Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom

by Barton, Sara M.

  “Excellent.” She took a sip of coffee. “Also good. Now, shall we get started? I want to know everything that’s gone on in the last few days.”

  Ruth questioned me for the better part of twenty minutes before she agreed to leave the Black Oak Room and follow me down the long staircase to the living room. As we appeared in the doorway, Dr. Van Zandt spotted us. Jumping to his feet, he stood at attention, waiting to be introduced to the newcomer.

  “Hello,” my mother called out, waving to the long-awaited arrival. “Please come in. You must be Max’s Aunt Ruth. It’s so nice to meet you. We absolutely adore him, as you probably already know.”

  The introductions were made quickly, efficiently. Ruth wasn’t one to waste time or energy on small talk.

  “Please, don’t let me interrupt your conversation,” she insisted, taking a seat in one of the wing chairs flanking the fireplace. It was the perfect vantage point for watching the group.

  My mother gave her a bright, friendly smile, waiting until the newcomer had settled in her seat. Tilting her head in Dr. Van Zandt’s direction, Laurel continued. “We were just discussing the merits of hiking. I was just telling Thaddeus that he should climb White Oak Hill, Scarlet. Perhaps you or Jenny could give him a tour of the summit tomorrow.”

  “If it’s convenient,” he added. His gaze lingered on my mother’s face, in no hurry to look away. I took that as a positive sign their romance was headed in the right direction.

  She turned to me expectantly. What could I say? Sorry. I’ve got to decide tomorrow whether to proceed with the wedding or inform the bride and groom they need to make other arrangements.

  “Certainly. It’s supposed to be a nice day. The view of Hartford should be worth the trip,” I assured him, as I added hiking to my to-do list for tomorrow. I’d simply put the wedding arrangements on hold until I returned from schlepping up the mountain. “Speaking of Jenny, has anyone seen her?”

  “She went with Bur to pick up Michael from work. He’s staying another night, just to be on the safe side. I think it’s a good decision under the circumstances, don’t you?”

  My mother waited expectantly for my response. I had no problem with Shark Boy staying with Kenny, especially since he seemed to have a calming effect on Jenny. “It’s fine by me.”

  “Bur’s taking them out for ice cream on the way home. I think he wants to get to know the young man better.”

  “Good idea,” Thaddeus remarked; that earned him nods amongst the silver-haired set. “Kids still need adults in their lives who care what happens to them.”

  “These young people are far too casual in their relationships,” remarked the Queen of Clean. “I worry a great deal about my granddaughter. Michaela’s constantly on that phone of hers, texting her friends. Good heavens, it was hard enough when her mother was growing up, but these days? Dreadful things are going on. Why, just last week, a boy in my neighborhood crashed his car into a tree going sixty miles an hour. I know his poor grandparents.”

  Ruth was watching us all carefully, her dark eyes flitting from person to person. Did she suspect an insider amongst the group? If there was one, I couldn’t imagine who it might be.

  I tuned out the conversation as I set about collecting plates, cups, and silverware. Where was Kenny? What was he up to? He hadn’t checked in for a while. I hope he didn’t think Ruth was viable as his substitute. She weighed all of about a hundred and ten pounds, soaking wet. I was pretty sure that if Kradic and his pals returned, she’d be the first one they’d toss over the railing. Then again, maybe she was still licensed to carry a weapon.

  Once I loaded the dishwasher, I rounded up the dogs, harnessed them, and lead them out the back door for their last run of the night. January trotted over to the hostas by the driveway and started sniffing. Little Huck finished his business quickly, ready to head back into the house for his evening treat. Mozzie surprised me. He wandered over to the stone wall and stopped, his tail wagging enthusiastically. I hoped he hadn’t caught the scent of a skunk. That would be all I’d need -- three stinky dogs.

  “Moz, what’s up?” I asked the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. That little dog’s gaze was set on the wall, as if he were mesmerized. “What’s the matter, boy?”

  Of all the times for my phone to ring! Reaching for it, I found my hand trembling. What if there was someone on the other side of the boulder barricade? Should I run for it now or just back away slowly and hope the voice on the other end could call the cops when the thugs try to grab me? “Hello?”

  “Scarlet, for heaven’s sake! Take those dogs into the house. I don’t want them to give my position away!” Kenny sounded perturbed. I was about to tell him about Mozzie’s unusual behavior when I realized why that little tail was wagging. Boy, did I feel like an idiot.

  “Will do, Captain Peacock. Will do.” Relieved, I gave the leashes a light tug, steering the three little mutt-ka-teers towards the back door.

  No longer pondering where my boyfriend had gone, I got back to my duties as innkeeper. Just after nine, while I was busy setting up for breakfast, Jenny came into the kitchen. She seemed a little more relaxed.

  “How did it go?” I asked.

  “Bur says Michael will have his car back tomorrow. The inn is going to pay for the new tires. That’s so nice of you guys.”

  “It’s the right thing to do. The only reason the tires were punctured in the first place was because someone was out to ruin us.” We would count this as a business deduction, just as we would if the damage had been done to a guest’s vehicle.

  “We went to Farmer John’s Dairy Barn. Awesome ice cream,” she told me. Yes, she was definitely feeling more like her old self. “Did you know that Bur and Hammerhead both have a two handicap for golf?”

  “Is that what my brother claims?” I stifled a chuckle. “How did that come up?”

  “Bur found out Hammerhead is an alternate on the traveling golf team for the club. They use him when one of the members can’t play.”

  “I see.” I could imagine the interesting result should Bur ever find himself having to play Shark Boy. Either my brother would need a crash course in putting or he’d have to cheat to break even. Then again, stupidity is its own handicap, isn’t it? Maybe he could claim a sore shoulder as his explanation for the extra couple of bogeys. “It’s nice that they have golf in common.”

  “Did I miss anything exciting while I was out?” she wanted to know. I read between the lines, realizing it was her way of probing to see if anything bad had happened in her absence.

  “Max’s aunt arrived.” I gave her a smile, to let her know things were fine.

  “What’s she like?” The teenager grabbed two cold sodas from the fridge and came back to the kitchen island, plunking herself down on a stool as she waited for my answer.

  “Larry.”

  That got her attention. “What’s that supposed to mean? She looks like Larry?”

  “No, she doesn’t look like Larry, but they have something in common. Guess what that is.”

  “How am I supposed to guess?” I could see the wheels turning, so I gave her another prompt.

  “Give it a shot. What kind of work do you think Larry will do after she retires from the Connecticut State Police?”

  “She’ll probably be working for Mercer Security or some other....You mean Max’s aunt is a retired cop?”

  “Yup. She is.” I pulled out my stash of tiny boxes of breakfast cereal, preparing to refill the basket in the butler’s pantry. “They’re two peas in a pod.”

  “Wow, what did Edna say?”

  “She doesn’t know yet,” I snickered. “Boy, would I love to be a fly on the wall when that announcement is made.”

  “Me too.”

  “By the way, Dr. Van Zandt wants a guide to take him up to the summit tomorrow. I wasn’t sure what your plans were, so I volunteered. If you’re interested, feel free to step in for me.”

  “I might just do that, Miz Scarlet. Maybe Hammerhead would like to
join us. It’s his day off tomorrow. He’s taking me to Misquamicut for some body surfing when he gets his car back.”

  “That sounds like fun.” I made a mental note to give Kenny a heads-up on the teenagers’ plan, just in case he felt they needed to be shadowed on the trip to Rhode Island and back, for their own protection.

  “Is it okay if we watch TV in the library for a while?”

  “It’s fine by me. Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I kidded. Jenny stopped in her tracks and burst out laughing.

  “Oh, please! How can I do that? You don’t do most things!” she shot back.

  “Excuse me?” My eyebrows shot up.

  “Do you and Captain Peacock ever do anything more than hold hands and make googly eyes at each other? You two are like a pair of high school students stuck in a time warp!” she chided me.

  “You make me sound like a prude!” I retorted, shaking my head in amused disbelief. I wasn’t sure how much I really wanted to share about my private romance. If she only knew.

  “Well, aren’t you?” said the naive teenager.

  “Is that what you think?” Teenagers always seem to assume that the adults in their lives are circumspect, unless they see evidence to the contrary.

  “I’ll bet you never even owned a bikini!”

  “What?” By this time, I was laughing so hard, the tears rolled down my cheeks. “You think I never owned a...Oh, that’s rich!”

  “It was turquoise and purple,” said a familiar male voice, interrupting our conversation. “I couldn’t take my eyes off her. And just for the record, young lady, we prefer to take our romance behind closed doors, unlike you whippersnappers, shedding your clothes and partners at the drop of a hat! Your generation mistakes sex for love, and when the going gets tough, you youngsters quit! News flash -- good relationships take work to maintain them.”

  “Well said, Captain Peacock!” I applauded him jovially, even as my mind took in his comment. I was surprised he could describe that teeny-tiny bikini. How many years had it been? It was my favorite suit the summer I turned sixteen. I never even noticed him paying attention to me down at the pond when we went swimming, although heaven knows I tried hard to make it happen.

  “Ha! Your idea of romance is cuddling on the sofa, watching some lame, old movie!” This was a bold side of Jenny I didn’t know well. I wondered whether she realized that challenging Kenny to a verbal jousting match wasn’t necessarily a good idea. He wasn’t the type to back down.

  “You know what, Jen? A guy can sweet talk a woman and get her to do just about anything he wants when he lays on the charm and cons her. But keeping up all that bulldocky takes effort, especially after she gets to know him. It’s a rare man who can please one woman through the years by being his real self. I consider myself lucky that Miz Scarlet is in my life.”

  “Aw, that’s so sweet,” I smiled, touched by the unexpected declaration. How I loved that handsome smile of his, not to mention those kind eyes, those broad shoulders, and the way his fingers felt on my skin. Without meaning to, I got lost in my reverie.

  “I’ll have you know, little girl,” he continued, emphasizing the word “little” in a rather condescending way, “that not only was I the assistant director of public safety for a major university, I’m also the father of a daughter. I’ve held a lot of hands and listened to a lot of girls just like you share their heartbreak. I’m going to tell you the same thing I’ve told each of them. If you don’t respect yourself and know what your expectations of a man are, you’ll be taken advantage of by most guys. You have the power to decide what kind of relationship you want and what you are willing to give of yourself to get it. And if you’re giving more than you’re getting, you’re with a loser. Romance should always be a two-way street, a win-win for both parties.”

  “Whoa!” The look on the stunned girl’s face said it all. Kenny hit a nerve. Maybe all this mocking of my relationship with Kenny was a way for her to test the adults’ reaction to her notion of romance. I took pity on her. After all, I’ve spent a couple decades dealing with high school students.

  “Believe it or not, Jen, we were once in your shoes. We know all about the tug of hormones. But as you get older and wiser, you want something to show for your efforts. You begin to understand that romance is so much more than just physical heat. Being friends first makes it so much sweeter and it means that when you have a disagreement about something, it’s a lot harder to walk away from someone who has a piece of your heart. After all, it’s not like we can spend our lives in bed. We have to be able to hold an intelligent conversation once in a while. Don’t forget, you’re studying to be a nurse. You take your studies seriously, don’t you?”

  “Well, yeah.” She looked down at her feet, as if embarrassed we caught her in the act of snatching a cookie from the off-limits cookie jar. It made me think she and Shark Boy were more intimate than she let on. It also made me think her mother had made a point of trying to keep her on the right track before she died.

  “Shouldn’t you put as much into your relationship as you do your studies? And shouldn’t you get something worthwhile out of dating? I’m not suggesting that you have to marry Hammerhead, but when you get together, you shouldn’t just be killing time. You should be having fun together, and not just in the sack.”

  The crimson flush that crept up her neck and onto her cheeks was telling. She assumed that sex was all part of the dating game. Maybe Jenny had doubts of her own all this time and just never consciously realized it.

  “We do,” she insisted adamantly. Was she trying to convince Kenny and me of that or herself?

  “Besides,” I continued, “I’ve seen the way that boy looks at you. He thinks you’re something special.”

  “He does?” She studied me carefully for signs I was exaggerating Shark Boy’s interest in her. That told me everything I needed to know. She wasn’t really all that sure of Michael Sharkey and that made her vulnerable; vulnerable girls can make some pretty serious mistakes in their quest to feel loved, especially girls who grew up without fathers.

  “It’s true,” Kenny agreed. “He reminds me of me at that age. I can tell you that as a normal, healthy, heterosexual male, I would have leaped at the chance to tumble into bed with the divine Miz S., but I had just as much, if not more, fun hanging around with her. Life is always going to be a compromise, Jen. You won’t ever get everything you want, so when you negotiate, make sure you get a deal that works for you. Sex should never be more important than the person who’s with you.”

  These words of wisdom from a man who had long ago captured my heart reminded me why I was so glad he was once again a part of my life. As I looked up at him standing there by the refrigerator, he gave me a wink.

  “And on that note, class is dismissed,” I grinned.

  Just after ten thirty, I said goodnight to Kenny at the door to the Red Oak Room, stopped to check on Laurel and January, and then went up to the third floor suite I shared with Jenny. I wasn’t sure if things would be awkward between us after the kitchen conversation, but Jen seemed more like her old self. She was curled up on the sofa with Mozzie and Huck in the sitting room. I took the arm chair and sprawled out. Huck hopped down, padded over to his water bowl, and took a few sips. When he was done, he joined me in the chair. We watched “House Hunters” together, trying to guess which of the three properties the couple would pick. I went with the split-level. Jen picked the ranch. The couple chose the tiny bungalow.

  “Well, that’s it for me. Time to call it a night,” I announced, watching the credits scroll across the screen. “Sleep tight, Jen.”

  “You too.”

  Huck followed me into my bedroom. I pulled back the covers of my bed, fluffed the pillows, and padded off to the bathroom to brush my teeth. By the time I climbed into bed, yawning a few minutes later, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. The little dog nestled next to me, contentedly drifting off to doggie dreamland. In the darkness, I listened to the peeping tree frogs o
utside my window. Their rhythmic symphony lulled me into a deep, restful sleep.

  Chapter Fifteen --

  I was pleasantly surprised to find I had survived the night when my alarm went off at half past six. Opening my eyes, it took me a moment to awaken fully, but when I did, I saw golden light fall across the floor, the sun’s early promise of a beautiful day.

  I fed the inn guests and the Googins girls, plying them with French toast, bacon, and fruit salad, pouring coffee freely, and when they had all had their fill, they scattered to the four winds. While Jenny led Shark Boy and Dr. Van Zandt to the summit of White Oak Hill and Lacey drove my mother and Edna to the local party store in search of goodies for the Pinault-Magnusdotter wedding, Kenny headed to the office. The only one left at the inn besides me and the pets was Ruth, looking forward to some sleep now that the night shift was over. Bur would keep an eye on things from his perch in the carriage house.

  Careful to avoid making excess noise, I got down to my daily duties as an innkeeper. There were beds to make, bathrooms to scrub, and carpets to vacuum. At half past nine, Jenny returned and got to work on the first floor, zipping through the dining room and living room before tackling the powder room and foyer. Michael Sharkey and Dr. Van Zandt retired to the library for a game of chess and a chat, killing time.

  “Michael?” I paused to speak with him as I passed by on my way to the kitchen. “Jen said you two were headed to the beach. Would you kids like me to pack you a picnic lunch? I could do a couple of sandwiches on ciabatta bread, fruit, cookies....”

  “Gee, I hate to give you more work, Miz Scarlet.” The use of my nickname caught me by surprise. It made me think Shark Boy and Jenny had been talking. Maybe friendship and love were beginning to mix. “We could grab something on the road.”

  “I’ve got a cooler and ice packs. I don’t mind,” I told him cheerfully.

  “That would be great.” Shark Boy’s enthusiastic response made me think he was a little short on cash when it came to entertaining Jenny in high style. Dating can be expensive, especially for a young man working his way through college.