A Touch of the Grape: A Hemlock Falls Mystery (Hemlock Falls Mystery series) Read Free Page A

College. My Hugh wishes me to be more conversable. Right now, we are studying the American labor movement."
    "Associated with what?" Ellen asked.
    "Associates," Quill said. "She's getting her A.A. And you're right, Selena. Mary Lennox was a lady-in-waiting. To Mary, Queen of Scots."
    No one seemed especially interested in this, and Quill went back to considering the dog.
    "How come you called Ms. Patch the craftless Crafty Lady?" Doreen asked.
    Ellen winked. " 'Cause she's not wearing anything handmade. All store-bought."
    "Just call me an oddball," Freddie said. She had soft, rose leaf cheeks and very pure white hair that floated around her head like cotton. "I can't find anything I really like to make. And I've tried it all. I'm all thumbs, too." She held out her hands, which were a little swollen with arthritis. Quill felt a tinge of pity. "I'm hopeless at needlepoint, lousy at wood carving, terrible at cross-stitch. I can't even do plastic forks and glue."
    "Fans," Ellen said, by way of explanation. "You make fans by gluing plastic forks together. You line them up, parallel to each other, with the tines facing j'n."
    "You could try rag work," Doreen said unexpectedly. "I seen some pret' good work done out of just rags, like."
    "You mean like rag rugs?" Robin said. Her hair was dyed a pinkish-blond somewhat at odds with her wrin kles and bright red lipstick. Her sweatshirt displayed her expertise with sequins: a vegetable garden of red radishes, emerald lettuces, and carrots spread from bosom to bosom. Or maybe the radishes were tomatoes; Quill wasn't certain. "Now there's something for you, Freddie. Rag work is fun, inexpensive; and you can do it in the privacy of your own home."
    "Money innit, too," Doreen added, with a significant look at Quill. "Be happy to show ya. If you are innerested."
    "Really?" said Freddie. "I'd like it if you did. It sounds like something I'd like to try."
    "What I do is, is I run a class," Doreen said. "Twenny bucks an hour; takes maybe five, six hours to learn it. I don't earn twenny an hour myself," Doreen added. "This rag class is part of the entertainment offered by the Inn."
    "Since when?" Meg demanded.
    "Since we're broke," Doreen said flatly.
    "Stop," Quill said. "You guys, honestly!" She laughed in what she hoped was a lighthearted and careless way. "Ha, ha."
    "We are broke," Doreen said remorselessly. "And if we don't walk right …"
    Ellen intervened with an executive-style firmness, which demonstrated just why she had been elected her organization's vice president. "Maybe we should discuss it after the tour of the Inn?" She turned to Quill. "We thought we were to meet at ten-thirty? It's way after that now."
    Dismayed, Quill looked at her watch. "My goodness, I'm so sorry. I had no idea …" She gave the azalea bush a quick glance. The tail was gone, and so presumably was the dog. "Selena, can you excuse me? Ellen and her group particularly asked to see each of the suites in the Inn. I developed a little speech to go with the tour. I'm sorry to get you out on a rainy day like this, and we couldn't even catch the poor thing …"
    "It's not a problem at all," Selena said with an absentminded air. "I'm sure Meg and Doreen and I can take care of it. Tell me, is there a fee for the tour of the suites?"
    Quill felt her cheeks flush. If the village of Hemlock Falls had any criticism of the two women who ran their internationally renowned Inn and restaurant, it was that they were too "highfalutin." Quill, the first to demur becomingly when accused of elitism, was self-consciously aware she was also the first to wince at the thought of paid tours of her Inn. The second rule of good innkeeping was that guests were, well, guests. (The first rule, laid down after six months in business eight years ago, was that you didn't belt the guests. Unless severely provoked.) Guests, as Nero Wolfe would have put it, were to be treated as "jewels on the cushion of hospi tality." Specifically, one didn't