Read Online Nooks & Crannies by Jessica Lawson - Free Book Online

friends.
    Squeak!
    â€œI know, I’m being ridiculous.”
    Still, as the others exited their rooms in the west wing, Tabitha couldn’t help but notice how confident Frances was, how she casually whispered something in Oliver’s ear, and how comfortable Edward and Viola were together.
    â€œTabitha, come with us.” Viola held out a hand. “I simply can’t wait to find out why we’re all here! Isn’t it exciting? I haven’t a clue what’s going to happen, but it’s bound to be spectacular. It’s like Bonfire Night, just before the fireworks light up the sky.”
    â€œYes,” said Edward, “except now we have to tour the house before we even find out what this business is about. Parlor this, drawing room that, here’s money, there’s money. It’s like being invited to Buckingham Palace and then first having to tour the extra-special toilet facilities with perfumed—”
    â€œEdward, stop.” Viola’s hand wiggled a little, her fingers brushing Tabitha’s dangling ones. “Are you all right?”
    â€œOh, well, um, yes.” Stupid Tabitha, just take her hand! Though her inner voice had been rather rude, Tabitha took its advice and lay her palm in Viola’s.
    Viola squeezed and leaned in to whisper, her breath a warm wisp of air against Tabitha’s cheek. “Boring tour or not, I’m dying to meet the Countess, aren’t you?”
    â€œDying,” Tabitha repeated, thinking about Edward’s words and an Inspector Pensive novel where a body was found in a water closet during a manor tour.
    Pemberley rumbled about in her pocket, and she used her empty hand to free a piece of chocolate biscuit she’d hidden under her collar. She was just poking the morsel into her apron when she bumped into a very solid wall.

The number and quality of rooms touted in mansion tours is rarely as impressive and extensive as the wealth of secrets nestled within its walls.
    â€”Inspector Percival Pensive,
    The Case of the Enigmatic Encumbrancer
    T he wall Tabitha had just run into, as it turned out, was the butler. Black uniform fabric pressed against Tabitha’s face, and she noticed that Phillips’s clothes felt strangely cold in a manor that was such a furnace of wealth. He stood at the base of the grand staircase, staging himself three steps up so that he looked down on the parents, who were leaning collectively forward.
    â€œPardon me ,” Phillips said, gently pushing her into the parent clump with a slight bow of apology.
    Tabitha let herself be squeezed into the cluster and was gradually pushed out of its backside. Viola had been right. There was an electricity to the air—a sense of anticipation and building pressure that had followed them from the hotel lobby and escalated. Even Pemberley was restless, scratching at Tabitha’s sweater until his nose found the small hole.
    They’re all desperate to know why we’re here, Sir Pemby. And I can hardly blame them. This whole manor feels like a powder keg, just waiting for a flame.
    Inclining his head a very butlerish fifteen degrees to one side, Phillips inhaled and exhaled deeply, then nodded at the gathering. “Hollingsworth Hall was built in the fifteenth century. Many a wealthy man has owned the estate, but never has such a charitable woman come into its possession until Camilla Lenore DeMoss’s purchase of the property in 1880.”
    â€œAre those two gentlemen the previous owners?” asked Mrs. Crum. She pointed to the portraits in the foyer.
    Phillips sighed and wove his hands behind his back. “I really couldn’t say, madam. The portraits were here when I arrived two years ago. Now follow me to the library.” He strode directly down the middle of the group, parting them and turning to walk gracefully backward as he spoke. “In addition to private rooms, the Hall contains—”
    Barnaby’s mother