Read Online The Mysterious Disappearance of the Reluctant Book Fairy by Elizabeth George - Free Book Online

preferred it this way as she felt guilty enough already without having her husband discover that she’d been inside Max de Winter’s hotel room during his morning ablutions, no matter how innocent her intentions. Dwayne was, after all, a man dedicated to all things concrete. Not for him was the world of imagination which, as he’d been taught at the knees of his Baptist mother, was the devil’s own workshop and best avoided.
    She said to him, “We’ve got to get Annapurna away from Langley. This whole Epic! enterprise is going to kill her.”
    â€œMonroe’s a nice town,” was his sage advice. “And it’s got a Lowe’s.”
    Monie felt her spirits sink. Monroe? What on earth was he thinking? There was no there there, and even if there had been, did he really expect that a suburb within an hour’s drive of the ferry to Whidbey Island was going to suffice? And anyway, she wasn’t talking about Annapurna’s leaving Whidbey. Annapurna had said she wouldn’t go. Which was what Monie next asserted.
    â€œOak Harbor then,” was Dwayne’s next offering, not an unreasonable one as it was some thirty plus miles to the north of Langley with a population among whom one might be able to hide. “Walmart’s there. So’s Home Depot.”
    â€œStop thinking about box stores,” Monie cried. “D’you honestly expect that Annapurna is going to be impressed by the presence of box stores?”
    â€œThe naval air station? She might meet some officer and fall in love.”
    â€œGod. You’re … you’re impossible,” she said. “I can’t come up with where to disappear her on my own, and if you think she’d ever consent to live in some … some completely soulless place, then—”
    Wish I could have stayed there forever! was what struck Monie to silence in the middle of her thought. I mean, why not? Couldn’t it happen? And if you’d seen the mansion, not to mention the piles of food and endless bottles of champagne … and the swimming pool! I swear to God you’d feel the same. Monie, hearing this and trying desperately not to judge the astonishing butt size of the woman who uttered it—sat up straight in her chair—the eternal posture of the eavesdropper—and picked up further with I could make him forget Daisy Buchanan in no time flat , which led Monie to Jay Gatsby first and the miraculous, obvious solution second.
    She was afire to speak to Annapurna without delay. She developed an instantaneous headache requiring Dwayne to whisk her home. There, she took an Aleve to reassure him of her intentions not to have a headache when next they met for the necessary culmination of their night of romance, and with a “Give me a half hour to recover, sweetie,” she shut herself up in their bedroom and got on the phone.
    She phoned Annapurna first. She said, “Adventure, mystery, crime, or romance?”
    â€œWhat about them?”
    â€œJust answer. Don’t think. Thinking always complicates a situation. Just say it quickly: adventure, mystery, crime, or romance.”
    â€œWho is this, please? My number’s unlisted.”
    â€œWho the hell do you think it is, Annapurna? I bet you haven’t had a chance to talk to your siblings or your parents in months.”
    â€œAh. Monie.”
    â€œAh Monie is right. This is date night. I have thirty minutes before Dwayne expects sex. Let’s get down to business. Adventure, mystery, crime, or romance. We’re talking books here. Make a choice.”
    â€œIt’s not that easy.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause I’d have to say at least two of them.”
    â€œAll right. Fine. We can work with that. Which two?”
    â€œProbably mystery and romance. They seem to go together, don’t they?”
    â€œMain character: married or single?”
    â€œDoes it actually matter?”
    â€œFor