Murder in the Past Tense (Miss Prentice Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by E. E. Kennedy

Author:E. E. Kennedy [Kennedy, E. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sheaf House Publishers
Published: 2014-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

The brisk knock on our front door the next morning was expected. Gil had already left for the newspaper office, and our friend Dr. Alexander Alexander had offered to give me a lift to Chez Prentice, where I would conduct my summer tutoring sessions.

“Bonny!” he exclaimed when I opened the door. “That’s what ye are, m’dear, bonny!”

I’d always wondered why Alec’s American English carried a decidedly Scots accent, but he wasn’t very forthcoming about his past and people in the North Country didn’t like to pry. At least, this person didn’t. He gazed down at me with unfeigned delight. Alec was a large man, kind of scruffy and barrel-chested, but a bit thinner in recent months. It was my opinion that his on-again, off-again relationship with my glamorous blonde friend Lily Burns, née McIndrick, had taken its toll.

“Thank you, kind sir. I wish I felt bonny.” I picked up my satchel and house key from the hall table and pulled the door closed. “I’m getting impatient for this to be over.” I patted my rotund belly.

He gallantly opened the car door for me. “I must confess I’m that eager to dandle your little one on m’knee.”

“Dandling will probably have to wait until she’s a few months old,” I pointed out as he started the engine. “But I’ll make sure you have your turn rocking her. Speaking of bonny!” I waved my hand at him. Alec was dressed to the nines in the suit he’d worn at my wedding, complete with button-down dress shirt and necktie. “Is that cologne I smell?”

He smiled shyly. “Forty-seven eleven. Lily likes it. In fact—” He broke off as he turned from our driveway onto the road.

I waited. “In fact what, Alec?”

“Ah, well, she’s bound to tell you straight away after, since you’re such good friends.” He frowned and stared at the road. “I’m popping the question this time, Amelia. I really am.”

“Are you sure? You said that months ago, and I never heard another word.”

He was right about one thing: Lily would have told me immediately, no matter what her answer was. She was still my friend, despite being a first-class gossip, after all these years. I was very fond of both of them and rather hoped she’d say yes.

He nodded decisively. “I am sure. We’re neither of us getting any younger—don’t tell her I said that—and I make a good living. My government grants may be gone, but I still have my private industrial grants and my position at the college. And a quite good retirement plan; not that I plan to slow down for many years yet, mind you.”

Alec taught at the local college, but his passion was searching for evidence of Lake Champlain’s own fabled version of the Loch Ness Monster.

“When are you going to do this, this question popping?”

He smiled at me. “Tonight. We’re going to an early dinner and later, I thought I might suggest we drive to Hogan’s Cliff to watch the sunset. An opportune moment, if I do say so m’self.

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