Greenbriar Manor

Blue Bloods and Grey Lace

Fran knew that soon Sallie and Mabel would leave and return to Vermont. As much as she wanted them to stay it just was not the right decision. She thought of that strange picture and of Susan always being scared of Aunt Vera's home. How Johnathan or Jeffrey or whatever his real name was had deftly swooped into their home and taken it off their hands like a thief had bothered her. But she trusted Daniel. They all did. 

She thought of Lorna Fern's mother laundress and a long friend of the Greene family. She and Martha had been here so long they were already grafted in like the knots in that tree that kept the treehouse level. She thought of Mack who was growing up right before her eyes. Soon he would be going off to find some part of the world to explore. With his talent she knew he would make it into some fine art school. He was waking up and wandering into the piano room at night like something was beackoning him there. She thought of that weird and haunting song it seemed all the Greene's knew how to play. She thought of Bridgette and wondered where she had ended up in all of this. Fran was still afraid of her long ago. Whether it was real or imagined she had never known. Surely she had found a way beyond this place. Triumphant or tragic she was remembered and her son would pass on that special gift for song. 

She realized she had not seen Mari in several days. Maybe Martha had returned and taken her to Bear Glen. Brooklyn had work to do with the horse. She noticed Ingrim sometimes sneaking back to the house carrying a saddle at dawn. She suspected that Brooklyn was teaching him to train for a race again at night when parents were not prying. He had gotten lithe and sullen and Mack had all but stopped engaging with them..winning seemed to be the only thing on their minds and she knew Jake was constantly monitoring his investment. That horse had bled some of their nest egg dry. She did not think it was worth all the hassle but she would never say that to Vivien. What the Greene's did with this house was none of her business. She was thankful that long ago they let her and her son wander in and take root here.  She remembered how Mack had always gotten Ingrim in some kind of trouble as a toddler. Maybe now their age difference had drawn a wedge between them. She hoped not.  She folded the last shipment of linens and went up those rickety attic steps to the closet. She ran her hand along the door and unlatched it. There was something on top of the pile. That picture she thought she had hidden. Who had found it and brought it up here? She turned it over again and looked at the three children. She thought of her own adventures with her cousin in Vera's house long ago. Another creepy attic with nailed shut secrets and old pictures of long lost little girls. 

She remembered running Mabel off from up here. She would not want to make Daniel or any of her other employers angry. Her niece had a nosey streak. She carefully cataloged each linen for Fern's records. Lorna was always on time. But this time something was off. There was one with a strange red stain on the edge. Like mud or ink. She laid it aside for her to relaunder. She was worried that eventually Lorna's health would fail. Without Martha here to help her these last few weeks had been immensely strenuous. Her own cousin being here had added to the strain she expected to be chauffered around and never to stay on the property. She claimed the halls were too dark and the library too dusty. It had become clear to her that Sallie really needed to return to her clients and her work in Vermont. Nothing here about the old ways of doing things appealed to her. She found her often complaining about lack of cell service and wide open spaces with nothing to do. She wondered what the state of things was like in the house down the hill that the Grey's lived in without any parents to keep it up. She felt that she must go down and look in on Brooklyn. She would want Martha to do the same for Mack. Single mothers must work together. She thought it strange all this coming and going and Vivien and Jake never saying a thing about it to anyone. She had realized it was Daniel who owned the Manor. That whatever benefaction he had given they all had to mind his whims. Vivien had been away for several nights in town working on some project. She was as mysterious as all the other tenants. Jake had been working on a property upstate. Some other quiet investment a vineyard or the like. He seemed to have the golden touch with everything he operated except that black horse in their barn. She wondered if Brooklyn would warm up to her again he used to be so happy to see her when he was younger. She worried he was losing out on so much stuck in this arrangement of horse keeping when he should be exploring the world and going to school.