Chapter 6

Several days later...

“Oh! Mrs. Sanders!” Esther Rose gasped. “Come in, come in!”

Alicia Marie Sanders hesitated crossing the threshold. “I thought you said I could come any Wednesday ... for tea and tatting?”

“No, yes, of course.” Esther Rose stammered.

Collette popped up behind Esther Rose, peering around her shoulder. “Mrs. Sanders! We are just surprised you accepted our offer. You seemed ... if I may say so, polite but disinterested when we spoke to you last week. Please do come in!” She giggled.

Mrs. Sanders laughed. “I didn’t make up my mind until just today. It was Bourbon Jack who encouraged me ta come.”

“Well.” Collette took the woman’s elbow and gently pulled her in. “We are so happy you came. Please, sit down in the parlor. I’ll get another cup and saucer. We have plenty of biscuits to go with our tea. I am a baker’s wife, after all”

Tentatively, Mrs. Sanders allowed Collette to bring her to the interior room and sat stiffly on the edge of the divan. She looked poised to jump and run at a moment’s notice.

“I do apologize for our rudeness, earlier, Mrs. Sanders.” Esther Rose touched the teapot to test if it was still hot. “We are truly happy to have you here.”

“Well,” Mrs. Sanders seemed to relax.

Collette rushed in with the cup and saucer. “Cream? Sugar?”

“Yes, please.” Mrs. Sanders smiled.

Collette prepared her tea, placed two shortening bread biscuits on the saucer, and handed it to her. “I think you’ll love these cookies Liam makes. He uses pecans in the batter and it adds just the right flavor to make them addictive.” Collette giggled.

“Oh me.” Mrs. Sanders’s eyes widened. “I’ll be especially careful, den.”

They giggled and sipped their tea.

“So, what is dis tatting I am hearing so much about.” Mrs. Sanders set her cup and saucer on the low table.

Esther Rose smiled as she, too, set her tea down. Slowly, she began to show Mrs. Sanders the spools of thread and tatting shuttle. She demonstrated three different combinations of looped knots and gave each a name. “Now, with this, you can make the hen and chicks pattern which will make for a simple but lovely edging for a doily, or we could soak it in starch and iron it out flat for a Christmas tree ornament if you like.”

Esther Rose placed the thread around Mrs. Sanders’s fingers and showed her how to hold the shuttle. Collette picked up the pink lace she had already been working on and leaned back to work while Mrs. Sanders and Esther Rose got a small sample started.

Mrs. Sanders caught on quickly and didn’t need constant supervision like Collette had. Esther Rose sat back and lifted her newspaper. “Let’s see what interesting news we have today.”

She peeked at Mrs. Sanders over the paper. My goodness, she was doing really well for a beginner. “Very good, Mrs. Sanders.”

“Call me Alicia Marie, please.”

“All right, Alicia Marie.” Esther Rose nodded. “It seems you have done something similar to this before? That or you’re a natural.”

Collette frowned and looked over at Alicia Marie’s piece. “Gosh. You are!”

Alicia Marie grinned. “I have had experience on da waterways crews. I have mended nets and sailcloth.”

“Really?” Collette dropped her tatting to her lap. “When?”

“Oh, many years ago, when I was young.” Alicia Marie returned her gaze to her handwork.

“Did you, like I, learn from your mother?” Esther Rose prodded gently.

A very softened, sorrowful expression washed over Alicia Marie’s face. “No.”

Collette sat in silence, as did Esther Rose, for a moment. Then Alicia Marie offered, “I didn’t realize my mother was not my aunt, as she had been presented to me on her occasional visits where I lived with a man I had presumed to be my uncle until I was married. Her final letter came to me along with news of her death.”