“Yes, but walk around the side of the building and come in the front way,” Delores instructed. “We want you to get the full effect of the porch and then the living room.” She gave them a sweet smile. “You will indulge me, won’t you?”

“Of course,” Ross said, and led Hannah back out the door. They walked, single file, around the side of the building. It wasn’t until they rounded the corner to the front that Ross spoke. “I can’t believe they got it done so fast. Your mother and Carrie are amazing.”

“Amazing,” Hannah said, although amazing wasn’t the word she would have chosen. Deceptive, perhaps. Maybe even conniving or scheming. And if she wanted to tone it down just a bit, manipulative was always a safe bet. Delores was definitely up to something, but Hannah wasn’t about to get into it now. The less Ross knew about her mother’s machinations, the better. She’d have a private chat with Delores later and find out exactly what was going on.

“We had a front porch just like this in Duluth,” Ross said, when they opened the door.

“Everyone had a front porch like this,” Hannah looked around at the addition to Granny’s Attic that had been created by the wizardry of Ross’s studio carpenters. “There’s even a rug by the front door for boots.”

“With boots on it. And they’re from the right time period. My mother had a pair of boots just like that. She told me she wore them in high school.”

Hannah gazed down at the brown suede boots with fur around the tops. If she remembered correctly, those boots had come from her mother’s closet. “So there should be a coatrack, or a hall closet, or something like that when we go through the inside door.”

“Coatrack,” Ross announced as he opened the door to the inside. It was the room that in larger, more expensive houses, would be called a foyer. “It’s perfect, Hannah. The coatrack’s sitting on a homemade rag rug to catch the drips.”

“Of course it is. You’re talking about egg money here. Almost every farm wife used her egg money to buy a loom to make rag rugs. They made the rugs from everything you can think of, including burlap sacks and plastic grocery bags. They sold them to the people in town, and the tourists that came through in the summer.”

“A cottage industry?”

“Rag rugs, hooked rugs with designs on them, and hand-sewn chair pads for wooden kitchen chairs. Everybody had a craft in the fifties.” Hannah stopped at the mahogany door that led to the inside of the house. “Beveled glass, and it’s decorated with ferns and

is that a letter, or a design?”

“It’s a letter T, and it’s perfect. Amy and Jody’s last name is Thompson.”