Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

“I guess he should have knocked on the door of what he thought was an empty apartment.”

“If he and Tess are so close, why didn’t he know I was staying here? And why is his room empty? He showed up here at night with nothing. Don’t you think that’s a bit odd?”

Ellie looked up from the refrigerator. “Not if your apartment burned down and all you had left was what you were wearing and your car.”

Sara stared at her mother, speechless.

Ellie straightened up, her hand on her lower back. She was sixty-two years old and a handsome woman—due, she said, to not eating the poisons that were in commercially grown foods—but she didn’t look anything like her daughter. Sara’s delicate prettiness came from Ellie’s mother’s sister, Lissie, a woman of alabaster beauty. “I thought he might not have told you why he showed up during the night and why his room—which it looks like you’ve been snooping through—is empty. The poor man has nothing. I ordered kilts for him.”

“You what?”

“I measured him, called the shop in Edinburgh, and ordered two complete Scottish outfits for him, one for dress and one to wear to participate in the games at the fair.”

“Games? At the fair? Are you talking about the Scottish games? Throwing a cable? Shot putting? The mock battles?! The Fraziers will slaughter him.”

Ellie gave her daughter a sharp look. “What, exactly, is it that you have against this man? He’s certainly better—”

When her mother seemed on the verge of saying more, Sara gave her a warning look. “If you’re planning on saying anything bad about Greg, don’t do it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Only because you can’t think of anything you haven’t already said.”

“Think not? Give me three hours and I could fill them up.” At Sara’s look, Ellie put her hands up in surrender. “All right, no more fighting. It’s none of my business. So how’s your work going?”

“Fine.” Sara wanted to get the subject away from Greg. “What are all these groceries he bought for? Is he planning to open a rival store?”

“It’s what Mike needs to be able to cook.” Ellie’s face took on a look of enchantment. “I’ve never met a man who wasn’t in the business who knew so much about organic foods. We must have spent ten whole minutes talking about the benefits of flaxseed.”

“That sounds fascinating.”

Ellie ignored the snide remark. “Mike gave me a recipe for parsnip soup that I’m going to try on your father tonight, and they have a golf date this Saturday.”

“Who does?”

“Mike and your father.”

“My father is going to play golf with a man half his age, someone he doesn’t even know? A policeman?”

“I’ll tell Mike to leave his guns at h

ome, and Henry can wear his bulletproof vest. You didn’t answer my question about what you have against this man, who, by the way, isn’t so young. He’s thirty-six and he can retire from the police force in under three years. I wonder where he’s planning to live?”

“Mother, if you think that this man and I—”

“Never would I dream of interfering in the life of any of my dear daughters. Actually, I was thinking of Mike and Ariel. Wouldn’t they make a lovely couple?”

“Ariel?” Sara asked, aghast. “Ariel Frazier? What’s she doing in town?”

“Sara, dear, did you forget that Ariel lives here?”

“She hasn’t lived here since high school when she told all of us that she couldn’t wait to get away from this backwater town and everyone in it.”

“And she did. She went to medical school and now she’s finished and she wants to take a break before she begins the grueling work of doing her residency. Then she’ll be a doctor—and she wants to open a clinic here in Edilean.”

Sara thought her mother was looking at her as though she expected her to say or do something, but Sara had no idea what it was. Ariel was one year older than she was, and her family had been in Edilean for as long as hers had. Since the beginning, the Fraziers had sold whatever moved on wheels, whether it was bicycles, wagons, tractors, or Lamborghinis. It was said—but no one had any proof—that the original Frazier was the best friend of Angus McTern Harcourt, the man who’d settled Edilean. It was also said—with even less proof—that the first Frazier had actually been the one who drove the wagonload of gold that had been the basis for the founding of the town. When Sara was in the first grade and Ariel in the second, she’d told Sara that her grandfather said that by rights Edilean Manor, even the entire town, should belong to them. That was the first of many fights Sara and Ariel’d had.

“You aren’t saying anything,” Ellie said. “Don’t you think Ariel and Mike would make a great couple?”