town for at least a week. Had she gone to visit relatives elsewhere?
Soon he was knocking on Adele’s front door. Colin answered. “Well, if it isn’t young Mr. White? Come in.” He stepped aside and motioned Liam through.
He stepped into the front hall and took off his hat. “Afternoon, Mr. Cooke. I hope you’re well.”
“As well as ever. I hear you and Adele have been appointed an important task.”
Liam heard the sound of sheets tearing from the parlor. “I’m not sure I’d call it important.”
“Nevertheless, my wife is happy you volunteered.”
“Drafted, more like,” he mumbled, then, “Is Adele in the parlor?”
“Indeed.” Colin waved him that way.
“Liam,” Belle said as he entered, “how nice of you to come. We’re almost ready.”
Adele looked up, sighed and cut some loose threads from a newly-torn sheet.
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to cut them with scissors?” Liam wondered.
“Tearing them works fine.” Belle started to rip another sheet in two.
Colin leaned toward him and whispered, “It helps my wife get out her aggressions.”
Liam looked at him, wide-eyed. Colin shrugged and smiled.
“Don’t listen to my father,” Adele said. “Who knows what he’ll have you thinking about us?”
“There, that should be enough,” Belle said, ignoring the exchange. “Be sure you trim all of them, dear.” She folded the one she was holding and dropped it in front of Adele. “Liam, would you like to help her?”
He looked at the pile, Colin, then Belle. “Do … what?”
Belle smiled and handed him a pair of scissors. “Trimming, of course. Make sure they’re straight. Go ahead and join her – there’s plenty of room.”
Liam took the scissors and noted that some of the furniture had been moved against the walls to open up a workspace. “All right, I’m trimming sheets.” He went to the pile, took one and spread it on the floor, got on his hands and knees and started looking for loose threads and uneven lines. “I still think it would’ve been simpler to cut what you wanted.”
Adele’s glanced at her parents and back. “Tell that to my mother.”
Liam watched as Colin kissed Belle on the cheek and went out the front door, while Adele’s mother went down the hall to who knows where. “Where’s your father off to?”
“He’s going to set up some sawhorses and planks so we can spread the sheets out to paint them.”
“Good idea.”
“We’ll have to draw the letters on the sheets first so we have guides. That way the words will look halfway decent.”
“What color paint do you have?”
“Mother bought blue, red – we should use that for the letters – yellow and green.”
“Wouldn’t one color suffice?” He watched her brush hair out of her eyes and tuck it behind her ear. She had a nice profile, and freckles on her nose.
“One color would be simpler, but that’s not how Mother thinks.”
He continued to watch her. He’d never noticed the freckles before. “As soon as the paint dries, we can roll them up, and I can take them to town.”
She blew another wisp of hair out of her face. “Mother insists I go with you to hang them up.”
“You don’t need to – I can hang them myself.” He wouldn’t mind the help, but was sure she’d get on his nerves before long. She usually did after about twenty minutes with the woman.
“My mother insists. I told her it would be a bother for you to drive to town and bring me home, but she wouldn’t listen. I don’t know what’s gotten into her lately …”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I rode Butterscotch.”
Her eyes lit up. “Your palomino? She’s such a beautiful horse.”
“I have to agree. My pride and joy.”
“I suppose since Mother demanded we hang them together, I could saddle one of ours and ride to town with you. Then you could go home from there.”
“Are you sure you can’t talk some sense into her?” Though his mother had been just as insistent, at least as far as going to the dance.
“Are you kidding? She’s in the frenzy of planning something for the town. You know how they all get.”
He laughed. “You don’t have to remind me. My mother is one of the original planners too.”
Adele giggled. “True.” She finished the sheet she’d been trimming, folded it and set it aside.
It didn’t take long before that part of their task was done and they hauled them outside to begin drawing and painting. Once the sheets were spread across the wide planks Colin prepared, they tacked them down. Then Liam waved Adele away,