Chapter 14 - The Invitation
The gala was six weeks out when Edmund asked me to speak at the opening.
We were in his office, a narrow room above a bookshop, the walls covered in framed posters from thirty years of events. He poured coffee from a thermos and slid a cup across the desk.
"The committee would like you to say a few words about what it means to build something new in Montpelier," he said. "Your story resonates with people, Nora."
My story. He didn't know the half of it, and I wasn't about to tell him. But the invitation shifted something in my chest, the same feeling I'd had when Marian looked at my proofs and asked where I'd been hiding.
I said yes before I could talk myself out of it. Then I spent two weeks designing the materials and rehearsing four sentences in my bathroom mirror. I'm a designer, not a speaker. A hundred and fifty people made my palms sweat in a way Gloria's cookouts never had. At least at the cookout, nobody expected me to talk.
Then Renee called.
"Heads up," she said, careful. "Somebody in Hollis Bend shared the gala invitation on Facebook. Gloria saw it."
"How do you know?"
"Wesley called me. She's been ranting since Tuesday. Keeps saying, 'She left us and now she's getting honored. That's not how this works.' Wesley told her to let it go. Gloria said, 'No. Someone needs to tell those people who she really is.'"
May you like
I stood at my studio window and looked out at the mountains. They were still there. They'd been there long before Gloria Radford, and they'd be there long after.
"Let her come," I said. And I meant it.
