China Bayles Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THYME OF DEATH
WITCHES’ BANE
HANGMAN’S ROOT
ROSEMARY REMEMBERED
RUEFUL DEATH
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
CHILE DEATH
LAVENDER LIES
MISTLETOE MAN
BLOODROOT
INDIGO DYING
A DILLY OF A DEATH
DEAD MAN’S BONES
BLEEDING HEARTS
SPANISH DAGGER
NIGHTSHADE
WORMWOOD
HOLLY BLUES
MOURNING GLORIA
CAT’S CLAW
WIDOW’S TEARS
DEATH COME QUICKLY
BITTERSWEET
BLOOD ORANGE
THE LAST CHANCE OLIVE RANCH
QUEEN ANNE’S LACE
AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
CHINA BAYLES’ BOOK OF DAYS
Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD
THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE
THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK
THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD
THE TALE OF OAT CAKE CRAG
THE TALE OF CASTLE COTTAGE
Darling Dahlias Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CONFEDERATE ROSE
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE TEXAS STAR
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE SILVER DOLLAR BUSH
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK LADY
With her husband, Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige
DEATH AT BISHOP’S KEEP
DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN
DEATH AT DAISY’S FOLLY
DEATH AT DEVIL’S BRIDGE
DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN
DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL
DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS
DEATH AT DARTMOOR
DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE
DEATH IN HYDE PARK
DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE
DEATH ON THE LIZARD
Other books by Susan Wittig Albert
WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN
A WILDER ROSE
LOVING ELEANOR
THE GENERAL’S WOMEN
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2018 by Susan Wittig Albert
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Albert, Susan Wittig, author.
Title: Queen Anne’s lace / Susan Wittig Albert.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Berkley Prime Crime, 2018. |
Series: China Bayles mysteries
Identifiers: LCCN 2017028400 (print) | LCCN 2017031280 (ebook) | ISBN 9780698190306 (eBook) | ISBN 9780425280058 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Bayles, China (Fictitious character)—Fiction. | Women detectives—Texas—Fiction. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3551.L2637 (ebook) | LCC PS3551.L2637 Q44 2018 (print) |
DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028400
First Edition: April 2018
Cover art: Illustration copyright © by Joe Burleson; Lace background copyright © by Sh.Olga/Shutterstock
Cover design by Judith Murello
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
Version_1
For Natalee Rosenstein, gratefully
Contents
Also by Susan Wittig Albert
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Author’s Note
Recipes
About the Author
Prologue
Pecan Springs, Texas
1885
It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years. Wasn’t it, after all, a kind of life?
Key of Knowledge, Nora Roberts
If Annie Laurie’s house could speak, it would have said that she was a contented woman.
She rose before the sun every morning to prepare her husband’s breakfast. Douglas always went out to his blacksmith shop the very first thing, to see that the fire was started in the forge and his smithy helpers were at their tasks. Then he would come in for the good food Annie had ready for him—eggs and bacon, grits, and biscuits with redeye gravy—before he began the day’s work. And there was always plenty of work to do, because Douglas Duncan was the best blacksmith in the village of Pecan Springs, Texas. Annie wasn’t the only one who had this opinion, and to prove it, there were the customers lined up waiting in the dusty alley behind their house at 304 Crockett Street, eager to have their horses shod or their implements mended or their wagon wheels repaired.
Their house. Annie loved the house Douglas had built for her. It was a fine, two-story dwelling with walls made of square-cut limestone blocks and a white-painted wood-frame veranda across the front, draped with ivy and honeysuckle. Behind the veranda were two large rooms side-by-side, one of them a sitting room, the other a dining room, with high ceilings and tall, deep-set windows in the outer walls. Behind them were a bedroom and a large kitchen and pantry. Above, there was a full second-story loft that Annie and Douglas planned to partition into bedrooms for their children.
The house was in a lovely setting, too. It faced Crockett Street, which was lined on both sides by large live oak trees that made a graceful canopy over the brick pavement. On the east side of the house was a garden, and behind it on the alley were Douglas’ smithy and the commodious stone stable where he kept his sleek, spirited horse and a shiny black buggy with red-painted wheels. On the other side of the garden hedge was a large, yellow-painted frame house where Adam and Delia Hunt lived with their little girl, Caroline. Adam Hunt had been Douglas’ best friend since their boyhood days and the two men often went fishing and hunting together.
All day long, as she went about her own activities, Annie could hear the musical clang clang clang of Douglas’ hammer, and her heart swelled with happiness. Her husband was an excellent provider.
