Broom and Board

by Sara Bourgeois

  Broom and Board

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  Chapter One

  I didn’t recognize the woman who got out of the car, but she looked familiar in a way I couldn’t place right away. Something about her face reminded me of someone I knew, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until she was on my porch. Then, it hit me who she looked like.

  Hattie.

  The woman had to be related to Hattie in some way. I had no idea how or why she was at my house, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  “I’m looking for Brighton Longfield,” the woman said. “I’m Lucy Driggs. Hattie was my younger sister.”

  Lucy’s hair was pure white and tied back in a bun on the back of her head. Her face was somewhat wrinkled, but she had a pleasant smile. It was hard to tell if she was a woman in her fifties who looked older than her years or a young-looking seventy.

  “I’m Brighton,” I said. “What brings you to my home?” I asked cautiously.

  Lucy didn’t look like she was there to avenge her younger sister, but you never knew. Maybe the whole family was a can of murderous mixed nuts. She could have had a gun or a knife in the little lavender handbag that matched her conservative floral dress.

  “Well, I technically own the bed and breakfast now, but I’m in no position to run the place. I’ve got a husband and home upstate. I can’t move to Coventry.”

  “I thought Cassidy was running the inn for your family.”

  “She was up until a couple of days ago,” Lucy said with a sigh. “That girl up and ran off with some bartender. She left me in the lurch, and now I’ve got no one to run the inn.”

  I was surprised I hadn’t heard about that, but then again not really. With everything that had been going on in Coventry, even a juicy piece of gossip like that might have slipped through the cracks. Heck, they might have even taken off because of the zombies and just not come back.

  “She left us high and dry,” Lucy said.

  “Well, how can I help you?” I asked.

  “I’ve asked around town, and the word is you don’t have a job,” Lucy said bluntly. “You know that since Hattie got sent up the river, we’ve done a lot of remodeling on the inn. We turned all of the spare rooms into guest rooms, and my husband insisted that we have an addition built. It’s done now, and the place brings in a tidy profit. The problem is that it won’t without someone to run it.”

  “You want me to run the inn?”

  “We have some big events coming up soon. The new addition has that banquet space, so we’ve started booking weddings and corporate retreats. I was probably going to fire that housekeeper girl anyway, or at the very least demote her back to housekeeper. I need someone with a good head on their shoulders.”

  While it was technically true that I didn’t have a job, it wasn’t like I was hurting for cash. I didn’t need Lucy’s job offer, but then she upped the ante.

  Lucy took out a huge stack of hundred-dollar bills. “It’s ten grand. I figured you’d be more inclined to help with an upfront cash payment.”

  “How long is that payment for?” I asked skeptically.

  “One month. Your first month. After that, we’ll pay you the old-fashioned way with a paycheck.”

  “You’re going to pay me ten thousand dollars a month to run the inn?” I said skeptically.

  “You mean the boutique bed and breakfast?” Lucy said. “Yes. It’s a big job, and like I said, we’ve got some very important business lined up.”

  “When would you need me to start?”

  “Tomorrow morning would be best. I’ve gotten everyone checked in for the night and informed them that there is no one at the desk for service until six tomorrow.”

  “Six?” I asked. “In the morning?”

  “Well, that’s what time you need to be at the desk. You’ll need to arrive early enough to make breakfast as well. I’d say probably four.”

  I was about to say that there was no way I was getting up and getting to work at four in the morning, but I knew something she didn’t know. I could just use magic to get breakfast in order. There would be no need for me to spend two hours cooking. I was no expert kitchen witch, but I was sure I could figure out enough to get breakfast on the table.

  Before I answered, I looked back at Remy. He offered me a smile and a shrug that meant, there’s no way I’m going to try to tell you what to do. He was good that way, and it was bad sometimes too. I didn’t need a man to tell me what to do, but sometimes it would have been nice. Or maybe not. I was completely off track, and he was right. It was better if he didn’t try to tell me what to do.

  Lucy was right too. I didn’t have a job yet. I’d been getting by on odd jobs and the money the house provided, but I thought that perhaps it was time for me to try and find a career. Remy had the archives back to himself. Annika had her shop.

  “Is it still going to be called Mother Hattie’s Inn?”

  “Oh, not at all,” Lucy said with a breath of relief. She could probably tell I was about to cave. “The new sign is being put in place as we speak. It’s one of the reasons I’m here a little late. The sign company is from the city and they got lost. But, either way, the sign’s going up now.”

  “What’s it going to say?” I asked gently because Lucy had gotten lost on a tangent.

  “We’re just calling it The Coventry Inn,” Lucy said. “I wanted to come up with something spookier given the town’s reputation, but my husband said that would be too on the nose. He said if we want to be featured in magazines and on the internet, we needed to name it something that didn’t sound as if we were trying too hard.”

  “The town’s reputation?”

  “Well, you live here. Surely, you’ve heard the rumors that this place is full of ghosts and witches too. That web series that one show did on the town went viral after the host died. Well, it went viral recently. I know that happened while back, but someone leaked the footage.”

  I was taken aback. I had figured that whole mess was over and gone, but someone had decided it wasn’t. Whoever did that was a jerk, but that was neither here nor there. Lucy wasn’t standing on my porch to ask me to run the inn because I didn’t have a job. She wanted me to run the inn because I was going to be a part of the main attraction.

  That probably should have made me say no, but it felt like a challenge. I needed something that was mine before I got married. Running a bed and breakfast wouldn’t have been the career I chose for myself, but how did I know if it was right or not unless I tried?

  “I’ll do it,” I said.

  “Great,” Lucy said. “Thank you so much and welcome aboard.”

  She handed me a set of keys and then turned to leave. Surely, she didn’t mean to just take off, right?

  “So I’ll see you at the hotel in the morning?” I called after Lucy as she descended the porch steps.

  “Oh, no, dear. I’m going home. Don’t worry, there’s not much to it. Serve breakfast in the morning. Check people in and out. There are instructions for running the credit card machine taped to the desk. Don’t take checks. If they pay with cash, make sure you get a credit card on file anyway. You can do it. I believe in you.”

  She said all of that while hurrying to her car. The I believe in you part came out as she was sliding into the driver’s seat. As soon as Lucy said it, she slammed the door and started the car.

  I turned back to Remy. “For as important and profitable as she wanted me to believe that place is, she sure doesn’t want to stick around and make sure I’m capable of running it.”

  “You have a good reputation around town,” Remy offered. “She probably just wants the cash and doesn’t want to do any of the work.”

  “About that good reputation aroun
d town?” I raised an eyebrow. “We’ve never really talked about the shift in your family’s affection for me. Why am I, a Tuttlesmith witch, suddenly okay with your family?”

  “It’s not sudden,” Remy said. “I know it feels that way, but it started when you saved Annika. Actually, it started when you became friends with Annika. Grandmother loves her and would do anything for her. I mean, she did give you that protection amulet. Even if she’s not all lovey-dovey with you, it means she accepts you.”

  “What about you? Doesn’t Amelda love you?”

  “She loves me too, and the fact that you forgave me for… my dark time meant a lot to my entire family. They saw you differently after that.”

  “Differently how?”

  “I’m still not entirely sure what’s true about Maude’s story,” Remy said. “There are people protecting their own behinds on both sides, but the fact that your family just left her in that place didn’t sit well with Amelda and the rest of the Aunties. They might not have liked Maude. They might have seen her as a threat, but the fact that her own family abandoned her was unconscionable. They couldn’t believe that your family just ran the way they did and gave up their craft too.”

  “But I didn’t,” I mused.

  “No, you didn’t. You’ve embraced it. I’m sure finding out who and what you were was a shock, but you faced it head-on. When your family told you to leave Coventry, you stayed.”

  “My family is difficult,” I said. “I’m fairly certain at this point that my grandmother and my mother both have personality disorders. It’s one of the reasons I hardly have any contact with them. Moving here has just made it more obvious.”

  “I’m sorry about your family. I imagine them giving up their craft had something to do with it. You can’t just walk away from a gift the universe gives you without consequences.” Remy read my thoughts before I even had them. “And I’m sorry you couldn’t save Brody.”

  “I did what I could,” I said.

  I’d been standing on the porch leaning against the railing, but with that note, I walked over to my chair and sat back down. My lemonade was still cold, and I intended to enjoy it before I had to go to bed early.

  “Now you’re going to be an innkeeper,” he said with a smile. “How do you feel about that?”

  “I was just going to do it for a laugh at first, but now that the thought is settling in, I think I’m excited. I didn’t plan on staying in Coventry because I thought there would be no prospects for a career. I was already getting a little old to be figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up when I rolled into town. This could be it, though. Right?”

  “It is if you want it to be,” Remy said. “You can do anything you put your mind to, Brighton. I believe in you.”

  “That’s what Lucy said.”

  “Yeah, she did,” Remy answered.

  “She was just trying to get the heck out of here when she said it,” I teased.

  “Well, my love, I mean it,” Remy said with a smile.

  “Good, now finish your lemonade. I have to be at work at the buttcrack of dawn, so I need to get to bed.”

  The next morning, if you could call it that, I was awakened by a black paw bopping me on the nose. “Wake up, woman,” Meri said.

  “It’s still dark out,” I whined.

  “Don’t be a baby,” Meri said and bopped my nose again. “We’ve got a job to do.”

  “We?” I asked and sat up on my elbows.

  “Did you think I was going to stay here all day while you went off to work?”

  “Isn’t that what cats normally do?” I asked as I kicked the covers off.

  “And miss you completely crashing and burning on your first day? I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “You’re the one who took a job you’re completely unqualified for from a woman that flashed a stack of cash at you and then split town.”

  I had been getting up, but I sank back down into the mattress. “When you put it that way.”

  “Oh, good heavens, Brighton. I’m just giving you a hard time. You’re probably one of the most powerful witches ever born and you’re sitting there like a sad sack worried that you can’t run a bed and breakfast.”

  “I am so not one of the most powerful witches ever born,” I said.

  “I am cursed. Truly cursed,” Meri said dramatically. “Get out of bed, Brighton. I’m always here to help you. It’s not like I’m really going to let anything bad happen.”

  “Even if it’s funny?”

  “I will protect you,” he said.

  “Awe, that’s so sweet.”

  “Whatever.”

  I got to the inn twenty minutes before I was supposed to have breakfast laid out for the early risers. I’d gone in through a back entrance that led right to the kitchen. Fortunately, the whole place was dark and silent. No one was up yet. I’d be able to make breakfast using magic, and I wouldn’t even have to close the door. I did close the door, though. Just in case.

  After I switched on the kitchen lights, I began to take stock of what I had on hand to make breakfast. That was the moment I’d wished I’d come in earlier. If I had, then I would have had time to do some shopping before breakfast. As it was, I’d have to make do with what I had.

  Cassidy’s breakfasts must have left something to be desired. The freezer was stuffed with things like packaged frozen waffles and French toast. I also found bags of sausage and precooked egg patties too. It reminded me of something you’d find at one of those three-star chain hotels that catered to families and middle management travelers. Except those places had the decency to have a waffle iron so guests could have fresh waffles. Nothing I found was fitting a boutique bed and breakfast.

  I told myself it was only for one day. After breakfast, I could go to the store and stock up on some decent food for the next day. The thought that if I was at Hangman’s House, I wouldn’t be having that issue did cross my mind.

  A few waves of my hands, and I had an entire prepackaged feast prepared. I would have to do it a few more times that morning as the food ran out and more people came down for breakfast, but considering it took about thirty seconds total, I wasn’t worried.

  I set everything out and then found the new front desk area. It was small but looked like a scaled-down version of the same type of area in a fancy hotel. What I was expecting was a simple wood desk and a book to write the check-ins and check-outs in. What I found was carved mahogany and a brand-new computer.

  Fortunately, the reservation system seemed easy enough to navigate since Lucy hadn’t mentioned anything about it. People could make their reservations online, so I wouldn’t have to be hands-on with the scheduling.

  I pulled up the check-in report and found out who was in the inn and in what rooms. There were only a few people staying in the hotel, but when I looked ahead at the check-ins for the evening, I was floored. Lucy had said there were some important events coming up in the future, but she’d said nothing about one of them being my first night.

  There was some corporate team-building event scheduled to check into the bed and breakfast at three in the afternoon. They were going to fill the entire inn, and each guest was marked as a VIP. I wasn’t even sure if I had a housekeeper on staff. What if I was the entire staff? Surely Cassidy hadn’t done it all herself.

  Behind the desk was an office. I went in there to see if I could find some sort of staff records. Not that I imagined there would be that many. The Coventry Inn was bigger than the two rooms in the basement from when Hattie owned the place, but it wasn’t huge. I didn’t think it could take much more than an innkeeper and a housekeeper, but I didn’t know if I wanted to be both of those things.

  I plopped down in the office chair and woke up the computer. “Come on, give mama what she needs.”

  “What is it you need?” Meri sauntered into the room. He’d wandered off while I was studying the waffles in the kitchen.


  “To find some record that this joint has a full-time housekeeper,” I said with a sigh. “There’s a big crowd coming in tonight. The hotel will be full, and I don’t want to be a housekeeper.”

  “You’re still such a newb,” Meri said.

  “A newb?”

  “A newbie. It’s a gamer term. Anyway, it means you’re wet behind the ears. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

  “Since when are you a gamer?” I asked. “You’re a cat.”

  “My hobbies during my off time are none of your business, lady,” Meri snarked. “But, that’s beside the point. The point is that if there isn’t a housekeeper, you can do the same thing you do with breakfast.”

  “Oh, right. I can use magic to clean the rooms,” I said.

  “Ding, ding, ding. Give this witch a prize.”

  The biggest part of the job at breakfast was refilling the coffee. I found out quickly that the guests ran through that as if their life depended on it. Fortunately, no one complained about the breakfast. That didn’t matter to me, though. If I was going to be running the place, I wanted to put out an offering I could take pride in and not just some frozen waffles and sausage patties.

  After the breakfast hours were over, cleanup was a snap. Like it was literally a snap of my fingers and all of the dishes were done and put away. Thankfully, I was alone.

  An hour after that, a housekeeper did arrive. I learned that most of the guests checked out by signing a bill that I was supposed to slip under their door in the mornings when I arrived. Since I hadn’t known to do that, they all either had to come down to the desk or just left.

  “It’s okay,” Jessica said. “You can just print the bills tomorrow morning and not have to hassle with most of the check-outs again. It’s one button you push and the printer spits them out in room order. Slide them under the door before you make breakfast and I’ll collect the ones left in the rooms for you. That way you don’t have to do much with check-outs. They sign a form when you check them in that says that they are responsible for additional charges or damages.”