The Ellsworth Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 5) Read Free

mid-sixties, Janet
considered much of what the younger generations wore as inappropriate.  
    William’s new friend probably wasn’t forty
yet, but Janet guessed that she wasn’t too terribly far from that birthday,
either.   William, on the other hand,
was also in his sixties, and Janet found herself wondering if the woman was his
daughter.   The way the stranger was
holding William’s arm suggested a different type of relationship, however.
    “I’ll go and find your other shoe,” William
said with an uncharacteristic chuckle.   “I can’t imagine how you lost it.”
    “The door buzzer startled me,” she
explained.   “I jumped right out of
my shoes, and then you rushed me over to see who was here and I didn’t quite
manage to get them both back on again.”
    “Never mind, I’ll find it,” William told
her.   “In the meantime, you can get
to know the Markham sisters.   Joan
and Janet Markham, this is Karen Holmes, my new, um, well, friend.”   William blushed and then turned and
headed back into the back room.
    Karen smiled brightly at the sisters.   “Isn’t he a dear?” she asked.   “But it’s ever so nice to meet you
both.   Do you shop here often?”
    “Only occasionally,” Janet replied.   “We own the local bed and breakfast, so
we do our best to support other local businesses, but we bought the house fully
furnished, so we don’t need to buy much.”
    “What brings you to Doveby Dale?” Joan asked the woman.
    “Oh, I was just passing through,” she
replied.   “I’ve taken early
retirement from the civil service.   The stress was too much for me, you see.”
    “You’re awfully young to be retired,” Janet
commented.
    “Yes, I suppose I am,” the woman said.   “But I was fortunate to come into a bit
of money.   That is, my husband,
well, he passed away and left me a small nest egg.   That meant, a short time later, when the
pressure of the job started to really bother me, I could simply walk away.”
    “How very fortunate for you,” Joan said dryly.
    “Anyway, I get rather restless, living on my
own, so I often just choose a random place and visit there for a day or
two.   I actually chose Little
Burton, but after an hour there I felt I’d exhausted its, um, pleasures.”
    Janet chuckled.   The neighbouring village of Little Burton was even smaller than their own tiny village.   She couldn’t imagine how the woman had
managed to spend even an hour there.   There was a small grocery store, a store
selling locally made crafts, and a chemist shop, otherwise there was very
little else aside from a petrol station.
    “So you drove over to Doveby Dale?” Janet asked.
    “So I drove out to Derby and found a hotel,”
the woman corrected her.   “That was
on Wednesday, last week.   On
Thursday I decided that I wanted to do some Christmas shopping for friends back
in London.   Rather than drag myself
about the mall and shops in Derby, I decided to try a few small towns, hoping
to find little antique shops that might have something special.”
    “And she found me,” William said, smiling
brightly as he rejoined them.   He
was carrying Karen’s missing shoe.   “Here you are, my dear,” he said.   He handed the shoe to the woman and she blushed and slipped it back on.
    “Thank you so much,” she told William.   “I felt quite uncomfortable without it.”
    “So what can I do for you ladies today?”
William asked now.
    “We were wondering about that painting,”
Joan answered.
    William shook his head.   “I haven’t found you anything yet,” he
told them.   He glanced at Karen and
then stared hard at Joan.   “I’ll
keep trying, but I have rather a lot on my plate at the moment.”
    Joan nodded.   “I’ll look forward to hearing from you
soon, then,” she said, frowning.
    “Yes, well, as soon as I can,” William said
nervously.
    “Also, we found a few coins and we were
wondering if you would be able to tell us anything about their