A Nasty Case of Death by Tia Brown

Author:Tia Brown [Brown, Tia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Amy’s plan to invite Callie to the bungalow for supper had to be amended in the cause of what Peter described as the greater good, so they went down to the little row of staff cottages that were convenient for keeping an eye on the self-catering cottages but enough of a distance away to give them all privacy once they’d finished work. They came armed with some of Ruth’s finest ready meals so that Callie wouldn’t have to waste time cooking and he and Simon couldn’t, as Peter had put it dangerously cheerfully, be blamed if they decided that they’d prefer to go for a walk to settle their early dinner rather than sit in on a crochet lesson. And if they happened to see Michael making one last check of his little kingdom, as he always did before he finished work, then what could be more natural than to invite him to come back for coffee and some of the ginger cake that Ruth made to Amy’s recipe after tweaking it in ways that had taken it from excellent to a masterpiece of the art of good home cooking?

Amy had also come armed with wool in the creams and whites that Callie had said she wanted to use, a book of basic granny square patterns and a pretty set of crochet hooks and all the other essentials in a pale teal blue leather case. Callie had been thrilled with all of them and was gratifyingly excited as she settled down to learn. Better still, she applied herself with not only all her usual tenacity but increasing enjoyment, so her first square was well on the way towards being finished by the time the three men came back.

“It’s definitely getting colder in the evenings,” Simon observed as he rubbed his hands together once he’d added another log to the wood-burning stove that kept the cottage so warm that they very rarely needed to turn the central heating on. The wood had been free, as it was for any of the staff who volunteered to help with the coppicing so the spiralling cost of electricity and gas was yet another thing that Swansmere had been able to shelter its people from.

“It is December next week.” Callie pointed out. “And all the decorations will be going up.” She’d been working on their Christmas offering for weeks, so no wonder she was so excited about seeing her plans turn into reality. Amy had long suspected that, like her boss, the redoubtable Lady Fenton, Callie even enjoyed the moments when things didn’t work how she’d imagined that they would because they were a chance for her to replan and prove herself yet again by rescuing the situation. Amy wasn’t anything like that ambitious so she’d settle for being glad that the complex would be busy with people who were making up for the Christmases that had been lost to Covid as safely as they possibly could and, hopefully, spending enough money to keep all the shops going during the quieter months between Christmas and Easter.

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