Premeditated Peppermint

by Amanda Flower

He sighed. “Please leave the detective work to me. I’m worried you might get hurt,” he said in a lower voice, and then in a normal tone again he said, “Concentrate on your shop.”

  “And your show,” Margot said as she and Cass returned. Cass held a large piece of navy cloth. I guessed it was supposed to be Mary’s shawl.

  Aiden frowned. “You mean Eric’s Christmas special?”

  “No, the show Bailey will be doing.”

  “How did you hear about it?” Cass asked.

  “Linc told me,” Margot said. “I’m already thinking how Harvest could be involved in future episodes. He said that most of the filming would have to be done in New York, but they would want to come back here from time to time to film and get some exterior shots as well as shots of Bailey in Swissmen Sweets.” She beamed at me. “I knew good things were going to come from your moving here, but I never expected anything like this. You are the best thing to happen to the village in a long time.”

  “Most of the filming will have to be done in New York?” Aiden asked.

  “Right.” Margot took the piece of fabric from Cass’s hands. “Let me do that. I have more experience with these.”

  Cass backed up. “I’m guessing that you do.”

  Margot shook out the piece of fabric and laid it over my head.

  “What about the filming in New York?” Aiden asked.

  Margot had the fabric covering my face now. I couldn’t see, but fortunately the fabric was thin cotton so I could breathe.

  “It’s so exciting!” Margot said. Her voice sounded muffled to me as she wound the piece of fabric deftly around my head and ears. “Bailey will be in New York City for three to four months to film her candy-making show. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  I took a deep breath. I was becoming a tad claustrophobic behind the fabric.

  “Three to four months?” Aiden said.

  Finally, the cloth was lifted off of my face, and my breath became more even. As soon as my vision was clear, I wished I could cover my eyes again because Aiden was standing there looking stunned and, dare I say, disappointed by the news.

  “Have you told your grandmother this?” he asked.

  “I haven’t gotten a chance to tell anyone.”

  “You say that like you’re going to do it.”

  “Of course she’s going to do it,” Cass said. “She aced her screen test at the Christmas Market this afternoon. She’s a natural.”

  “But,” Aiden said as if Margot and Cass weren’t even there, “what about your grandmother? You moved here to take care of her. You are just going to leave her like that?”

  Aiden was stating all my own concerns, which I kept trying unsuccessfully to push aside. “She has Charlotte,” I said. “She’s a huge help at the shop, and they enjoy working together.”

  “Charlotte is a great girl,” Aiden said. “But she’s not you. Your grandmother needs you here, especially after losing your grandfather.”

  “If I do this, I can invest in the candy shop. My grandmother would never have to worry about money again.”

  “Money isn’t the most important thing. Your family is.”

  “I know that.”

  “Then why would you consider this?”

  I stared at him, unable to think of an adequate response.

  Margot walked to the double door that led into the fellowship hallway. “Everyone!” she shouted into a bullhorn. “It’s time to line up. I want the angels first, then shepherds, wise men, and finally the holy family bringing up the rear.”

  “Who in the world would give that woman a bullhorn?” Cass whispered in my ear.

  “I think it was a gift she gave herself. I doubt anyone would be so stupid as to buy her one.”

  “I hope you’re right about that,” Cass said.

  Josie appeared in front of me with her makeup kit. “Thanks goodness I caught up with you before you marched out. Sit, sit, let me put on your face.”

  Aiden stood a couple of feet away, shifting from foot to foot as Josie expertly applied makeup. “You are stunning now,” Josie said. “I went for Mary, but with a more modern edge.” She stepped back to admire her work.

  I was afraid to ask what Mary with a modern edge looked like.

  “Just think Mary if she had access to Sephora and shimmering powder,” Cass said. “You definitely have an angelic glow about you now.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was the look Margot had envisioned for the live nativity, but it was far too late to change it now.

  Chapter 29

  “Everyone,” Margot said into the bullhorn. “We are leaving now. Out the door and line up again in the church parking lot. The procession will go around the square twice. Remember, we have a TV crew in the village here from Gourmet Television. Stay in character and make a good impression. If all goes well, they will be back and put our little village on the map. All thanks to our Bailey King, who will have her very own television show on the network!”

  All the shepherds, angels, and wise men looked back at me. I closed my eyes for a moment. Why on earth had Linc told Margot about the television show? The woman had a personal bullhorn, for crying out loud. She would have been the very last person I would have told.

  Cass squeezed my arm. “I’m going outside with Josie so we can get good spots to watch the parade.” Her eyes slid in Aiden’s direction. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine, Cass.” I stood up from the folding chair where Josie had done my makeup.

  “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.” She hugged me. “You are the prettiest Mary I’ve ever seen.”

  I smiled.

  “Let’s go!” Margot shouted into the bullhorn.

  The line of nativity players started to move. I shuffled to the very end of the line. We had almost reached the outside door when Aiden turned back to me. “Bailey, I’m sorry for what I said. It was uncalled for. I know—”

  “Please, Aiden,” I said as we emerged into the parking lot. I was grateful for how dimly lit it was so he couldn’t see my face. “Let’s just get through this parade with no more talk about murder, television shows, or New York.”

  “I am sorry,” Aiden whispered.

  “Bailey!” Margot hurried over to me holding something in her arms. She handed me the life-sized baby doll she had showed me before. “Here’s baby Jesus. Originally, I had a real baby lined up, but the mother dropped out when the camel came on board, and none of the other church members with newborns would agree to it.” She clicked her tongue. “Can you believe that?”

  “Shocking.” I eyed Melchior. He seemed to wink his long lashes at me.

  An Amish girl I didn’t know led a donkey over to us.

  “Thank you, Bea,” Margot said. “Get on, Bailey.”

  The donkey flicked his ears and stamped his rear hooves.

  “Umm,” I said, holding the doll to my chest. “Can I just walk?”

  “No!” Margot cried. “We need to wow the television people, which means you have to be on the donkey’s back.”

  “I’m not sure how to climb on him. I’m not the most graceful person in the world.”

  Aiden walked over to me and plucked me off the ground as if I weighed no more than the doll in my arms. He set me sidesaddle on the donkey’s back.

  I had my right arm wrapped around the doll and my left hand gripping the donkey’s blanket for dear life.

  Aiden looked me in the eye. “Do you have your balance?”

  I swallowed. When he looked at me so intently like that, I definitely did not have my balance.

  I adjusted my grasp on the blanket. “I think so,” I told him.

  He squeezed my side and then let go.

  “Margot!” Juliet ran down the steps of the church with Jethro in her arms. “Jethro is here in time for the parade.”

  Margot waved her arms. “No, no, no. I told you he can’t be in the live nativity. He’s an unclean animal. He wouldn’t have been at the first Christmas.”

  Juliet gasped and covered the little pig
’s ears with her hand. “How can you say such a thing? Reverend Brook said it was perfectly fine to include him. He said the live nativity wouldn’t be the same without him.”

  Margot scowled. “Of course Reverend Brook would say that to you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Juliet asked, clearly confused.

  “Margot,” I said from my perch on the donkey’s back, “just let Jethro come. Aiden can walk him.”

  “But, but, we need this to be perfect.”

  “Please,” I said. “The parade was supposed to start ten minutes ago. Do you want to make so many visitors wait longer?”

  Margot threw up her hands. “Fine.” She pointed at Jethro. “But that bow has to go.”

  “Of course,” Juliet said. “We want to be authentic.”

  I had the urge to roll my eyes. I suspected authentic went out the window a long time ago as far as the live nativity was concerned.

  Juliet removed the red bow from around Jethro’s neck and clipped a leash to his collar. She handed the end of the leash to her son. “Be sure to keep an eye on him. You know how he likes to slip away.”

  “I know, Mom,” Aiden said.

  Jethro stamped his little hooves as if he was ready to march. At least someone was excited about this activity.

  “Listen up!” Margot cried into the bullhorn. “We are starting now. Angels, lead the way!”

  I rubbed my ear. She was dangerous with that thing.

  “Remember to smile!” Margot cried.

  The line began to move out of the parking lot, and after a couple of tugs on the lead by Aiden, the donkey, with me on his back, joined the parade.

  We walked out of the parking lot into the streets around the square, which had been closed to traffic, and I wondered how my life had taken such an odd turn. If someone had told me last year this was where I would be this close to Christmas, I would have laughed in that person’s face.

  I sat sidesaddle on the back of the donkey with the doll in my arms and the camel behind me. Aiden walked in front of me. In one hand he held the donkey’s lead, and in the other he held Jethro’s leash. We walked around the square twice. The crowd waved and cheered. After I felt more secure on my seat, I began to wave back with my left hand. My right arm was wrapped tightly around the doll. It wouldn’t do if I dropped the doll; that was my worst fear. Maybe second. Falling off the donkey was my real worst fear.

  When we were on our second pass around the square, I saw my grandmother and Charlotte standing outside of Swissmen Sweets. They both smiled and waved at me. I waved wildly back at them. I finally was feeling comfortable in my spot. As we turned onto the square to stop at the manger, I saw Eric and the entire film crew. Linc was shouting directions I couldn’t hear, and Roden and Pike were filming and recording the parade. I almost waved to them too when I saw someone who stopped me.

  Just over Eric’s shoulder was an Amish man. It was Thad Keim, and he was pointing at me. My heart skipped a beat, and I dropped my hand back to the donkey’s blanket. The ride from the paved road onto the frozen grass of the square was bumpy.

  We reached the manger, and Margot waited there. She barked orders as to where she wanted the characters to be. I wasn’t paying attention. All I could think of was Thad’s angry face and his hand pointed at me. Why would he point at me like that?

  Finally, the donkey stopped just outside the manger. Aiden handed Jethro’s leash to one of the shepherds.

  I leaned over the donkey’s neck. “Aiden! Aiden!”

  He turned to me. “What’s wrong? You are as white as a sheet.”

  “I saw Thad Keim when we turned and came onto the grass.”

  “Where?” Aiden asked.

  “He was behind the film crew, on the other side of the pretzel shop. He pointed at me.”

  Aiden put his hands on my waist again and lifted me off of the donkey’s back. When my feet were on the ground, he removed his head covering.

  “Aiden!” Margot cried. “What are you doing? Don’t take off your costume.”

  “I have a police call I need to handle.” Aiden draped his head covering over the donkey’s back.

  “But you can’t leave right in the middle of the live nativity. The film crew is here. We need you for the scene.” As she said this, Eric and the film crew walked up to the manger.

  “I have to go. You will have to find another person to play Joseph. Police business has to come first.” Aiden’s tone left no room for argument.

  “I’ll play Bailey’s Joseph,” said Eric, who was standing to the side with the crew.

  “That’s a great idea,” Linc seconded. “It will add some humor to the special.”

  Margot sighed. “That will have to do. We have a lot of visitors in the village right now, and we don’t have any time to waste.”

  Aiden scowled, and I thought for a moment that he would argue. But then he tore off his robe and handed it to Eric. As he did, he looked at me. His expression was so strange, I couldn’t tell if he was upset to give up his job as Joseph or happy for the excuse to leave.

  Eric put on the robe and smiled at me. “I guess this means we’re married,” he whispered to me. “If only for this one night.”

  I groaned. “Stay on your side of the stable.”

  Eric laughed.

  Chapter 30

  The live nativity seemed to last forever. As the night passed my toes, fingers, and even my nose grew numb. I could no longer feel my face. I never did drop the baby Jesus doll, because I think it had frozen to my body. At some point, Cass told me that she was frozen solid and abandoned her position in the first row of spectators for the warmth of Swissmen Sweets. Before she went, she eyed Eric. “Don’t try anything, Buster.”

  “How could I?” Eric asked. “I’m an ice cube from the cold.”

  “Keep it that way,” Cass advised before leaving.

  I glanced at Eric. My eyes seemed to be the only part of me that I could move easily in the cold. “You said that you and Rocky dated for a few months.”

  He turned toward me and pretended he was looking at the baby. The camera and smartphone flashes almost blinded me. “Let’s not talk about her anymore.”

  “If you want me to solve this case, we have to talk about her.”

  He sighed and straightened up.

  “Did you know that Rocky had her own production company?”

  Eric shook his head. “Rocky almost had a production company, but in the end she didn’t go through with it.”

  I turned my head even though it was in the direction of the freezing wind. I wanted to see Eric’s face when I asked the question. “Why not?”

  “Gourmet Television gave her a great opportunity when she was hired. They offered her a boatload of money and a promotion, but they also included a noncompete clause in her contract. She would have been in breach of contract if she’d started her own company.”

  I thought about this. “Was she planning to open the company on her own?”

  “I think so, but you can’t do anything on your own really, can you? Not in New York at least. I know she must have had partners. I don’t know who they might have been though.”

  “Don’t you think her partners were upset she didn’t go through with the company?”

  “Sure.” Eric raised his eyebrow at me. “Wouldn’t you be?”

  I would, but not enough to kill someone over it.

  “I doubt Rocky gave it that much thought. She was looking out for number one. She and I were the same in that way.” He sounded wistful.

  And that was how Eric and I were different.

  Margot finally let the live nativity break up at seven. I hurried over to the church to remove my costume and return Jethro to Juliet before I made a beeline to Swissmen Sweets. It had been an impossibly long day, and I needed a break from ex-boyfriends, camels, potbellied pigs, and most especially murder.

  Nutmeg meowed at me when I stepped into the shop and then closed and locked the door behind me. The front of the shop wa
s empty, but I heard murmuring coming from the kitchen. The door was propped open with a bag of sugar. I peered inside to see my grandmother standing in the middle of the kitchen. Ruth Yoder and her elderly husband, who was my grandmother’s district deacon, sat on backless stools, looking like a jury about to give a verdict.

  “I’m sorry, Clara,” Ruth said. “But this is the district’s decision. You knew when you allowed your Englisch granddaughter to come here to stay, there was bound to be conflict.”

  “Bailey is a gut girl,” my grandmother said. “She does not do anything without checking with me first.”

  I winced, thinking that wasn’t completely true. I had let Linc and his team film me at the Swissmen Sweets table at the Christmas Market before I knew whether the district would approve. By the looks of things in the kitchen, they did not.

  Ruth started to get up. “I warned you that there might be trouble from her presence here.” She glanced at her husband. “But if the district elders are not against your having an Englischer under your roof, I am not one to question them.”

  She sounded like she was one to question them, and she sounded like she wanted to question quite a lot.

  I stepped through the door. “Hello, Deacon and Mrs. Yoder,” I said, doing my best to be polite.

  My grandmother smiled at me. “Hello, my dear. The deacon was just telling me the district’s decision on the television show.”

  My face fell. I could tell it was a “no.” I was surprised to find that I felt disappointed. Maybe I had wanted my own show, or maybe I had wanted just to be on TV. Both of these possibilities had been as unexpected as my reaction to losing them.

  “We respect your wishes,” my grandmother said.

  The deacon nodded. “I hope you will do so in all your filming.”

  I blinked at him. This wasn’t what I had expected him to say. “In all our filming? You will let us film?”

  The deacon looked at me. “You can film in Swissmen Sweets, but no Amish member of my district may be on camera. I cannot stop you from being on camera.”

  My mouth fell open.

  “The building may be used,” he said. “But I do not believe it is Gotte’s will for any member of our district to appear on this television show.”