Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom Read Free

shot back. “For one thing, it’s time you thought
about hiring help for the inn. You’ve managed to successfully book
more rooms in the last six months than in all of last year. And if
we used Lacey’s house as an event venue, we could control the kinds
of parties that are held there and make sensible rules about the
number of guests. Did you know the fire department recently was
called there because there were too many people in the house at one
time? It’s a violation of the fire code to have more than fifty
people in there.”
    “How many were there?”
I teased. “Fifty one? Let me guess, one of Lacey’s friends called
to complain, all in anticipation of kicking Karin
out?”
    “There were more than
seventy people, Scarlet, and some of them were smoking. You know
that there’s a no-smoking rule!” It took me a moment to realize how
upset Laurel was about the situation.
    “So, why doesn’t Lacey
just kick Karin out and rent the house to some nice
family?”
    “Like the last time?”
Leave it to Laurel to remind me of the Jordan family’s terrifying
ordeal at the hands of a couple of creeps. “And have you forgotten
how close
you
came to being killed, Scarlet
Wilson?”
    I winced at the
reminder, knowing how frightened she had been while I was among the
missing.
Not that it was a day in
the park for me...far from it.
    “We could have Kenny do
a thorough background check on any new tenants,
Mom.”
    “You’re impossible!” my
mother sniffed haughtily, whirling her wheelchair around and
rolling away, on her way back to the house. As we watched her
disappear, my assistant shook her head.
    “Oh, Miz Scarlet,
you’ve done it now,” Jenny warned me ominously. “Your mother is not
happy with you!”
    “It’s hardly the first
time I’ve disappointed Laurel,” I assured the young college
student. “I doubt it will be the last.”
    “But you don’t
understand. They really have their hearts set on this wedding
business. The Googins girls have been talking about it for
weeks.”
    “For weeks and you
didn’t warn me?” I pretended to glower at her. “That’s the thanks I
get for all the many wonderful things I’ve done for you, you rotten
little twit?”
    “I know,” she grinned
sheepishly. “I should have told you, but they swore me to secrecy.
That’s because Edna....”
    “Edna Rivera is mixed
up in all this?” Those words were the equivalent of mental alarm
bells ringing off the wall. My best friend’s mother, better known
as the Queen of Clean, had stayed at the inn over the Christmas
holiday and the only person more relieved than me when she left was
her daughter, Laurencia, better known as Larry.
    “Well, she said
Wallace’s house had so much potential as a wedding venue, but it
needs better management. Lacey and your mother agreed that you
should take over.”
    That was just what I
didn’t need -- three determined ladies giving me business advice.
Sure, Edna had been head of the housekeeping staff for a small
nursing facility in Atlanta for years, but that’s hardly the same
thing as running an inn, is it? And as for Laurel and Lacey, the
closest they ever got to being innkeepers was to mix the cocktails
in the living room for guests and handle the odd task now and then.
I was the one who did all the heavy lifting and
schlepping.
    “Does Larry know about
this?” I demanded, turning my disapproving gaze on the
co-conspirator next to me. Jenny gave a quick, embarrassed shrug of
those tiny shoulders of hers. I was pretty sure that Edna had kept
it a secret from her daughter. That’s because Larry would have put
the kibosh on it right away.
    “I only found out about
it by accident,” she admitted, “when I overheard them
talking.”
    “I’m missing
something,” I said. Obviously, the ladies had been at this for some
time. The plan had evolved beyond the speculative stage, especially
if they were talking about expanding the Four Acorns Inn staff and
bringing Edna onboard.