Read Online Much Ado In the Moonlight by Lynn Kurland - Free Book Online Page B

then.”
    And with that, he turned and walked out the back kitchen door.
    Out through the back kitchen door.
    Victoria was very glad she was sitting down.
    Ambrose made her a low bow as well, then left in much the same way.
    Hugh made no move to go. He smiled widely, revealing a rather gap-toothed bit of dental business. “Well, gels, now ’tis just us McKinnons here—”
    Hugh . . .
    Hugh scowled and remained seated.
    HUGH!
    He muttered something under his breath, then rose and made a low bow. “I will return. When Ambrose is napping,” he added in a stage whisper.
    He tossed his cup into the fire, then walked out the kitchen door in the same manner as the others had in exiting the inn’s kitchen.
    Victoria sat at the table with dinner she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to eat spread out in front of her and stared at the place where three men had just recently sat, all looking as corporeal and alive as Megan.
    Now there was only Megan, still sitting there in front of the fire. “I think I should be going to bed,” she said, stretching. “I’ve got to get back to London tomorrow morning—”
    “Don’t you dare,” Victoria commanded. “You can sleep on the train. Right now, I want you to turn around and spill the beans.”
    “Beans?”
    Victoria blew out her breath in frustration. “The ghosts, Megan!”
    Megan laughed as she turned her chair around and drew it up to the table. “I warned you that the inn was haunted.”
    “Yes, but I didn’t believe...” Victoria paused. She couldn’t say she didn’t believe her, because now she’d had ample proof to the contrary. “I’m not hallucinating all this, am I?”
    “What do you think?”
    “I think I saw Hugh McKinnon in the basement of Tempest in a Teapot a week ago. But I didn’t know ghosts were—” she had to take a deep breath before she could finish, “—international travelers.”
    “Most probably aren’t,” Megan conceded.
    Victoria looked at Megan and felt a sudden new respect for her. Her sister, the ghost-buster. “Did you discover these three on your own?”
    “It was sort of a mutual encounter,” Megan admitted. “Though if you were to ask Ambrose, he would tell you that he planned the whole thing.”
    “What whole thing?”
    “My meeting Gideon here.”
    Victoria blinked. “They arranged your marriage?”
    “Well, I wouldn’t go that far—”
    “They’re matchmakers ?” Victoria asked incredulously.
    “They would certainly like to think so. After all, we are kin. I think they feel somewhat obligated to see us settled well.”
    “Well, that stretches even the formidable reaches of my whopping imagination.” She pursed her lips. “Really, Megan. It was just coincidence that you met Gideon here. A happy coincidence,” she added quickly, “but just chance. Not fate. Not matchmaking ghosts.”
    “Think what you like,” Megan said airily.
    “And Thomas?” Victoria demanded. “Do you actually believe they had anything to do with his marriage? I admit I haven’t had much time to get to know Iolanthe, but surely she was just bamboozled by his pretty blue eyes—without any other kinds of otherworldly convincing going on.”
    But even as she said it, she wondered.
    Thomas had just happened upon news of Thorpewold going up for sale. He’d bought it, sight unseen. He’d rearranged his life on a whim to take possession of it. Oddly enough, he’d somehow managed to meet his wife while working on it.
    Oddly enough.
    Victoria got up suddenly, rummaged around for a knife, then sat back down to make short work of dinner.
    “You know, I’m getting tired,” Megan began.
    “Tough.”
    “You’ll be all right by yourself.”
    “It isn’t that I need company,” Victoria said, trying her damndest to convince herself that it was true. “It’s just that I want your company.”
    “Liar.”
    “We haven’t had a chance to catch up,” Victoria continued, feeling rather desperate all of a sudden. “And we won’t