Spelling Mistake (The Kitchen Witch Book 4) (12 page)
Read Spelling Mistake (The Kitchen Witch Book 4) Online
Authors: Morgana Best
I couldn’t wait for Sergeant Tinsdell to leave so I could tell the others what had happened. It seems they were just as keen as I was to discuss the news. As soon as Tinsdell had reached the front gate, they all turned to me and plied me with questions. “I hope you don’t mind, but after Camino called the police, she called me, and I called Mint,” Thyme said. “Mint’s on her way here, so that means the shop is shut.”
“No, that’s fine,” I said.
“How did Henry know that we broke into his house?” Thyme asked me.
“He had a nanny cam disguised as a smoke alarm. It streamed the image to his phone. He saw me at his computer and realized what I was up to.”
“But they don’t have any kids,” Thyme said.
“He thought the cleaner was stealing his money,” I explained to her. “Anyway, he came here to try to get the USB back and obviously to kill me, I suppose.” I shivered as I said it. “Oh, and how could I forget! A ghost came out of the TV.”
“A ghost?” Ruprecht said after a pause.
“Yes, a ghost that looked like a woman came out of the TV. That’s what made Henry lose the plot. The house was watching
Game of Thrones
at the time, and he was screaming that a White Walker came out of the TV at him.”
Thyme and Camino laughed, but Ruprecht looked solemn. “Is that what he told the police?” Ruprecht asked.
I nodded.
“We will have to stop murderers coming into your house,” Ruprecht said seriously, “because that’s two now that the house has driven mad. That won’t look good to the police.”
I frowned at him. Had he realized what he had just said? I rubbed my temples. I was saved from further comment by a knock at the door. “That must be Mint now.”
I went to the door and opened it, but there was Alder, with Mint standing behind him. Both looked decidedly awkward. I held the door open. “Come inside, both of you.” I showed them into the living room which was only a few steps away. No one looked pleased to see Alder.
They all muttered polite greetings to each other, and then Alder took me by the arm. “Amelia, could I have a word with you?”
I nodded. “Sure. Come into the kitchen.”
Alder wasted no time in coming to the point. “I saw the police heading to your place, so I followed them. It was all I could do to wait outside and not race in to see if you were all right.” He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me to him. “Are you okay? You weren’t hurt?”
My heart raced at his proximity, but I hurried to assure him that I was fine. “There’s something I have to know. By the way, I sent Fred back to where he came from.” Alder looked impressed. I tried to find the words, because what I had to say would be embarrassing. In the end, I just blurted it out. “I wondered if Fred had made you kiss me, in your apartment?”
I had never seen Alder look so surprised. “You’re serious?”
My cheeks burned. “Yes. He was like an old fashioned genie. You know, if I said aloud that I wished something, he would make it happen.”
Alder took a step closer to me. “You said aloud that you wished I’d kiss you?”
I looked at the ground. “Err, yes, in your bathroom. I thought Fred had heard me and then made you kiss me. That he’d somehow magically influenced you to kiss me.”
There was silence, so I looked up. Alder appeared to be amused. “Haints can’t get into my apartment.”
“They can’t? Why not?”
“Well, for a start, my porch ceilings are painted haint blue. Apart from that, my house is heavily warded. I also use red brick dust, eggshells, sigils, and other measures I won’t mention aloud, but I’m happy to show you.”
I was beyond happy. Alder had kissed me because he wanted to kiss me, not because he was Fred-induced. I was on cloud nine.
“So you thought I kissed you because the haint made me?”
I nodded, embarrassed. I was going to say something, but I didn’t have the opportunity.
Alder pulled me to him and kissed me thoroughly.
I heard a noise in the hallway so I made to pull away, but he kept his arms around me. I felt his large hands on the small of my back, the warmth of them pulsating through my thin cotton shirt. I shivered with pleasure, my stomach doing somersaults. His breath felt hot and damp against my cheek, and, upon glancing up, I noticed for the first time the length of his eyelashes.
Men shouldn’t have such beautiful long eyelashes
, I thought.
It’s hardly fair
.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked me, a smile spreading across his face.
I grinned. “Well,” I replied, but then my thoughts trailed off. This had been more than just a kiss, had it not? This had been the start of our future together. “Nothing. It’s silly. What are you thinking?”
“That this could be the start of our future together.”
Oh gosh, he can’t read my mind, can he
? I thought. Aloud I said, “You’re quite the romantic.”
He smiled again. “Oh, so you weren’t thinking the same?”
“There’s a reason people say, ‘A penny for your thoughts.’ I’m not telling you my thoughts for free.”
“People don’t use pennies anymore in Australia. Haven’t since the 1960’s.”
“Well then,” I replied, “you’ll have to kiss me again instead.”
“Ahem.”
I jumped when I saw Thyme standing in the doorway. I wondered how long she’d been there. I would certainly ask her later. To my relief, she wasn’t scowling, but seemed amused. Perhaps her opinion of Alder had improved.
Less than an hour later, the six of us were in my living room, five of us eating pizza, while the house was watching
Game of Thrones
, albeit with the volume turned down. Ruprecht and Alder were discussing philosophers in an amicable fashion, although I overheard them say more than once that they were “in scholarly disagreement.” Camino was asleep on the couch, snoring loudly, and both cats were sitting on her stomach.
“That explains it all,” Ruprecht said to Alder. “It’s always nice to have all the loose ends tied up. Now, it’s only occurred me to me in hindsight that the haint probably didn’t grant wishes in a genie-type of way after all.”
“Is that true?” I wondered aloud.
“Truth is a social construct,” Alder and Ruprecht said in unison and then looked at each other and smiled.
I breathed a sigh of relief and contentment. The house would soon tire of
Game of Thrones
, and would move onto something else. No doubt Camino would buy another animal onesie, and my baking would continue to improve. Who knows, one day I might even go so far as to bake something edible. Ruprecht and Thyme were now accepting of Alder, and Mint and Camino would come around soon enough. The magnificently magnetic Alder Vervain and I were at the beginning of a relationship. I shivered happily at the little thrill of excitement that ran through me at that thought.
All was well in my world.
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ExSpelled
(The Kitchen Witch Book FIVE)
Get it now on pre-release for September 30, 2016.
Egged on by Amelia’s recent success in the kitchen, her friends send her to a cooking school on a remote tropical island resort. Her teachers’ tempers reach boiling point when they sample her cooking, and worse still, her classmates begin to die one by one. As a tropical storm brews and the body count rises, can Amelia find the killer before she is expelled, or becomes the next victim?
The Halloween Spell
(The Kitchen Witch Book SIX)
Get it now on pre-release for October 24, 2016.
An elderly woman arrives on Amelia’s doorstep claiming Amelia’s departed Aunt Angelica did a spell for her every Halloween. She insists that Amelia do the spell for her, and that’s when the trouble starts.
A Ghost of a Chance
(Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)
Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.
There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.
When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?
Or will this be the death of her business?
Note: This book is humorously irreverent in places, so please read only if you won’t be offended.
Christmas Spirit
(The Middle-aged Ghost Whisper Book 1)
Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on. However, her reputation as a psychic medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead. This all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.
Series by Morgana Best
.
The Kitchen Witch
1) Miss Spelled
2) Dizzy Spells
3) Sit for a Spell
4) Spelling Mistake
5) Ex-Spelled - Get it now on pre-release for September 30, 2016.
6) The Halloween Spell - Get it now on pre-release for October 24, 2016.
The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer
1) Christmas Spirit
2) Ghost Hunter
Witch Woods Funeral Home
1) A Ghost of a Chance
2) Nothing to Ghost About
3) Make the Ghost of It
And Morgana’s non-Witch Cozy mysteries:
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries
1) Sweet Revenge
2) The Sugar Hit
The Australian Amateur Sleuth
1) Live and Let Diet
2) Natural-Born Grillers
3) Dye Hard
4) The Prawn Identity
5) Any Given Sundae
#1 Best-selling Cozy Mystery author, Morgana Best, lives in a sunny beachside town in Australia. She is owned by one highly demanding, rescued cat, and two less demanding dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a rescued Dingo, as well as two rescued Dorper sheep, the ram, Herbert, and his wether friend, Bertie.
Morgana is a former college professor who now writes full time.
In her spare time, Morgana loves to read cozy mysteries and walk her dogs along the beach.
