Must Love Kilts Read Free Page B

cashmere top drew attention to her annoyingly full breasts. And her cloud of dark, curling hair shone bright in the late-autumn sunlight slanting in through the shop windows. She was also wearing a very smug smile and that could only mean trouble.
    Sure of it, Margo shifted on her stool behind her Luna Harmony station and reached to rearrange the little blue and silver jars and bottles of organic beauty products that shop owner, Patience Peasgood, urged her to sell to those seeking celestial answers. With names like Foaming Sea bath crystals or Sea of Serenity night cream, all inspired by lunar seas, the cosmetics made people smile.
    Even if most Ye Olde Pagan Times regulars found the prices too steep.
    Margo secretly agreed.
    No one loved a bargain more than her.
    But just now she was grateful so many of the Lunarian Organic products cluttered her counter. If she appeared busy, fussing with their display, Dina Greed might not sail over to needle her.
    At the moment, the pint-sized brunette—who never failed to make Margo feel like a clunky blond amazon—was browsing around the aisles, her chin tilted as she peered at sparkling glass bowls filled with pink and clear quartz crystals. She also examined the scented oils and reed diffusers, and then drifted away to study the large selection of herbal teas and cures.
    Willing her to leave the shop, Margo eyed her progress from beneath her lashes.
    Instead, she stopped before a display of white pillar candles arranged in trays of small, river-polished pebbles, then moved on to the bookshelves set against the shop’s back wall, where she stood watching Patience Peasgood carefully unpack a box of newly delivered books on medieval magic and Celtic and Norse mythology.
    Neither woman looked in Margo’s direction.
    Yet—the fine hairs lifted on her nape—she was certain someone was watching her.
    Margo shivered. She wondered if it was her—Dina Greed did ride her last nerve—or if a shadow had passed over the sun. Either way, the whole atmosphere in the shop suddenly felt a shade darker.
    It was a creepy, unsettling kind of dark.
    Margo knew that Patience, a self-taught white witch, had been experimenting with new spells in recent days. Watching the shopkeeper now, Margo hoped her employer hadn’t unwittingly unleashed something sinister. It wouldn’t be the first time Patience’s well-meant magic backfired and caused more trouble than good.
    “She’s going to Scotland, you know.”
    “Gah!” Margo knocked over a bottle of Sea of Nectar body lotion. Whipping around on her stool, she came face-to-face with Marta Lopez, the Puerto Rican fortune-teller who became Ye Olde Pagan Times’
    Madame Zelda of Bulgaria each morning when she stepped through the shop door.
    “Geesh.” Margo pressed a hand to her breast as she stared at her friend. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to sneak up on people?” Instead of backing away, Marta stepped closer, lowering her voice. “I thought you’d want to know before she ruins your day. That’s why she’s here.” She flashed a narrow-eyed glance at Dina Greed’s back.
    “She wants to make you jealous.”
    She is! The two words screamed through Margo’s Scotland-loving soul, turning her heart pea green and making her pulse race with annoyance.
    “How do you know?” Margo tucked her chin-length blond hair behind an ear, hoping Marta wouldn’t notice the flush she could feel flaming up her neck. “Are you sure? Or”—she could only hope—“is it just gossip?” Dina Greed had been making noise about going to Scotland forever.
    So far she’d never gotten any closer than Braveheart .
    But the way Marta was shaking her head told Margo that this time her rival’s plans were real.
    “You should know I only ever speak the truth.” Marta smoothed the shimmering purple and gold folds of her caftan. “One of my cousins”—she straightened, assuming an air of importance—“works at First Class Luggage and Travel