The next evening Daniel found himself standing on the front steps of the Langford house, mansion really. Catherine had inherited a lot of money when she was a young woman and evidently had invested it very well.
The main house was an imposing structure, two stories of tan stucco trimmed in white, with additional one-story wings jutting out on either side. Daniel wasn't sure how many fireplaces it had, but he had personally seen four of them in use over the years.
In addition to the house, there were separate servants' quarters in the back, along with a four-car garage and a gardener's 'shed' about the size of his first apartment. As always, the grounds were beautifully maintained.
Daniel wondered as he stood on the front porch what would become of this grand old Denver landmark. He hoped Sabrina would be able to keep it in the Langford family. Evidently she was staying here while the will was going through probate. Then it would officially become hers.
Sabrina answered the door wearing old blue jeans and a soft, cream-colored sweater. It looked soft, anyway. Daniel thought about reaching out to touch it to see for himself, but thought better of it. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail as she welcomed him into the dark paneled entrance hall. "Come on in, Daniel. Glad you could make it."
"Thanks. It's good to be back here."
As she half turned to lead him into the living room, Daniel could see that she was bare-footed. He was starting to feel just a little over-dressed in his sports coat and dress slacks, but she soon put him at ease.
"Come on and have a seat in here next to the fire." She motioned him into a room that he remembered well. He had spent many hours sitting in front of this same fireplace, visiting with Catherine.
It was a very formal room, also paneled in dark wood, with a lot of silk and damask; and it reminded him so much of his missing friend that his eyes started to well up. He hoped Sabrina wouldn't notice.
"It's okay; I miss her, too..." Sabrina looked at him sympathetically. "Would you like something to drink?"
Catherine's drink of choice had been hot tea, Earl Grey. If he closed his eyes he could almost smell it. She always had a pot of coffee brought in for him, though; and they would sit on this sofa and talk for hours—sometimes about archeology and sometimes about personal stuff, stuff he'd never talked about before, not even with Jack, things about his childhood. Sometimes Ernest had joined them. Sometimes it was just the two of them.
"I uh, brought some wine." Daniel held the bottle out like an offering.
"Ummm, that looks great. Dinner won't be ready for another twenty minutes or so. Would you like a glass now or do you want something stronger?"
"No, the wine will be fine, thanks." Daniel knew he was going to have to drive back to Colorado Springs later that night and he really didn't want to get plastered. He took the glass of wine she offered and settled back into the sofa he knew so well. Sabrina remained standing, facing him in front of the crackling fire.
"I guess you're wondering why I asked you to drive all this way." Her fingers played nervously with the rim of the wine glass as she spoke.
"I have to admit I was curious." Daniel couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her fingers as they moved in ever slowing circles around the rim of the glass.
"Well, actually there were three reasons." Sabrina set the glass on the mantle before turning around again to look at him. "I'd like to hire you." She smiled as she dug her toes into the deep pile of the Oriental carpet.
Now Daniel realized that he couldn't stop looking at her toes. They were painted a soft peachy, pinkish color, and his mind was starting to wander just a little bit. With some degree of effort, he dragged his eyes away from them, took a sip of wine, and then leaned back into the sofa before replying.
"Whatever for?"
"Well, believe it or not, besides what she left you, Aunt Catherine left a lot of antiquities to me, too. I need someone I can trust to go through them with me and help me decide what to keep and what to donate. I also need someone who can place a value on everything, and I'm completely over my head here."
Daniel thought briefly about the storeroom full of items he had inherited from Catherine's estate still waiting to be catalogued. It was hard to believe she had anything left to bequeath.
"I'll be glad to help in any way I can, Sabrina, and you don't have to pay me anything. As far as I'm concerned, Catherine was family."
Sabrina relaxed visibly and reached back for her wine glass once more. "Okay, that's one reason I invited you. Here's the second one: I'd like to invite you to go with me to Boston." He looked at her curiously. "A science building is being named for Catherine and Ernest on the campus of Boston College, and I wondered if you'd like to go with me to the dedication."
"Wow, that seems kind of sudden, doesn't it? She's only been gone, what, about two weeks?"
"Actually, it's just a coincidence. Catherine and Ernest gave the money to the college sometime last year. The dedication service was already scheduled before Aunt Catherine died. I guess they figured they had all the time in the world to have her there for the ceremony."
Daniel nodded in understanding. "I still can't believe that she and Ernest are both gone." Ernest Littlefield had been the long-lost love of Catherine's youth, with whom she had been reunited late in life. They had never gotten married, but had quietly lived out their lives together in this spacious home until Ernest's death eight months ago.
Catherine and Ernest had been separated because of the stargate and the stargate had brought them back together, but Daniel couldn't tell Sabrina any of that. The thought that he could participate in a ceremony honoring their memories touched him more than he could say.
"I'd love to go to Boston with you," he said, and he realized he really meant that. Jack was always accusing him of being stodgy and predictable. Well, he could be spontaneous. Just watch. "When do we leave?"
"That's just it. I know this is short notice, but I just found out about it myself yesterday morning. The dedication is going to be this weekend." She looked down hopefully at Daniel.
"Count me in. I'm due a few days off, anyway, and I've never been to Boston." Sabrina grinned from her position next to the fireplace.
"Ok, that's two things." Daniel smiled as he took another sip of wine. "What was the third reason you invited me here?"
Sabrina smirked just a little as she crossed the short distance to the sofa and sat down next to Daniel. "Why, I wanted to have dinner with Colorado's answer to Indiana Jones, of course!" She lifted her glass up to his and he grinned as the two made a resounding 'clink'.