Tempest's Course: Quilts of Love Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

new project. She still shook her head, that her bid was accepted. It wasn’t the lowest, but she still marveled that someone would pay the kind of price to have a mere bed covering restored.
    A few raindrops spattered on the ground as Kelly exited the car, lugging her laptop and her suitcase into the back entrance by the kitchen. Mrs. Acres had given her a key ring with front and back door, plus mailbox keys when she stopped by the property management office.
    “There are other locks and cabinets and such in the house, but these are the most important ones you’ll need,” the older woman had assured her. “You need anything else for the house, call me day or night.”
    The spatter of rain turned into a brisk downpour by the time she reached the kitchen entrance. Once inside, she shut the door behind her. The sound echoed in the house. Kelly shivered.
    She hadn’t seen the kitchen on her first visit. White walls, white cabinets, and a large wooden island in the center of the immense room. A high ceiling held a pot rack over the island. Kelly stepped across the black-and-white tile floor. No, this room had been updated at some point and wasn’t original to the house. Well, some of it anyway.
    The sound of her footsteps and clicking suitcase wheels echoed off the bare walls. The space was so . . . empty of warmth. She shook off the sensation and pushed through the swinging door and found herself in the dining room. Wrong door. She needed to find the main hall and head upstairs to figure out where she was going to sleep. On impulse, she flipped the light switch. The chandelier glowed, casting the reflected lights from hundreds of crystals. Gorgeous now, it must have been breathtaking in the era of gaslights. Kelly turned off the light and headed for the pocket doors she’d used a few weeks ago.
    Lightning flashed, followed by a boom of thunder that rattled the windows. Kelly pulled her suitcase along behind her, up the wooden staircase with its curved banister that led to the second floor. She started trying doors. Which room to choose as hers?
    The other day, she’d been on a mission to find the quilt that now lay on Captain Gray’s bed where she’d found it. Kelly pushed open the first door, a front bedroom that looked out onto County Street. Simply decorated in tones of blue and cream, it had a peaceful air to it. A settee was positioned under the shuttered front window. A good possibility, although perhaps there might be street noise if she left a window open. Or were there rules about opening windows of the historic house?
    Kelly laid her laptop case on the bed and let her suitcase down at the corner of the four-poster bed draped with a frilly canopy. Rain drummed on the windows full force now. Kelly flung the shutters open to let pale gray light into the shadowed room.
    She moved on to the next bedroom, this one smaller and decorated for a little boy. A few turn-of-the-twentieth-century toys were arranged at the corner of a dark-patterned rug. It was as if the family had left for the weekend and were due back any moment. Kelly moved to the closet and opened the door. Little boys’ clothing hung from the rack and a faint whiff of something struck her nostrils. Not on the clothes. She leaned closer . . . smoke? But old, very old.
    Her nosy meter shot into overdrive. She’d definitely ask Mrs. Acres more about the house once she got settled in. Kelly left the room through a door that connected it to the next room.
    This was a lady’s room, elegant and dramatic in shades of crimson and gold. Captain Gray’s wife’s room, perhaps? The maple wood bed rested almost on a dais-like platform with steps. Kelly shook her head. The front room would be more for her.
    She entered the hallway again and shivered. Maybe she should see where the thermostat was. Or did the house have more than one? Not in the main hallway.
    Kelly stepped across to the other side of the hall to find a study and a seamstress’s room. The sewing