The hardest part about stringing Christmas lights on the marble mantel over my fireplace was getting them to stay where I wanted them. “Halt!” I ordered as the twinkling red and white candy cane lights slid off the far side of the mantel. Perhaps I’d overdone it earlier with the marble polish. I took a deep breath—not too deep, since I didn’t want to test the seams of my party dress—bent down, grabbed the strand, and straightened back up, all without a single wobble. Well, praise be and hallelujah. I was getting the hang of balancing in these heels, at least. I’d set aside a small budget for holiday decorations this year. It wasn’t much—I was still very cautious about spending any of my hard-earned savings after nearly losing the house. But when I’d happened upon a little pop-up holiday store downtown called A Light To Remember, I couldn’t resist. Not only had I found the mantel lights, but also the perfect multicolored net lights for the hydrangea bushes out front. They spot-on matched the plastic balls embedded in the pretty little wreath my mother had sent when she visited Santa Claus, Indiana. The icicle lights went up on the shed, where my ghost friend Frankie had insisted he needed “mood lighting” for his upcoming date with his ghostly girlfriend, Molly. I resisted any and all jokes about his icy touch, his cold gangster heart, or the fact that as the dominant ghost of the shed, he could have conjured up a set of ghostly lights himself. After all, it was Christmas. And I could certainly spare some holiday cheer. This string of lights brought that spirit of the holidays to my mantel. Or they would, as soon as I could get them to drape a little without pulling the whole shebang over the edge. I pushed and bunched and arranged the twinkling candy canes a few more times before I remembered the roll of double-sided tape in my kitchen junk drawer.
I turned to go get it, and my ankle snagged against something warm and fluffy. “Whoops!” I managed three staggered steps and some ungraceful pinwheeling of my arms before I found my balance. “Lucille Desiree Long,” I chided as my pet skunk snuffled around my ankles, happily oblivious to the disaster she’d almost caused. “You should know better than to sneak up on me like that.” Especially when I was wearing heels two inches taller than any woman should and a dress not designed for gymnastics. My sister, Melody, had lent me the whole kit and caboodle and assured me it was the latest thing. The sleek, sequined dress hugged my curves all the way down to my knees and sparkled like sunrise over a lake. I’d flat-ironed the ever-present wave out of my hair and pinned it back in a high, elegant bun. My makeup was nice but subtle—eyeliner and mascara, a touch of blush and a bright pink shade of lip gloss that I saved for special occasions. “Christmas with the Wydells,” Melody had said with a whistle when I told her why I needed the dress. “I don’t envy you.” “It’s going to go fine,” I’d assured her, and I think we both hoped I wasn’t lying through my teeth. I sighed and swept an errant hair off my face. I was a Southern girl. Practical. Just because the town matriarch, Virginia Wydell, had tried to ruin me and take my ancestral home didn’t mean I couldn’t spend Christmas with her.
I fought the urge to chew at my freshly glossed lips. That sounded bad, even in my head. Still, I had to find a way to get along with Virginia. I was currently dating one of her sons. “We’ll work it out. We’ve been making progress,” I reminded my little skunk—and myself—as I reached down to stroke Lucy’s stubby ears, one of which had turned inside out. After all, I had been invited to this year’s Christmas. That hadn’t happened in a while. I straightened up and headed into the kitchen to look for the tape. Being invited to the Wydell family Christmas party was a big step forward in my relationship with the family. Virginia and I had both been in denial lately about how serious I was becoming about Ellis Wydell. He was the middle of Virginia’s three sons, a deputy sheriff for the town of Sugarland, Tennessee, and the most wonderful man I’d ever met. The problem was, he wasn’t the first Wydell boy I’d dated. Years ago I’d been engaged to Ellis’s younger brother, Beau. I’d been all set to say, “I do,” until Beau hit on my sister the night before the wedding. Needless to say, I’d called it off—but Virginia still stuck me with the bill and ruined my reputation in town.
“But it didn’t ruin you and me, did it?” I cooed at Lucy while I opened the junk drawer. “No, baby girl, it did not.” I’d reassembled the scattered pieces of my life, found work again—very challenging work, but ghost hunting was finally paying the bills—and now I was going to celebrate Christmas with Ellis at his cousin Montgomery’s house. Montgomery was his dad’s cousin, and one of the stalwart leaders of the family. The last time I’d been to his Christmas party, I was Beau’s fiancée. Don’t think about that. Montgomery Wydell knew how to throw one heck of a celebration. There would be eggnog and roasted chestnuts and—
~~~
Angie Fox is one of my favorite cozy mystery writers. Having a pet skunk helped that decision, hopefully Lucille no longer has the ability to send out fumes--even in love! If you haven't read her books, put her name in the search column in my right column and you'll have 10 others to enjoy!
Angie does wind up getting herself into trouble whenever and wherever she is... But moving from one brother to another in a family where their mother is one of the "elite" in town is bound to bring pain for the woman who is one of Virginia's true nemesis and shows her disdain for Verity who is now in a close relationship with one of Virginia's sons. And she does everything she can think of to make it hard on this couple. I have to admit that I wouldn't be as patient with Virginia. But part of the problem is that Verify is not of the rich and famous and thus takes every gesture of kindness from Virginia, only to discover it wasn't kind... Take for instance when Verify was invited to this year's Christmas party open house. She sent a gift basket of pears with a note that this will be an appropriate gift for those attending.
Dearest Verity, I’m sure you would like to make a good impression tonight, so in the spirit of Christmas I have taken care of your hostess gift for the party. Bring this lovely arrangement and it will at least appear as if you belong. Best, Virginia Wydell.
Only to discover later that the giant basket of pears was totally inappropriate...Worse, Virginia had sent them to Verity COD! And Verity was hunting all over her house for change to cover the $100+ cost! Don't you just love to be able to "hate" some of the characters you read about! Sorta helps get over a rude grocery cashier as you leave the neighborhood store, right?! But then, I have to admit that if my son was dating a woman who was a ghost hunter, I think I'd probably cringe or laugh out loud when introducing her. Especially when there was more than one new ghost to meet...
Oh yes, I don't want to forget to point out that the Ghost in this story is not the ghost that lives in Verity's home... On the other hand, readers do get to learn about dominant ghosts versus... I admit that comes a little later in the book, but discovering that all the ghosts were part of the Wydell family and extended family... was a surprise even for Verity's ghost, Frankie...
So how did this situation begin? Well, Donna who was a good ghost was part of a group that made sure those who were lost or hurt in the area are saved. Donna knew that Verity could see ghosts--yes! not just her own ghost--and asked for her help in case further help was needed. She got them to the location of where a sighting had occurred, which was in an old mill building. Which happened to be on the Wydell property and many of the family had chosen to stay there. You know what's coming, right? Not everyone who dies knows what to do at that point, so they just stay where they were most comfortable.
So Frankie and Verity headed for the Old Mill and upon arriving, could actually hear "breathing." Heavy loud breathing! Oh, do you know who naturally hibernates during the cold winter? Bears! Right. This was a mama bear and her children who had been asleep until the small ones woke up! At the same time, while trying to figure out how to get the mother bear awake without attacking Verity, she was investigating the building to see what to do. What she found was that part of the old mill was about to break--the rope was unraveling--and the entire section of the equipment would fall on the bears! Yikes!
About that time, Phineas Wydell arrived on scene with Frankie and that caused a bit of confusion, of course! Phineas was quite willing to work with them to save the bears, but, I hope you know by now, that ghosts have a hard time moving things once they are dead... And all the other ghosts who were celebrating Christmas was Phineas' vision of the last Christmas in 1930 when his wife was still alive. Sadly, it seemed, he closed out the past so that he could help save the living... But how?!
Finally, even though she did not want to do it, Verity realized that she'd need to get to the Wydell home and get help to save the bears since the rope was snapping faster and faster... But Phineas had other ideas and slammed the door, locking it. Verify was upset, obviously, but Phineas believed that she had been brought that night for a reason. And he needed her to help him or the bears would be lost!
And then Phineas said, "There's another ghost here to see you. A stronger one than I am..."
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