Deadline or not, I didn’t know how to begin. If I had a year to learn about art restoration, a year to study and practice, then maybe I stood a chance. But I couldn’t let Lisa doubt me. I couldn’t let her see my weakness. I wouldn’t give her any reason to turn this job over to someone else and send me back to hell. I’d have to figure out how to restore this weird piece of art, and I’d have to do it quickly.

“Yes,” I said, looking directly into her eyes. “Absolutely.”

Chapter 8. Anna

Chapter 8

ANNA

December 9, 1939

Anna’s very full Saturday began with moving into Myrtle Simms’s large and charming old home, and she felt as though she suddenly had a grandmother. She’d never known her own grandparents, so spending time with an older, overly attentive woman was unfamiliar to her, and rather a comfort.

The Simms house stood in a row of similar good-sized homes, some of which appeared to have fallen on hard times. Myrtle Simms seemed to have managed to keep the outside of her home and yard up, even if there were some signs of wear and tear inside. A bit of peeling paint here and torn wallpaper there. But all in all it was a charming home, and Anna was grateful to the men of the town for arranging her stay there.

Myrtle Simms was a compact little lady, quite short, and she greeted Anna at her front door in a yellow flowered housedress.

“Call me Miss Myrtle, dear,” she said, leading Anna into a neat and clean living room with comfortable furniture and carefully displayed knickknacks on every level surface. They sat down to a snack of tea and squares of pineapple upside-down cake baked by Miss Myrtle’s maid, Freda, who offered Anna a warm smile but didn’t speak. Once Freda left the room, Miss Myrtle confided that the maid was mute.

“She hears fine,” Miss Myrtle said, “but she’s never uttered a word to me in the thirty years she’s worked for me. I love her, though. She was a second mother to my daughter, growing up. We couldn’t have held this house together without her.”

They chatted for a while about the competition that had brought Anna to Edenton, and once they’d finished their cake, Miss Myrtle got to her feet.