Aunt Bessie Joins (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 10) (30 page)

“At least unwrap it,” she suggested.

Bessie pulled off the paper and sighed
deeply.
 
It was even more beautiful
than she remembered.
 
Somehow it
seemed to capture the beach at her very
favourite
time of day.
 
The sun was just rising
and the beach was deserted except for a few seagulls that were flying in lazy
circles over the gentle waves.
 

“It’s gorgeous,” she said softly.

“Where will you hang it?”
Doona
asked.

“Maybe in my bedroom,” Bessie said.
 
“As the view out the window here is much
the same as the painting.”

“Of course the view in here isn’t always
quite as nice as the painting,”
Doona
said.
 
She pointed out the window and Bessie
laughed.

The painting showed the beach on a spring or
summer morning with clear skies.
 
At
the moment, the skies were grey and a heavy rain was falling on a windswept and
sodden beach.
 
Doona
was right; the beach in the painting looked much nicer than the one outside
Bessie’s window.

“Maybe it should go down here, then,” Bessie
said.
 
“I’ll decide after I take the
Christmas decorations down.”

“Let me know if you want any help with
hanging it,”
Doona
said.
 
“It’s rather heavy.”

“I suppose I must keep it, then,” Bessie
said.
 
“As it already feels like it
belongs here.”

“Thank you,”
Doona
said happily.

“No, thank you.”

Lunch was delicious, and
Doona
insisted on doing all of the washing-up.
 
Bessie refilled the cookie tray in anticipation of still more visitors
in the afternoon, and she wasn’t disappointed.
 
Mary and George Quayle arrived on foot
from
Thie
yn
Traie
as Bessie was letting
Doona
out.

“Bessie, Happy Christmas,” Mary said,
hugging Bessie tightly once the pair had removed their wet things.
 
“I can’t believe that woman was remodeling
our new house,” she added, shaking her head.

“I hope that doesn’t put you off buying it,”
Bessie replied.

“Oh no, we’ve actually just arranged to sign
the papers next week,” Mary told her.
 
“We had ever so much trouble getting everyone to agree to do it during
the week between Christmas and New Year, but it’s all arranged now.
 
And to help clear out all the ghosts,
we’re having that New Year’s Eve party I mentioned.
 
You must come.”

Bessie smiled.
 
She didn’t really like New Year’s Eve
parties, but of course she would go anyway, for Mary’s sake.

They exchanged presents, but the
Quayles
couldn’t stay long, as they still had their
children and grandchildren, who were scattered around the island, to visit.

“Elizabeth is moving into
Thie
yn
Traie
over the next few days,” Mary told Bessie.
 
“So don’t be surprised if you see lights on at all hours.
 
She decided she doesn’t want to wait for
her rooms to be finished, so she’ll be staying in the east wing while we finish
the west wing for her.”

The next few hours flew past as Bessie
welcomed more of her friends for short visits.
 
When Hugh and Grace arrived, she tried
to look at Grace’s left hand without being obvious about it.
 
Apparently she wasn’t being as subtle as
she’d hoped, because after a few minutes, Hugh caught her eye and shook his
head. Questions rushed to Bessie’s lips, but she swallowed them all and served
tea and cookies to the pair.
 
She
was relieved when Grace excused herself for a short while.

“She said no?” Bessie asked, shocked.

“No, I haven’t asked yet,”
Hugh
told her.
 
“I was going to ask this morning, before breakfast, but then I got
nervous and couldn’t talk properly.
 
Now I can’t seem to find the right time to ask.”

“Take her for a walk on the beach and do
it,” Bessie suggested.

Hugh looked out the window and shook his
head.
 
“I want it to be romantic,
not windy and rainy.”

Bessie would have said a great deal more,
but Grace returned then and a short time later the pair left.
 
By eight o’clock Bessie was tired of
talking and almost out of Christmas cookies.
 
There were still a few friends who
hadn’t visited, but she assumed they’d stop by on Boxing Day.
 
If she did run out of cookies, she’d serve
them mince pies.

She switched on the radio and found a
station playing Christmas music, then she sat down with her pile of presents
and began to unwrap them, taking careful note of exactly what she’d received so
that she could write thank-you notes the next day.

An hour later, she was feeling overwhelmed
by the generosity of her friends.
 
She
wouldn’t need to shop for bath products or chocolate for some time to
come.
 
Even better, she’d received a
small fortune in book tokens.
 
She
could hardly wait to start spending those.
 
The last present she unwrapped was the pile of books she’d purchased for
herself and impulsively wrapped and put under the tree.
 
She looked through them and chose one to
take up to bed with her.
 
She still
had the box of books from the auction to go through, but she decided to save
that for another day.
 
Today had
been wonderful enough.

After walking through the cottage, turning
off lights and checking the doors, she stopped in the sitting room and smiled
at the tree.
 
She was so glad she’d
decided to decorate it this year.
 
It had been a strange and often unhappy year, but today couldn’t have
been any better.
 
She unplugged the
tree and then walked to the stairs.
 
Glancing back into the room, she frowned.
 
What was the strangely shaped object on
top of the bookshelf?

Switching on the nearest lamp, Bessie
crossed the room and looked in surprise at her old Christmas stocking.
 
Someone, and she wasn’t sure she could
guess who, had filled the small sack with tiny presents.
 
Bessie poured them out and opened a
bottle of bubble liquid, a bouncy ball, miscellaneous chocolates and a toy
car.
 
She smiled to herself as she
headed up the stairs.
 
She’d been
wrong only a moment earlier.
 
Christmas
had managed to get just a little bit better.

Glossary of Terms

Manx Language to English

House Names – Manx to
English

English/Manx to American Terms

Other notes:

Book tokens are gift certificates that can be used in most bookstores
throughout the United Kingdom, regardless of where they were purchased.

Bessie calls someone a “pot,” which is a reference to the
expression “the pot calling the kettle black.”
 
She is suggesting that the person who is
complaining is sometimes guilty of the same
behaviour
as the person he or she is complaining about.

Boxing Day is traditionally December 26
^th
(although it can be moved to the 27
^th
if the 26
^th
is a
Sunday, as it is a public holiday).
 
In the past it was the day when tradesmen were given their “Christmas
boxes.”

In the UK, people sometimes say “snap” to mean that two
things are the same (from the card game where you say “snap” when someone lays
down the same card as the previous one).

Noble’s is Noble’s Hospital, the main hospital on the Isle
of Man.
 
It is located in Douglas,
the country’s capital city.

Reception is the first year of full-time education in UK
(and Isle of Man) schools.
 
It is
similar to US Kindergarten, but students begin in the school year when they
will turn five, which is generally about a year earlier than their US
counterparts.

In the UK, people measure their weight in terms of stones
and pounds, rather than just pounds.
 
A stone is equal to fourteen pounds, so if someone weighs ten stone they
weigh 140 pounds.

Ronaldsway
is the area of the
island where the airport is located.
 
Although officially called the “Isle of Man Airport,” nearly everyone on
the island calls the airport “
Ronaldsway
” when
talking about it.

CID is the Criminal Investigation Department of the Isle of
Man Constabulary (Police Force).

When talking about time, the English say, for example, “half
seven” to mean “seven-thirty.”

The emergency
number in the UK is 999, rather than 911, as used in the US.

A “full English breakfast” generally consists of
bacon, sausage,
eggs, grilled or fried tomatoes, fried potatoes, fried mushrooms and baked
beans served with toast.