A Love Lost to the Years novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: What the Millhand Saw

By ten on Saturday there were three hundred people on the gravel at 14 Ore Dock Road.

Some of them had worked the mill, and some of them had children who had.

The bakery woman had brought a tray of lemon bars.

The old lawyer stood at the back in a black overcoat, leaning on a cane he did not need.

Sonya had put on a dress and tights and was already complaining about both.

"I look like a lamp," she said.

"You look fine."

"I look like a very upset lamp, Ken."

The plaque stood on the old loading dock slab under a gray cloth.

It was brass, and Kenneth had helped hang it at dawn.

Annabel had held the level, with her father's rule in her other hand.

She was beside him now in a plain black coat.

When she took his hand in front of everybody, he felt the ring on his finger touch hers.

She spoke for two minutes, with no notes.

She said her father had built a company that fed four hundred families.

She said he had stood on this slab every Sunday of his life.

She said she would put his workshop back where it belonged.

Then she pulled the cloth off the plaque, and the crowd made a soft sound, and the reporter lowered his recorder.

"That's lovely," said a voice from the back.

Everyone turned.

Sheldon stood at the edge of the crowd in his camel coat, with his hat in his hand.

His eyes were already wet.

He looked ten years older than he had the week before.

"I hope I'm not intruding," he said. "I wanted to pay my respects."

"You're not welcome here," Annabel said, quite calmly.

"I know. I'll be brief."

The crowd parted for him without wanting to.

He walked up the center of the lot and stopped at the slab, close enough that Kenneth could smell his cologne.

"I was the last man to speak to Walter Wexford," Sheldon said, to the people.

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