Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) Read Free

one was,
‘Why is it important to know the origin of the sickle cell anemia
trait?’. I talked about the improvements in genetic sequencing when
developing treatments. And the second question was, ‘Why is
polymorphism important to evolution?’ Ugh!”
    “What did you say to that?” I probed.
Essay questions can be tricky. It’s all in the professor’s
interpretation of the written answer.
    “I pointed out that diversity within
the population helped to keep the gene pool healthy, so that no one
single form has an advantage or disadvantage over the others during
natural selection.”
    “Nice,” I congratulated her. “Sounds
like you hit the mark.”
    Bur gave the teenager an affectionate
pat on the head. “Our little angel has grown up, Miz Scarlet. I can
tell because I have absolutely no clue what all that means. You
sound so smart!”
    “I do, don’t I?” Jenny beamed, raising
her hands above her head and wiggling her body in an impromptu
victory dance. “Woo, woo!”
    “You’re not just a pretty face
anymore,” I added. “Of course, I hope you realize now it will be
almost impossible to find a guy to date.”
    “Impossible? What do you mean?” asked
the horrified teen. “Why won’t I find a guy?”
    “It’s a joke, Jen. Relax!” I gave her a
little poke. “I only meant you won’t be satisfied with
dopes.”
    “Oh! Thank heavens. I thought there was
something wrong with me!”
    “Goodness, no! You’re fine. It’s the
males of the species I worry about,” I laughed. Bur actually made a
face at me in response, before challenging my opinion.
    “Don’t listen to Gladys Gump here.
She’s a spinster, for heavens sake! What does she know about men?
You’re a knockout. How can any guy walk away from you?”
    “I never said she wasn’t adorable, Bur.
I said she was smart.”
    “Men like adorable and you fit the
bill, squirt.”
    “Smart women can also be adorable,
Jenny. You can’t really trust what Bur tells you. What he knows
about real women you could fit into a thimble.”
    “Oh, please! Do you really
think you’re smarter than the majority of men?” Bur rolled his eyes in
disgust before turning his attention back to the teenager. He
caught her in the act of trying to hide her amusement, and thus
began his lecture. “Let me tell you about real men, Jenny. They’re
looking for cute girls who don’t drive them batty. With your looks
and personality, you’ve got nothing to worry about. As long as
you’re not a smarty-pants know-it-all or a lemon-sucking sourpuss,
like Miz Scarlet here, you’ll do just fine.”
    “Are you two bickering again?” My
mother appeared in the doorway of the sun porch, her hand
manipulating the controls of her motorized wheelchair. She
maneuvered it over the threshold ramp and pulled up to inspect the
tree. “Here we are at Christmas time and we’ve got to contend with
the usual sniping? Can’t you two call a holiday truce?”
    “Sibling rivalry lives,” Jenny
announced cheerfully. “Today’s subject is men and
women.”
    “You poor dear,” my mother commiserated
with the teenager. “How you ever put up with these two is beyond
me.”
    “I know. How did you manage all those
years when they were growing up?”
    “It wasn’t easy,” my mother feigned
exhaustion. “If it weren’t for my other two little angels, Emory
and Palmer, I might have been driven mad.”
    “That presumes you started out sane,
doesn’t it, Mother? The jury’s still out on that one.” Bur gave her
a kiss on the cheek as Scrub Oak, the inn’s resident house cat,
arrived to inspect the shrouded tree. With his nose to the cotton
tree shroud, the inquisitive feline circled the new addition to the
sun porch, decided it wasn’t worth losing any sleep over, and
padded off to the living room, no doubt to curl up in front of the
fireplace for another nap.
    “We were discussing the fact that
Jenny’s so smart, she won’t be able to find suitable boys to date,”
I