The Vampire Knitting Club: A cozy paranormal mystery series by Nancy Warren

Author:Nancy Warren [Warren, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781928145486
Publisher: Ambleside Publishing
Published: 2018-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Elderflower Tea Shop was busy with the lunch crowd when I arrived, and I imagined I’d have to wait, but Richard Hatfield was already seated and he waved to me from a table he had managed to snag in the only quiet corner. He rose politely as I reached the table. “Excellent. You made it.” He gave me his charming grin. “The specials are broccoli quiche with salad and chicken pie. The soup of the day is potato and leek. I’m having the quiche.” I agreed that sounded good, and he waved a hand to summon the waitress. It wasn’t one of the Miss Watts, but a young woman with a French accent. She took our order and then left.

He said, “I won’t beat about the bush. I love this little corner of Oxford. I’ve been coming here since I was a boy.”

“Really?” I was surprised. I don’t understand British accents the way British people do. They can practically pinpoint where a person came from and how wealthy they are every time they open their mouths. But I knew enough to know that he didn’t have the elegant, upper-class accent that I heard so often in Oxford.

He said, “I grew up in South London, but I had an auntie who lived here and we used to visit her in the summers. She’d take me to the little grocer’s up the road, and buy me sweets.

“We’d go for tea in this very tea shop. She didn’t knit, so we never went into your grandmother’s knitting shop. She did like to poke around Pennyfarthing Antiques, though I think it was called something else then. I got a few lead soldiers there. I still have them.”

Our food came then and as we settled to our meal, he said, “Coming here is quite literally a walk down memory lane. And, I don’t want to appear rude, but as recent events have shown us, the proprietors of these shops are not young. I’m proposing to buy all four of the shops in this row.”

“You want to buy Cardinal Woolsey’s?” I wanted to be absolutely certain that I had understood what he was getting at.

He put down his knife and fork and gestured widely. “Not only Cardinal Woolsey’s but this tea shop and the antique shop and the gift shop.”

I’d heard that Oxford was second only to London in its property prices, so to buy up four shops he was talking about a lot of money.

“Why What’s in it for you to buy a string of shops? These buildings are all listed, you know?”

He looked at me approvingly. “Americans are so direct. I like that. The simple truth is I am buying the properties for an investment. They’ll continue to increase in value over the years and I will have the pleasure of knowing that these charming little shops I have loved since I was a boy will remain as they were.”

I put down my knife and fork and drilled him with my gaze. I might be young, but I wasn’t stupid.

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