Cloche and Dagger (24 page)

“Thanks,” I said.

My voice was raspy with emotion and I realized I was choked up because it mattered to me what Harrison thought of me, and I was glad he didn’t think I deserved what had happened to me, even though I had treated him pretty badly when we were kids. I probably didn’t deserve to have him as my friend now but, oh, I was so glad he was.

“So, Marianne, vampire?” he asked.

The laugh that burst out of me short-circuited the tears that had threatened, which I suspected was Harrison’s purpose.

“Worse,” I said. “She’s a psychiatrist.”

“Oh, eek,” he said with mock alarm.

He parked the car a few spots down from the shop. He got out and before I found the latch on the unfamiliar car, he opened it for me and gave me a hand out.

“She trotted off with you before I could even try to save you,” I said as we walked toward the shop.

“I felt like the prize bull at an auction,” he said.

“Really?” I asked. “I pictured it as more of a poodle-snatching.”

“Hey!” he protested, but he was laughing, which made me laugh in return.

It felt good, cathartic even, since I had spent most of the evening on the verge of tears for one reason or another.

His arm slid around my waist as if it were the most natural thing in the world and we were still chuckling as we approached the shop.

“Harrison!” a voice shouted.

I glanced up and saw a woman, dressed in a retro, pale pink dress with a fitted bodice and a skirt that flared out at her waist and stopped at her knees. On top of her head, she wore a matching pillbox pink hat with a big, white lily on it.

The woman broke into a run and Harrison dropped his arm from about my waist and opened his arms wide as if this was a familiar greeting for him. The woman launched herself into his arms and he spun her about two times before he gave her a fierce hug, a quick kiss on the lips and gently put her down. Then he yelled at her.

“Where the hell have you been, Viv?” he asked.

It was only then that I recognized my cousin.

“Vivian!” I gasped.

She spun to face me.

“Scarlett!” she cried in return and snatched me close.

I was not as prepared as Harrison and was crushed by my cousin’s enthusiastic greeting.

“It’s you!” she cried as she jumped back and grabbed me by the shoulders. “I can’t believe it. You’re finally here.”

“Finally?” I asked, feeling a flash of irritation. “I’ve been here for a week.”

“Really? Has it been a whole week?” She looked to Harrison for confirmation.

“Yes,” he said. “A very long week.”

What the heck did that mean? I felt my irritation double as Viv had no idea what she had put us all through and Harrison sounded as if he’d been tortured during her absence by my stay.

“I figured something must have happened,” she said. “I’ve been sitting out here for an hour, afraid to go in.”

“Why?” I asked.

She pointed to the small sign the alarm company had put in the window.

“You’re here a few days and we have an alarm system?” she asked. “Don’t tell me the horrible paparazzi followed you from the States?”

“No, it’s worse than that, I’m afraid,” I said.

Harrison opened the door to the shop and we each grabbed one of the suitcases Viv had left by the door. She led the way with her big rolling bag.

“I’ll get these,” Harrison said. He turned to reset the alarm and lock the door behind us. “You two go ahead upstairs.”

“You’re going to check the perimeter, aren’t you?” I asked with a smile.

“Isn’t that what pet poodles do?” he teased, returning my smile.

Viv looked between us as if she was missing something, and I immediately felt as if I had overstepped my bounds.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat,” I said.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” Viv squeezed me tightly to her side.

Abruptly, all of the worry and irritation I’d felt toward her fled and I was really glad I was here, too, with her in our shop.

“Me, too,” I said. But then I scowled. “You still have a lot of explaining to do. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

We entered the flat and Viv pulled her hat off and shook out the long blond corkscrew curls that I had envied since childhood.

“I know, I know, and I’m so sorry,” she said. “But I was on a hero’s, well, a heroine’s quest and I couldn’t turn back.”

“Quest for what?” I asked.

“It’s better if I show you,” she said.

Harrison came banging up the stairs, carrying the three bags as if they were nothing. Show-off! I had broken into a sweat just lugging the one bag into the shop.

Viv hurried over to the mid-sized of the three vivid floral bags. She placed it onto its side on the floor and unzipped the top. Her face glowed. I’d seen this look before when she was caught up in a creative episode.

I peered over her shoulder, disappointed to find nothing but clothes, but then I noticed that there was another compartment and then another.

“Clever bag,” I said.

“I like to keep my treasures to myself,” she said.

Harrison gave her a look, and I wondered if there had been some issues with Viv’s expeditions before.

She pulled out a cloth case that was tied shut and then closed the lid on her bag. She carefully pulled the ties open and unrolled the cloth. Then she folded back another plain cloth. Nestled between the two fabrics was an array of feathers that were breathtaking in color and iridescence.

“Oh, my,” I breathed.

“Are those real?” Harrison asked. “They’re stunning. What bird did they come off of?”

“Believe it or not,” Viv said. “I had to track my way through the jungle to a rare feather ranch.”

We both looked at her.

“I swear on it,” she said. “It exists, but it is tucked deep in the cloud forest in Africa, which is why I had such spotty mobile service.”

“What do you mean, a rare feather ranch?” I asked.

“A friend of mine from Dubai told me about it,” she said. “There’s a ranch owned by a retired Hollywood actor. He quit movies and devoted his life to trying to save several endangered species of bird. He raises money by auctioning the exotic feathers that the birds lose. No plucking allowed. Believe me, I saw what happened to one of my fellow bidders when he was caught trying to encourage a feather off of a Seychelles Paradise-Flycatcher.”

She shuddered and I stared at her as if she’d gone mental.

“Do you mean to tell me that you disappeared for a week, to go chase feathers?” I asked. “You knew I was coming—you couldn’t have waited?”

“The auction was happening at the end of the week,” she said. “I had to get there immediately.”

“See?” Harrison asked. “No impulse control.”

I glared at him. I really didn’t want to hear it right now.

“What?” Viv asked. “Surely you knew I’d be back as soon as I could.”

“You left me no information,” I said. I could feel my temper beginning to heat. “You couldn’t have told me where you were going and why?”

“No,” Viv said. “You know what this business is like. I couldn’t risk another milliner scooping me. I mean look at these feathers. They’re a treasure. This one alone cost fifty pounds.”

She pointed to a gorgeous blue feather that flashed with green and gold when the light hit it just right.

“It’s lovely,” I said. “But still—”

“Oh, come on,” Viv cajoled. “It couldn’t have been that bad with me gone. You had Fee, who is wonderful, and Harrison, who is wonderful in a completely different way.”

They exchanged a smile, and I couldn’t believe he wasn’t more irritated with her. He seemed indulgent with her disappearing act but the more I thought about it the madder I got. One week, no word and I’d discovered a dead body, almost been suffocated in my bed and the shop had been ransacked, not to mention being worried about Viv, and here she was just fine after a wonderful quest off in Africa.

I stepped away from the sofa for fear I might snatch up one of the pillows and clobber her with it.

“Well, I’m so delighted that your week went so well,” I said. My voice dripped sarcasm and Viv gave me a wide-eyed look of surprise. “Because here it’s just been coming up roses, or more accurately, a dead body wearing your hat.”

“Scarlett, are you feeling all right, love?” Viv asked. “Because that made absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

“You tell her,” I growled at Harrison.

“Tell me what?” she asked.

“Viv, Lady Ellis was found murdered,” he said.

“Victoria Ellis? Rupert’s wife?” she asked with a note of disbelief.

“Yes,” Harrison confirmed.

“What? Why? I don’t understand,” she said. She turned and frowned at me as if I could help her make sense of it all.

“It gets worse,” I said. Seeing her bewilderment, my anger was doused. I sat on the floor beside her. “When I went over to her house—”

“Why would you go to her house?” Viv asked.

“Photo shoot,” I said.

“Photo shoot of that cow?” she asked.

“Well, when I couldn’t find the hat she ordered,” I said, “I had to come up with some way to appease her vanity and luckily, Andre was willing—”

“Who the hell is Andre?” Viv squawked.

“It’s a long story,” I said. “Longer if you keep interrupting me.”

“Luckily, I have plenty of time,” she said.

“Then let’s eat while we talk,” Harrison suggested. “Because I, for one, am famished.”

He took to the kitchen while Viv and I moved to sit at the kitchen table.

“Handy to have someone around who cooks, isn’t it?” Viv asked me.

“Yeah, Harrison is worth his weight in gold,” I agreed.

“You didn’t think that at first,” he said. “She thought I had something to do with you being missing.”

“I did n—” I cut myself off. There really was no point in denying it. “Okay, I did, but you have to admit, it seemed odd to have you picking me up when I expected Viv.”

“But I asked Harrison specifically because you knew him,” Viv protested.

Harrison uncorked a bottle of wine and poured us each a glass. Then he looked at me and said, “It would have helped if she remembered me.”

“You didn’t?” Viv asked.

“No, but in my defense it’s been years and I was kind of caught up in my own personal crisis,” I said.

“Bet you haven’t had much time for that,” Viv said.

She had a knowing look about her and for a moment I almost wondered if that had been her plan all along, to stick me with the insanity of the shop so I didn’t have time to brood. Well, hadn’t that plan just backfired on us all?

“Scarlett has done amazingly well in the shop,” Harrison said. “She even sold a hat to Mrs. Looksee.”

“You didn’t!” Viv cried.

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “Wedding hat in lilac.”

“Well done,” Viv said and she raised her glass to me.

The three of us toasted and after a sip, Viv said, “All right, I’m ready now. Tell me about Victoria.”

While Harrison whipped together a fettuccini dish with a delicate cream sauce and chicken and broccoli, I filled Viv in on all that had happened. Harrison stuck in the facts that I missed and by the time he was serving us each a hot plate, Viv was fully informed.

“Suffocated?” she kept asking. “Someone broke in and tried to suffocate you?”

She had asked this about five times and grew alarmingly pale each time she asked.

“It’s okay,” I said. I reached out and laid my hand on her arm. “I’m fine.”

“I just . . . if anything had happened to you . . .” She took a long sip of wine and blew out a breath.

“It didn’t,” I said.

We were halfway through dinner when there was a banging on the door downstairs.

“Who would be here at this hour?” Viv asked.

“It’s not our friendly burglar,” I said. “He never knocks.”

“I’ll check it out,” Harrison offered. “You two finish eating.”

As soon as he left, Viv leaned close and asked, “What do you think about our Mr. Wentworth?”

“Harry?” I asked. “I mean, Harrison. He seems very efficient.”

“Efficient?” Viv asked. “He’s adorable. Please tell me you noticed.”

Oh, geez, what was I supposed to say? Were Viv and Harry an item? He had said they weren’t, but maybe she thought they were. Did she want my approval? Yeah, he was handsome and likeable, charming even. I felt a flash of heat when I remembered his help with my zipper.

“Yeah, he’s really nice,” I said. Lame, so lame.

Viv looked like she was about to call me on it, when Harrison appeared in the doorway. He did not look happy.

“Viv, the police are here,” he said. “They want to talk to you.”