The Appleton Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 1) Read Free

off the television lounge,” Henry pointed out as Joan opened the
door into the glass-walled room.
    It was small,
but it had lovely views of the beautifully kept gardens behind the house.
    “Those gardens
will take a lot of work,” Janet remarked.
    “Actually,
they’re currently being kept by one of the neighbours for a nominal sum,” Henry told her.   “I don’t know if you noticed the small semi-detached homes across the
street, but they don’t have very much garden space.   I’ve been told that one of the residents
used to be a professional gardener and he enjoys taking care of the gardens
here in his spare time.”
    “That’s
handy,” Joan said.
    The other door
off of the television lounge opened into a small dining room.   Beyond that was a reasonably large
kitchen.
    “It’s nicely
up-to-date,” Henry pointed out.
    “It is,” Joan
agreed mildly.
    Janet hid a smile.   The kitchen was probably twice the size
of their current kitchen and much more modern.   Joan would love cooking and baking in
this beautiful space.
    The owner’s
suite was next door with a small bedroom and equally tiny sitting room.   A compact bathroom completed the suite.
    “I suppose I
should have the owner’s suite,” Joan said.   “As I’ll be one fixing the breakfast every morning, it just makes sense
for me to be nearest to the kitchen.”
    Janet
nodded.   She’d expected her sister
to claim the owner’s suite; at least she hadn’t used her usual “I’m the oldest”
excuse for demanding the best.
    Upstairs there
were two adequately sized guests rooms, each with its own small bathroom.   The third guest room was larger, with
its own fireplace and a spacious bathroom with a large and deep bathtub.   It had wonderful views out across the
dales from its many windows and Janet sighed with delight as she imagined
herself living in the room.
    “This will do
nicely,” she told her sister as they looked around the beautiful room.   It was painted a lovely soft lilac colour that exactly suited Janet’s taste.
    “Oh, we should
use this as a guest room, surely,” Joan protested.   “You can have one of the other rooms.”
    Janet shook
her head.   “As this whole bed and
breakfast thing is your idea, and you’ve already claimed the owner’s suite for
yourself, it’s only fair that I get this bedroom,” she said firmly.   “Half the money is mine, after all.”
    Joan opened
her mouth and Janet glared at her.   After a moment Joan shrugged and walked out of the room.   After another look around the space that
Janet was already beginning to think of as “hers,” she followed Joan back down
the stairs into the sitting room.

 
    Chapter
Two
    Henry had
stayed on the ground floor while they’d explored the first floor.   Now the women found him sitting in the
conservatory, talking on his mobile phone.
    “So, what’s
the asking price again?” Joan asked him once he’d hastily ended his call.
    “Um, you
haven’t seen the coach house yet,” Henry reminded
them.
    “Oh, yes, we
must do that, mustn’t we?” Joan said.   There was a door to the garden from the conservatory and the sisters
followed Henry out onto the beautifully manicured lawn.
    “This is
beautiful,” Janet said after she’d inhaled the scent of the gorgeous assortment
of flowers that surrounded them.
    “It is quite
nice,” Joan agreed.
    The coach
house was off to the side of the property and Henry opened its side door.
    “There used to
be large doors on the front, apparently,” he told them.   “But when they no longer needed to store
coaches inside, they walled up those doors and just left this side one.”
    Joan and Janet
followed him into the building.   Janet found herself blinking in the dimly lit space after the bright
sunshine outside.   After a moment,
her eyes adjusted.
    “It is rather
a mess,” she said.   The building was
essentially a large single room that was poorly lit by a single dangling bulb
hanging from