Unexpected Riches (Bellingwood Book 13) Read Online Free PDF Page B

alone. This will only take a minute."
    Polly tossed the box to Lydia, glad they were in close enough proximity to not have to worry about her awful throwing and catching arm. How she missed out on learning how to do that, she'd never know. That she couldn't do either was hilarious most of the time. With Henry, she didn't even bother trying any longer. He was never going to stop giving her trouble about it, so she might as well just own it and have fun. He'd tried a few times to help her learn how to see where she was throwing or what was coming at her, but she had a block about it.
    "I'm going to get Rebecca," she said.
    "Tell her to let the kittens out," Lydia said. "Beryl loves those little things and they'll do more to help her relax than we can."
    Polly went back out into the living room and checked Beryl before heading downstairs. The woman had pulled her legs up and was leaning on the wing of the chair, sound asleep.
    Tip-toeing down the steps to the basement, Polly followed the sound of Rebecca's voice to a back bedroom and opened the door.
    "Careful, they'll get out," Rebecca cried.
    "It's okay. We're going to leave. Lydia and Andy are cleaning up the kitchen."
    Rebecca wrinkled her forehead. "Why?"
    "Beryl is sleeping. We just need to get out of here and let her relax. It sounds like she didn't get much sleep last night and today's activities wore her out emotionally."
    "Nobody really does death like you do," Rebecca said. She held out the sketch pad. "Is that close?"
    Polly looked at the drawing Rebecca had done of the young man's driver's license. She'd captured him perfectly. "Weird question," Polly said. "Can you draw Beryl?"
    Rebecca shrugged. "Yes. Why?"
    "Look at this picture and then think about Beryl. Are they related?"
    "Do you want me to do it now?" Rebecca asked.
    "No. We'll wait until we get home. It's just a strange thought I had." She handed the sketchpad back to Rebecca. "Do you see anything?"
    "Not right off," Rebecca said. "But I want to see what my hands do when I draw Beryl. Maybe I'll make the same nose or the chin or the eyes or something. I'll know it when I feel it."
    "When you feel it?"
    Rebecca stood up from the bed. "I know it sounds weird, but when I draw, I move my hand in certain ways. Do you know that your nose is similar to Henry’s? When I drew Heath and Hayden, they had a lot of facial features that were exactly alike, but their cheeks are different. Heath has a wider face. When I drew their eyes, those were exactly the same and so are their lips and the way their nostrils look."
    Polly nodded, accepting what Rebecca said, even if she didn't know how to assimilate the information. "Is that the way everyone draws?"
    "I don't think so. Beryl says that she only really feels landscapes, not faces like I do. She even said that sometimes she can feel the colors that she paints. They mess with her emotions. Have you ever seen her cry when she paints?"
    "No," Polly said. She put her arm around Rebecca's shoulders. "I don't think I've ever really watched her paint anything."
    "It's kind of cool. She doesn't like having people around, though. She says it makes her feel all stilted and stuff."
    "I get that." Polly looked around the room. "Kittens are gone?"
    "They took off. They were wrestling when I got down here. Hopefully they'll just sleep now." Rebecca took Polly's hand. "They're really cute, but I like Luke and Leia. Sometimes they play, but they aren't always getting into trouble because they're curious about every single thing. They've experienced it all."
    The two walked out into the basement. "You should have seen them when they were little," Polly said. "I thought they were going to drive Obiwan crazy. Fortunately, he was a puppy at the same time. But they were two against one and those two kittens had no idea that he was as big as he was."
    "He's a good dog. He wouldn't hurt them," Rebecca said.

 
    CHAPTER FOUR

     
    "Now, what’s this?" Sal asked, holding up an iridescent