Under the Hill(12)
“Can you take a short break tomorrow? I’m going to talk to Gail about the excavation process in the morning, if you want to tag along.”
“I’d love to see Gail, and this project sounds really interesting. I don’t think we’ve got a lot on the schedule for tomorrow, so I can probably sneak away. But I’ll have to check with Bree.”
“You talking about me?” Bree came in through the back door.
“May I take an hour or two off tomorrow morning, please, ma’am?” Meg said, smiling. “The Historical Society is planning to add a basement under their building, and I’m curious to see how they’re going to do it.”
Bree rummaged in the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. “I guess. We’re just about caught up with the Cortlands and the Empires, but the Galas aren’t ready yet and we’re waiting on the Baldwins. Did you order the new crates?”
“Oh, shoot, I forgot.” The old wooden crates that Meg had inherited when she moved into the house were wearing out fast, and they’d been replacing them as needed with more modern plastic ones. Not nearly as pretty, but much more practical. “I’ll do that in the morning.”
“Then you have my blessing for the morning—after you place that order,” Bree said in a mock-serious tone. “What’s happening with dinner?”
“Not a clue,” Meg replied. “Seth, you have any ideas?”
“There’s a new pizza place in the shopping center on 202. Want to try that?”
“How did I ever miss seeing that? Let’s go!”
2
The pizza last night had been good, and Meg sent up a silent cheer that Granford had one more place that served food. The only “real” restaurant in town, Gran’s, was more upscale, though far from fancy. Meg loved eating there, especially since she’d had a hand in creating the place, and even more so because she now counted the owners, Nicky and Brian Czarnecki, as friends, but she wasn’t always in the mood for a sit-down meal. A pizza place, and one only a mile or two from her house, was a great quick-and-dirty alternative.
When she awoke the next morning, Meg checked the clock, then rolled over and nudged Seth. “Hey, what time are you meeting Gail?”
He answered without opening his eyes. “As soon as she gets the kids off to school. What time is it?”
“Seven.”
Seth opened his eyes, then sat up quickly. “I’ve got to get some paperwork together before we head over there. You are still coming with me, right?”
“Sure. Nobody’s started anything at the Historical Society, right?”
“Not yet, but they’re hoping to begin this week. Right now we’re still at the talking stage, and looking at plans.”
“You going to do the plumbing?” Meg asked.
“Maybe. First step is to find someone to do the digging. I can recommend builders to pour the foundation, but shoring up the building and removing the soil is trickier and it takes more skill.” He was pulling on jeans and a T-shirt as he spoke. “I’ll go start coffee, and then walk Max. See you downstairs?”
“I won’t be long.”
Meg could hear stirring noises from Bree’s end of the hall, so she darted into the bathroom quickly, emerging ten minutes later after a quick shower. She threw on her clothes and joined Seth in the kitchen, where he handed her a cup of coffee. Max, his Golden Retriever, greeted Meg enthusiastically.
“Drink it before it gets cold,” he said. They toasted and buttered a couple of bagels, and Meg scanned the first page of the daily paper. Why did she keep subscribing, when she rarely had time to read it? Oh, right, to put under her cat Lolly’s litter pan. As if on cue, Lolly appeared from somewhere, butting her head against Meg’s leg, looking for her own breakfast.
After she’d fed Lolly, Meg ventured, “Okay, so remind me—how old is the Historical Society building?”
“The building dates back to the mid-1700s,” Seth said. “Actually, it was the first meetinghouse in Granford. There was some infighting going on within the church in South Hadley about where to put the new church they needed, and in the end they decided to split the parish. It took them thirteen years and fifty local meetings to arrive at that decision—makes our current process look lightning fast, doesn’t it? Anyway, the short answer is that the new parish was created in 1762, before Granford was even an official town, and before they had an official place to meet. So the building is about the same age as your house. By the way, South Hadley had another fight about churches starting in 1820, and that time it took them sixteen years to work things out. And then in the 1820s Granby had its own tiff and actually built two churches, but only the one survives, the big one that’s there now. The other one was closer to the cemetery where all those Warrens are buried, but the cemetery is older than the church.”
“But the meetinghouse had no heating and no plumbing.”
“Nope. Those old New Englanders were tough birds,” Seth replied cheerfully. “And sermons were long in those days. Of course, if most people in town showed up, they would have generated some considerable body heat. And, I’ve read, they used to have ‘singing.’”
“Which means what?” Meg asked.