by Morgana Best
Carl’s face brightened up considerably. “You do?”
“I think it’s a brilliant idea, too,” I said, “considering it was my idea. Carl, just think—you won’t have to sell your business, and I have no use for a few acres. What am I going to do with acreage? I can barely look after a garden as it is. I’ll buy the house and live in it, and you can run the cat rescue on the land. Does that sound like a deal?”
Carl clasped his hands in delight.
“I’m still mad at you for keeping it from me,” I told him. That was the last thing I remembered. I promptly drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 22
The next morning, I woke up, minus the headache, plus lots of aches and pains. The early morning light was streaming through the window, and I wondered where I was.
I was on the sofa exactly where I had fallen asleep the previous evening. Tom still had his arm around me, and there was a blanket over both of us. He was propped up awkwardly at the very end of the sofa, in a cramped position. He had clearly been that way all night. I was touched.
Tom woke up and saw me looking at him. He smiled, and then yawned and stretched.
“That was awfully good of you not to move me when I was so sore last night,” I told him. “And it was nice of you to stay with me.”
“You gave me a horrible scare, Narel.” His arm tightened around me.
“I gave myself a terrible scare,” I admitted. “I really thought she was going to kill me.” My voice broke.
Tom pulled me tightly to him and kissed the top of my head.
Later that morning, I was back in my cottage with Tom. We were packing up all the food in my house, and Tom had volunteered to take it to the town rubbish dump. I only hoped Linda wouldn’t retrieve any of it for a snack. I didn’t want that on my conscience.
Carl had volunteered to go out and buy groceries to replace the ones that I had to throw out.
I attempted to lift a full garbage bag, but it hurt my back. “Ouch,” I said, dropping it.
Tom strode across the room to me. “I told you not to do anything,” he said. “Please go and sit down and leave this to me. You know, I wish you would stay at my house until you’ve fully recovered.”
“That would be nice,” I admitted, “but I had to come back to my cottage sooner or later.” More’s the pity, I added silently.
Tom cupped my face with his hands. “I’m going to miss you. I liked having you around.”
My heart was racing. “You’re going to miss my cooking,” I said, teasing him.
He smiled. “There is that.”
Tom pulled me into his arms. I had never noticed before, but there were flecks of green in his blue eyes. I was about to tell him this, when he pressed his lips to mine. I had waited for this first kiss for so long. His lips were soft and warm, inviting.
“But Tom,” I said, breaking away, “you have green in your eyes.”
Tom tilted his head to the side, and then he smiled. “And you thought now was the perfect time to tell me this, did you?”
I nodded—but not because it was the perfect time. It was the worst time, and I was an idiot, and when I pulled away, I thought I looked like one of those bobble headed dogs on the dashboard of a car. “No,” I said at last. “It was the worst time. Where were we again?”
“Kissing,” he said.
“Kissing. Good.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed Tom, melting into his arms. I relished the feel of his strong arms around me and his lips on mine. We kissed until I was breathless, but then Carl barged in, and we were forced to spring apart.
“You know, for someone who was nearly murdered, you’d think you would lock your doors,” Carl said, shaking his finger at me.
“My fault,” Tom said. “I’m taking the garbage bags out to my car.”
Carl sniggered. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?” He broke out into a belly laugh and clutched his sides.
I rolled my eyes. I soon forgave him, because he deposited several boxes of chocolates on the table as well as containers of my favourite hot chocolate mixture. “I said I’d replace all your essentials,” he said with a smile.
I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him. “You know, I could almost forgive you for keeping that secret from me.”
Peter The Purr-suader chose that moment to walk through my door. “Narel, for someone who has nearly been murdered several times, you’d think you would lock your door.”
I groaned. He was turning into a Carl Clone.
“I hope you’re not mad at me, Narel.”
“Peter, why would I be mad at you?”
“For keeping the secret from you, of course,” he said.
Carl opened one of the boxes of chocolates and held it in front of me. “It was for your own good, Narel.”
“I’m surprised everyone was keeping the secret from me.” I couldn’t be too angry, not with a box of chocolates in front of me.
Tom rubbed my back gently. “Narel, I won’t keep any more secrets from you, but I can see Carl’s point.”
Carl nodded vigorously and shot Tom a grateful look. “It was only because I didn’t want you to spend any of your settlement money,” he said. “Narel, I know I keep telling you this, but you have to live on that for the rest of your life.”
“I do earn a living from my chocolate shop,” I reminded him.
Carl shrugged. “That’s all well and good, but you really need to save your money.”
I ate a coffee marzipan, dark chocolate triangle before answering. “This is all settled now, isn’t it? I’m buying a new house on acreage and you will set up the cat rescue charity on the grounds.”
Carl beamed at me. “Yes, it’s a done deal. I can’t thank you enough, Narel.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you. I wanted to buy a house close to you, but there aren’t any new ones in your area. All the new houses are on the other side of town to you, but I’ll get to see you more often because you’ll be looking after the cats. See, it’s a secret plan of mine to keep you close.”
“I’ll be helping Carl as well,” Peter said.
I looked at him. He was wearing his lime green jeans and lime green shirt. “Good, I can use the luck of the Irish,” I said.
Peter and Tom looked puzzled, but Carl shook his head. “I think you’ve been overdoing the painkillers,” he said. “Better stick to chocolate from now on. How about I make everyone some lunch?”
While Carl prepared lunch, Tom, Peter, and I sat around my kitchen table, and so did Mongrel. He was now in the habit of sitting on a chair with his paws on the table. I noticed with amusement that even Peter, the famous Cat Whisperer, did not attempt to dissuade Mongrel from such behaviour.
There was a knock on the door. Peter and Carl looked at me. “Did you lock it?” they asked in unison.
I shook my head. “I don’t think there are any murderers left in town.” I turned to the door. “Come in,” I called out.
It was Detective Clyde. “Join us for lunch,” Carl said. “Don’t be shy. Come in and have a seat.”
Detective Clyde beamed and walked over to the table, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Mongrel. “Do I need to sit next to the cat?” he said with fear in his voice.
“You can take my seat,” I said, moving closer to Mongrel. It was further away from Tom, but I expected that Tom and I would not be apart for too long.
“The Sydney detectives are leaving once they wrap up the case,” Detective Clyde said. “I’m surprised they swallowed our story about the police station being renovated.”
I nearly choked on a chocolate. “What? That wasn’t true?”
Clyde chuckled. “No, we just wanted to get rid of them. We thought that would make them move on faster.” He turned to me. “Narel, Valerie Andrews has confessed to everything. She wasn’t sure if you saw her fleeing the scene of the murder. She became concerned when her cleaning lady called her to say that you went to her house to ask her questions about
her affair with Bob.”
I scowled. “I did no such thing!”
“You come across trouble-making gossips like that in my line of work,” Clyde said with a toss of his head. “They handle the truth quite freely. And the same cleaning lady saw you at a restaurant with Tom, and called Valerie to tell her that you were two-timing your boyfriend.”
“So that’s how Valerie knew Narel wasn’t home that night,” Tom said. “What about the redback spiders in the dunny? Did Valerie put them there?”
Clyde nodded. “She was trying to make it look like an accident, death by spider bite. She collected them from the wood pile at her farm. And Carl, you’re completely off the hook, but I suppose you’ve realised that by now.”
Carl nodded. “Still, it’s nice to have official confirmation.”
Detective Clyde held up his hands. “You didn’t hear it from me. I’m not here, if you get my drift.”
We all nodded.
“I wasn’t really worried about you, Carl,” he added. “I knew your friends would help you.”
Carl stopped preparing lunch and walked around to the table. “I have such good friends, Narel and Tom,” he said, giving us both a hug. Detective Clyde was caught in between us and was thus on the receiving end of most of Carl’s hug, which was no doubt Carl’s intention. Clyde didn’t seem to mind.
I looked around the table and smiled. When I had spent all those long, lonely months in the hospital after my car accident, I realised just how important family and friends are—cats and humans included. They could be irritating on occasion, but I didn’t want to be without them.
Connect with Morgana
Connect with Morgana
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Also by Morgana Best
Live and Let Diet (The Australian Amateur Sleuth Book 1)
Sybil Potts moves to Little Tatterford, a small town in the middle of nowhere in Australia, seeking to find peace and quiet after the upheaval of her divorce.
Although the town is sleepy and nothing has ever happened, her arrival coincides with a murder in the property adjacent to her cottage. Sybil soon finds she is at odds with the attractive Blake Wessley, the exasperated police officer who is trying to solve the murder.
After Sibyl narrowly misses becoming the next victim, she turns her attention to the suspects. Is it the English gentleman, Mr. Buttons, who serves everyone tea and cucumber sandwiches, or her landlord, Cressida Upthorpe, who is convinced that her fat cat, Lord Farringdon, speaks to her? Or is it someone else entirely?
Witches’ Brew (Vampires and Wine Book 1)
Romantic cozy mystery - with witches, vampires, and Shifters!
Pepper Jasper, an Australian witch who has long practiced traditional witchcraft, does not believe in the supernatural - such as Werewolves and Shifters, or Vampires.
Pepper moves from Sydney to the cozy town of Lighthouse Bay, answering a desperate plea from her aunts to help with their failing Bed and Breakfast business.
She discovers her aunts are more eccentric than she remembered, the Bed and Breakfast does not serve breakfast, and the cottages for lease have strange themes. And what’s more, within minutes of her arrival, she stumbles across a dead body.
Pepper soon has her hands full, contending with a murder mystery, irritating guests including the enigmatic Lucas O’Callaghan who is convinced every woman wants to fall into his arms, and her aunts, who are hiding more than one dark secret.
Who or what lurks in the forbidden room at the end of the dark corridor?
Why do the aunts insist she drink copious quantities of special label wine?
Find out what awaits Pepper Jasper at Mugwort Manor.
Miss Spelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 1)
Amelia Spelled has had a bad week. Her boyfriend dumps her when she inadvertently gives him food poisoning; her workplace, a telecommunications centre, fires all their staff as they are outsourcing offshore, and she is evicted due to smoke damage resulting from her failed attempts at baking. Amelia thinks her luck has changed when she inherits her aunt’s store and beautiful Victorian house.
Yet has Amelia jumped out of the frying pan into the fire? The store is a cake store, and her aunt was a witch. To add to the mix, the house has secrets all of its own.
When a man is murdered in the cake store, will Amelia be able to cook up a way to solve the crime? Or will her spells prove as bad as her baking?
A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)
Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.
There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.
When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?
Or will this be the death of her business?
Christmas Spirit (The Middle-aged Ghost Whisper Book 1)
Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on. However, her reputation as a clairvoyant medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead. This all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.
SERIES BY MORGANA BEST
Vampires and Wine (A fun, quirky cozy mystery series - no fangs involved!)
1) Witches’ Brew
2) Witches’ Secrets
3) Witches’ Charms
4) Witches Magic
5) Witches’ Spells
The Kitchen Witch
1) Miss Spelled
2) Dizzy Spells
3) Sit for a Spell
4) Spelling Mistake
5) Ex-Spelled
6) The Halloween Spell
7) Spellcheck
8) The Halloween Love Spell
9) Spell It Out
The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer
1) Christmas Spirit
2) Ghost Hunter
3) There Must be a Happy Medium
Witch Woods Funeral Home
1) A Ghost of a Chance
2) Nothing to Ghost About
3) Make the Ghost of It
4) Ghost Stories
5) Ghost Blusters
And Morgana’s non-Witch Cosy mysteries:
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries
1) Sweet Revenge
2) The Sugar Hit
3) Murder Sweetly Served
4) Chocolate to Die For
The Australian Amateur Sleuth
1) Live and Let Diet
2) Natural-Born Grillers
3) Dye Hard
4) The Prawn Identity
5) Any Given Sundae
6) The Last Mango in Paris
AUDIO. Most of Morgana’s books are currently on Audio.
Glossary
The author has used Australian spelling in this series, so for example, Mum instead of the US spelling Mom, neighbour instead of the US spelling neighbor, realise instead of the US spelling realize. It is Ms, Mr and Mrs in Australia, not Ms., Mr. and Mrs.; cosy and not cozy; 1930s not 1930’s; offence not offense; centre not center; towards not toward; jewellery not jewelry; favour not favor; mould not mold; two storey house not two story house; practise (verb) not
practice (verb); odour not odor; smelt not smelled; travelling not traveling; liquorice not licorice; leant not leaned; have concussion not have a concussion; anti clockwise not counterclockwise; go to hospital not go to the hospital; sceptic not skeptic; aluminium not aluminum; learnt not learned. These are just some of the differences.
Please note that these are not mistakes or typos, but correct Aussie spelling and terms.
AUSTRALIAN SLANG AND TERMS
Big Smoke - a city
Blighter - infuriating or good-for-nothing person
Blimey - an expression of surprise
Blue - an argument
Bluestone - copper sulphate (copper sulfate in US spelling)
Bluo - a blue laundry additive, an optical brightener
Bogan - someone considered to be rough, low-life, “trailer-trash”
Boot (car) - trunk (car)
Bonnet (car) - hood (car)
Bunging it on - faking something, pretending
Cark it - die
Come good - turn out okay
Copper, cop - police officer
Coot - silly or annoying person
Crikey! - an expression of surprise
Drongo - an idiot
Dunny - an outhouse, a toilet, often ramshackle
Fair crack of the whip - a request to be fair, reasonable, just
Flat out like a lizard drinking water - very busy
Galah - an idiot
Garbage - trash
G’day - Hello
Give a lift (to someone) - give a ride (to someone)
Goosebumps - goose pimples
Laundry (referring to the room) - laundry room
Like a stunned mullet - very surprised
Mad as a cut snake - either insane or very angry
Miles - while Australians have kilometres these days, it is common to use expressions such as, “The road stretched for miles,” “It was miles away.”