“You looked great,” Phoebe said.
“At least I managed to get into the dress and we only had to let out a seam here and there.” She popped her cracker into her mouth. “Don’t you think Cary Grant’s kind of old for Grace?”
“It’s a movie,” Ruby said with a roll of her eyes.
They settled down, enjoying the movie. Ava had the small sofa to herself, Ruby a chair, Maggie and Phoebe throw pillows on the floor. Phoebe hadn’t confessed to Ava and Ruby that she’d ventured to Friday’s charity masquerade, but, given their sideways glances at her, she suspected they had an inkling. Maggie slipped up a couple of times, and finally Phoebe just told them.
They loved the idea. “Oh, excellent,” Ava said. “Now I wish I’d gone, too.”
Ruby glanced at Maggie. “Did Phoebe dance with anyone?”
Phoebe reached for a slice of cucumber. “Why are you asking Maggie and not me?”
“Because Maggie will tell us and you won’t,” Ruby said without hesitation.
Maggie settled back on her stack of pillows. “Phoebe danced with a dashing swordfighter.”
“A swordfighter?” Ruby peered down at Phoebe. “Not Noah Kendrick. Olivia says he’s a master fencer. You were out at Mom’s with him, and then on the common—Phoebe. It was Noah?”
“Are you the reason he stayed at Olivia’s?” Ava asked.
Phoebe shook her head. “I’m not the reason he stayed.”
“But he was your swordfighter,” Ruby amended.
“Yes, but it’s not…” Phoebe jumped to her feet. How could she explain to her sisters what was going on between her and Noah when she didn’t understand herself? “I’ll get more crackers.”
She disappeared into the kitchen. She should have canceled tonight but she’d thought she needed it. A fun night with her sisters would remind her who she was—and who Noah was.
At least now Ava and Ruby knew about Friday. Phoebe had thought about it during the day and decided she didn’t like that she, Maggie and Olivia knew but the twins didn’t. Of course, that was before she’d run into Julius Hartley at the country store and ended up kissing Noah in the library attic.
Phoebe grabbed another box of crackers and headed back into her living room. Her sisters had turned their attention back to the movie, at least for the moment. She set the crackers on the coffee table and resumed her position on the floor, watching Grace Kelly and Cary Grant on their adventures in the south of France.
When the movie ended, Ruby kicked out her legs and sighed. “That was so much fun.” She wiggled her bare toes. “We’ll have to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s next time.”
“You still haven’t told us where you got the dresses, Phoebe,” Ava said.
Phoebe helped herself to a slice of green pepper from her mother’s garden. “At the library,” she said.
Ruby took a handful of cultivated blueberries, also courtesy of their mother. “Someone donated them for the show?”
“I found them in the library attic,” Phoebe said, then told her sisters about the hidden sewing room.
Ruby sat up straight, tucking her knees under her chin. “A secret room in the library attic? Oh, wow. I love it. You’ll let us see it?”
Phoebe nodded. “Maybe you can help figure out which outfits are copies from movies and which are original designs.”
Ava was as enthusiastic as Ruby. Maggie was quiet, frowning at Phoebe. “What about the man you overheard on Friday night?”
“His name is Julius Hartley,” Phoebe said.
“The guy who was interested in buying a goat?” Ruby asked. “He was at the masquerade ball, too?”
Phoebe nodded and brought them all up to speed about Noah and his mystery man from Friday night. “Noah’s still trying to figure out what Hartley wants with him,” she said finally. “I accidentally got in the middle of it. Hartley’s going back to California and I imagine Noah won’t be far behind.”
Maggie started to say something else but Ava stood up. Her hair was in a long, loose braid that hung down her back. “When we were helping you clean up after you bought this place, I found a box of old books in a corner of that big hall closet upstairs. Novels, books on movies, biographies of stars and directors, a Vogue sewing book, a couple of books in French—I remember one was Le Petit Prince. I wonder if it has anything to do with your hidden room.”
“What did you do with the box?” Phoebe asked.
“I left it where it was,” Ava said. “I figured we’d get to it eventually. It’s in back of the closet with some old curtain rods and wool blankets. Phoebe, you know what this means, right?”
She nodded as she got to her feet. “It’s possible that whoever created that hidden room used to live here.”
*