Starting Now (Blossom Street #9)(67)

“My pleasure.”

The second cup went to her employer. The cart remained but Alice left the room, closing the doors behind her. The library was an impressive room. Floor-to-ceiling cherrywood shelves were filled with thousands of volumes. Some were valuable collector’s items. Mrs. Reed had an impressive array of autographed books. Libby had held a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and seen Harriet Beecher Stowe’s signature for herself. Mark Twain’s signature was penned in The Innocents Abroad and Ernest Hemingway had autographed The Old Man and the Sea. That was only a small part of the older woman’s collection. Row upon row of autographed books dating as far back as the early 1800s graced these shelves.

Libby loved this room, with its faint scent of leather. She knew that Mrs. Reed spent a good portion of her afternoons in here. If she wasn’t in the library or attending some charity function then she was in her beloved rose garden. Libby was somewhat surprised the older woman had chosen to meet in the library, seeing that it was such a beautiful sunny afternoon. But then this was business and Mrs. Reed preferred to talk business in the library.

“How have you been, my dear?” Mrs. Reed asked as she stirred her tea, dissolving the single sugar cube.

“Very well. And you?”

Martha sighed. “Good.”

“The children and grandchildren?” Libby asked.

The older woman’s face lit up as she mentioned each of her four children, from the oldest to the youngest. When she finished she spoke of her nine grandchildren. Mrs. Reed was a woman who loved family. The vast majority of her estate was designated to charity, but she would leave a substantial sum to each of her children and had set up trust funds for each grandchild.

Libby knew all of Martha Reed’s family members by name, although she’d never met them. Hershel had, she knew, but not her.

After she updated Libby on her family, Mrs. Reed focused her attention on Libby. “What have you been doing with yourself these past five months?”

Five months? It felt like so much longer. It would kill her to admit she’d been unable to find a position in all that time. Instead of focusing on the negative, she relayed the changes that had come about in her life.

“For one thing, I took up knitting.”

Mrs. Reed rested her china cup in the saucer. “Really? I knit myself, but that was years ago now.”

“You’d enjoy it, Mrs. Reed,” Libby assured her. “I started out making preemie hats and then advanced to …”

“Preemie hats?”

Libby explained why these warm hats were so important to tiny infants and how the customers at A Good Yarn had taken it upon themselves to supply the warm, knitted hats for the babies in need.

“Why, I think I would enjoy knitting those myself,” she said when Libby finished.

“I’d be more than happy to help you get started,” she offered.

“Oh, dear, thank you but there’s no need. Alice and I will be able to figure it out.”

“I’ll give you the name and address of the yarn store,” Libby offered.

“That would be wonderful.” Mrs. Reed seemed enthused and even a little excited.

“I’ve also volunteered at Seattle General Hospital, rocking the newborns.”

The older woman’s eyes widened with surprise. “I didn’t think rocking babies would be of interest to you.”

Libby smiled. “It came as a shock to me, too. Both knitting and spending time with the babies has helped me deal with … life’s frustrations.” Again she was determined not to mention that she hadn’t found work with another firm.

Mrs. Reed went silent for a couple of moments. “I suppose you heard that I’ve left Burkhart, Smith & Crandall.”

“I did get word that you’d recently made that decision.”

“Bernard trusted them with our business for many years. I never thought to question his choice. My husband was an astute businessman and Hershel was most helpful following Bernard’s death.”

Libby responded with a simple nod of acknowledgment.

“But lately I’ve grown displeased.” She pinched her lips together for an instant before she continued. “I can’t tolerate that young man Hershel assigned to my account.”

“Ben Holmes is a gifted attorney.” Libby felt obliged to defend her former colleague. “But he—”

“He’s rude and arrogant and always in a dreadful rush. He told me he didn’t have time for tea. I hardly had a chance to tell Alice not to bother before he pulled out my file and started talking business. He might not want tea, but I prefer it when discussing the details. I found him to be most unpleasant.”

Libby recognized that to Mrs. Reed business was a delicate issue and should be dealt with in a leisurely manner. “I apologize for Ben,” Libby said, although she knew Hershel had probably already offered his own regrets. “He’s young and ambitious.”

“Hershel said much the same thing and assigned me some other attorney … Oh dear, I’ve forgotten the name now. Ander, Anson … something like that.”

“Jake Amber?” Libby guessed. She couldn’t think whom else Martha might mean.

“That’s it,” she said, and sounded relieved. “It was the same thing. Oh, he had tea with me, but I could see he didn’t enjoy it. Everyone is always in such a rush these days. Why, I can remember the time back in the mid-seventies when our son …” She paused and shook her head. “You don’t want to hear the ramblings of an old woman.”