.”

“Well, I don’t know where he gets his information….”

“I’ll hire someone then,” she said quickly, turning away, her face becoming hot.

A few moments later he said, “Pretty isolated out here.”

“I’ll manage.”

“I’m sure you will. You strike me as a strong woman.”

Thankfully her back was still to him. She didn’t know what her face would reveal with that comment.

As she got a couple of mugs from the counter, she heard a loud crash behind her. She jumped and turned, put a hand to her mouth.

“The chair,” he said rather sheepishly. “I’m sorry.”

Steve was on his backside on the floor, his left leg caught in a broken chair leg, his right stuck out in front of him. He had sat on a wooden rocking chair and gone right through it. It was a chair that had been here when she moved in.

She put a hand to her mouth and started to giggle. She couldn’t help it. He managed to disentangle himself and hoist himself up. He was laughing, too.

She said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. Are you okay?”

“Only my dignity is tarnished,” he said, rising. “And this chair. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

“I should’ve told you that chair might be questionable,” she said. “I brought it in here because I was trying to figure out what to do with it. You didn’t break anything that wasn’t broken before.”

He picked up the broken front leg and ran his hands over it quietly for a while. Finally, he said, “Can I take the pieces of this chair with me? I might be able to do something with it.”

“Be my guest. I wasn’t sure it was worth fixing. It’s kind of plain.”

“This chair? This is a great old chair. It looks like an antique Shaker rocking chair. Their chairs were plain because their lifestyle was plain. I’d love the chance to be able to work on it.”

“You sure know your chairs,” Nori said, pouring coffee into two mugs.

“I love carpentry.”

They sat down at the table across from each other and she spread out her lists and Internet printouts on the table in front of her.

“I’ve looked at some new cupboards online and found out that a company can deliver them from Bangor. I’ll just need someone to bring them out here and install them. Can you do that?” From her stack of papers and home repair and decorating books, she unearthed pictures she had printed from the Web of the kitchen cupboards she was looking at.

He picked up her printed sheet and looked at it for several minutes, frowning before he put it back down on the table. “You don’t want those things. They’re factory mass-produced. Not for this grand old place. I’m a cabinetmaker. I could make you cupboards. Nice ones. From scratch.”

“Great. Okay, well.” She felt a jittery jangle of nerves. She knew the price of handcrafted cupboards. Her budget only had so much in it. “But we’ll need to talk price.” She added quickly, “I also have to order new appliances—dishwasher, fridge, stove, one with two ovens and a separate warming oven. And I’ve got my budget down to the penny.”

“What’s wrong with that stove?” Steve pointed at the stove up against the wall.

She stared at him. “That’s a wood stove.”

“Yeah? So? It’s a classic.”

“I know it’s a classic. And it’ll stay there. I just don’t think I’ll be using it to actually cook things.”

“No,” he said. “You gotta use it. It’ll really warm up the place, too.”

“Well, even if I use that as a stove, I still want a new, proper, energy-efficient oven. And dishwasher. This washing dishes by hand is for the birds.”

Before she had even finished talking Steve was up and examining the cupboard next to the sink. It was empty inside. He closed it, opened it again. She watched in silence while he ran his fingers over the wood as if reading Braille.

He turned. “I can fix you up with brand-new cupboards. We can look at woods. I would recommend something dark. I think that would fit in with the decor of the rest of this old kitchen.”

He went on. “If you’re going to run a guesthouse and retreat center you’ll want the best. Nothing prefab for here.”

She furrowed her brow and looked at him. “How did you know I plan to open a retreat center?”

“A little birdie told me.” And then he chuckled deeply. “Actually, Marlene may have mentioned that.”

“Oh. Right.” Marlene at Marlene’s Café was one of the few people she’d gotten to know. Nori didn’t have Internet access at Trail’s End yet, so took advantage of the free Wi-Fi at Marlene’s Café at least once a day.

While Steve and Nori drank their coffee, she went over the rest of her list and pictures. Next was a tour of the lodge. Steve had a lot of good ideas. When she asked him how he had learned so much about interior design he told her it was the influence of his parents. “My dad did the carpentry work and my mother did the designing.”

“So, you worked with your father?”

He didn’t answer her question and the tiniest of frowns settled between his eyes.

After they’d gone through every room in the lodge, they decided to take a look at the cabins since the rain had lessened.

The sun began to glisten through wet tree branches as the two of them headed outside.

“Why don’t you get your dog?” she said.

After Steve let Chester out of his truck, Nori commented on what a remarkably well-trained pooch Chester was.

“He’s had a bit of police training.”

“Wow. That must be interesting.”

“It is,” he added.

Beyond them the lake lapped gently against the shore. It was hard to believe that an hour before it had been a maelstrom.

About an hour later, she and Steve and Chester ended up back in the kitchen going over numbers and ideas. At the end of another pot of coffee and some cookies she had bought at the bakery in town, they came up with a workable plan. Steve would head into Shawnigan tomorrow and look at woods for her cupboards. He had promised her that he could do it for her budgeted amount. Then he would organize work crews. “You’ll like the kids from the church,” he said.

“I’ve met Selena, Marlene’s daughter. Does she go to church? She’s the only young person I know. She seems a bit quiet, though,” Nori said.

“All the kids around here are a bit quiet,” he said.

She thought that was an odd statement, but didn’t pursue it. Instead, she asked, “Are you from around here. Steve? You don’t have the accent.”

“I’m a transplant. Been here three years.”

“Where did you come from?”

“Boston.”

They both noticed the smoke at the same time, but Steve got to the fireplace first.

“Sometimes that fireplace smokes.” Nori was close behind him. She knelt down beside him and watched him work on the flue.

“Do you think the chimney works properly?”

He fiddled with the knob. “It’s the flue. It wasn’t opened all the way. It was a bit stuck. I think I got it. But I would get it cleaned. That’s part of the problem.”

“I’ll do that.”

“I could give you names.”

“Please.”

Their faces were at the same level and he was so close she could catch the scent of him. He smelled like the out-of-doors—canoeing and camping.

He said, “Who split all this wood?”

“I did.”

He looked at her and raised one eyebrow. “I’m impressed.”

“I’m used to hard work.” Nori looked away from him. The truth was, she wasn’t. Splitting a few logs had taken her hours and she had the blisters to prove it.

The fire was burning nicely now. He said, “I’m glad someone’s taken over this place,” he said. “It’s too good a place to let go.”

There was something so tender in his gaze that she found herself backing away lest she be drawn too closely into those deep eyes. Standing, they were face-to-face with her framed photos on the mantel. There were pictures of her daughters, several of her late husband, Marty, one with the girls draped on either side of him, smiles all over everyone’s faces.

“My daughters,” Nori said by way of explanation. “They’re twins. Sixteen. They’re working in a church camp this summer. That’s their father…”

He looked at the picture for a while without saying anything. “I have an eight-year-old son myself. Jeffrey. He lives with his mother down South.”

“I’m sorry,” Nori said, finding her voice again.

He looked back at the pictures of Daphne and Rachel. “Your daughters are very pretty. You said they’re at a church camp?”

She laughed a bit at that. “Yes, a church camp. I haven’t been to church in a while, but my daughters never lost the faith their mother did.”

Nori hadn’t been to church since her husband’s funeral. Sometimes she wondered if God had forgotten all about her. He had looked the other way when that drunk had barreled into her young, strong husband, out for an early morning jog. It felt to her that God’s back had been turned on her ever since.

“I’m sorry that you lost your faith.” His words sounded genuine. He paused before he said, “I just found mine. I’m still finding mine. I still have a lot to work out. Not in God’s love to me, but in my own life.”

It was an odd sort of moment. She’d had the idea that Steve might be someone she could talk to, that he was a listening sort of man, that he would somehow understand everything she had gone through and why it was that she had lost her faith. But then he had stiffened and his face darkened.

They said goodbye and she stood on her porch and watched until his truck was out of sight.

As she made her way back inside something felt curious. She was sure she’d left all the windows open when she went kayaking. Had Steve shut them all? When would he have had time to do that?