Page 80 of The Missing Pages

The next morning, Theo and Violet woke up to find a light snowfall had arrived overnight. Outside on the driveway, her mother’s Toyota sat dusted in a soft covering of white.

“Well, that’s an auspicious sign,” Theo remarked. “A little present from heaven.”

“It’s funny, the first snow of the season always makes me feel like a kid again,” Violet admitted as she poured hot coffee into two thermal mugs for them.

“It makes me think Christmas is just around the corner.” Theo took one of the mugs from her.

“It is!” Violet laughed.

“I’ll go brush off the car,” he said as looked up at the kitchen clock. “We said we’d be there by nine, so we should really hit the road.”

“I just need to grab my coat. You have the car key?”

“It’s in my pocket.” He pulled out the Ziploc bag with the key inside. “I appreciated your note on the bathroom mirror telling me not to forget it.”

Theo put his coffee down on the kitchen table and pulled on his coat. “I’ll meet you outside.”

“Great,” she said. “I’ll be out in a second.”

Soft crystals of light sparkled on the road as Violet drove her mother’s car toward Lynnewood Hall.

They played a Van Morrison tape as she navigated past East Girard Street and headed north on Broad, following the directions her father said would take them most quickly to Elkins Park.

“I wonder what state the house will be in,” Theo mused as he drank his coffee from a thermal cup.

“Me too. To think it was once one of the largest Gilded Age estates in all of Philadelphia. I really can’t imagine how a church could even use all 110 rooms.”

“They’d have to have a lot of priests visiting, I guess,” Theo said with a shrug.

“I feel kind of nervous,” she admitted.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” he reminded her. “Either the key matches something there or it doesn’t. You’re just doing a bit of field research, remember that.”

Violet turned and smiled at him. “What’s that quote Professor Gupta always says in my class with him? ‘Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last!’”

“I think that’s Samuel Johnson,” he said. “It’s a good one.”

“It is,” she agreed.

“Well, you’ve definitely piqued my curiosity with all of this,” he said, as he turned up the volume to the car stereo. “And I’m equally curious which restaurant’s cheesesteak I will like better—Geno’s or Pat’s.”

“I look forward to debating that with you later today,” she said as she headed in the direction of Lynnewood Hall.