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“Well, it ain’t good news, Mrs...ah...Ms...”
“Merry.” I lock my smile in place and try to resist the urge to remind Bill Hughes - owner and proprietor of Bill the Bug Guy, Silver Brook’s premier pest control company - that he’s known me for at least a decade. He was once on a bowling team with my ex-husband. “Just call me Merry.”
“Right. Merry.” He shoots me a relieved grin, then looks down at the scrap of paper he’s been furiously scribbling on since he stepped across the threshold of my poor, suffering home. “It looks like an infestation and that isn’t going to be an easy job to fix. Or a quick one.” He pauses and I’m pretty sure his grin widens. “Or a cheap one.” He passes me the piece of paper. “Here’s what you’re looking at for me to sort the problem for you.” He taps the larger of the two massive figures he’s worked out for me. “This much if it’s a rush job.”
“I see.” The edges of my vision blacken and I’m pretty sure I see stars for a minute. This is going to pretty much clear out my emergency savings but I suppose if anything qualifies as an emergency it’s termites threatening to destroy my house. “And is there any way I can pay in installments?”
“Huh?”
I pass the scrap of paper back to him.
“I could give you a deposit to get the work started, then make payments on the rest?” I swallow, forcing my voice to soften. “For old times’ sake?”
“Well...” Bill scratches his chin. “I don’t usually do things that way...I mean, there’s a lot of upfront costs to me, y’see, and...”
“Fine.” My smile stretches painfully across my face. “No problem. I can make it work.” Maybe I can sell a kidney or something. Something soft thumps into the back of my leg, making my knee give and I bend down to see Snuffy, my cat, winding himself around my ankles.
“You’ll have to move out, too. And take the cat with you.” Bill gestures towards Snuffy, who sniffs and continues to paw at my feet. “I’ll probably need to tent the place and that isn’t great for people. Or animals.” He glances around the room, eyeing several leggy houseplants. “Or living things in general.” He shrugs. “It’ll take about a week.”
“A week?” I bend down and scoop Snuffy into my arms. “Where am I supposed to go?”
Bill looks momentarily horrified as if I’ve asked him to put us up and I shake my head, forestalling his panic.
“I’m just thinking out loud.”
“Most people go and stay with family. Friends.” He shrugs. “Surely there’s someone in town with a spare room you can stay in.”
I nod but privately I’m not so sure. The two people I’d usually ask - my best friends Jeremy and Kate - are currently out of town on a romantic getaway together. There’s my boyfriend, but we’re not exactly at the living-together stage in our relationship just yet. Snuffy squirms, reminding me of the other, major, reason staying at Rob’s is an impossibility. He has two very large, very soppy, but very decidedly un-cat-friendly dogs.
“Well, I’d better get going,” Bill says. “You have my number if you need to ask me anything else. If you want to go ahead with the work just call and we’ll get things moving.” He leans over and tentatively scratches Snuffy behind the ears. “Just don’t take too long. With problems like this, they only get worse, the longer you leave ’em.” He winks, and I know at least some of the worse is more expensive. I can practically hear my bank account dwindling to zero with every second that ticks by.
“I’ll give you a call later today. Tomorrow at the latest,” I promise. “Just as soon as I sort a few details out.”
I show him out and shut the door, surveying the house as if it isn’t currently trying to drive me insane. I’ve always loved this place but lately it’s starting to feel like it might be a little cursed. It began with a leaking faucet that I bravely assured my helpful boyfriend that I was more than capable of fixing myself. My foray into feminism meant an emergency late-night call to a plumber and cost me twice as much as if I’d let Rob look at it, to begin with. Then there was the intermittent electrical fault that had things switching themselves on and off at odd hours of the day and night. Once lights started flickering and I’d convinced myself the house was haunted the problem was proved to be faulty wiring, which was a little easier to fix than a resident ghost might have been. And then came the termites.
“Oh well,” I say to Snuffy. “If bad luck comes in threes I guess we’re well and truly out of the woods after this.” Which is good, because if anything else needs fixing around here I’ll need to start paying for it with my good looks and that isn’t going to get me very far. “Right, you.” I drop Snuffy down on the sofa and grab my purse and keys, making for the door. I left my friend Phoebe to open up the Jitterbug Junction today so I could stay home and speak to Bill, but I promised her I wouldn’t leave her flying solo in the café for long. I certainly can’t afford for anything to go wrong with the business now I’m about to fork out all my available cash to keep my house standing. I give Snuffy one last pet and head out, driving the short distance to the center of Silver Brook while I think over my options. I can’t stay with Kate and Jeremy. I shouldn’t stay with Rob - even though I’m sure he’d find some way to make it work if I needed him to. There must be another option. The idea hits me as I roll into my usual parking space. It’ll mean more money, but it’ll also enable me to keep a little bit more of my independence while my house is out of action. The Harmony Inn. Silver Brook’s best - and only - Bed and Breakfast is sure to have a room I can use for the week or so I need somewhere else to stay. I bite my lip. I’ll just have to see if I can persuade Hannah Kincaid to let me bring Snuffy with me...
***
“NO ANIMALS.”
I’d thought it was a sign from the universe when Hannah herself came into the Jitterbug Junction for her morning latte, and even though she was surrounded by other members of the Silver Brook Sewing Circle, I took my chance and asked about a room at the inn that’s been in her family for generations.
“Oh, but Snuffy’s more than just an animal.” I smile. “He’s practically human. He’s so well-behaved, and -”
“No animals.” Hannah frowns at me, then slowly puts down her needle and thread to free up her hands for counting. “No animals. No smoking. No drinking. No members of the opposite sex in your room unless you are married.” She purses her lips. “To that person, I mean.”
I nod, tugging nervously on one of my favorite beaded earrings.
“Meals need to be booked in advance, and mealtimes will be strictly observed.” She arches a penciled-on eyebrow. “I know it sounds strict, but believe me, I’m a lot more relaxed than my Ma used to be.”
“Not your grandmother, though.”
“Hush!” Hannah silences one of her sewing-circle friends with a look then turns back to me, her scowl melting into a smile. “I’d love for you to come stay with us, Meredith, dear.” Her smile drops. “Providing you can keep to those few simple rules.”
“Of course!” I nod and repeat them back to show how keenly I was listening. “No pets. No smoking or drinking. Nobody else in my room but me.” I smile. “And book meals in advance.”
“She would be allowed to bring that handsome young man of hers to dinner though, wouldn’t she?” Another of the sewing circle ladies beams at me. “He’d certainly brighten up the place.”
“Jean Montrose, if you have complaints about the way I run the Harmony Inn you’re more than welcome to find somewhere else to live.” Hannah huffs, returning to her sewing and running several quick, tight stitches without pausing for breath.
“As if you’d ever manage to run that place without me there to help.” Jean chuckles, entirely undeterred by her old friend. “You can hardly even manage the staff! I heard you arguing with Delphine this morning. What did she want, a pay increase?”
“Never you mind.” Hannah shoots Jean a quelling look. “Delphine needs to remember her place, that’s all. She can’t go around threatening -”
“Threatening?” Jean laughs. “Goodness me, you make it all sound so intriguing! As if mousy little Delphine could ever threaten anyone with anything other than a spilled drink.” She turns to me. “Don’t let Hannah put you off. Harmony Inn is near enough half mine, anyway. You come and stay for as long as you want, Merry. You’d be more than welcome.”
“I didn’t say she wasn’t!” Hannah smiles at me. “You’re very welcome to come and stay in my inn, Meredith.” She puts a subtle, but unmissable emphasis on my inn and I see Jean’s face fall. Hannah continues, oblivious. “I’ll put you in the blue room. It’s not quite the best room in the house, but unfortunately we have quite a few other guests with us at present, so -”
“I’m sure it’ll be lovely,” I say quickly, inwardly rejoicing that I’ve managed to solve my housing problem so quickly and easily. Relatively speaking. “Thank you so much. I’ll need to make a few more arrangements but I will probably come tomorrow, if that’s alright?”
“Very well. You’ll need to check in before noon.”
“Thank you.” My gaze travels past Hannah to Jean, who is smiling again as if she hadn’t felt the weight of her cousin’s snub a few minutes earlier. “Thank you very much.” With one last check on the table to ensure everyone has everything they need, I wander back to the counter, where Phoebe is cleaning and pretending not to eavesdrop on our conversation.
“What was that about?” she asks, in a low, curious voice.
“Just me giving my last dime to Hannah Kincaid.” I groan, then fill Phoebe in on my morning. “Bill wants to tent my house which means Snuffy and I need to find somewhere else to stay for a week.” I sigh. “I’m sorted now, thank goodness, but my cat...”
“He can stay with me.” Phoebe acts as if this is a foregone conclusion. “I mean, my place isn’t very big, but I’m more than happy to take him in for a few days.”
“Really?” I give her an impromptu hug. “That would be great. Rob said he’d find space for him at the vet’s clinic if there was no other option but I hate to think of him locked away in a cage all week.”
“Oh, at mine he’ll have the run of at least one whole room.” Phoebe laughs. She currently rents a small studio apartment and I know she’d like to eventually find somewhere bigger.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” Phoebe tosses a cleaning rag at me. “After all, I kind of owe you. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have that place to begin with. Or this job.” She smiles and we both remember the tragedy that brought Phoebe to Silver Brook to begin with. I’m so glad she stayed. She’s been an asset to the Jitterbug Junction and is well on her way to becoming one of my closest friends. “Only, I should probably warn you about the Harmony Inn...”
“What about it?” My heart sinks. Phoebe stayed at the inn for a few weeks when she first arrived in Silver Brook. If anyone’s going to have a decent insight into the place, it’s her.
“Hannah isn’t joking about the rules. Break them and you’re out. And she and Jean squabble but they back each other up when it counts.” She smiles. “If you want to make Hannah squirm, get Jean talking about the history of the place. They’re cousins, you know, and the inn originally belonged to their great-grandmother.” She pauses. “Or maybe there’s another great in there. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s as old as the hills and has a history to match, which for some reason Hannah Kincaid is not all that fond of talking about.”
“Is that so?” I risk a glance back at the sewing circle to see half a dozen greying heads bent over their work. Everyone is smiling and chatting merrily except for Hannah, who continues to scowl as she works tiny, neat stitches. If she runs her business the same way she handles a needle it looks like my week could be more than a little tense. It might be handy to have a weapon or two at my disposal. “I’ll bear that in mind.”