An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Collection - ABC

by Diana Xarissa

  “You look stunning,” Donald told her when she opened the door to his knock. “I can’t tell you how much I wish I didn’t have to fly back to New York tomorrow.”

  “You look pretty good yourself,” Fenella said, taking in the handsome dark-haired man’s perfectly fitted tuxedo.

  “Shall we?” he invited her, offering his arm.

  Fenella took it and let him lead her out into the corridor. When they reached the lobby, she was surprised to see a limousine at the door.

  “I wasn’t expecting this,” she murmured as Donald helped her into the car.

  “Everyone will be arriving by limo tonight,” Donald said. “It’s that kind of evening.”

  A few butterflies flitted through Fenella’s stomach, but she managed to ignore them and focus on Donald. He made her tell him what she’d been doing since he’d left the island and then told her a few stories about his travels and business dealings. They drove to Ramsey along the coast road and Fenella could barely take her eyes off the scenery as they went.

  “I can’t believe how beautiful the island is,” she told Donald. “Or rather, I can’t imagine why it isn’t overpopulated. Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

  Donald laughed. “It is special, but there are many other islands with gorgeous views and much nicer weather,” he said. “I have a little house in Tortola in the Virgin Islands. I need to take you there one day.”

  Fenella was glad she was looking out the window. Hopefully, Donald couldn’t see her blushing that way. The thought of traveling with him to a Caribbean island was slightly overwhelming, even in her magic red dress.

  Outside the huge hotel, a red carpet had been laid out. As Fenella stepped out of the car, flashbulbs popped and someone shouted. “Donald, who’s your friend?”

  Donald smiled as he took Fenella’s arm and led her into the hotel’s vast lobby. “We’re down here,” he said, leading her through the lobby and down a long corridor. The thick carpeting made walking in her heels slightly difficult, but with Donald’s arm to lean on, Fenella made it to the huge ballroom unscathed.

  Gorgeous crystal chandeliers sparkled above tables set with cut crystal wineglasses and shining silver cutlery. There were fountains dispensing drinks scattered around the room and formally dressed waiters and waitresses seemed to be everywhere with trays full of delicious-looking tidbits.

  “Wow,” Fenella breathed.

  “It is lovely,” Donald said. “Let’s get some champagne.”

  With glasses of champagne in hand, the pair began to circulate. Fenella quickly gave up on trying to remember all of the names of the people to whom she was introduced. She met many members of the island’s government, company CEOs, and a few minor celebrities who she suspected had been flown to the island especially for the event.

  “That’s one circuit of the room done,” Donald said some time later as they found themselves back at the champagne fountain where they’d started. “I need another drink before we start over again.”

  “Must we?” Fenella blushed as she realized she’d spoken out loud.

  Donald grinned. “We can stand here for a short while,” he said. “Maybe people will come and find us, instead of us having to go and find them.”

  A moment later, Fenella heard a familiar voice.

  “My goodness, what are you doing here?” Florence March said in a shocked voice.

  Fenella forced herself to smile as she turned to face the woman and her husband.

  “Mrs. March, this is a pleasant surprise,” she lied brightly.

  Stanley frowned. “It’s Fenella something, isn’t it? From the ferry? I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

  Donald slid an arm around Fenella’s shoulders. “Fenella is a very dear friend of mine,” he said smoothly. “She was kind enough to agree to accompany me tonight.”

  Stanley looked at Florence, who frowned. “Donald, it’s always nice to see you,” she said after a minute.

  “It’s always lovely to see you as well,” Donald said. “You and Stanley seem to travel almost as much as I do. We’re hardly ever on the island at the same time.”

  “Except you travel for business and we travel for pleasure,” Florence said. “I’m not sure we’ll be taking the ferry again, though. Not after the unpleasantness last weekend.”

  “Yes, of course, that’s where you met my Fenella,” Donald said. “I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been for you all.”

  “We had to cancel all manner of plans,” Stanley complained. “It was incredibly inconvenient.”

  “And poor Robert Grosso died,” Fenella reminded them.

  “Yes, but I can’t help but think that he was doing something criminal, sneaking on board the boat early like that,” Florence said. “We boarded early, of course, but only because it’s so much more convenient that way.”

  “You boarded early?” Fenella asked.

  “Not terribly early,” Florence said quickly. “Just a little bit before we were technically supposed to. Our driver takes the car on, you see, and we travel as foot passengers. One of the staff was kind enough to let us get on board and collect our cabin keys before it grew busy.”

  “I see,” Fenella said thoughtfully. “I don’t suppose you saw Robert Grosso or any of the others on the ship?”

  Florence shook her head. “It’s all something of a mess, really,” she said.

  “We’d rather not talk about it with the ferry captain,” Stanley said. “We don’t want the poor young woman who let us on early to lose her job. She was only trying to be nice.”

  “I assume you’ve told the police,” Fenella said.

  “Oh, no, we can’t do that,” Florence said. “They’ll tell Captain Howard and the poor girl will be let go for sure.”

  Fenella wanted to argue, but she bit her tongue. The couple had empty glasses in their hands, and Fenella was pretty sure those hadn’t been their first drinks of the evening. It was unlikely that they would have shared that information with her if they’d been sober.

  “So, how’s business?” Donald asked Stanley.

  “Oh, you know, I just dabble a bit now to keep my hand in,” Stanley said. “I’ve been thinking about getting involved in that project that Peter Cannell has been working on, but I’m not sure.”

  “That’s a beautiful dress,” Florence said as the two men began to discuss things that Fenella knew nothing about.

  “Thank you,” Fenella replied.

  “Where did you find it?” Florence asked.

  “Oh, it’s something from back in the US,” Fenella found herself saying. “I brought a lot of clothes with me.”

  “I’m sure,” Florence said. “What did you do in the US?”

  “I was a professor of history at a university there,” Fenella replied.

  “Really?” the other woman said. “I never would have suspected.”

  “What do you do?” Fenella asked, wondering if the question was rude.

  “Me? I look after Stanley. The children are grown, of course, and quite capable of looking after themselves, but Stanley enjoys me fussing over him.”

  “I had a partner like that once,” Fenella said. “After a while, I got tired of looking after a grown adult.”

  Florence shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for a great many years now,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  “Maybe you should go back to school,” Fenella suggested.

  “I never really enjoyed school,” the woman told her. “It took up far too much of my time. My mother used to take me out for a day and we’d go across to Liverpool and shop.” She glanced around and then stepped closer to Fenella and lowered her voice.

  “I was raised to be a rich man’s wife,” she said. “My mother came from a very poor background, but she managed to marry well above her station. She was determined that I’d find a wealthy man and never have to work.”

  “And she got her wish,” Fenella said.

  “Oh, taking care of Stanley is hard
work, make no mistake about that,” Florence said. She smiled, presumably to make it seem like she was joking, but the smile looked bitter to Fenella.

  “It’s never too late to start a new life for yourself,” Fenella said. “What would you do, if you could do anything?”

  Florence blinked at her. “I’ve no idea,” she said after a minute. “No one ever asks me what I want to do. My mother managed my childhood and I married Stanley at eighteen.”

  “But are you happy?” Fenella had to ask.

  “Happy?” the other woman echoed, as if the word was unfamiliar to her.

  “Florence, we need to go and speak to Michael,” Stanley said suddenly.

  “Oh, but, I mean, I’m enjoying talking to Fenella,” Florence said.

  “That’s nice, but I need to speak to Michael.” Stanley held out his hand and Florence took it.

  She turned back to Fenella as they walked away. “It was nice seeing you,” she said quickly before Stanley pulled her into a large crowd.

  “That poor woman,” Fenella said as the crowd swallowed up the Marches.

  “Stanley isn’t that bad,” Donald said. “He spoils her, and as far as I know, he’s never looked at another woman. She could have done much worse.”

  “But she isn’t happy,” Fenella argued.

  “Isn’t she? I didn’t realize,” Donald said.

  Fenella opened her mouth to explain, but sighed instead. “Maybe she is, in her own way,” she conceded. “Just because her life isn’t one that I would be comfortable with doesn’t make it bad.”

  “And on that note, I think they’re ready to serve dinner,” Donald said.

  The food was delicious and Fenella felt lucky that the other men and women at their assigned table were interesting and friendly. After eating and drinking far too much, Fenella settled back in her chair for the charity auction.

  “You must let me buy you something to thank you for coming with me tonight,” Donald told her.

  Rather than argue, Fenella shrugged. “When I see something I want, I’ll let you know,” she said. He could hardly blame her if she never saw something she wanted, could he, she thought as the first item came up on the auction block.

  It was harder than she thought it would be, trying to act like she didn’t want anything, though, as some of the items were amazing. A fortnight’s holiday in France sounded incredible, but Fenella forced herself to feign indifference. She wasn’t ready to spend two weeks with Donald in a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language, she reminded herself.

  An hour later the auction was over. Donald had bought several pieces of artwork, explaining to Fenella that he liked to support local artists and always displayed their art in his offices around the world.

  “But I really did want to buy you something,” he said after he’d written a huge check for his purchases. “Now I will have to send you something from New York.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Fenella told him. “I don’t want anything.”

  “We’ll see,” he said. The drive home was less interesting, as it was very dark and rainy. When the reached Fenella’s apartment building, Donald sighed.

  “I’ll walk you to your door, but I really can’t stay,” he told her.

  “You don’t need to,” Fenella told him. “You go home and get some sleep. It took me weeks to get over my jet lag. I don’t know how you’re functioning.”

  “Not very well,” he admitted. “And tomorrow I’ll be back on New York time. Maybe that will be easier, though. I don’t know.”

  “Go home,” Fenella said sternly.

  He smiled and then pulled her close. “Not without at least one kiss,” he said softly. One kiss turned into several as Fenella felt herself getting lost in an almost overwhelming physical attraction. When Donald finally lifted his head, he stared at her for a moment.

  “Maybe I should come up for coffee, after all,” he said.

  Knowing he wasn’t talking about coffee, Fenella shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said, annoyed with herself for sounding uncertain.

  “I’ll be back on the island by the end of May,” he said. “I’ll ring you.”

  “Thank you for an interesting evening,” Fenella said.

  Donald kissed her very gently on the lips and then nodded at his driver. The man got out of the car and quickly opened Fenella’s door for her. She felt slightly giddy as she walked across the lobby and into the elevator.

  “I did warn you about Donald,” Mona said as Fenella let herself into the apartment. “You look like a teenaged girl who’s just had her first kiss. That simply won’t do.”

  Fenella shook her head. “I remember the warning,” she said. “And I’m taking it slowly and being careful. But I have to tell you, that man can kiss.”

  Mona frowned, but Fenella ignored her and took herself off to bed.

  14

  Katie didn’t let Fenella oversleep the next morning. After she tried patting Fenella’s nose, to no avail, she jumped up on Fenella’s chest and bounced up and down several times.

  “Really?” Fenella said. “I had a late night and a lot of wine. I don’t want to wake up.”

  “Meerroow,” Katie said, sounding almost sympathetic. She jumped off the bed and raced out of the room. A moment later Fenella could hear her shouting loudly from the kitchen.

  “You won’t starve to death if you have to wait another hour for breakfast,” Fenella called loudly.

  A moment later she could hear Katie walking back toward the bedroom. When everything went oddly quiet, Fenella sat up in bed. It took her a minute to realize that the faint noise she could hear was the toilet paper being unwound. She’d forgotten to close the bathroom door last night when she went to bed.

  “Katie!” she shouted. The kitten’s small head peered around the bathroom door.

  “Errowwoww?” she said in a quizzical tone.

  “Get out of the bathroom,” Fenella said sternly.

  Katie stalked out of the bathroom and through the bedroom back into the kitchen. Fenella sighed as the small animal began to loudly complain about her lack of breakfast again.

  “Maybe I should give you to Shelly,” Fenella muttered under her breath as she climbed out of bed. In the bathroom, the entire roll of toilet paper had been unwound onto the floor. Fenella rolled it back up, thankful at least that Katie hadn’t had time to shred it. With that job done and the bathroom door firmly shut, Fenella went into the kitchen and gave Katie her breakfast.

  “And now I’m going back to bed,” she told her pet. “And I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  She was just climbing back under the duvet when someone knocked on her door. Suddenly aware that she hadn’t given poor Peter a single thought since dinner yesterday, Fenella rushed to answer it.

  “I’ve woken you,” Shelly said apologetically.

  “No, Katie woke me,” Fenella told her. “She’s very good at it.”

  Shelly laughed. “I just finished making a nice breakfast for Peter and I thought I would see if you wanted to go on an errand with me.”

  “How is Peter?” Fenella asked.

  “He’s doing well. He has some business associates visiting this morning and then they’re meant to be taking him out for lunch. He has promised me he won’t make any important decisions for a few days, regardless.”

  “That’s probably wise,” Fenella said.

  “Yes, so I told him that I’d come over in time to make him something for dinner. I didn’t know what you had planned for today,” Shelly said.

  Fenella frowned. “I know there’s something, but I can’t think what,” she said. “Maybe it will come back to me after I get showered and dressed.”

  “Did you have a nice time last night?” Shelly asked.

  “I did, thanks,” Fenella said. “It was an interesting evening, but I met far too many people and I don’t remember anyone’s name.”

  Fenella invited the other woman inside, and Shelly played with Katie while Fenella got her
self ready for the day. As she walked out of the bedroom, she glanced at the answering machine and remembered her appointment.

  “I’m supposed to go back to the Sea Terminal to meet with Captain Howard this afternoon,” she said with a sigh. “I’m not looking forward to that.”

  “Do you have to go?” Shelly asked.

  “I don’t know. The woman from the ferry company did say that the police were going to be there. I don’t know if that means it’s an official meeting or not.”

  “Ring Daniel and ask him,” Shelly suggested.

  Fenella frowned. She hadn’t seen Daniel in several days; calling him seemed awkward. “Maybe I’ll just go,” she said.

  “Does that mean your morning is free?” Shelly asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” Fenella replied.

  “Would you like to come with me to the animal shelter, then? I think it’s time I found myself a kitten.”

  Fenella grinned. “I’d love to,” she said.

  The nearest shelter wasn’t far away, so the pair decided to walk.

  “I want a white kitten,” Shelly told Fenella. “Or maybe white and black. And I definitely want a kitten. Older cats have their own sets of challenges. I want to be able to bring up a kitten myself, rather than worry about what my cat’s previous owner might have done.”

  “I do think kittens are wonderful, but they can be incredibly mischievous,” Fenella said, thinking about rolling up the toilet paper.

  “I’m home nearly all the time,” Shelly pointed out. “She won’t have the opportunity to cause any mischief.”

  Inside the shelter, dozens of cats of all ages were spread out around the room. Some were lounging on chairs or couches and others were curled up in cat beds that seemed to be nearly everywhere.

  “How can we help you?” the woman behind the desk asked as Fenella and Shelly approached.

  “I’ve decided I want to adopt a kitten,” Shelly said.

  “How nice,” the woman exclaimed. “Have a good look around. We have a few kittens scattered around the place. Give them all a good look and then let me know which one you like best.”