Finally Looking
Back Antiques opened for business under new management. Everyone in
town was happy to see the shop taken over by Emma and Lily and
couldn’t wait to sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy the freshly
baked brownies and delicious confections. The Antique store was a
huge success. Word started spreading quickly and before long folks
from the neighboring towns and eventually from nearby cities started
frequenting the antique shop. The Fulbright farm was finally sold and
Jonas and Ethel moved to Camden Corners. Jonas was happy to be on
hand in the antique shop to great customers and point out the beauty
of each item in the store. Nobody realized how much old Amos had
stored. There seemed to be a never ending supply of goods for Jonas
to work on. Ethel loved being near her daughter and grandchildren,
she was making friends quickly and enjoyed acting as hostess
occasionally in the tea room. She wrote to Nettie Dawson excitedly
telling her all about the shop and tea room. Nettie missed her dear
friend and in a blink of an eye, she was on the train on her way to
Camden Corners arriving just in time for tea. Nettie was a perfect
match for the now bustling tea room. She was full of chatter and
advice to all the patrons.
Emma, Lily and
Jonas were working feverishly preparing the last of Amos’
collection before the busy Christmas season began. They discovered
there were very few pieces that couldn’t be repaired or cleaned
and sold as a valuable antique. Nettie and Ethel were delighted to
find a huge crate filled with Tiffany lamps. They spent hours
cleaning and shining each and every lamp while they talked about all
of the Christmas celebrations they were looking forward to. Their
first Christmas in Camden Corners was going to be a very happy one.
One afternoon, the
Vicar Willard Duesenberry came into the shop to purchase a lace tea
cozy for his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Schrum. He saw her admiring
it in the window one day last week and thought it would make a nice
Christmas gift for her. Emma was having a difficult time opening
Amos’ old cash register and the Vicar offered to take a look at it
to see what the problem was. He discovered there was a tiny key that
was lodged in the drawer. Emma couldn’t understand why she didn’t
discover it when she so painstakingly cleaned and polished it. She
took the key and set it aside wondering what the key fit and what it
was doing inside the cash register. Another customer was inquiring
about a Queen Anne sofa and Emma forgot about the key.
Harvey Wallace was
sitting as his usual spot in the old general store cheating at
checkers with his cronies. They knew he was cheating but also knew
that if they called attention to it old Harvey would throw his
considerable weight around and make trouble for his chums. The
general store just wasn’t the same now that Amos has passed on and
it had been taken over by Harvey. The townspeople of Greensboro
often traveled the distance to nearby Kendall to purchase their
groceries and supplies at Silas Warren’s store. Harvey did like to
make a profit and didn’t notice that he was losing customers one by
one. George Whitfield had just returned from Camden Corners and was
telling the group how busy the antique store was that Emma
Patterson and Lily Kramer bought and how well they were doing selling
Amos’ things. Harvey’s ears perked up.
“Excuse me
gentlemen I have a little matter of thievery to check into. I do
believe the junk Miss Emma stole out of this building was mine and I
have the documents to prove it.”
The small group was
dumbfounded. This was low even for Harvey.
Emma and Lily were
beginning to make a small profit in their antique business and
finally had enough extra to bankroll them for their first scavenger
hunt. They were anxious to start their journey before the heavy
snows came. They took off leaving the shop in the capable hands of
Jonas and the women. Susanna offered to pop in occasionally to check
on things for them. The first time out they hit the jackpot. The
hotel in Porterboro was going to be completely renovated and they
were able to salvage almost a wagon full of treasures from there.
They stopped at a farmhouse on the way to the next town and found
many more items. With a few stops on their way back to Camden
Corners they had filled their wagon to the brim and were giggling and
laughing as they opened the door to their antique shop.
They were met with
tearful eyes and worried faces and standing right smack in the middle
of their store was Mr. Harvey Wilson with his smarmy lawyer, Caspar
Dewitt standing next to him. Both were smirking as Caspar served the
girls with a cease and desist letter demanding they lock the doors of
the shop pending a lawsuit for ill gotten goods. Lily was fit to be
tied and ready to flatten Mr. Caspar Dewitt but Emma’s cooler head
prevailed. She knew they would not be able to fight this fight in
the middle of their store and accepted the papers asking them to
leave and locking the door behind them.
Will Harvey Wilson and his greed win out? Check tomorrow to see what happens next. This and all Camden Corners stories are available on smashwords.com; Kindle & Nook.
