Ross didn’t look upset at this news, and Hannah figured he didn’t mind at all that Tracey’s family had banded together to give her an edge at the auditions. “How are you ladies coming along with the props?”

“Just fine,” Delores answered for both of them. “We’ve spent the past several weeks going through farmhouse attics and storage sheds. I think we have everything on that list your prop man gave us. We have to talk, though. We found a couple of discrepancies for something that’s set in the fifties.”

“Like what?”

“Your prop man wanted us to find a period cable box for the television set. Small towns in Minnesota didn’t have cable in the fifties.”

“Good for you for catching that!”

“That’s not all, but we can go into it later,” Carrie spoke up. “Delores and I were around back then, and we remember what it looked like.”

Delores flashed Carrie a dirty look. “What Carrie means is, people in Lake Eden don’t redecorate until things wear out. That means the fifties look stayed around for at least twenty years.”

Good save, Mother! Hannah thought silently, hiding a most unladylike snort of laughter by coughing into her napkin. Delores was an expert at thinking on her feet, and she’d crawl through a field filled with cow pies before she’d divulge her true age.

Ross exchanged a glance with Hannah and she thought she saw an amused twinkle in his eyes. Then he turned back to Delores. “Michelle told me how you decorated your store to look like the first mayor’s house for the Winter Carnival.”

“That’s right. We didn’t have pictures, of course, but there were letters from the first mayor’s wife to her sister back east and she didn’t stint on words describing the new house that her husband built for her. With a little more research, Carrie and I were able to replicate that house. It was a showplace for its day, built shortly before the turn of the century.” She gave a little laugh. “The last century, that is. Eighteen ninety-three, to be exact.”

“Very impressive. I know it’s a lot to ask, but Michelle thought you might be able to do it again, but this time make it a house in the nineteen fifties.”

“We could do it, Delores!” Carrie spoke up excitedly.

“Well

I’m sure that we could, but

” Delores stopped to give a little sigh, but Hannah, who was watching her mother closely, saw the gleam of avarice in her eyes. “It would be a lot of work. And we’d have to store the antiques from other periods.”

“I have a whole crew at my disposal and my carpenters can build you a temporary storage facility. Actually, we could do it according to code and make it permanent. That way, you’d be able to keep it for future use.”