Medium Well (9781101599648) Read Free

big. Which was about the best he could say for it at the moment.
    Danny stood on the front walk, studying the building. Limestone, wide galleries on both lower and upper levels, wooden railings in need of paint soon, window framings ditto. A contrasting color would be a good idea. The white that was currently peeling off the wood made the place look dingy. He glanced around the lower gallery. Dust, dry leaves left over from last fall, a couple of advertising circulars. Araceli needed to do a little sweeping up.
    A solid house. Maybe a little uninspiring, but solid nonetheless. A fairly easy sell.
    He headed up the driveway, frowning again. The Steadman house was a nice package, but it was clearly Araceli’s baby and she didn’t share. He got to sell the carriage house—lucky him.
    He rounded the curve and sighed.
Oh, yes, indeed. Lucky me.
Trying to move this baby would definitely be interesting.
    The building had once been stuccoed to match the main house—looked like the same paint color, too. Over the years, however, the stucco had flaked off in spots, revealing several patches of dark red brick. Two large wooden doors took up over half of the lower floor, clearly the part that had once housed carriages, horsed and horseless. More immense live oaks, like the ones shading the main house, spread around the carriage house. Only here it didn’t look like shade so much as gloom.
    He saw an entry door with some ornamental stonework on the lintel and a basket of bedraggled petunias at the left corner of the building.
    Biddy sat next to it in a rusty metal lawn chair. Danny checked his watch. Four fifteen. Oh, well.
    â€œSorry I’m late. Why didn’t you go on inside?” He squinted up at the double-hung windows across the second story. The glass almost looked original, particularly when you took the cracks and holes into consideration. He’d put the construction date around the end of the nineteenth century.
    â€œIt’s a nice day. I just thought I’d sit outside.”
    Something about her tone seemed odd, but Danny didn’t feel like pursuing it. “Okay, let’s do this so you can be on your way.”
    â€œRight.” Biddy nodded, pulling the key out of her purse.
    They walked in through the large, dark room that had once housed the carriages toward a staircase at the side. The room smelled of dust and something stale, the smell of closed off spaces. He followed her up the dusty wooden stairs to the second floor. Dim light filtered down from the windows overhead, making the narrow stairwell seem even dingier.
    At the top of the stairs, she unlocked a second door, then stepped back. He peered around a low-ceilinged room that must have been the main living area. The limestone fireplace on the far side rated as a plus. The thick layer of white dust on every surface qualified as a minus. Ditto the cobwebs, the smeared windows, and the miscellaneous boxes piled in the corners.
    He sighed. “I guess we could always say the owner gets the house and contents.”
    â€œWho would live here?” Biddy asked from the doorway.
    â€œHopefully, a client.”
    â€œNo, I mean who lived here originally?”
    â€œCoachman, probably. Chauffeur after that. Whoever was taking care of the vehicles.”
    â€œLooks like a pretty grim place to live.”
    He glanced back at her. She still stood in the doorway, her arms tight against her sides, as if she were afraid of touching anything. In the somber light, her hair shown like silver, the shadows bringing out the surprisingly delicate bones of her face. Danny licked his lips. “Hey, Biddy, it’s not that dirty. Honest.”
    â€œI know.” She swallowed hard. “I just . . . don’t like this place much.”
    Danny shrugged. “It’ll look better when it’s been cleaned up. The structure’s sound and there’s a lot of square footage. The right buyer will see the