“Gwen!” she shouted as loudly as she could. “Let me give you a ride!” The figure stopped and turned to peer at the car. Gwen bent her head down again and continued picking her way along the road.
Annie tapped Alice on the shoulder. “Tell her John came to Grey Gables because he was so worried about her.”
Alice nodded and turned back to the window. “Gwen! John came by Grey Gables earlier. He’s very worried about you.” Gwen lifted a foot to step forward, and then lowered it to the same spot it had been and stood still. Alice put on her emergency blinkers and emergency brake before jumping out of the car to open the way to the backseat. Keeping her eyes trained on the ground, Gwen jogged across the street and slid into the rear seat.
Alice turned off the blinking emergency lights and drove a short distance farther along Grand Avenue to turn around at the Ocean View Assisted Living entrance.
“Gwen, you must be freezing!” Annie cried over the pounding of the rain and the slapping of the windshield wipers. “Can we take you to Grey Gables and get some dry clothes for you?”
Although she did not answer vocally, Gwen lifted her head enough to show agreement.
“I don’t know about you, but I could go for some hot cocoa,” Alice said, relief smoothing the lines of worry that had been stretched across her forehead. They passed the harbor again, the beacon from Butler Lighthouse appearing brighter than a few minutes before.
“Hot cocoa, tea, coffee, whatever’s your pleasure.” Annie tried to keep a balance between false heartiness and stifling concern to make the ride as comfortable as possible for Gwen. Annie had let her attention drift to the sound of the rain when Gwen said quietly, “Thank you, Alice, Annie.” After John’s words to her, the last thing Annie expected to hear from Gwen was gratitude. Although she still did not know the source of Gwen’s pain, the core of tension that had been tightening stopped, and began to unwind.
Alice pulled into the driveway of Grey Gables. Glancing at the dashboard clock, Annie saw they had only been gone for thirty minutes.
When they bustled through the door, Boots sat right inside but retreated to the stairs in disgust as water drops flicked from hats and coats. Even the expensive raincoat Gwen wore could not stand up to the Maine storm. Every inch of her clothing ranked somewhere on the moisture spectrum from damp to sopping wet.
“Alice, will you take our coats to the mudroom while I find some warm clothes for Gwen?” Annie asked.
“Sure.” Alice gathered the dripping coats, holding them at arm’s length to give them a quick shake over the entry rug before carrying them as fast as she could to deposit them on the row of hooks attached to the wall.
“Come up with me, Gwen. If you’d like to take a warm shower, I have a comfy robe you can use. Gram always made sure she had extras.”
Gwen’s usually sleek blond hair was plastered against her head, the tidy chignon barely hung on, listing sideways with stray wet tendrils crawling down her neck. Gwen fingered the mess. “That sounds heavenly, Annie.”
She walked over to the rug, took off her shoes, and arranged them neatly in the corner. Then she followed Annie up the stairs, Boots springing up ahead of them. Annie paused at the linen closet in the hallway long enough to grab fresh towels and escorted Gwen to the bath at the end of the hall. Placing the towels in Gwen’s hands, Annie told her, “I’ll hang some clothes on the doorknob for you. We’ll be down in the kitchen.”
“May I use your phone?” Gwen asked. “I need to let John know I’m all right.”
“Of course!” Annie exclaimed. “I know he’s worried about you. Let me get you the cordless from my bedroom.”
Gwen murmured her thanks and continued into the spacious bath, while Annie turned into the master bedroom to get the telephone and to find clothes suited for her friend.
When Gwen entered the kitchen thirty-five minutes later in soft celery green pants and a long-sleeve tunic, her blond hair was dry and draping over her shoulders. Her shivers had fled under the soothing warm shower. Annie looked up from spooning cocoa powder and sugar into three mugs.
“Gwen! I’ve never seen you with your hair down before. How beautiful!”
Alice sat at the kitchen table with a basket of scones in front of her, which she had retrieved from the carriage house while Gwen had been upstairs. “Now that I think of it, neither have I. I never realized how wonderfully thick it is.” She patted the chair next to her.
Gwen pulled out the chair and sat. “Oh, thank you. I don’t think about my hair much.”
“Is there any particular reason you always wear it up?” asked Alice.