Read Online Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery) by Sara M. Barton - Free Book Online Page B

If I have my own drink, she won’t think
you’re using this because her hands shake. Clever.”
    “You’re going to make a good nurse, Jenny.”
    “I hope so.”
    “I know so.”
    As the days passed, we settled into a routine.
Mornings we spent cleaning the inn. Just before lunch, we headed to
the third floor, to tackle the new bedroom for the teen. Two coats
of lavender paint and some colorful fabric shades cheered up the
space nicely. We painted the antique pine floors and added a thick,
shag rug. In the afternoons, I tutored students and Jenny took
driving lessons. We often went hiking around three, and when we
returned, she helped me in the kitchen while I prepared dinner for
the inn guests and the Googins girls. At night, she gravitated to
the living room, where the adults played Scrabble, watched TV, or
chatted.
    For some reason, she took a liking to Bur. Maybe it
was that he teased her. Maybe it was because he reminded her of
someone. Maybe it was because she didn’t have a sibling and thought
it was hilarious that we still went at it, even at our advanced
ages. The truth came out the day we finally got a new mattress for
the bed we found at a yard sale. Bur was helping us move the
furniture around in her new room.
    “What time you want to hit the road today,
squirt?”
    “Can we do it in an hour?”
    “Sure. Fine with me.”
    “Hit the road?” I looked at the pair of them,
surprised. “Where are you two going?”
    “Practice time,” my brother announced.
    “Bur takes me driving,” she explained. No wonder she
tolerated him. She wanted that license.
    “How did that happen?” I asked. It’s not like my
brother is known for being kind to children or animals, at least
not normally.
    “Lacey offered,” said Bur, “and I told her that she
didn’t have the right car insurance for that. She wanted to know
what it would take to get the girl behind the wheel and I said I’d
take her in the Focus.”
    “Where was I when all this was going on?”
    “Teaching.” Of course. Wouldn’t you
know that my brother would take my car and let a teenager wreak havoc on the road
while I was otherwise engaged? This is why we shortened his
nickname from Colonel Grey Poupon to just Poup. Sometimes he was
just a royal stinker.
    “Very clever, colonel. When did you intend to tell
me?”
    One look at Jen and I could see she was nervous.
“It’s my fault, Scarlet. I asked him to keep it a secret. I wanted
to surprise you by getting my license.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.” No one had ever thought to do something
like that before. Made me think there was more to it than that.
“Did you fail the first time around?”
    “How did you know?”
    “Tell you what. You and Bur keep doing what you’re
doing. And when you do get your license, we’ll all celebrate. How
does that sound?”
    “Aw, great.” There was that big grin. It broke the
tight tension around her eyes and made her look like a kid
again.
    Of course, in the meantime, it meant she had to be
driven everywhere, or rather escorted. We were headed out to the
grocery store one morning, in my Ford Focus mind you, and on
impulse I tossed her the keys.
    “Oh, I couldn’t!”
    “Because....”
    “Um, ah...well, I guess I could.”
    After that, she took it for granted that I would let
her drive everywhere we went, and for the first time in my life, I
had to trust a teenager not to get me killed. Was this what every
parent went through? Lucky for me she was a pretty good driver,
once she let go of all that anxiety.
    The last days of July turned into August, and Kenny
suggested we take another trip, this time with Jenny in tow.
    “Where?” I asked.
    “New Hampshire. We have a court date.”
    “We do?”
    “Oh, yeah. It turns out that at the time Stevie took
over the house from Jenny’s mother, he had already had her declared
non compos mentis, because the cancer had spread to her brain. In
fact, when he married her, she was barely able to communicate,