Sugar Plums for Dry Creek & At Home in Dry Creek Read Online Free Page B

dismayed at her comments, and she wasn’t surprised. At their age, they probably didn’t want to take up any exercise program, especially not one as rigorous as ballet. “You’d want to check with your doctor first, of course,” Lizette added. “You should do that be fore you take up any new exercise pro gram.”
    The men nodded as she left the hard ware store. All in all, they’d been friendly, and she wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t get a student or two out of the bunch. And if she didn’t get any students, at least she’d got ten some good neighbors. One of them had al ready been over to check on the smoke coming out of the small kitchen off the main room when she’d been baking some cookies earlier and had for got ten they were in the oven. He’d even offered to bring her over somemore flour if she was inclined to continue baking. He’d expressed some hope of a cherry pie.
    The chair Lizette stood on gave her enough height so she could lift the sign and hook it into the chain she’d put up to hang it with. The sign had a white back ground with navy script lettering.
    Lizette planned to take a picture of the sign later and send it to Madame Aprele. She wasn’t sure she’d tell her old teacher that she didn’t have any students yet, but she could tell her that the school was al most ready for classes now that the practice bar was in place. Lizette had planned to use a make shift practice bar at first, because she couldn’t afford a real one. Madame Aprele had surprised her by sending her one of her own ma hog any bars. Her old teacher had shipped it be fore Lizette left Seattle, and Linda, next door in the café, had kept it for Lizette until she arrived.
    Lizette had called Madame Aprele, thanking her and insisting that she accept payment for the equipment. It would help enough, Lizette explained, if she could just pay for the bar over time. She didn’t add that she had no need of charity. Madame Aprele agreed to let Lizette make payments if Lizette promised to call her with weekly up dates on her school.
    At first Lizette was un comfort able promising to call Madame Aprele, because she knew her mother would disapprove. But then Lizette decided that whatever problem there had been between her mother and Madame Aprele, there was no need for her to continue the cold ness.
    Twenty years ago when Madame Aprele had bought the school from Lizette’s mother, the two women had been friends. But, over the years, Jacqueline spoke less and less to Madame Aprele until, finally, her mother wouldn’t even greet the other women when she picked Lizette up after ballet class.
    At the time, Lizette didn’t understand why. Now she wondered if her mother didn’t look at Madame Aprele and wish her own life had turned out like the other woman’s.
    Not that there was any thing in Jacqueline’s life to suggest she wished for a different one. Madame Aprele had been born in France in the same village as Lizette’s mother. Both women had studied ballet together and had left France together. Lizette’s mother had be come more Americanized over the years, how ever, especially after she’d started working in the bakery.
    As Lizette’s mother be came more conservative in her dress, Madame Aprele be came more outrageous, until, in the end, Lizette’s mother looked al most dowdy and Madame Aprele looked like an old-fashioned movie star with her lavender feather boas and dramatic eye makeup.
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    Lizette stepped down from the chair just as she saw two little children cross the street from the hardware store. The sun was shining on the window so Lizette could not see the children clearly, but she could tell from their size that they were both good prospects for ballet.
    Lizette didn’t know how to advertise in a small town like Dry Creek, but she supposed she could ask about the children at the hard ware store, find out who