Sisterchicks Go Brit! Read Online Free PDF Page B

Go Away mat.
    Kellie laughed, and I was right there with her.
    “Twins!” Kellie said as we headed back to the car. “Have you ever seen two such identical twins? I thought I was seeing double. Is that one of the effects of jet lag?”
    “I have no idea. But I will tell you this whole day is starting to feel like something out of
Alice in Wonderland
. I think you and I have tumbled down a peculiar sort of rabbit hole.”
    We stopped at the back of the car. Before reaching for the last of the luggage, Kellie and I both looked around as if we had shared the same thought at the same moment.
    “Where’s Virgil?” we said in unison.
    Kellie laughed again. “Now look who’s acting like twins!”
    Neither Virgil nor Boswald was anywhere to be seen. Kellie checked the front seat of the car. “The keys aren’t in the ignition. Maybe he took Boswald for a walk.”
    I lowered my voice and leaned close. “Maybe he felt slighted by Opal’s response to his gallant effort to greet her at the airport and went straight home with Boswald.”
    “Or to the nearest pub,” Kellie whispered.
    We giggled again. “I’m starting to think jet lag brings on an insatiable desire to laugh a lot.”
    “I think you’re right, Liz. Let’s lug these suitcases into the house before we’re too chilled. It’s cold out here.”
    I almost made it to the front door before feeling the urge to laugh again. This time the desire was brought on by the silly doormat.
    Kellie seemed to have missed it and asked as she stepped inside, “What do you think? Should we leave the luggage here in the entry?”
    To our left was a narrow flight of hardwood stairs. We couldhear Opal’s and Rose’s muffled voices finishing each other’s sentences from a room around the corner.
    “Opal?” Kellie called softly.
    “We’re back here, in the breakfast room.”
    “Where would you like us to put your luggage?”
    I whispered, “Please, oh please don’t say upstairs.”
    “Leave them right where you are for the time being, and—”
    “Come join us,” Rose concluded.
    Kellie and I stepped around the corner of the small entry and entered a sitting room. A small sofa and a leather chair flanked a dark wood coffee table with stacks of books and a potted violet on it. The window that looked out on the street had an inlaid section of stained glass in a triangular pattern of yellows, blues, and greens. Even with the dense clouds overhead, the light through the stained glass offered the sitting room a magical touch.
    A hobbit-sized hearth occupied the center of the far wall and was canopied by a mantel that appeared to have acorns and leaves intricately carved into the wood.
    “Oh, Lizzie, look at the rug.” Kellie’s face expressed admiration. “Morris-inspired, I’m sure of it. It’s gorgeous.”
    The rectangular rug was a blend of greens and blues with a repeating pattern of beige accented by touches of red tones. It was pretty. Pretty old and faded, but it had a pleasing pattern.
    Kellie bent down to touch the threads and took a closer look at the rug. “Wow, this is really something. It looks old enough to be inspired by the original.”
    “Original what?”
    “The original William Morris pattern Strawberry Thief. It was one of his most successful designs.”
    I took a closer look and realized the repeating beige in the pattern was actually well-defined birds, and the red touches were strawberries. Interlaced around them were vines and flowers in rounded shapes. Even though the rug was faded, the design seemed dimensional.
    “It is gorgeous,” I said.
    “Morris was a genius. He coaxed Britain to move away from those eighteenth-century heavy velvets and ornate chairs and bring the simple beauty of the outdoors into the home. I know I’ve talked about him before. He’s one of the Pre-Raphaelites who launched the Arts and Crafts movement more than 150 years ago.”
    My expression must have conveyed how impressed I was and at the same time how lost