They had worked wonders in a short time, but mostly because there was so much already there, particularly from storage. And the house was theirs now. It felt as though it was meant to be.
They went straight to the house from the airport when they arrived at one o’clock local time on New Year’s Day, and the realtor had very kindly offered to leave food at the house for them. Alicia and José, the Mexican couple Sybil had hired long-distance, with Blake conducting interviews, were off on New Year’s Day, but would be back the next day. They were enthusiastic and energetic, had good references, and said they liked kids. They were going to clean, and José would work outside too. Blake said they didn’t seem daunted by the size of the house. Several other couples they’d interviewed had turned the job down unless they hired more staff, which Blake and Sybil didn’t want to do. They thought two hardworking people would be enough, since they didn’t plan to use the entire house. Alicia had said she would babysit Charlie when Sybil needed her to, and all of José’s references had said that he was tireless and willing, with a great attitude. They were both in their early forties and had done domestic work for many years, since moving to California from Mexico in their teens. They were American citizens now.
Blake rented a van at the airport to accommodate all their equipment and bags. Everything else had already been sent. He had left his own car at the house, in the old garage, which had a chauffeur’s apartment they could use for storage. Blake had shipped his car from New York when he first moved out. And they were going to buy Sybil an SUV to drive the kids around, since she had left her old station wagon in New York for work. Both Caroline and Andy were maneuvering for cars of their own, but Blake was adamant about their waiting until they went to college, and Sybil agreed, which made her car a hot bartering item on weekends.
They chattered noisily on the ride from the airport, but when they drove up to the gate and saw the house, there was silence in the van. It looked bigger and more impressive than it had in photographs, and all three of the children stared as they drove into the courtyard when the gates opened by remote control. For a long moment, no one got out.
“Welcome home,” Sybil said gently, and she and Blake exchanged a smile. One by one they looked around, as Blake went to unlock the house and turn off the alarm. He left the front door open, and went back to the van to help them with their things, and carry Sybil’s bags.
“Go exploring if you want,” Blake invited them, as they entered the house shyly at first, carrying their tote bags and backpacks with what they’d needed for the plane. Sybil led them around the main floor. It looked nice now, and homier with some of the original furniture in it. It was a little sparsely furnished, with many items still at the upholsterers, but it was bright and airy with the fresh coat of paint. Sybil had selected a warm off-white color that went well with the house. All three children stared at the enormous hall with portraits hung along the walls, which Sybil and Blake had brought out of storage, and gave the entrance an ancestral air. The portraits in the hall were of various Butterfields. They looked like historical portraits in a British home. They peered into the living room and dining room, and the library, where she had put a huge partners desk they’d also found in storage. It was a beautiful English antique that was perfect in the room.
“Are there secret passages?” Charlie asked, turning to his mother with excitement in his eyes.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had time to study the plans in detail yet. I’ll check,” she promised, after they peeked into the kitchen and straggled up the stairs to the second floor to find their bedrooms. They had checked out each room on the main floor from the doorway, but had not gone into the reception rooms like the drawing room and the library. It was a little overwhelming. The chandeliers made the rooms seem more formal, and the long table in the dining room looked endless as Sybil glanced at it from the door, but it was meant for the room. She wondered if the Butterfields had given grand dinner parties, with all twenty-four chairs filled with elegant men and women in evening clothes, and then she ran up the stairs after her children and directed them to their respective rooms. All of them were pleased, particularly Charlie, who was directly across from his parents, and knew he could find his mother easily if he had a bad dream. All he had to do was walk out of his bedroom across the hall into hers.
Andy had a private suite, with a little living room of his own, and Caroline had a dressing room that Sybil had had painted pink, and an enormous pink marble bathroom with a gigantic bathtub. It was just as “cool” as Caro had hoped.
Then they all congregated in their parents’ room, and checked that out. Andy and Caroline and their parents had beautiful views of the bay.
“So what do you think?” Sybil asked Caroline and Charlie, while Blake and Andy brought up their bags. The things that had been shipped were already in their rooms. Blake had organized it all before he left.
“It’s BIG,” Charlie pronounced as he looked around, and his mother and sister laughed.
“Yes, it is,” Sybil agreed. “Does your room look okay?” She’d sent out his favorite pale blue bedspread, the chair he loved to sit in, and a lot of toys, along with his PlayStation. Charlie nodded in answer, and went back to looking around again, while Caroline explored her mother’s dressing room. Half an hour later, they all met in the kitchen to see what there was to eat. There was just enough for lunch and breakfast in the morning, and they were going to order pizza for dinner. Sybil was going to send Alicia to the store for them the next day. The kids had a few more days free before school started, and they were going to look around the city with Sybil, to get to know their new home. Blake was going back to work. He’d been off for ten days.
Sybil made sandwiches for all of them, they helped themselves to sodas, and she poured a glass of milk for Charlie and handed it to him. None of them were comfortable in the house yet, but they were fascinated by everything they saw. After they ate, Andy and Caroline explored the upper floors, which were unfurnished and unoccupied and still in the process of being painted, and they left Charlie in his room. He was still not absolutely certain that there were no ghosts, but the others continued to reassure him that there were none. So he focused on wanting to find the secret passages instead, and Blake said he doubted that there were any.
They went to bed early after the trip and the excitement of moving in. Charlie was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Andy watched a movie, Caroline texted all her friends and sent Instagrams of her suite and her bathtub, and Blake and Sybil retired to their room, pleased that their arrival had gone well.