"Exactly." George took a sip of lemonade.

"Well I, for one, am madly in love with the place," Jamie said, tearing her gaze away from her computer screen. "There must be thousands upon thousands of stories about the old place. It just staggers the imagination." Max b.u.t.ted his nose under Jamie's arm, and she reached over to pet him. "And of course, the idea of hidden rooms in that place doesn't hurt either. It sounds crazy, but just think of all the hidden rooms that we know existed. Anne Frank was hidden away for all the best reasons, and Corrie ten Boom and her family created a secret room where they could help Jews escape the n.a.z.is. Who's to say there couldn't be one at the inn?"

"Suddenly you're an expert on secret rooms?" Sam teased. She sat down across from Gracie and started to flip through a cooking magazine, even though she was totally engaged in her daughter's words.

"You wouldn't believe all that I've managed to find on the Internet about prisoners of war escaping their captors and would-be kings hiding from the chopping block. And then there are subterranean escape routes, hidden doors, mini hiding holes for valuables . . ." Jamie closed her laptop and sat up. "I don't know about you, but I can think of all sorts of places inside the Misty Harbor Inn where there could be secret doors. As soon as it's yours, you can start searching for good old Hannah Montague. As far as we know, she could have been walled up somewhere. Buried alive."

"Jamie." Sam shook her head at her daughter. "Please."

"It's possible. Grandpa Folger even said so."

"I don't mind the inn having a few intriguing stories, but I'm not all that crazy about finding a skeleton beneath my bedroom floor." Gracie shuddered.

"Now there's a thought." George grinned.

The phone rang, making them all jump.

Sam grabbed her cell phone quickly and was excited to hear Deborah Greenleaf's voice at the other end. "I'm so happy to hear that you want to make an offer on the Misty Harbor," Deborah said. "I can meet with you on Tuesday-"

"Tuesday?" Sam frowned. "Not today?"

"Unfortunately, I was called out of town unexpectedly and won't be back on the island until Tuesday around noon. That's the earliest I can write up the offer. I'll need a check for a thousand dollars to show good faith, but please, Sam, don't worry. I will call the owners after I hang up and let them know I'll be faxing an offer to them that afternoon. I'm sure they'll be quite excited."

Unfortunately, Sam's immediate excitement had rather fizzled.

"Are you one hundred percent positive you want to give up the chance of living in Chipping Campden?" George asked, as he and Caroline waited for his plane to board. "And you're just as positive that you want to buy the inn?"

"I'm positive." Caroline brushed an errant strand of hair from her face. "There's going to be a lot for me to get used to. Living with other people instead of by myself. Keeping regular hours. That might be one of the hardest things for me to get used to."

"Not hopping on a plane at a moment's notice to fly off to who-knows-where."

"I really am tired of traveling all the time," Caroline said. "But if I get desperate, you can always come to the island and take me sailing for the day so I can feel free and easy for a little while."

"Something troubling you?" He studied her face. "I've known you for thirty years, Caroline Marris. You get antsy if you stay in any one place too long." He chuckled, a soft smile at last touching his face. "You have trouble finishing one thing before you start another. None of that's ever bothered me, but I can see that it worries Gracie. I just want you to be sure of what you're doing before you commit to this, because you won't be able to back out once you've bought the inn, especially if you go in on it with your sisters."

"I am committed. And I'm not going to hurt Gracie."

George touched her arm with one of his warm, strong hands. "That's my girl."

He kissed the top of her head, as he'd done so many times over the years, and when his flight number was called, he picked up his bag and smiled. "Call me if you need anything."

"I will."

"And as soon as that Packard's out of storage let me know. I'm eager to get my hands on it."

"We're going to have the time of our lives, George," Caroline said, smiling as she waved good-bye.

"What do you think of this?" Gracie asked her sisters, lifting a soft floral bedspread in pretty shades of lavender and green.

It wasn't at all what Caroline had in mind for their very own inn's guest rooms, but she wasn't about to tell Gracie that she wanted something simpler. She ran her fingers across a quilted matela.s.se in a pretty shade of pale aqua. It was simple and clean. She hoped to keep the fabrics and the wall treatments simple and let the furniture and the architecture speak for itself.

"It's pretty, Aunt Gracie," Jamie said. She'd spent her last day on Nantucket following her mother and aunts around from store to store, creating lists of decorating possibilities, but she didn't seem to mind. She had seemed a bit better every day, and she hadn't mentioned Cory in a couple days. Caroline knew it would be a long time before Jamie was over the breakup, but clearly coming here had been good for her.

"I like this," Sam said, pointing to a nautical striped duvet.

Caroline looked at Sam, and then at Gracie. They were going to have to come to a compromise on the decor, and she guessed it might not be easy. She hadn't thought about how different their tastes were, and how that might make this difficult.

"What are you thinking of doing for pillow shams?" Jamie asked, making a note in her notebook.

"These are pretty," Gracie said, pointing at a gingham set that coordinated with the floral bedspread.

"Oh, I think we should go with no pillow shams," Caroline said. "I was thinking we could have a simple coverlet like this for spring and summer, with crisp white linens and plump pillows, at least three or four per bed."

Gracie didn't look convinced. "But you need shams to make a bed look finished. And then, with the bed skirts-"

"Actually, since the beds are made of such beautiful cherrywood and are high off the floor, I bet we could forgo any kind of bed skirt," Sam said. Caroline flashed her a quick smile of thanks, but Sam didn't seem to notice.

"Not only will that show off the wood, but it'll keep the room fresher looking," Caroline said.

Sam nodded. "It'll keep our costs down too. Goodness, the price of bed skirts can be staggering."

Gracie fingered a plush down comforter in the same floral pattern. "We could use these in the winter."

"I was thinking we should reserve winter for family," Caroline said.

Sam squished the corner of a pillow. "But we may need to stay open all year to cover our costs."

"When I talked with Megan at the clambake, she told me that Nantucket's usually dead quiet from the first of November and right through Christmas."

Caroline took a deep breath. Of course they were going to have to work things like this out. That didn't mean buying the inn was a mistake. It would just take time to get it all sorted out.

Gracie tugged her notebook out of the straw handbag she was carrying and jotted down a few notes.

"That would give us time for a little R & R," Sam finally agreed. She looked at each of her sisters and smiled. It managed to ease the tension. "I'm sure we'll need that after our first season."

"You'll probably need a whole lot of R & R after your first week of cleaning and rehabbing the place," Jamie said, laughing. "Thank goodness I'm leaving before that starts."

They walked out of the linen area and toward dining. "The first thing we're going to have a do is take a complete inventory of everything in the house-"

"Especially the kitchen and dining room," Sam added. "I should have checked out what kind of serving pieces are stored away, but I didn't."

"Considering all the wonderful decorative pieces that were left behind," Caroline said. "I imagine we're going to find a whole host of intriguing dishes in the kitchen."

"We could do mix and match." Sam absently fingered through a stack of lacy place mats. "Different china patterns, or stoneware, as long as they have at least one thing to tie them together, like a certain color. The possibilities are endless."

"I saw a few thrift stores here in town," Jamie said, "if the inn doesn't already have enough dishes, you could probably pick up the perfect mix-and-match items for almost nothing."

"We can haunt antique stores for the right pieces too," Gracie added. "I can see our breakfast table-or tables!-now, with the morning sun shining in." It wasn't exactly how Caroline pictured it, but it would work, and she wasn't about to start raising more tension now. "And crystal water goblets and delicate china sugar bowls and creamers-"

"With the shutters thrown open so our guests can see the view of the ocean." Sam drew in a deep breath, smiling with satisfaction and excitement.

Sam reminded Caroline so much of their mother. Of course, Caroline realized, as she wandered off to look at plush cotton bath towels, both of her sisters had mentioned things she'd barely thought about-cleaning and inventorying, for starters. She was an idea person, but had never been good with the practical matters. She would have to change. She'd soon have to be a waitress too, and dishwasher, and housekeeper.

Not for the first time in the past twenty-four hours, Caroline hoped she hadn't gotten into something totally over her head.

Two hours later, they were back in the cottage again, all four of them sitting around a table covered with endless stacks of paper: Gracie's lists, Jamie's lists, and Sam's cost estimates. Sam imagined Caroline's ideas were all stored away in her head-but that was okay; Caroline's ideas were always spot-on.

"So we're firm on what we want to offer up front?" Sam asked, broadly underlining, again and again, a dollar amount that staggered the imagination. She already had a thousand b.u.t.terflies fluttering around in her stomach. "And we're firm on how much higher we're willing to go before we decide enough is enough, that the owners want way too much money, and that we're just not going to break our bank to give it to them?" She looked from Gracie to Caroline.

"I could put in a little more if necessary," Caroline said, and for the first time since they'd come to the island, Sam thought her oldest sister looked a little harried. Caroline wasn't the kind to get stressed out, but buying this inn was a new ball game for her. So was staying in one place. Buying the inn meant she'd be staying on Nantucket and living in the Misty Harbor Inn probably for the rest of her life.

"No. We don't want you to put in more," Gracie said. "We're splitting this three ways. No one else pays more or less."

"Gracie's right," Sam said. "We talked about this already. Our inheritance is paying a hundred percent for the inn, and on top of that we're each putting equal shares into a bank account to cover expenses."

"And Mom's doing all the accounting, since she-fortunately-has a head for that kind of thing," Jamie added, piling her duffel bag and backpack next to the front door, ready to take off for the ferry ride back to the mainland.

"My head's already swimming in the details." Sam threaded her fingers through her hair. She was thinking she just might have to cut it shorter once they moved into the inn. She might need something totally wash and wear, because she had the feeling that for quite a while there wouldn't be great amounts of time to fool with her hair or makeup or clothes. "I was sure I had a good handle on everything we'd need as far as finances go, but somehow I forgot insurance," Sam said, pulling a sheet out from the bottom of her stack. "And oh my word, is there a lot involved with that. It's not just homeowners' insurance anymore, it's-"

As she talked about the insurance, Sam could see that Caroline's eyes were glazing over. "Am I throwing way too many details out?"

Caroline shook her head. "I just wish it was a done deal. I wish we didn't have to worry about moving out of this place in a few days and into a temporary hotel if we don't have a signed contract in hand."

"Even if we do agree on a deal, we'll still have to go through escrow," Sam said. She didn't want Caroline to stress out over the business end of things, but she needed to realize that that they wouldn't be moving into the inn and opening it up to guests in a matter of days. "Escrow's going to take at least a couple of weeks, more likely thirty days, unless Deborah can get things moved along faster."

"Maybe we can get the key before escrow closes," Gracie offered. "I know buying a home or a hotel or anything else takes time, but we are paying cash, so that should account for something. And I'm with Caroline. I'd move in tomorrow if we could. I want to get my hands on the place, start cleaning, talk to Bill Dekker and a few other builders about renovations."

"I think you all need to take a deep breath," Jamie said. "It's all going to happen in its own good time, and once it does and you're in the inn working your fingers to the bone, you're going to wish you had some carefree time to kick back and enjoy life."

Caroline smiled. "You raised an awfully smart kid," she said to Sam. "I have to admit, I for one could use a break from thinking about insurance and building contractors and marketing plans."

"Then my suggestion is," Jamie said, "all of you climb into the car and take me to the ferry and then go down to the beach and have a picnic. It just might be the last time in a long time that you're going to have an evening to call your own."

Gracie watched Caroline's pen tapping on the table. The noise was maddening, and Gracie wanted to rip the pen from her sister's hand, but she resisted. "We'll need a contingency plan," Caroline was saying to Deborah Greenleaf.

The fact that Caroline thought they needed a contingency plan made Gracie more than a little nervous too. "Not that we have any plans for backing out of the deal, you understand," Caroline continued. "We just want to be safe."

"As you read through the offer, you'll see that I've already included a clause stating that your offer is contingent upon the inspection, plus another based on the three of you being able to obtain insurance," Deborah said.

"Is that common?" Sam asked. "The insurance contingency clause, that is? Do you think there could be some difficulty obtaining insurance on the inn?"

"It's a safeguard," Deborah said. "That's all." Deborah leaned forward in her chair, writing up the details of the offer on the legal-sized offer form. "Since you're paying cash, we can't make this offer contingent upon your obtaining a loan. Asking for a contingency based on your obtaining insurance seemed reasonable. Now, let's talk about escrow costs, t.i.tle fees, and . . ."

Gracie concentrated on each and every word. Buying a home back in the seventies had been so much easier than this. She didn't remember much at all about that process, except that Art had done all of the negotiating, and she'd pretty much just signed on the dotted line.

Gracie found herself almost holding her breath. She wished this was over and done with, before something fell apart.

"We'd like to specify that the owner pay all other costs a.s.sociated with the transaction," Sam said. They'd discussed this already, deciding that this was one item they wouldn't budge on.

Deborah frowned. "Perhaps you'd consider going fifty-fifty on some of those costs? That might make your offer, which is much lower than the asking price, appear more reasonable to the owners."

Sam shook her head. "No, Deborah, we don't want to go fifty-fifty on any fees. We want the owner to pay those. You've given us comps to show what other properties are going for. Most of them are similar in size and location, but are in much better condition structurally. We believe our offer is more than fair."

Gracie felt her stomach tumble. This whole experience verged on being more than she could take, but Sam was the negotiator in the family. Gracie hoped she could work some magic now.

Deborah opened her mouth, as if she were going to offer up another solution, but finally she wrote out the offer and had each sister sign, pledging their very lives, it seemed.

Deborah smiled at last. She rose from her chair. "Because the owners are sometimes difficult to contact, I appreciate your giving them seventy-two hours to respond. I will, however, fax this to them immediately and follow up with a phone call. With any luck, I'll have an answer for you before the end of the day."

It was done. Now the wait began. There were only seventy-two more hours-fewer they hoped-to worry about Caroline's backing out, catching a plane, and flying off to Timbuktu, leaving Sam and Gracie totally in the lurch.

Twenty-four hours dragged by. Twenty-four hours of piecing together jigsaw puzzles with Sam and Gracie, trying to read, and taking long walks on the beach to distract themselves. Gracie seemed to spend the time making a lot of lists, and Sam somehow seemed totally at peace working on her cross-st.i.tch. But Caroline knew they were all on pins and needles wondering when Deborah would call and let them know if the owners would accept their offer.

Caroline paced the floor. She felt as if the walls inside the cottage were closing in on her. She tried writing a travel article about an elegant riverboat cruise through Peru's rain forest. She allowed herself to picture the black lakes, slow-moving sloths, s.h.a.ggy-tailed monk saki monkeys, the endangered scarlet macaw, and the infamous piranhas. She worked on her computer until well after midnight, when her eyes were too blurry to see the monitor. Gracie and Sam had already gone to bed, so she disappeared into her own room, crawled under the covers, and tried to turn off her mind. She didn't want to think or worry any longer.

It was the cell phone that woke Caroline in the morning. Sunlight sliced through the curtains, straight across the room and into her eyes. She jerked up in bed, trying desperately to remember where she was. She blinked her eyes rapidly until they were finally wide open and able to focus.

She grabbed for her phone, wishing she'd turned it off before going to bed, and noticed that it was already 7:30 on Thursday morning. There were still twenty-four hours before the owners had to make a decision, but maybe they had. Maybe Deborah was an early bird and wanted to start the sisters' day off right.

The number that appeared on the cell phone didn't look at all familiar, and it wasn't local. It was an overseas number. London. She cleared her throat, pressed the Talk b.u.t.ton, and said, "h.e.l.lo?"

"Is that Caroline Marris?" The accent was thick and terribly upper-crust British.

Her mouth was dry. She needed to brush her teeth and have a cup of coffee, but somehow Caroline managed to utter, "Yes."

"Caroline! It's Paul Lambrick." It was her landlord in Chipping Camden. "I hope I haven't called too early. I have a devil of a time remembering the difference in time between here and the States."

Then it was definitely a good thing she wasn't in California, where it would only be 4:30. "I was just about to crawl out of bed, Mr. Lambrick, so no, you didn't call too early. I hope everything's fine at Briar Rose. The vicar and his wife have been keeping an eye on the place while I've been over here."

"Everything's fine, Miss Marris. Actually, as far as you're concerned, it might be more than fine."

He paused for the longest time. Was she supposed to know what he was talking about? "My wife and I have made the decision to sell Briar Rose."

Caroline's throat knotted. She could barely breathe.

"I know we've told you for years that we'd never sell. After all, the cottage has been in the family for several hundred years. It's part of our heritage, you know. But neither of us is getting any younger, our children do not want to be bothered with it, and as much as we hate to part with the cottage, we simply need to let it go."

This couldn't be happening. For ten years now she'd wanted to buy the cottage. For ten years she'd scrimped and saved so she could pay the price. She could do it easily now, especially with her inheritance.

"You're certain, Mr. Lambrick? I know how much you and Mrs. Lambrick adore Briar Rose."

"Yes, yes, we lived there during the first forty years of our marriage. It's a beauty of a place, and you're the only one we know who has loved it even half as much as Mrs. Lambrick and I. That's why we'd like to offer it to you, at a price that should certainly be fitting. Nothing outrageous, you know, not like most other homes in the Cotswolds. After all, you have lived there and paid us rent for ten years."

Caroline was still completely stunned. She dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm absolutely stunned, Mr. Lambrick. As much as I'd like to tell you yes, I'll buy it, right this very second, I'll have to call you back later today. Or, more than likely, tomorrow."

"I understand completely. There are financial matters to consider. You do have our phone number?"

Caroline nodded and then said yes when she realized he couldn't see her. She was in a near state of shock. Total elation. She couldn't believe it. After all these years, she could finally buy Briar Rose.