"Greetings, little sister. The usual?" he asked.

She nodded and he went for the green tea.

"I'm sorry I stood you up Friday night," he said. "I didn't think the scourge would ever pass, but I guess it wasn't as bad as it could've been, given what I've heard about the swine flu. Darlene said whatever I had was definitely the whine flu. Frankly I--" He stopped suddenly, looked at Lilly closely. He took in her sparkling blue eyes, her flushed cheeks, her secret smile. Yoga wasn't singularly responsible for this new look of health and happiness. "Whoa," he said. "Someone is back in the saddle."

Ten

In the early fall, when the pumpkins were still green and the Halloween costumes hadn't yet been sewn, when the Valley High School football team was practicing for their homecoming performance, when the leaves on the trees that stood dwarfed under sequoias had barely started to color, the biggest item of interest in Virgin River was Hope McCrea's house.

The Presbyterian Women got the job of sorting, cleaning up and organizing, but half the town wanted in that house out of sheer curiosity. Of course, either Jack, Preacher, Paul or Mike Valenzuela stood like sentries at the door making sure whoever showed up worked. Those who wanted to satisfy their curiosity about what Hope left behind had to pitch in. Noah turned out to be a better tour guide than sentry, but he wasn't afraid of work himself.

Since the town meeting, the friendly neighbors of Virgin River were a lot less cordial toward Jack than they had been before he'd been named Hope's executor. They were a little surly, in fact, and there was the occasional snide comment. "That a new shirt, Jack?" "I notice the truck has new tires...you didn't get a low-interest loan for those, did you?"

And Jack, being Jack, responded in his ever-patient way with comebacks like, "Wanna bite me, Lou?" and "Up yours, Hugh."

It was fair to say that certain relationships were strained these days. As for Jack, the usually helpful, loyal friend was just a mite put out with his neighbors.

This spirit of Open House lasted only a few days before it had to be shut down, and not because of Jack. Hope had been a collector of sorts and no one was sure of the value of some of the things she had rat-holed away. The women found odd and interesting items they just didn't know how to handle. There was a huge wardrobe stuffed with old china pieces, mismatched, some even cracked and chipped. She had a shoe box full of odd-looking, colorful stones, for example. There was an attic full of paintings, oils and watercolors, protected with cheap grocery store plastic wrap. This was art that Mel and Paige agreed they would have let go in a garage sale but then Preacher looked up the name of one artist on the Internet and informed them his paintings had actual value. It wasn't a Van Gogh, but it was probably worth a few grand--the artist was a Northern Californian watercolor impressionist from the Depression era. They found an old spiral notebook stuffed with crinkly paper that held odd, illegible signatures. She'd had first editions of popular novels, some of them signed. There were ancient photos, postcards and very retro jewelry. Hope had never worn jewelry that anyone could remember. There was an entire closet full of what appeared to be old teapots. Hope left behind tons of silver flatware and no one could remember a time she'd ever had a guest to dinner. And that didn't even include odd pieces of well-built furniture that the women suspected were valuable antiques.

Even though Mel had a nagging feeling that some of this old stuff was valuable, she had no experience with this sort of thing. Mel was good with five-star chefs, designer clothing and posh vacation spots--at least in her past life, before moving to Virgin River and marrying the owner of a bar.

But Muriel St. Claire, a local who had restored her hundred-year-old farmhouse, spent weekends antiquing and scouring the mountain and forest towns for "finds." In her house she had period paintings, tintype photos, refurbished fixtures, dated needlework and antique furniture. So Mel called her.

"I've spent every weekend off I've had for forty years going to estate sales," Muriel said. "Plus, I'm addicted to the Antiques Roadshow. I'll be right over."

Muriel must have flown around the mountain curves, she arrived so quickly. She wore her usual jeans, boots and hat, but as always she looked stunning. Muriel was a retired, or at least semiretired, Oscar-nominated actress who looked a good ten years younger than she was, and she could look elegant in a sack. On this afternoon, with a flush high on her cheeks, she burst into Hope's, found Mel and some other women in an upstairs bedroom stacked to the ceiling with miscellaneous stuff, and said, "Show me!"

It took Muriel two full days of plowing through pots, dishes, documents, little rocks, art, furniture and weird things--like ball caps from every professional ball team in the country--before she said, "I don't think this stuff is going to Christie's, but there's definitely money here. Not in everything, but generally speaking."

"How do you know?" Mel asked her.

"I can smell it."

"Like the colorful rocks?" Mel said expectantly. "Are they gems?"

"I wouldn't know," Muriel said. "But that wardrobe full of china? Antique Belleek. Very expensive Irish china. And the teapots? I recognize a couple of English sterling pieces, which tells me there's lots of hidden value there."

"Hundreds?" Mel asked hopefully.

"Thousands," Muriel said. "If I know my antiques at all."

One of the advantages of going to garage sales, estate sales and auctions as a hobby, Muriel was armed with business cards from consultants and appraisers from all over the place. The experts in this particular area seemed a reasonable place to start, but there was no evidence that Hope, who'd been computer savvy and obviously liked eBay, had been committed to Northern California.

And nothing could bring appraisers and consultants for estate sales and auctions running like the name Muriel St. Claire.

"We're going to start getting company right away," she informed Mel and some of the other ladies. "The thing to do is let them appraise the value of this stuff, run up the numbers, and then negotiate fees. It's possible much of this stuff--the art, for example, china and small antique pieces--will have to be moved to San Francisco for the best price. Or some of this could be purchased outright by an auction company that chooses to make it part of a moving sale or auction. Advertising will be necessary. Oh, this is very exciting! Benedict Compton of the San Francisco Pavilion Auction company--the president, thank you very much--is coming himself." Muriel rubbed her hands together and laughed.

Mel was stunned. "Did you just cackle?" she asked Muriel.

"I have to admit, this could be way more fun than actually attending an estate sale or auction."

"We could have a problem here," Mel said. "In this whole town I can't think of one person besides you who might know anything about this sort of thing. No matter how many appraisers come to look the stuff over, I wouldn't know how to negotiate a contract with them--I called you because I have a feeling there's valuable stuff here, but I don't know anything about it. Plus, I have patients. And these other ladies have work and families. And--"

"Well, I'm not an expert, but I do have a clue," Muriel said. "Want me to manage the appraisals?"

"Would you? Do you have the time?"

"As long as I get the horses fed, I can be here. For that matter, I'm sure Walt would take care of the horses for me. In fact, he might jump at an alternative to going antiquing with me," she added with a laugh.

While Muriel managed experts and appraisers, Preacher was studying Hope's computer records. It turned out that the local church wasn't the only thing she bought on eBay--the old woman had made a hobby and pastime of buying and selling, and her purchases and sales reached as far as China. And as for china, the Belleek was worth tens of thousands. A couple of the teapots were old English sterling worth a couple of thousand each, and a couple were ancient Chinese teapots that were also very valuable. She didn't actually have a Ming vase, but she'd bid on many.

"And gems?" Mel asked hopefully.

"Pretty rocks," Muriel said, shaking her head. "But that notebook full of scrawls on crinkly paper? Famous signatures. U. S. Grant among them. They should've been framed and preserved but were instead stuffed in a spiral notebook." She tsked. "I'm sorry to say that Hope's treasures will be better cared for out of her hands."

"I think she must have been just entertaining herself," Mel said. "She always acted like a woman with a million things to do, but she looked like a vagrant. Well," she said with a laugh, "there was never a question in my mind that Hope was happy. Cynical and cranky and self-indulgent and totally happy."

"By the way," Muriel asked. "Where is Hope?"

"She wasn't specific about her wishes, except that she be cremated. So far no one has even picked up a hint of what she'd like to have done with her ashes, so the funeral home in Fortuna is keeping them for us. Jack is trying to think of something that would do her justice, that would honor her, but he hasn't come up with anything yet. And although the town is all pissy about not being able get their hands on her money, no one has asked if there will be a funeral."

Muriel looked very sad for a moment and just shook her head. "Don't people disappoint you sometimes?" she asked Mel.

"Sure," she said. "But fortunately not as often as they surprise and impress me. This whole thing isn't over yet. The town will come around--come through."

It took a very dedicated team of people to complete the process of dealing with Hope McCrea's possessions. Muriel St. Claire and her boyfriend, retired general Walt Booth, along with Mike's wife, attorney Brie Valenzuela, managed to select and negotiate a contract from a reputable auction company. The most expedient method was recommended by the appraiser and then approved by Jack--the company would pay a flat rate for the most valuable items, which they would remove from the big old Victorian in the country and take to auction in San Francisco. Preacher and Paige Middleton worked as a team to research some of those items that had been identified, looking up a large percentage of them online; they found the prices quoted by the auction company to be very reasonable. Away went the Belleek, paintings, teapots, collectible signatures and several pieces of furniture.

Pastor Noah Kincaid and his wife, Ellie, worked with their good friends, Jo and Nick Fitch, to create advertising fliers for a sale of what was left; the fliers would be scattered around the towns and cities nearby. They also bought ads in the five largest local newspapers, identifying a weekend estate sale. Items left to be sold were priced and tagged with the help of Muriel, the visiting appraiser and Preacher, checking and cross-checking on Hope's computer.

Then there was the enormous task of separating items that could be sold from items that had to be donated. It took all the Presbyterian Women, the Presbyterian Husbands and many a Presbyterian pickup truck.

And then all was ready. It was a garage sale of grand proportions, most of which took place in the house and on its front and back porches. Cars started to arrive early on Saturday morning and kept coming through the day. It was like a parade--weekend garage and estate sale shoppers from miles and towns away. The sale would be extended through Sunday if anything remained to be sold. A table was set up with several large coffee thermoses and pastries in the morning, and Preacher, Mike, Jack and a couple of friends set up barbecues in the yard and sold hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks in the afternoon. One of the Anderson sons, a family of local sheep ranchers, brought a couple of ponies for rides and Paul Haggerty had rented a little merry-go-round from an amusement company that leased equipment for parties.

Lawn chairs were pulled out of the backs of trucks, coolers full of soda, water and beer were added to the refreshments Jack and Preacher provided, baseballs and gloves appeared, a football was tossed around, a soccer ball was kicked between a couple of young boys.