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

the
thistle plant,” Laurel told her.
    “Who knew?” Jenny smiled. “I just
thought birds were birds. They sing their pretty little songs and
eat birdseed.”
    “Oh heavens, no!” my mother laughed.
“Their diets and their behaviors are quite diverse. Hummingbirds
are territorial fighters. Starlings are absolute pests that take
over the nesting areas of woodpeckers and bluebirds. Cowbirds will
deposit their eggs into the nests of other birds....”
    The sudden sound of dogs barking broke
the conversational thread. We all heard the ruckus in the front
hall as January, Huck, and Mozzie greeted a new arrival.
    “Well, well!” Lacey, my mother’s cousin
and one of the permanent residents of the Four Acorns Inn, waltzed
into the living room, her arms laden with packages. She unburdened
herself by depositing them on the sofa by the fireplace. “Finally,
we have a tree! I was beginning to think you people would never get
one. Please tell me it’s not going to take you another two days to
decorate it.”
    “It’s four o’clock now,” Bur announced,
glancing at the wall clock. “I promise you it shall be festooned
with lights by eight this evening. You have my word on
that.”
    “And then we get to put the ornaments
on?” asked the excited teenager.
    “Yes, then you get to go nuclear on
that tree. Make it glow.””
    “Perfect. I shall be your assistant,”
Lacey volunteered, pulling off her red wool coat and white angora
hat. “I just have one rule; when it comes to Christmas, more is
better.”
    “Right,” the teenager grinned. “By the
time I’m done, you won’t even see these branches. Bring your
sunglasses, because it’s going to be blindingly bright in
here!”
    “Just the way I like it,” said the
elderly woman in the sequin-encrusted sweater with an enormous
reindeer with a pompom nose. Her jingle bell necklace tinkled every
time she moved. “Lordy, the mall was a madhouse today. It was
wall-to-wall shoppers, all in search of those last minute
bargains....”
     

Chapter Three
--
     
    The next few hours passed as we engaged
in a flurry of activities in the kitchen. From her conversation, I
gathered that the last few years of her mother’s decline had taken
a toll on the holidays.
    “It must have been rather lonely for
you and your mom,” I commented, as I put some dinner rolls into the
oven to heat.
    “It was. She couldn’t really raise her
arms all that well, because of her mastectomy and all the scar
tissue, the swelling. My mom was feeling really betrayed by her
body. She had spent her whole life trying to live a healthy life,
and then....” Jenny turned away, remembering. “She loved Christmas
in New England. The snow, the lights, the decorations...I tried to
put up the tree by myself, but it was a real failure. Mr.
Torkelson, the neighbor, came over to help me. And his wife took me
Christmas shopping, so I could buy presents.”
    “What about your stepfather? Didn’t he
help?”
    “He kept telling me it was his ‘busy
season’ at work.” She rolled her eyes and groaned. I took a stab at
the work he was doing.
    “Partying with his girlfriend?” I
asked.
    “He was. I never understood it, Miz
Scarlet. My mother was such a beautiful person, with cancer or
without. How could he not appreciate her? Why did he even bother to
marry her? Oh,” she held up her hand. “I know it was all about my
mom’s money. He just wanted a meal ticket. But I don’t understand
how he could do that to someone who was so sick.”
    “Some people are born predators, Jen.
They never look at the rest of us as human beings. It’s too bad,
really. They miss out on what really matters in life. Without
relationships to keep us civilized, it’s a cold, cold
world.”
    “Is that why you rescued me in New
Jersey?” For all the times we talked since the teenager came to
live with us at the Four Acorns Inn, she had never posed this
particular question.
    “Of course it is,” I smiled. “I could
tell you