Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom Read Free Page B

guess I am,” I
laughed. “That ought to put a crimp in their
bonnets!”
    “Wow, Miz Scarlet. I
never knew you were so sneaky!”
    “I beg your
pardon!”
    “Aren’t you stealing
their thunder right out from under them? They’re the ones who want
to start a wedding business.”
    “Hold on there!” I held
up my hands in protest, interrupting her. “Let’s review the facts.
You don’t want the ladies to know you told me about their
‘dum-dum-da-dum’ idea, anymore than you want Larry to find out you
kept her mother’s humdinger of a secret, correct?”
    “I sure don’t,” the
teenager agreed readily.
    “Then work with me. If
I withhold some non-essential information that could get you into
extremely hot water, I am hardly concealing the crime of the
century. What I’m doing is preventing your proverbial goose from
being cooked in that boiling water bath.”
    “I guess that’s
true.”
    “You guess? Wow,
there’s a big vote of confidence.”
    “Um,” she gulped,
scrambling to cover her verbal fumble. “What are you going to do
about it?”
    “Me? No, no, kiddo. The
right question is: ‘What are
we
going to do about
it?’
We
have to pull the carpet out from under the
ladies and get control over their whack-a-doodle wedding plan. This
is the best I can do on short notice,” I told her. “Unless you’d
prefer to confess your role in this debacle to
Larry....”
    “No
way!”
    Laughing, I grabbed her
by the shoulders, twirled her around, and gave her a gentle nudge
in the direction of the carriage house. “In that case, we’d better
hurry, because if she finds out what her mother is up to, the
Connecticut State Police Major Crimes squad will be arresting one
of their own on homicide charges.”
    In less than a minute,
the two of us climbed the stairs to the carriage house residence
and stood in front of Bur’s door. I took a deep breath and rapped
on it with far more confidence than I felt.
Knock, knock, knock.
    A moment later, the
knob turned and the door opened. My brother stood there in his gym
shorts and his favorite Yankees tee shirt. As he stepped aside to
let us in, I noticed there were papers strewn all over the coffee
table, a few books stacked up on the sofa, and his laptop was open
-- evidence that suggested Bur was working on a report, something
he usually dreaded. That was a good sign. He might welcome the
distraction we offered. This was confirmed by his jovial greeting.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? You’ve come to rescue
me?”
    Twenty minutes later, I
had actually managed to sell my brother on a prospective plan to
rent out Wallace’s house as an event venue and money-maker with one
caveat. He wanted in on the business end of things.
    “I’m sorry. Did I hear
you correctly, Bur? You actually want to participate in this
wedding enterprise?”
    “What we’re really
talking about is renting out the house a few times a month for a
chunk of change that will help pay for the upkeep. I think it’s got
some potential. The property is self-contained and we can control
the number of guests. We’ll probably need a permit to serve
alcohol.”
    “And?” Knowing him, I
figured there had to be a catch.
    “Well, if you must
know, I’ve been thinking lately that the Four Acorns should expand.
If we reconfigured the carriage house, we
could....”
    “You want to give up
the carriage house?”
    “Someone has to live in
Wallace’s house. Security-wise it makes sense. I can play the role
of groundskeeper there too. I’m rather crowded in here,” he
announced, waving his arms at the mess awaiting him. “I could use
the extra space for a proper office.”
    “Score one for Colonel
Grey Poupon,” Jenny grinned, using my brother’s childhood nickname.
“It looks like the Wilsons are about to go into the wedding
business.”
    I looked from my overly
confident brother to my smug assistant and gave an amused snort. If
my brother was willing to consider the idea, it