Bait and Witch by Angela M. Sanders

Author:Angela M. Sanders [Sanders, Angela M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

That evening when the library closed, I made a decision. Lyndon was across the garden locking up his tools. He was pulling off his gloves when I arrived, breathless, at the shed. Beyond him lay his cottage, and beyond that was Big House, a faint light in the kitchen window. I pulled my gaze away.

“Lyndon, I wonder if you’d have a cup of coffee with me in the library’s kitchen?”

“Yes, ma’am. Everything all right?”

The sparse lawn felt cold under my feet. “Things are fine. I just wanted to talk with you about—everything.” There were no classes in the library tonight. We’d have privacy.

Less than a week ago, Lyndon had been a creepy man of few words who might have emerged from one of Mabel Seeley’s gothic mysteries. Now I saw him as someone hardworking—and loved. He smelled of soil and river air. He was a part of Wilfred’s fabric.

A few minutes later, Lyndon joined me in the library’s atrium. The books around us hummed and sighed—they were content. Before following me to the kitchen, Lyndon straightened the urn of dahlias on the table below the cupola. He pulled out a branch of leaves that were starting to curl, and he pinched a drooping blossom from its stem.

“Coffee?” I asked.

“Water’s fine, ma’am.” He settled his lanky frame onto a chair, like a spider would take a tuffet. “Is it about Ilona’s meeting tomorrow?”

I poured us both glasses of water. “No, and please call me Josie. This ‘ma’am’ business makes me nervous.” He was old enough to be an uncle. If anything, I should be calling him “sir.” “Besides, as a trustee, it’s your meeting, too.”

“I guess.”

“I wanted to talk with you about a few things. For instance, what will you do if your cottage is sold with the library?”

“I’ll work it out. I suppose someone needs a handyman.” His thick eyebrows drew together. “That’s not why you asked to see me, is it? Because I hardly think you’re in a better situation than I am.”

“I can’t argue with that.” I rolled my tumbler between my palms. “If it were up to me, I’d stay in Wilfred.” He didn’t need to know about the vipers’ nest that awaited me in D.C.

“And?”

“And I want to do what I can to see that the library isn’t demolished. As far as I can tell, the only thing that will stop that is if the judge rules to hear Darla’s case against the trustees. If he does, the key will be proving that the library grounds don’t foster crime. Like murder.”

At the mention of the body, both of us swiveled toward the window facing the river. Lyndon shook his head.

“The sheriff will take care of that,” he said. “Known him all my life. He’s an honorable man.”

“I saw him questioning you again.”

Rodney leapt onto the chair next to me and nosed his way into my lap.

“I swear, that cat never took a hankering to anyone the way he seems to like you.”

I kissed the top of Rodney’s head.

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