But her father has never found anyone since he divorced Bee’s mother. He has seemed to withdraw more and more the older he has become, and Bee has had to step into a parental role, phoning him every day, making sure he is okay, inviting him to their house for all the holidays, even, on occasion, trying to introduce him to nice women she has met.
But this she isn’t ready for. Not yet. He isn’t supposed to have falls, or serious illnesses, or anything serious for years. He’s her father, for heaven’s sake. He’s the one who’s supposed to be looking after her, particularly now, when her entire life is falling apart.
Why is this happening to her now?
Bee screams and howls, the wind carrying her anguish away, and when the rage has finally dissipated she breathes slowly and deeply, then turns the engine back on. “I can do this,” she tells herself, driving down the road past all the new construction, the builders looking at her curiously, her eyes clearly red and raw from crying. “I can do this,” she says, and by the time she turns onto the main road, she knows she can.
Lizzie and Stella are already at home at Windermere. Nan comes out, barely able to contain her excitement at having the two little girls stay, and takes them both by the hand.
“I’ve got trunks full of wonderful dress-up clothes,” she tells them, leaning down so she is on their level. “Sparkly gowns and velvet capes.”
“Do you have fairy dresses?” Lizzie asks.
“Most definitely,” Nan assures her. “And somewhere I should even have genuine fairy tiaras. Did you know that a few little girls who have stayed here have even seen real fairies in the garden?”
“No!” Lizzie’s eyes widen as she looks at Nan. “Real ones? What do they look like?”
“Oh they’re quite beautiful,” Nan says. “But they only come if you build houses for them.”
“Houses? What kind of houses? How do you build a fairy house?”
“You have to use only natural things, like shells from the beach, and twigs, and grass to tie things together. You have to make them a roof so they don’t get wet, and a bed to sleep on, and then they’ll come back. I haven’t had fairies in this garden for a while, but no one has built them a house.”
“Can we build them a house?” Stella asks.
“Well, I suppose we could,” Nan says, and the girls leap up and down with joy.
Michael watches Nan from the doorway with a smile. It is astonishing, really, how she has come to life, surrounded by people. Of course when he was a child here, Windermere was always filled with people, with laughter, with life. But after his father died everything seemed to shut down, and he never would have thought it possible for the house to recapture some of the glamour of days gone by.
The window frames are still rotting in places, numerous shingles are missing on the roof, there is clearly an extraordinary amount of work needed to restore Windermere to its former glory, but the house feels again like the house he grew up in, like a house that contains both history and happiness.
Michael was concerned when he first heard Nan was opening up her house to strangers, concerned when she told him about their financial situation, not that he was surprised.
He is apprehensive about telling her his true thoughts, that he thinks she should sell. He loves Windermere, would hate to leave it, but while renting rooms out for a summer may bring her a sense of security, there’s no way it’s going to save the house.
While the house does look better than it has done in years, the improvements are so clearly superficial. A coat of paint may temporarily hide the wood rotting away underneath, but it won’t hide it for very long. You can seal the cracks in the windows, oil the hinges, patch things up for a while, but here on Nantucket he’s not sure the house will survive another winter.
The money isn’t in the house, Michael knows that, but in the land, and the small amount of research he has done leads him to believe the right developer will pay a fortune for their land.
If it were up to him, he would sell today. Install Nan in a gorgeous cottage, one that is newly built, that needs little money for maintenance, can still give her a garden, an ocean view. He loves this house but he is