An Unexpected Suitor by Anna Schmidt Page B

with Rose Gillenwater close on the heels of that. For a moment, she was so taken aback with the enormity of what she had gotten herself into that she was speechless. Instead she gave the company a curt nod and before she knew it Billy had taken off for upstairs while Jasper and the others began pulling drapes closed and arranging chairs in a semicircle near the piano.
    When Billy came pounding down the stairs waving a sheaf of music, Ellie took a seat at the piano and waited while Billy passed out scripts to the others. “Thank you,” she mouthed to Nola as she played the introduction while the others found their places.
    “You won’t be long at this,” Nola instructed, checking her watch for emphasis. “Eight o’clock at the very outset.”
    Ellie stopped playing and nodded. “Not a minute past,” she assured her.
    “Why don’t you join us, Miss Nola?” Jasper called.
    “Yes, do,” the twins chorused.
    “Thank you for asking, but I have work of my own to attend. I’ll be just across the hall should you need me.” She locked the front door as she crossed the foyer. “Eight o’clock,” she said firmly just before closing the parlor doors, but not quite all the way.
    “And then what?” she heard one of the Kowalski twinsask in a stage whisper. “Are we to go to bed? I mean, what is there to do in this town?”
    The others mumbled their agreement.
    “I don’t know about all of you,” Nola heard Ellie say in her normal voice, “but after a full day of performing for customers—or waiting tables or cleaning up—and now trying to work our way through these new lyrics, I for one will welcome a good night’s sleep. Remember, dear ones, we are doing double duty for the time being. We not only have day jobs, we have music to learn. And unless I miss my guess, there are going to be several rounds of revisions before this show is ready for even a preview performance. There will undoubtedly come a time when we long for a few early nights and some extra sleep.”
    Thank you, Nola thought. She had already moved to the parlor door, prepared to step forward and offer further rules for conduct to the group. Horrified at the very idea that they might yet go looking for some nonexistent nightlife and finding none, would come up with their own version, she had been prepared to nip such ideas in the bud. And yet she hated always being the one to throw cold water on the enthusiasm of others. It had been her role with her siblings and after they had moved on to lives of their own, it had transferred onto the hired help she brought in every summer to cater to her guests.
    She turned to her desk and prepared to tackle the pile of bills she had put aside while handling the staffing crisis. But her attention was drawn to the tearoom where the cast had moved on to other numbers. Ellie played an introduction and then she heard Jasper and Billy stumble through a chorus.
    “No, no, no!” Olga cried. “Forte! Forte,” she commanded and Nola heard Ellie play the introduction again.
    This time the two actors boomed out the words. Then the women joined in and after several starts and restarts, Nola found herself keeping time with the music as she made short work of the bills and prepared the menu for the coming week.
     
    It was after seven by the time Harry finished his work for the day, but instead of heading directly home to his cottage, he pedaled his bicycle aimlessly through the village. He reasoned that it was a fine spring evening, redolent with the scent of the sea and the hint of flowers on the verge of bursting into full bloom. He rode past Rest Haven, the group of cottages run as a spa and homeopathic health facility. It was owned by two doctors from New York who specialized in “Nervous Diseases and Diseases of Women and Children.”
    Harry couldn’t help smiling every time he passed the place. To his way of thinking, a person didn’t need some doctor to tell him that time spent in a quiet seaside village was