by Olivia Swift
“You cannot be serious?” He asked. “They are working plans.”
“She’s right,” Jazz added. “Carly has an eye for these things. I’ve seen maps cut into butterflies and hearts and put into frames. They look great.”
“Well, you live and learn,” he replied. “A skill I never knew I had,” Evan said he was off to bed and Jazz followed him out of the room.
“What time do we start?” Carly asked, and they decided nine would be as good a time as any and they would arrive in Mapplin at about ten. As they stood up, Dex pulled her close.
“Thank the Lord you are safe from that lunatic,” he murmured and brushed his lips against hers. She reached to put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss into something more demanding. This time Carly waited for the effect. It had occurred to her to wonder if it would happen each time. There was no denying the effect. The sizzle of electricity that spread through every part of her body was not to be denied. She felt him close and the strength of his feeling that responded to her demand. The two of them were suspended in time and space, and the real world was a million miles away. Dexter Sutherland admitted in his mind that he had fallen in love. He had never expected it to happen and the panic that the feeling might not be returned was a sudden jolt. They pulled apart and she stroked his cheek.
“What a lovely way to end the day,” she said and closed the door as she went into Evan’s half of the house. Dex stood for several minutes and wondered how best to keep this girl close.
“Enjoy the trip and keep her safe from that Duval,” he thought. “First things first.”
After a cheerful breakfast, they collected their tablets and a few snacks that Evan had thoughtfully provided and set off for the journey to find Charley Rose. She snuggled into the passenger seat and stopped herself from making any remark about first dates. He looked across and smiled, and her heart did that skipping thing that set it beating faster.
The journey passed in no time as they talked about anything and everything and the GPS found the property that they were after. He parked outside the gates and saw that there was an intercom to ask for entrance. Dex pressed the button and spoke to someone who asked their business and then opened the gates.
“I am quite nervous,” Carly confessed as they drove up to a very impressive country house. A lady who seemed like a secretary met them and said she would ask Mr Callander if he would see them. They were shown seats in the impressive hallway.
“Please come through,” the lady invited them, and they stepped into a beautiful and elegant room that overlooked fabulous gardens. The French windows were open, and Mr Callander turned out to be a young man in jeans and a plaid shirt. He was in his late twenties and had a shock of curly ginger hair. He smiled and held out a hand.
“I am not what you expected,” he said. “My parents are away at the moment.” He screwed his eyes and looked at Dex. “Do I know you from somewhere?” Dex shook his head and said he didn’t think so. Carly had been admiring the wonderful framed photos on the walls. She waved a hand.
“Are you a climber?” she asked, and he told her he was a photographer who loved mountains. Dex laughed.
“Do you think I am Evan Sutherland?” And a look of enlightenment crossed Callander’s face. “My brother,” Dex added.
“Well, that’s a small world. Sit down please and tell me why you’re here.” The two visitors explained between them about their search and Jules Callander listened thoughtfully. He went to the door and called out.
“Maggie, do you remember where that suitcase with the newspaper cuttings was stored?” Maggie came along the passage.
“I’ll go and hunt them out,” she said and disappeared again. He told them that when his parents bought the place, they had found some pictures and lots of newspaper cuttings from earlier inhabitants of the house.
“Thought they might be useful historical stuff at some stage and put them all in an old suitcase.”
“We should have chased up newspaper records before,” Carly said. “They might be just what we need.” Maggie reappeared lugging a large and obviously heavy brown suitcase. Both men jumped up to take the weight. When it was opened, it was chock full of all sorts of papers and photos.
“Good Lord,” Callander said. “Maybe I should help you go through this stuff. Maggie,” he called out again, “come and give us a hand with this, will you? This is Carly and Dex, and they are trying to help a ghost.” Carly laughed and explained briefly. She gave them the approximate dates for the disappearance of Charley Rose, and they tipped the whole lot out onto the floor.
“Anything with his name might help,” Dex said. “We can probably discard the rest.” There was silence as all of them looked at sheet after sheet and discarded them. They were almost halfway through when Maggie stopped and read again.
“Look,” she passed it to Carly. It was a newspaper cutting on the house and the staff. The gardeners were listed, and one of them was Charley Rose. There was a picture with a lot of tiny figures in their best suits and bowler hats, but it was very hard to distinguish anyone.
“What’s the date?” Dex asked, and they then looked for other things around the same date. It looked like that was all they would find when Carly gasped.
“Look, Dex. Look. It’s a report of an accident, and he was knocked over by a runaway horse and died.” A tear welled up in her eyes. “He died. That’s why he never came to marry her. He never saw his son, and she never knew what happened.” Maggie passed her a tissue and felt a tear threatening herself.
“So, now you need to find death certificates and where he was buried,” Jules Callander pointed out. “At least we’ve been able to help a little bit.”
“Oh, you’ve helped loads and been so kind. It was more than we ever hoped for.” Carly told him. He smiled.
“How is Evan these days? I know he had a terrible time and dropped out of the climbing world.” As he spoke, he was flicking through a tablet and handed it to Dex. “Here he is in the Himalayas.”
“That is fantastic,” Carly said, “and he is well and marrying my best friend in two week’s time. I don’t suppose I could have a copy of that to give to her?”
“Give me your phone number,” he answered and sent the photo to her cell. Dex had used his own phone to call Evan and handed it to Jules Callander who went into a long and enthusiastic conversation with the man on the other end of the phone. “Apparently, I am now invited to the wedding,” he smiled. “I’m glad your search brought you to Mapplin.”
Carly and Maggie had piled all of the cuttings back into the suitcase, and Dex took a photo of the piece that gave them the story.
“Thanks so much,” he said and held out a hand.
“I’ll offer to be the wedding photographer,” Callander said as he shook hands. Carly reached up and pecked him on the cheek.
“This is wonderful.” she said, and Jules Callander walked to the door with them.
“See you in two weeks,” he said and watched as they drove away. The gates opened electronically and allowed them out of the grounds. A van followed at a safe distance. Jules saw it pass the main gates, but there was nothing unusual in a van on the road.
15
“The patrol cars picked up the van and called it in,” Mackay told them, as Sanchez slapped cuffs onto Duval who was still weeping on the ground. They hauled him to his feet, and he looked pitifully at Carly.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
They took away the now harmless Duval, along with the knife, saying that they would take statements tomorrow. Dex and Carly were left in the quiet cemetery which was as calm as if nothing had happened.
Carly’s legs suddenly turned to jelly, and she sat on a nearby stone. Dex came and knelt beside her and held her hands.
“It’s over. He’ll go to jail for quite a long time, I should think, because of the attack on his mother. It might even be attempted murder.” Carly gripped his hands hard in return and nodded without speaking. After a little while, s
he regained her composure and shakily got to her feet.
“Let’s tell Charley Rose about Emily and go back to the shop.” He agreed, and they both sat down beside the roughly shaped stone with the scraped initials. Carly put her hand on the surface and felt a slight tingle. She took Dex’s hand and added it to her own.
“Charley Rose, if you can hear me, Emily Duval is still waiting for you in the hotel. She has waited for a hundred years, and that has to be the truest sort of love. She raised her son alone and called him Jedediah. You have great-great-grandchildren, but Emily is still trapped in the hotel,” she paused for breath and Dex continued.
“Maybe, like me, you did not believe in spirits, but you must know better now. If you hear us, try and come to meet Emily and complete the journey you started a hundred years ago.” There was a silence as they both waited and neither of them really expected an answer. They had done all they could and would go back to tell the lavender lady where the love of her life was buried. Into the silence, there was a warmth that surrounded them that was more than the summer sunshine. The pressure touched Carly’s cheek like a cobweb. She breathed a thank you. As they stood, Dex took a photo of the gravestone for Emily and with one last look, they linked hands and left the cemetery. The lady at the office stopped them to ask if everything was all right because the police had told her to stay indoors. After briefly putting her mind at rest, they climbed into the car and drove back to the pretty little shop.
Katarina and Ben wanted to hear the details and were so relieved when they heard that Duval had been arrested.
“We can relax,” Dex added. “He will not be let out after attacking his mother like that.” It was a great relief but reminded Carly to call the hospital again. The formal report was that the patient was stable and comfortable but would not be allowed visitors for a few days.
“Thanks to both of you,” Carly told them. “Take the rest of the day off. I think I’ll close early even if it means losing a couple of customers.” Katarina gave her a hug and said she would be in tomorrow and Ben followed the assistant out of the door. The bell jingled and then there was silence, but the drift of lavender perfume filled the air as they went into the rear room.
“Oh, Emily,” Carly started. “We found him. We found your Charley Rose after all of these years. His grave was in Three Elms Cemetery, and we told him that you were still waiting here in the hotel.” She paused. “I will miss you very much, but you should try and find the light now. Charley will be there.” The lavender stayed where it was but the door tinkled, and Carly looked out to see who had entered. There was no one there. She turned to come back into the room and was surrounded by the almost solid scent and feel of summer roses. The cobwebs touched her cheek, and she turned to Dex with tears in her eyes.
“Can you smell the roses? Dex, can you smell the roses. Charley has found the shop.” She went to put her arms around Dex’s waist, and the two of them could almost see and feel the meeting of two lost loves from a hundred years ago blend together as one. The atmosphere intensified and the scents swirled around them. There was an intense beam of white sunlight that streamed in the window and seemed to appear from nowhere. Two entwined sections of gentler sunlight travelled into the beam, and then the whole magical white rainbow faded into nothing. All that hovered in the air were dust mites and the traces of perfume. That, too, disappeared gradually and Carly turned to the man beside her with tears in her eyes.
“We did it, Dex. We brought them together after a hundred years.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close. There were tears threatening in his eyes as well, but it didn’t seem to matter. He pulled away slightly and tipped her head towards him to brush her lips lightly with his own. She held her arms around his neck and returned the kiss gently. This was a meeting of minds and hearts. The sweetness was overpowering. The blood in her veins sizzled, and the lightheadedness that the touch of lips brought was there as it always had been, but there was something more this time. There was an offer in his kiss. It seemed to say “Catch my heart. It’s yours forever.” There was no doubt in Carly’s mind that she wanted to stay in his arms and his life forever. The tears on her cheeks were for herself now as well as for Emily Duval. Dex gently wiped them away with his finger and she returned the favor for Dex.
“These are all happy tears,” she whispered. “True love that lasted for a hundred years is wonderful to see.” She looked around. “It has made this shop very special to me as well.”
Dex Sutherland wondered if she had heard him say that he loved her at the wedding.
“Or maybe she heard, and it isn’t returned.” He felt the panic well up in his throat at the feeling that he might lose the love of his life when he had only just found her. He wondered if the shop was so important that there would be no time for love. She saw his face and knew he was worried about something.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” She asked and knew it was the first time she had used an endearment towards him. The word found a chord inside his heart, and he smiled and held out his hand. She took it and felt the thrill of his touch. Dexter Sutherland dropped to one knee and asked a question to which he had to know the answer.
“Sweetest, wonderful, beautiful Carly James. I love you from the bottom of my heart. Please marry me.” He paused and smiled. “You’ll always be the boss.” Carly pulled him to his feet and held both of his hands.
“I have known that I loved you since the first time we kissed. True love, in this world and the next, like Emily and Charley,” she kissed his lips lightly and answered the question. “I would marry you this very minute if it was possible.”
“Thank heavens,” Dex said with enormous relief and swept her off her feet and swung her round in the shop. “I thought that you might not realize how much I needed you.” Then he put his hand behind her neck and drew her in for the kiss that had his heart and his love in it. They stayed in that world where time stood still for some time, and everything that had happened drifted away and only the two of them and their future together remained. They did not even hear the door tinkle as Katarina came back to collect her flat shoes. She was about to speak but picked up her things and tiptoed back the way she had come. Ben was waiting outside to drive her home and was about to go inside. She stopped him with a touch on his arm.
“They are…er…otherwise engaged in there,” she laughed. “And I am so pleased for them.”
Dex and Carly had slipped into the routine of closing up and leaving the shop for the day. As she pulled the door, Carly looked back.
“I hope I was right, Emily. I hope you are together.” She locked the door. Dex smiled and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
“That sounds so good,” she told him and slipped her arm around his waist. They settled in the house and searched Evan’s freezer for food to heat in the microwave and then curled together on the sofa.
“Tell me the wedding can be soon,” he asked, and she moaned.
“It will be soon, but we just finished organizing yesterday’s event.”
“I don’t care about that,” he said. “We could take off to Vegas instead,” and she laughed.
“That is one brilliant idea,” Carly said and pushed him down on the sofa. She smothered his face with kisses and told him she loved him over and over again. Dexter Sutherland was insanely happy.
“Happy ever after, my sweetheart,” she told him. “In this world and into the next.” The scent of lavender floated out of nowhere and filled the room. Carly smiled. “Emily just said thank you.”
* * *
THE END
* * *
Almost Picture Perfect
A Blooms, Bones and Stones Cozy Mystery - Book Three
Copyright © 2017 by Olivia Swift
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the au
thor, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
Miller Hollenbeck dropped the screw which she was about to tighten with her electric drill and it slipped to the floor. The door dropped away from her hand and fell over onto her shoulder. She swore loudly and expressively and pushed the door to one side as she retrieved the escapee screw. Hanging doors was something she had learned how to do but it was never easy. Dressed in her favorite attire of jeans and a skimpy tee with a tool belt around her waist, Miller was determined to make this house just the way she imagined. She wanted to do it herself. As she straightened, she jumped as a voice spoke from the front porch.
“Need an extra pair of hands?” it asked. She spun around with a scowl to see what sort of idiot was interrupting the annoying task at hand. Jules Callander saw the look on her face and held up his hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere.” She shook her head and managed a smile.
“Hi Jules,” she managed in a fairly friendly voice. “Dropped the screw and the door slipped. Sorry about the bad language.” He smiled and stepped into the room.
“We redheaded folk can all have these moments of annoyance,” he said lightly. “It’s excusable when you’re hanging a door.” Miller ran her hand through the huge amount of red curls that were always out of control and told him that she would accept the pair of hands to hold the door in place.
“It is easy if the blessed thing stays put,” she said and picked up the screw and drill. He came over and lifted the door back into position and watched with admiration as she competently put six screws into place in the two hinges. Then she stood back and made sure the finished article swung easily.