Pawsibly Guilty: The Secret Library Cozy Mysteries by CeeCee James

Author:CeeCee James [James, CeeCee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Blue, yellow, and white dotted the field like a child had gone crazy with their finger paints. I walked toward the trees for a few steps and then turned around. The entrance to the shed blended into the hillside behind me, hidden by a copse of blueberries.

I heard burbling water and knew the creek was somewhere below me. Soon I was under the trees whose branches crocheted into a green scarf against the sky. Several birds flew in the air at my approach. Their movement scared me in return, and I jumped.

And then I saw her.

Sophia sat on the bank’s edge with a fishing pole. She cast her line, making a small splash, and then settled back against the log—the epitome of patience.

I walked toward her. “You catch anything yet?” I asked.

Sophia jerked and jumped to her feet. Her entire body quivered with tense muscles, ready to run. Old habits were hard to break, and after spending an entire life hiding away, she still wasn’t comfortable with people from the house seeing her.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you.” I used an extra soft voice and stared out into the water. “This is where I first saw you. Do you fish here often?”

Sophia nodded. “Yes.” Her face slowly filled back with color, and her freckles looked like little cocoa sprinkles on her skin.

“So you have lots of luck, then?”

The little girl shook her head. “But it gives me time to read. Look at what I finished.” She held out a book with a red pig-tailed girl on the cover.

A bee flew by, making me freeze, but he continued on, bored with my appearance and anxious for another field of flowers.

“You finally finished it! We’re kindred spirits.”

“So can we go have our raspberry cordial now?” Sophia smiled back, impishly.

She remembered. I picked a cobweb out of my hair and tried to decide. So much was going through my mind right now.

“Please! You promised you would come over one day.” She thrust a hint of accusation at me.

I gave in. “Okay. Fine. Sure.”

“Yippee!” She grabbed her fishing pole and then reached for my hand. I held it a bit warily. I didn’t have a lot of experience with little kids.

“Come on, slowpoke.” She tugged me along.

We walked down a well-beaten path through the woods, and then a little cabin came into view.

I gasped. Stephen had done a lot of work on it. In fact, right this moment, he was on a ladder with a paintbrush in his hand. The trim glistened in fresh white.

“Stephen! Look who I brought!” Sophia called.

He glanced down at me, and his eyebrows flickered. Still, he managed to sound unruffled. “Hey, little lady. Where have you been?”

“Fishing!” she announced.

“Catch anything?”

She shook her head, making her braids fly. I could see she really enjoyed doing that.

Stephen climbed down. “Well, get inside and grab some lunch.”

Sophia skipped into the house, leaving the pole on the front porch. I was impressed to see even the front door had a new coat of paint.

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