Liam slid into the seat next to Julie. "Say, you wouldn"t happen to have any rooms available on the first floor, would you?"
"Sorry, no," Julie said. "The guest rooms are all located on the second floor, except for the Tower Room, where Carrie is staying."
"Too bad."
The inn manager inside Julie kicked in. "Is there something wrong with your room?"
"My room is fine," Liam said. "But I thought it might be more fun to be down here."
"I would have thought you"d need quiet and solitude." Liam shook his head. "I like to be in the thick of things. I find it inspiring."
"For your writing," Carrie interjected.
Liam swung around to stare at her. "How did you know?"
The young woman smiled. "Your picture is on your jacket covers."
Liam seemed to puff up with pride. "And you"ve read my books?"
"Every one of them."
"Me too," Susan said.
"And me too, dear," Sadie said.
He looked back to Julie. "Does everyone here know who I am?"
She shrugged. "Don"t look at me. I didn"t tell them."
He turned to Carrie. "Why didn"t you say something?"
"I figured that if you wanted to hide out badly enough that you lied about your name, you needed some time to be someone else."
Liam"s expression softened. "Thank you very much for that."
"Well, unless we"re going to host an impromptu book signing and group therapy session, can we get back to the game?" Gregory asked.
Kenneth turned his attention back to the board.
"If you want to change rooms simply for a change of scenery," Julie said to Liam, "you could have the Tower Room once it"s free. You"d have a completely different view-though it"s certainly not in the thick of things."
"Thanks. I will."
"Is something wrong with your room?" Kenneth asked.
Gregory sighed and leaned back in his seat, clearly more than ready to get the game over with.
"Nah," Liam said. "I was just hoping to get on the first floor."
"Our room"s got that great view over the garden," Kenneth said. "That might be inspiring."
"You"re not leaving today?" Carrie asked Liam.
"Nope. I"ve rented my room for a little while longer."
She nodded and went back to her quilting.
"You know, that"s a brilliant idea." Kenneth"s entire face lit up. "Let"s stay a while longer, hon."
Susan looked like she was about to choke, but she managed to keep it together. "Shouldn"t we get back to your practice? I mean, we"ve been away longer than we"d antic.i.p.ated."
"Just a day." Kenneth looked back to the board and made a triple jump. "King me," he said to Gregory. "This is the most fun I"ve had in years."
Stunned at the strange turn of events, Julie nodded. "It might take a bit of shuffling, but I do have one more room open for the rest of the week."
"And we can keep our same room?"
"Unless you still want to trade with Liam."
"Liam"s room"s bigger," Shirley chimed in.
"Then let"s do it," Kenneth said. "What do you say, Liam?"
The two men smiled like they had pulled off the biggest heist in history. They stood and started talking about how to best go about switching out.
"I"ll get Inga to change the sheets," Shirley said.
Susan pushed back from the quilt, muttering something about terrible vacations.
"Hey, what about our game?" Gregory hollered as Liam and Kenneth left the tearoom to go upstairs. They either didn"t hear him or they ignored him. Julie wasn"t sure which.
Carrie continued to quilt, seemingly satisfied with her morning plans.
Julie stood and went to make the changes to the register. There for a moment, even with Gregory in the room, the vibe had seemed almost ... normal. Her guests were playing checkers, quilting, drinking tea, and otherwise having a fairly good time-all things considered.
How long can it possibly last?
Carrie and Sadie continued to quilt as Liam and the Calhouns switched rooms. It took the better part of the morning, but at least they were all occupied.
Julie made her way to the kitchen around ten.
As usual, Hannah was mixing up something that smelled yeasty and delicious.
"I was wondering if we could serve something for lunch today," Julie asked.
Hannah frowned. "I wasn"t planning on it."
"I know, but it"s raining, and everyone seems to be content to stay here. Most of the guests wouldn"t normally be here right now." Had it not been for the murder, everyone already would have been checked out and on their way home.
Hannah gave Julie that look, the one that said she was overstepping her boundaries.
"It doesn"t have to be anything elaborate," Julie said. "Maybe some finger foods and snacks. That way they can continue to quilt and play games. No one has to stop if they don"t want to."
Hannah grumbled in response.
"So, you"ll whip something up?"
"Of course."
Julie smiled. "Thanks. I"ll let everyone know."
It was almost noon before Kenneth, Susan, and Liam came back downstairs.
"How did a single guy get such a big room?" Kenneth asked.
"Oh, it"s not that big," Liam said, with a shrug.
"I can"t believe you"re giving that up."
"All in the name of art," Liam said. "And the view of the garden."
Kenneth beamed at his new friend.
Julie suspected he either wanted a book signed or the next story dedicated to him.
Carrie sat up straight when they entered the tearoom. She stretched the kinks out of her back and adjusted her gla.s.ses. "Susan, will you quilt with me?"
Susan smiled. "Of course."
"It"s our turn at checkers," Kenneth said, clapping Liam on the back.
They sat at the table where the board was set up. Kenneth and Gregory"s abandoned game was still in place. The men started realigning the pieces as Hannah entered carrying a tray of tiny quiches and finger sandwiches.
"Thank you," Julie said as Hannah set the tray on a nearby table. "Normally we don"t serve lunch, but Hannah didn"t want you to have to go out in the rain, especially since she"s the best chef in town."
Murmured thanks went up all around. Hannah blushed, privately rolling her eyes at Julie.
"I"ll leave it up here buffet style," Hannah said. "You can help yourselves when you"re ready."
"It looks wonderful," Julie said, convinced the woman was a miracle worker.
Hannah shot her a look that would have meant "You owe me one," but the sparkle in her eyes said otherwise. Julie knew her friend really was happy cooking for the inn"s guests. After all the excitement they"d shared over the years, it was amazing that the simple act of cooking could bring Hannah such joy.
Julie took a bite of one of the quiches. OK. Maybe not so simple. It was fabulous. She managed to swallow her satisfied moan with the bite and not embarra.s.s herself in front of her guests.
Kenneth and Liam grabbed plates and filled them as high as they would go.
Shirley made fresh coffee and a pot of tea.
Carrie and Susan continued to quilt, unwilling to stop and eat, and also respectful enough of the hard work they"d put in to not risk staining the beautiful creation before they even finished it.
As Julie picked up one more quiche, it suddenly dawned on her that something was wrong with the scene before her. Somebody was missing. "Where"s Gregory?"
"I saw him headed toward the library a little bit ago," Shirley said. "He"s still gone?"
Julie scanned the faces before her as if she could possibly miss him in a crowd of six. "Yes."
"Oh, well I"m sure he"ll be right back," Shirley said.
Julie had a bad feeling about it. She muttered a response and headed out of the tearoom, intent on finding Gregory. But the library was empty.
She slowly made her way back toward the others, poking her head into various rooms as she went. It wasn"t like he couldn"t leave the inn, but she was suspicious all the same. As she pa.s.sed the door to the tearoom on the way to check the library, she heard Shirley say in her most dramatic voice, "... and would you like to know how this mystery ends?"
Boy, would I, she thought with a grim smile.
THIRTEEN.
Realizing Shirley was talking about the murder mystery weekend, Julie changed course and headed back into the tearoom.
"Yes, yes, tell us please," Susan and Carrie said over each other.
The men smiled indulgently at them.
"Well," Shirley drawled in that way she had that pulled everyone to the edge of their seats before she even got to the good stuff. Her flair for the dramatic had made her twice-weekly sessions of St.i.tches and Stories one of the inn"s most popular events with guests and tourists alike. "My character"s name was Sh.e.l.ly Carson, and I was married to Bill Carson. That was Daniel Franklin from the other night. Remember him?"
Everyone nodded.
"But I"d been having an affair with Brandon Waters. He was the young man who came on Friday as well." She waggled her eyebrows in a "hubba-hubba" sort of way.
"Are you going to tell them the entire plot?" Julie asked.
"What choice do I have? Half a plot won"t make a very good story." Shirley smiled. "Don"t worry. I"ll write another one for next year."
Julie nearly choked. Like there"s going to be another one next year.
"Unbeknownst to me, my husband, Bill, found out about my affair with Brandon. A jealous man, he planned on killing Brandon with poisoned wine. Instead, Inga accidentally drinks the wine, falls to the floor dead, and begins the murder mystery weekend."
"That"s it?" Kenneth asked.
"It was to be much more involved than that. You would go searching for clues. There was a picture of me with Brandon and a couple of other things for you to find ... a bottle marked "poison" that was really water with a little bit of almond extract in it. That sort of thing."