Read Online Much Ado About Muffin by Victoria Hamilton - Free Book Online Page B

Roma/Minnie thing by the time I got home, but fortunately Pish was closeted in the library with Roma trying to get something on tape, so I had time to calm down. During dinner I edged the conversation toward the confrontation between Roma and Minnie. Pish gave me a look, so I stopped. As much as I was going to try to get along with her, we would have to have a serious chat about his protégé.
    Tony texted me that afternoon in response to my question about my luggage, that he had shipped it with a tracking number, as he’d said he would. On his end the tracking showed that it was in Autumn Vale. It was quite possible that Minnie was messing with me; it wouldn’t be the first time. It was Tuesday; the post office closed early Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I glanced at the clock, but I still had time, so just before closing I called and asked Minnie if my luggage had arrived.
    â€œNo,” she said abruptly.
    â€œMy brother-in-law said that the tracking app shows that it
has
arrived in Autumn Vale.”
    â€œWell, it hasn’t. You saying I’m lying? Wanna make something of it?”
    I was taken aback; I had not been rude, just forthright. I heard a murmur in the background. Who was she talking to in the post office? “Minnie, it has to be there. Who should I believe, you or the U.S. postal service app?”
    â€œHey, don’t you threaten me!” she yelled.
    â€œThreaten? I didn’t—”
    â€œThat’s enough outta you, Merry Wynter; I don’t have to listen to your bull. Come in tomorrow and see for yourself!” She hung up.
    I stomped around and pushed a vacuum cleaner upstairs for a while, then went out and called Becket, to no avail. Later I called Gogi to vent. She had her own campaign going against Minnie, and was sympathetic. I cheered up when we made plans to go shopping in Rochester the next day. I wanted to go to Lane Bryant, so we decided on the Mall at Greece Ridge in Greece, a suburb of Rochester, because they also have a Charlotte Russe, which has gorgeous plus-size clothes, and an Ashley Stewart, a plus-size store. My sweet Shilo calls me “plush-size”; leave it to her to find some cute way to put it. Gogi wanted to hit Christopher & Banks, which was having a BOGO sale. She was looking for work-appropriate dresses, but she doesn’t do fuddy-duddy sixty-plus women’s wear. Of course, we’d also stop at Barnes & Noble—I planned to buy new bestsellers for the library—and Sears.
    *   *   *
    The next morning I drank my coffee while sending texts to some New York friends to fill them in on my return from Spain, then got myself going. It was Wednesday . . . Hump Day for the five-day-a-week workers of the world. I grabbed my purse and headed through the darkgreat hall toward the big double oak doors, but one creaked open as I approached. Roma entered, swiftly and quietly, turning and stealthily closing it. Odd. Roma was a sleep-in-late kind of woman.
    â€œWhat are you doing up and about at such an early hour?” I asked.
    She jumped and whirled, leaning back against the door. “Uh, I was out walking,” she said, nerves fraying her voice. “Trying to . . . to expand my lungs, you know, to get more air in them. We’re doing another session this morning.”
    â€œOkay.”
    She seemed alarmed and was breathing fast, almost panting.
    â€œWere you jogging? You seem out of breath.”
    â€œI was just walking fast around the field, by the woods. Gathering solace from nature!” She brushed past me and clattered up the stairs, disappearing along the gloomy gallery to her room, her high-heeled boots making clomping sounds.
    I left the castle, shaking my head in perplexity, but paused by my car and listened to the quietude: crickets, a couple of crows cawing, and not much else. Except for an odd
tick-tick-tick
sound. I glanced around. Some new insect? Weird.
    It was