Well Made and Enduring Pt. 02

A full breakfast followed, most of it unfamiliar to Elspeth. She deduced it was Irish, or at least derived from their traditions. Elspeth unbent enough to accept a poached egg, along with a shredded potato dish, stewed tomatoes, and coffee with heavy cream. It was all excellent and the tomatoes, stewed with mushrooms and rosemary, were memorable.

During coffee, Dr. Richards pulled out a phone. "Adele, have you ever seen this set of jewelry? It was made by Tiffany in 1898. My great-gran Sparks commissioned it." This was also the first that Elspeth had seen it. She and Adele sat side by side, scrolling through the pictures in the folder. One image was of Dr. Richards and Sheila wearing what appeared to be identical sets. Elspeth gasped. Once again, distant things came close.

Adele read the situation perfectly, "She did this for you, your graceful sister-in-law. You are much blessed. I am not familiar with such jewelry. As you have said, we believe in well made and enduring, but also functional. Such decoration is for others. I can say that the set is well given.

"I feel the same about Elspeth. She was a sweet child, but different in many ways. We tried to adjust to her desires, but it was not always easy. You are a gift to her, thus a gift to us. I would say, 'Guard her well', but that seems to be your nature. You are welcome here at any time. Indeed, I would be pleased to meet your sister-in-law, Sheila. She may also bring her daughter. I have a fondness for children."

It was the longest speech Elspeth had ever heard from Grandmother. Dr. Richards looked genuinely touched. Elspeth felt she ought to be and had to hide a smile. The twinkle in Grandmother's eye told Elspeth she was unsuccessful. The two exchanged nods before turning away. Grownup table indeed.

Chapter 12: The New Normal

What was left of the morning passed quickly. Dr. Richards had Elspeth researching several issues concerning the neighborhood. Elspeth's subscription to the Boston Globe helped, but her family tree helped more. Elspeth thought she was getting a grip on things when Dr. Richards dropped the bomb—they were going to meet Veronica.

Stories about Veronica made her seem almost superhuman. Dr. Richards freely admitted that the first ring in her nose came from Veronica. Symbolism does not come much clearer. Yet, the actual person was a disappointment. Veronica was a sober alcoholic, trying hard to balance business and the thought of the next vodka martini.

Fortunately, Elspeth had notes to take, so it was easy to hide her reaction. The meeting was in a bar, but it was as official as any boardroom and almost as staged. Like many board meetings, much was discussed and little was decided. Afterward, Dr. Richards called Sid Rice at MBC&L, telling him that contact was established. When Sid demanded more details, Elspeth asked for the phone. She told L. Sydney Rice JD that Dr. Richards was on a first name basis with Adele Cabot, to give Dr. Richards the respect she had earned, and to respect his elders.

With a satisfied smirk, Elspeth returned the cell phone. Dr. Richards' smile was more affectionate. An hour later, over dinner, Dr. Richards laid out her plan for the coming month. Elspeth would go north and babysit the Concord office, while keeping an eye on the Manchester bridge project. Dr. Richards had an apartment in Hooksett, halfway between Concord and Manchester. She gave Elspeth a key to the apartment for the duration. Elspeth already kept a change in the guest room, but it was a nice formality.

What had been a plan for a month became the new normal. Dr. Richards spent half her time on the road between Boston and Concord. Elspeth seriously considered taking over the lease on the Hooksett apartment. She did move out of her sublet in Concord. Things changed abruptly when Dr. Richards stopped over in Nashua. In addition to a tank of gas, she picked up several real estate listing books. Hooksett was halfway between Concord and Manchester. Nashua was halfway between Concord and Boston. Elspeth could read the writing on the wall.

Sure enough, Dr. Richards started investigating Nashua, the real estate market first then the community at large. Before long, Elspeth was introduced to a number of the important ladies of Nashua, a small but noticeable fraction of which were relatives. This was not unexpected, since Nashua served as a bedroom community for greater Boston, but Elspeth was surprised by the comfort she drew from the familiarity. It did not hurt that the ladies treated Elspeth like royalty.

Soon, Elspeth was spending more time in the Hooksett apartment than Dr. Richards. Half the time, Dr. Richards would stop for a shower and change of clothing en route from Boston to Concord or vice versa. Elspeth was basically running the Concord business so that Dr. Richards could get by with an occasional personal appearance while focusing on Boston. Underneath it all, both were spending more and more time in Nashua—Dr. Richards in person, Elspeth electronically.

Oddly, despite the neglect, the Concord business was flourishing. FD Consulting had a solid reputation on both sides of the Paroles and Pardons (P&P) table. During the summer, the Governor quietly asked if Dr. Richards wished a seat on the P&P board. Elspeth was thrilled and would have been more so, except she was certain Dr. Richards would refuse, which she did. None-the-less, September marked their tenth P&P client. October saw the final completion of the Manchester project. That check turned the first profit, even though the staff had grown to seven. Elspeth would have felt better if she were not certain things would change soon.

The first sign was Dr. Richards renting an apartment in Nashua. Over the months, Elspeth had moved most of her things to Hooksett and the rest to storage. Elspeth's Concord apartment lease ended in June. She would sit the remainder of the Hooksett lease and deal with finding a new place after things began to resettle. In the meantime, Elspeth tried not to worry about Dr. Richards and the amount of time she was spending near her old flame, Veronica vanKampen.

That was the point when Lars Gunter chose to reappear. Dr. Richards' fiancé had been stationed in Japan for over two years. He was in the United States to pay tribute to Georg Karl. The longtime manager of Siemens' North American interests was retiring, which marked the end of Lars' tour of the Far East. After the formalities, Herr Gunter would transfer to Siemens HQ in Berlin. While her fiencé was available, Dr. Richards tried hard to get pregnant, with no success. That may have figured into her decision to accept the county's unexpected offer.

As in any other sphere, money made Nashua politics function. The County owned some land that it wanted to sell. The problem was two-fold. First, a covenant required the land to be sold as a unit. Second, it was hard as hell to get anywhere close to it. Although the value was excellent, no one had even seriously nibbled. Elspeth took one look and knew Dr. Richards would grab the opportunity with both hands.

The acreage was nice, and the county would cut a road to the boundary as part of the deal. However, the land included a house. Standing, the house made the property improved land, with a higher tax value. The catch was that the house could not be torn down, even though it predated the Revolutionary War by decades and had been vacant for more than a century. Developers concluded the property was not worth the complications. Elspeth believed that Dr. Richards would pay the asking price for the house and consider all the land to be a bonus.

So it proved. Dr. Richards hiked out to the site, returning with a ream of pictures and a name—Cloudrest. A picture showed the reason. At first glance, it simply showed the house with the second floor covered by a cloud. After a moment, the perspective shifted so that it appeared the cloud was sitting on the house, resting. In a similar shift of perspective, Elspeth saw that Cloudrest would be a central part of the rest of her life. She might have felt dizzy if Dr. Richards did not have a pile of new work to get done.

The South Boston job was complete. Their employer, MBC&L, was pleased enough to recommend FD Consulting to the City of Boston for a statistical analysis project. It covered all of South Boston and Dr. Richards gave Elspeth the job, then left to play with her new toy. Elspeth fumed for a full hour, then opened her contact page and called Vivian Wright. There was a moment of deja vu. Elspeth remembered the Friday before the wedding when Dr. Richards was away for final fittings. There were a thousand questions and the answer to almost all was, "You know what Dr. Richards wants done. Just do it."

So it proved, yet again. Vivian was an MIT trained number cruncher. She only needed to be shown the starting point. In the process, Elspeth needed to meet and get to know Veronica vanKampen. This was as simple as introducing Vivian to Veronica. Elspeth had a Dr. Richards moment while she watched the other two women sort their respective roles. Considering Vivian was a PhD and Veronica had dropped out of secretarial school, they got on well. Veronica would run the office, deal with people, and acquire the necessary numbers. Vivian would do everything else. $13,000 worth of computer equipment later, they were good to go.

Elspeth went back to Concord to oversee a series of relocations. FD Consulting's had expanded from the original storefront into the one adjacent and needed to grow further. Rather than stay in a strip mall, FDC would move into a converted residence—as soon a law firm vacated. Evaine Schaeffelker would be moving Beacon Light Foundation, once their permanent facility near Manchester was ready. Coincidentally, one of Evaine's assistants would take over the Hooksett apartment as soon as Elspeth moved out. Elspeth became well acquainted with moving firms, storage fees, real estate lease deadlines, and hair-pulling frustration. Mark Twain said that two moves were as bad as one fire. Elspeth spent weeks juggled three.

Even the worst things end. By Thanksgiving, everyone but Elspeth was settled into their new location. She was in Nashua, putting a few things in Dr. Richards guest room. While in town, she had tea with several of Dr. Richards ladies. Elspeth was shocked to discover that the women were pushing Dr. Richards to run for Nashua Alderman. She also, finally, had the chance to see Cloudrest.

The ladies made an event of it. While nearly inaccessible by land, the property had river frontage. A Boy Scout project had installed a small boat dock and one of the women had access to a suitable boat. Four of the ladies and Elspeth braved the weather to see the house. It was worth the effort. Elspeth was very familiar with Federal period construction. This was older and everything was hand cut. Yet, the house was huge.

Rooms were sized almost to 20th-century norms, easily larger than the rooms in Elspeth's childhood home on Beacon Hill. Though difficult to see through a century of grime, Elspeth could make out some deliberate patterning. The house would clean up well, which was important because Dr. Richards wanted to document the restoration.

As the women were leaving, a group of people with cameras and equipment came up. They were from Yale University School of Architecture and were very excited about a previously unknown colonial mansion. Seeing writing already on the wall, Elspeth exchanged contact information and warned them to expect cable TV crews before long. That was the way Dr. Richards would handle things. As soon as cell reception improved, Elspeth called Evaine Schaeffelker. Beacon House could provide workers and their website could link to the Cloudrest webpage. Creating the webpage would be Elspeth's next project.

Elspeth had a serious itch. Until she could get Dr. Richards to scratch it, she had work