Chapter 09

Elizabeth knew she was going to be occupied, but not exactly the way fate withheld her to be. On the third day of her stay at the Ritz, Elizabeth received a surprising message on her phone stating that her "special fund" had been officially frozen. All hairs on her body stood on their ends at the sight of this discovery. There was no reason for the bank to freeze her account because Elizabeth knew she was the last person in all of Manhattan to be suspected of illegal transactions after the entire Hartley lineage.

Without saving space for further suspicions and panic attacks in her mind, she called the bank and what she heard on the other end made her lips tremble, and the tips of her fingers tingle with fury. Her eyes filling up with raging tears, she scrolled down her phone and pressed the call button.

A few rings passed before the other end answered.

"Why would you this?" Elizabeth croaked into the phone, trying her best not to raise her voice.

"Elizabeth, you left me no choice- running away so you would never realise what you're losing? I thought we agreed last time was it." Lorraine said in a low stern tone.

"You can't keep worrying about me like this mom and you froze dad's special fund—the one he left for me so I could learn to figure out how to make my own decisions."

"I'm still your mother Elizabeth," she said painstakingly, "and you really think your father would rest okay, seeing you waste your life away?"

"No, don't you dare bring him into our conversations, you know that's not fair," Elizabeth said furiously, and scoffed, " now that I think about it, you haven't bought him up for the past eight years- he never came up during all those Christmas dinners we had by ourselves or when I graduated or when I needed him to teach me how to dance for prom- and you didn't even mention him to assure me that it was okay to remember him. And NOW you do, only to tell me that I'm wasting away something he left by, like I'm incapable of doing anything., Elizabeth didn't feel the tears dampen her cheeks as memories tumbled after like a gush of untamed waters.

"Liz-

"Don't, please mom, for once," she sighed too weary and hurt to raise her voice, "I don't know how clear I could be when I say I decide who I want to be, the way I want to be, but if my intentions are still smoke and mirrors in your eyes, then do as you please."

Elizabeth hung up in her high strung fury and sat on the edge of her bed as she waited for her fury to fade away, but instead she curled up on the edge of her bed and let the gasping sobs kill her insides for the hundredth time that she had duelled with her mother.

Elizabeth's eyes kept glancing towards her phone as she had never been enraged enough to hung up on her mother, but the screen remained a stagnant empty void. closing her eyes shut as the pain ebbed into her chest, she pulled the comforter around her helplessly.

Hoping she could have booked the rest of her stay at the Ritz when she visited Chelseaville, Elizabeth had only paid up for four nights and without her father's fund to back her up, Elizabeth only had a few old hundred dollars from her Starbucks shifts. She had no choice but to search for new grounds, hence the following day Elizabeth bid Linda goodbye, even though she had offered to weasel her way into the hotel manager's softer sides, Elizabeth refused, because a part of her didn't want to fight back.

Rolling her luggage behind her on the gravely streets, Elizabeth headed towards Bitsy's, the only place she had felt remotely familiar with, for a throat and soul dissolving cup of leathery coffee that would numb her insides.

It took this particular morning in Chelseaville for Elizabeth to realise that stilettos were not preferred foot wear on a gritty secret pathway under the fiercest heat she had encountered-the Main Street was laid out smooth, but it was longer and Elizabeth was down to a few hundred dollars in her own account which meant she had to cut out every form of comfort for a while. The only comfort she had was the return ticket packed away in her luggage safely, but the possibility of living off the streets for two whole weeks made the last fancy breakfast from the Ritz leap up to her throat.

When Elizabeth dragged herself into the diner looking sweaty, red cheeked and out of breath, Ruby, who was displaced by the counter laid her elbows on the counter in interest and grinned at the chaotic city mess that just tumbled into her diner.

"Maybe lose the sweater and don somethin' breezy.Summers here tend to be real nasty," Ruby scrunched her nose at the sweat patches forming over Elizabeth's sweater dress in all the wrong places. Elizabeth who was drained of breath raised her tired eyes in agreement and slumped herself on a wooden stool by the counter. Ruby, who had a good deal of daughters to decipher, knew when a girl was feeling like they have done wrong and one glance at Elizabeth's false smile which was forced upon her proved her right.

"I think I know when someone's pearly whites ain't honest, so don't try sugar," said Ruby and pulled a glass from her never-ending supply of glasses under the counter and grabbed a pitcher of sweet tea from the fridge.

Elizabeth's smile vanished in embarrassment at the confrontation, but she was relived she did not have to pretend with forced smiles which was her biggest pet peeve that she would rather see it on someone else than herself.

"What's troubling you?" Asked Ruby a maternal undertone in her voice, as she placed a glass of sweet tea with a lemon bobbing amongst the ice cube. Elizabeth's expression softened lightly at the sight.

"The last time I spilled my woes publicly was to a bartender and boy aren't they amazing listeners," Elizabeth said taking a long sip from her glass and felt grateful for not having to down leathery brown liquid, "but not so charming when they try to make a move on vulnerable sappy ladies."

Ruby laughed softly.

"Well I promise you we diner ladies are much tamer and more hospitable," she said in mock reassurance.

A smile curled up on Elizabeth's face.

"If you must know I uh-," she tried to think of a better explanation than "my mom froze my account so I'm unbelievably broke and in need of a newer, cheaper place to crawl into", hence she skipped to the gist,

"I need to find a motel or a BnB for the next couple of days."

"I'm guessin' the part where your account was frozen and had to withdraw your stay from the Ritz was nothin?" Ruby asked looking away.

"How?! How do uh you know that?' Asked Elizabeth alarmed now.

"Oh, calm down love, I didn't mean to pry," Ruby swatted a hand, "Linda can't keep shush and it is a small town after all."

"Linda?"

"She's one of my three daughters," Ruby rolled her eyes, but the faint pride was evident.

"Now that explains the gossip streak," Elizabeth said in mock aghast, but she could not help smiling.

"This town can't keep a secret even if they were held at gun point," Ruby shook her head.

Elizabeth smiled and circled her palms around the cold glass, her shoulder's loosening. She had not thought about last night ever since she had left the hotel, and the thought of her fury and lash out sent chills down Elizabeth's body, and her shoulders clenched back in again.

"Hey, you alright now?'

"Huh yes," Elizabeth looked up at the sound of Ruby's voice, "could you please tell me where I can find a place?" She asked with a trace of plead in her voice, which Ruby picked up without trouble, much to Elizabeth's consolation.

"There's a cozy little BnB by Pebble stone river, right in front of Billy's chop shop. Take a straight right on Oak street and you'll be there in a wink."

"Thank you," said Elizabeth and stood up placing a dollar for the tea, "you've been more than just hospitable."

"Oh, shush dear it's nothin you can put a price on," said Ruby aghast and slid the dollar back to Elizabeth's hand, and she tried to prove Ruby wrong, but she was firm on saying no to the dollar.

"It ain't no Ritz, but it's got a nice view and great hosts- quite homely."

"That sounds wonderful, thank you again," she smiled at Ruby and walked back out of the diner, her luggage strolling after her. Ruby watched Elizabeth leave, and the light that sparked in Elizabeth's eyes out of reference for homeliness, made Ruby smile in confusion as she sensed a vague feeling of déjà vu that she could not concur.

*****

Elizabeth reached Billy's old chop shop, without much difficulty as the streets were limited and opened, but she could not favour her feet, which she swore she would have heard their agonising screams had they tiny mouths. When Ruby had assured that she'd get there ' in a wink' she didn't stop to think that Ruby was definitely regarding someone with comfortable footwear and not one in five-inch heels.

Billy's chop shop lived up to its name with pieces and thick shards of metal, screws and bolts used to spell out its name. Elizabeth looked across the chop shop and saw a white picket fenced lodge with a wide porch adorning it, where a woman in shorts and a breezy peasant top was artistically trimming wild creepers that twirled around the porch fence. Right next to the small steely gate by the pathway entrance, a board was uprooted indicating 'Woods' BnB'. Sighing in relief that her red sore toes and heels did not have to trudge further, Elizabeth pushed through the gate and made her way in. As she did the woman with the shears turned around and hastily walked down the porch stairs, leaving the shears behind her, with an inquiring smile about her that matched her light blue eyes and ombré curls. Elizabeth automatically smiled and waved her hand, only to drop her hand down abashed, to cover her sweat patched self.

"Can I help ya?" The woman asked in a velvety voice.

"I um I'm looking for a place to stay," she said sheepishly, not familiar with requesting accommodation. "Which has to be less than $250 because I'm running on my last drop." Elizabeth blurted desperately.

The woman laughed softly and smiled at Elizabeth supportively.

"You're in the right place cos I've got a snug den for $115," she said and turned towards the inn.

"Sage!" She shouted into air and in seconds a girl of eleven came running along with a hefty wicker basket , swinging to the side along with her. The girl slowed down clumsily and stood next to the woman, holding up the basket in position like a sentry on duty.

"Will the $115 do?" Asked the woman.

"You did bring out an adorable kid with the wild beauty," Elizabeth said eyes wide at the little girl who had blue eyes just like the woman's and honey brown curls bobbing on her shoulders, with a shy smile on her face, "so how can I refuse?" Elizabeth shrugged helplessly and extended her hand, "Elizabeth Hartley."

"Vivian Miller-Woods," Vivian beamed and instantly frowned at the extended hand, "I'm sorry but we don't do handshakes here." she said apologetically.

"Uh...I-

"So, bring it in," said Vivian in a gleeful smile and opened her arms welcomingly, which Elizabeth startled at first soon gave in, because if there was anything Elizabeth could not refuse, it was a born hugger. When she pulled back, she saw the girl was still standing next to Vivian awkwardly. Vivian nudged Sage and she lifted the lid of the basket to reveal a bunch of pink cooling towels piled up against strewn flower petals. Unable to bear the cute display before her, Elizabeth knelt to reach Sage's height and picked up a cold towel.

"You're doing a wonderful job Sage," Elizabeth winked at her and the blue eyes twinkled back in response as she smiled timidly.

While Vivian gave Elizabeth a short tour of the inn, she learned that Vivian was a mother of twins, Sage and Savannah, as another girl with gunmetal blue eyes , longer curls slicked back into a pony tail in corduroy overalls and sneakers with a seriously professional expression on her face came out of the kitchen just as Elizabeth stepped into the BnB, offering to take her luggage.

"Come say hey to the nice lady Sav," Vivian asked Savannah who was now hiding a part of herself behind the couch. She stepped out in an unordered manner as if she were doing her own thing and did not need to be ordered around. Savannah nodded her head at Elizabeth with a pursed smile.

"Hello, welcome to 'Woods' BnB' where we do all things amazing to keep our guests happy!" She pronounced in a forced flat voice, which was hard for her softer tone to imitate.

Elizabeth hid a smile and nodded her head back sternly.

"Why thank you Savannah, I'm sure I'll love it here." Elizabeth said and motioned Savannah to go ahead with the bags as she could see the girl was dying to play the role of the host. Savannah tried, but failing to contain her excitement, reached for Elizabeth's bag unprofessionally and rolled it into the inn with Sage skipping behind her with the wicker basket clutched to her chest.

Vivian shook her head and directed Elizabeth to the living room.

"Cute as they seem, they can be the fiercest monsters," she said widening her eyes, "but enough about them. So, you were at the Ritz a couple of days ago."

"I'm guessing Ruby spilled the moment I left the diner?" Elizabeth asked unimpressed.

"What can I say, this town is always awake for new tea to spill over," said Vivian pouring another glass of iced tea, the only beverage which had begun to please Elizabeth's taste buds in Chelseaville.

"This town feels like a humongous mansion, where everyone knows about your presence somehow," said Elizabeth bewildered.

"It does feel that way at times, but that is what's precious about small towns- we're all a big family who's got each other's backs."

"Even strangers?" Elizabeth inquired.

Vivian kept the iced tea jar on the coffee table and looked up at Elizabeth.

"The moment anyone steps into this town, it becomes their own haven," she shrugged and smiled wistfully, "after all Chelseaville was a haven for outsiders since the seventeenth century."

Elizabeth raised her brows curiously.

"Chelseaville was the only town hurled and stowed away from puritans and separatists that rebelled during the seventeens," began Vivian her velvety voice lowering as she slipped into her element of elaborating the mystical history of Chelseaville, to her guests. "The town's founder, Lazarus Wroth, a revolutionary against the puritans and separatists, searched for a haven for people to live on grounds that wasn't nourished by greed and hypocrisy. For weeks and months, he travelled with his few followers away from the battle grounds in search of a haven and then he stopped on these very grounds of Chelseaville for reasons unknown and decided to bring life to it. Lazarus' Latin origins led him to call the town 'Celantur'."

"Concealed." Elizabeth sated.

"Took up Latin in college for kicks I'm guessin ?" Vivian narrowed her eyes and Elizabeth laughed.

"I thought it would be helpful for writers, but that was...a long time ago, when I made crazier decisions than I normally do."

"We all make the craziest decisions every day, it's what keeps us alive," Vivian shrugged, and Elizabeth lost in thought, smiled sadly at a long-lost memory, before she urged Vivian to continue her story.

"The town was truly concealed, a tad too much if you ask me, that it took archaeologists quite a while to bring life to this town again in the latter eighteenth century, so for a few decades Chelseaville was Celantur for people- a town hidden from the rest of the world." Vivian brought her hands together at the end as if she had conducted the perfect history recap for the day.

"If Lazarus sought a place for anti-puritans and separatists, do people regard this town as a place for pagans and atheists?" Elizabeth asked her eyes intensified with childish curiosity.

Vivian laughed.

"On I don't really know about that, but I do know this town was there for all sorts of pariahs from everywhere and anywhere. I was born here, but it always amazes me what draws outsiders here, because how on earth can you spot something queer and yet charming when it's not even amongst the crowd?"

Elizabeth replayed Vivian's words in her mind and she remembered her impulsive and undeniable draw towards this town, that she had ignored all the while. She could say it was for the letter, but she could not articulate or base the likelihood of the letter being a defence mechanism for something deep down she won't allow to get through to her.

"You're wondering what you're call is aren't you?" Vivian asked softly and Elizabeth almost gasped out of her reverie.

"Wh-yes, guilty," she murmured.

"Miss Hartley, I advise you to stop frettin' and let whatever it is your searching for to find you," Vivian smiled.

"I suppose so," Elizabeth smiled in return, "and no, please call me Elizabeth, or Liz or Beth, whichever."

"I think we'll be glad to have you here Elizabeth," Vivian raised her glass to clink. Before Elizabeth could even pick up her glass her attention shifted to a shuffling noise through the porch and before she could figure out, in walked a man with a messy top of dark brown hair, plaid flannels rolled up to his elbows and soggy ends on his pants and shoes, carrying a cooling box and a fishing rod, whistling a rusty tune to himself. He turned towards Elizabeth's direction and widened his eyes as if he'd seen something horrifying, he pursed his lips and turned around hastily to leave, but Vivian caught Elizabeth's attention and swivelled around, and her blue eyes turned steely at the sight.

"Nolan!" She screeched, and he stopped dead in his tracks, sighed inwardly and turned to her with a toothy grin.

"Vivian," he dropped the fishing equipment and widened his arms approaching the living room and turned to Elizabeth, "and what do we have here? A guest!" He said in plastic exaggeration and bent towards Elizabeth, extending his hand. Elizabeth knew she had to shake this strange man's hand, but she was too startled by the steel blue eyes of him that was staring at her waiting, along with a cheeky grin outshining the disastrous stubble across the lower features of his face. His eyes were deeply terrifying and welcomingly calm all at the same time. she saw tiny shades of green intermingled with the blue in his eyes. Realising she was letting his hand waver in the air empty; Elizabeth quickly unclenched her clammy fingers which she had been gripping unconsciously and put her hand in his, praying he would not notice the sweats. He shook her hand lightly but firm enough for her to feel the calluses on his palm.

"Elizabeth, this is my brother Nolan Woods- he helps me run the BnB and is very helpful," she turned to Elizabeth with a hospitable smile, and back to Nolan with a frown, "even though he forgets every now and then to NOT walk across the inn after his stinkin' fishing trips," gritted Vivian through her teeth.

Fish? Wondered Elizabeth in confusion, when she swore she felt a faint fragrance with notes of wood smoke, earth and vanilla as Nolan bent towards her.

Nolan let go of Elizabeth's hand slowly, to her embarrassment which she realised she was still gripping, and laughed heartily at Vivian's accusation. He then kissed the top of her head much to Vivian's annoyance.

"Sorry Viv, won't happen again, I promise." He said to which Vivian flipped a dismissive hand. Laughing, he turned to Elizabeth and blatantly checked her attire from head to toe and smiled cheekily.

"You from the city?" He asked ignoring Vivian's glare while walking towards his fishing mess by the door.

"Yes, Manhattan, right out of the loud and bright stuff," Elizabeth said and winced immediately. A 'yes' would have been normal, she thought a bit too late.

"I see," he nodded pursing his lips, "Vivian here must have poured out the whole 'outsiders belong' speech, but city girls don't stay here for free," he winked at Elizabeth and slipped out onto the porch.

Elizabeth felt her cheeks warm up out of rage and annoyance.

"He's against pariahs I see," Elizabeth said calmly once it was only her and Vivian in the living room.

"Don't take it to heart please, Nolan just likes to test out the guests," Vivian said shaking her head, "this inn used to belong to our parents when we were just kids, and after they passed it on to us, at such a young age, Nolan and I, we came up with this childish pact to make new connections, memories and relationships with the good guests. It was a childish whim out of desperation for comfort after our parents passed away..." Vivian said wistfully, and even though she smiled, Elizabeth easily saw the grief behind her eyes.

"That's beautiful and your parents- I'm sorry," Elizabeth said, her rage dissipating away faster than she expected.

"Stop that, you're not apologising for anything here," Vivian said sternly, "it's just that Nolan took the pact to heart a tad seriously and thought it was the right thing to make certain that the guests here are worth keepin' around the family."

"Wait so does that mean if the guests are rude and uncooperative, what, they're asked to leave?" Elizabeth asked worried.

Vivian looked away sheepishly.

"Elizabeth I would never ask my guests to leave that's absurd—

"But Nolan will?' Elizabeth asked her eyes raised.

Vivian narrowed her eyes as if in deep thought,

"No not really, he'd make them wanna leave,"

"And you're okay with that...are you okay with that?" Elizabeth was now mortified.

"Of course not, but I'd rather have family than a bunch of arrogant asses anyways," Vivian laughed.

"Should I start looking for other places?"

"You're good Elizabeth, I think you're someone we'd like to keep," she said reassuringly.

"That's music to my ears, because there's nowhere else I could go," Elizabeth said disgruntled.

"Well you do now," Vivian stood up, "come on I'll show you your room."

******

The hallway in the inn had four rooms on either side and the second floor had three more rooms. Luckily for Elizabeth, the rest of the rooms were empty because this was not the month or the season that Chelseaville attracted her tourists because of the merciless heat that scorched the whole town.

The only guests who were on a business trip from Fairhope had left two days ago and the entire BnB was a lodge of quietness and peace. The inn barely looked like one, instead it resembled a family cottage with whitewashed walls which had intricate filigrees of yellow and red tulips painted in twirls along the corners of the wall, which Elizabeth had learned were Vivian's creations. Elizabeth settled into the inn rather easily, it was weird to leave the Ritz for an inn where the hosts were rushing and walking in unannounced, but it still depicted comfort and cosiness in the thick duvets with printed patterns and the array of pillows with soft colours lined up against the duvet. They made Elizabeth's eyes heavy.

The walls in her room were painted in a cloudy pastel grey with life like white clouds painted on the ceiling which made Elizabeth feel exactly as she did when she visited the Sistine chapel two summers ago. Elizabeth placed her bag on the tiny blue ottoman by the bed and hung her clothes on the minimalist closet, that seemed hand made as she noticed strokes of varnish standing out like hardened candy sticks. The closet opened into two shelves for shoes, a top shelf, and a few hangers. It was a quarter of her normal closet, but it had to do.

It was mid afternoon when Elizabeth had sorted out herself into the new chambers, and just as she was about to plop down on her bed, she heard giggles and screams mingled together outside. The inn led to a backyard which merged with the famed pebble stone river. Elizabeth stepped out into the backyard and witnessed the green yard pour out into the river. The tittering sounds continued and as she ventured further into the yard she spotted a house, more like a cottage house with pointy roofs, a cobblestone chimney and a signature porch with a white fence. Elizabeth knew porches were the only area you could have to yourself from the movies she had seen, but she had never had one to sit and stare right up at the skies in her apartment where solitary was a luxury.

The house was displaced at the far corner of the yard edging towards the river. It was then that she saw right below the porch, Nolan was carrying Sage and Savannah on his back and twirling them around as they screeched giggles. The girls were clearly impressed by their uncle, thought Elizabeth unable to prevent her lips from curling up at the spectacle. As she watched Nolan being the best uncle ever to these two girls, she could tell why he had decided to continue the 'pact': he was protective of the girls and not his sister anymore. The affection flared in Elizabeth's chest, but she was distracted by the man who came out on to the porch with Vivian by her side and offered Nolan a beer while the girls now on the ground clung onto his arm and leg, unwilling to let go- The family, Vivian had mentioned.

Crossing over to a patch of bluebells by the banks of the river with the intention of not prying failed, as her eyes immediately riveted back to the group who exchanged laughs and smiles-her hazel eyes stared in awe because never had she seen a family look at one another with such gratefulness and pride. She knew she was not missing anything, just perplexed.