Read Online Wedding Cake Killer by Livia J. Washburn - Free Book Online

house that she wanted with her, and Sam drove Eve’s car, which had been parked at Phyllis’s house since before the wedding.
    The place was every bit as charming as Roy had made it sound. In January, the scenery wasn’t as nice as it would be in the spring, summer, and fall, but it was still a picturesque landscape with wooded hills rolling away and then dropping into the valley of the Brazos River.
    “It’s lovely,” Phyllis told Eve as they all stood on the house’s front porch, looking down toward the river.
    Sam rested his hands on the porch’s railing, which was made from rustic cedar posts, and nodded. “Yeah, a fella could get used to this view,” he said.
    “And it really is peaceful here,” Carolyn admitted.
    “Yes, it’s so beautiful and serene that we’ve had trouble working up the enthusiasm for getting out and looking for a place of our own,” Eve said with a smile. “It’s been easier just to sit back and enjoy this place.”
    “Well, that’s all right . . . for a while,” Phyllis said.
    “Oh, I’m sure we’ll find a house soon,” Roy said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
    A car turned off the farm-to-market road that ran between the hills and started up the long gravel drive toward the house. As it approached, the door went up on the much newer two-car garage that was attached to the old farmhouse.
    “Those are the owners, Pete and Jan Delaney,” Eve said. “Very nice people.”
    Instead of closing the garage door after the car had pulled in, the woman who got out walked around to the front of the house instead and gave them a friendly smile as she said, “Hi, folks. Eve, are these your friends?”
    “That’s right. Jan, this is Phyllis Newsom, Carolyn Wilbarger, and Sam Fletcher.”
    The woman came up the steps to the porch and shook hands with all of them. “Jan Delaney,” she said. “I’m so glad to meet you. Eve has talked a lot about all of you.”
    Jan was in her mid-forties, Phyllis guessed, a very attractive woman with short chestnut hair. She wore jeans and an open flannel shirt over a sweatshirt. She had a down-to-earth air about her that probably came from living in the country. Phyllis had seen that attitude in her own parents, both of whom had been raised on farms.
    The man who followed Jan from the car was a little shorter and stockier, with graying dark hair and an open, friendly face. Jan held out a hand toward him and said, “This is my husband, Pete.”
    “Nice to meet you folks,” Pete Delaney said with a nod. He didn’t seem to be as outgoing as his wife, but he was certainly pleasant enough. Phyllis found herself liking both of them right away.
    Pete went on, “I’ll get those groceries taken in and put up, Jan.”
    “Let me give you a hand,” Sam volunteered.
    “I’d be glad to help, too,” Roy added.
    Pete shook his head. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to bother you folks.”
    “No bother,” Sam insisted. “Come on.”
    Pete smiled and said, “In that case . . .”
    The three men went to the garage, leaving the women on the porch.
    “You have a lovely home here,” Phyllis said to Jan.
    “Thank you. As soon as I saw the place, I knew I had to have it. There’s something about it that affects nearly everybody the same way. They want to stay for a while.” Jan laughed. “But Pete and I decided to stay forever. We’d had enough of moving around.” She paused. “Pete was a colonel in the army before he retired. We lived all over the world. I guess that made me always want a place of my own, a place where I could just stay and stay and never have to pack up and move again.”
    “I can imagine,” Carolyn said.
    Pete Delaney hadn’t really seemed like the military type to Phyllis, but she knew that appearances could be deceiving.
    “It’s nice of you to let Eve and Roy stay here like this,” she said.
    “Oh, we were happy to give them a good rate and have them move in for a while. At this time of year we don’t do much