“Of course. I fail to see what difference it will make, so long as I remember you.”
“It makes a great difference to me! I shall not wed a stranger!”
Gail reared back to convey surprise, but she carried it a bit too far. The black cloth quivered as she poked it with her elbow, and she came close to overbalancing on the piano bench. “You would choose to disappoint our wedding guests?”
“Better them than me, Captain.” Bonnie turned to face the audience and gave a brave little smile. “Better them than me.”
Irma York brought her hands together in a signal for the audience to applaud. The audience took their cue, and there was a rousing ovation. As Hannah checked to make sure she had everything ready at the refreshment table, she wondered if people in Regency England had actually spoken in such a formal and stilted way. Perhaps it was all a hoax that had been initiated by her mother’s all-time favorite Regency Romance author, Georgette Heyer, and been perpetuate by every other author who had followed in her footsteps.
Bonnie rushed up to the refreshment table, still holding her hat. The bird had slipped. It was hanging by one foot, and its painted eyes looked startled. “Have you seen Lucy Richards?”
“No. You’re losing your bird, Bonnie.”
“That dumb bird! I glued it on three times.” Bonnie reached up and yanked it off. “She promised to be here to take pictures for the paper.”
“If you have a camera, I’ll take them.”
“You will? That’s nice of you, Hannah.” Bonnie looked very relieved. “Come up to the stage and we’ll do it right now. Did you like the reading?”
“It was very entertaining,” Hannah said the first thing that popped into her head, then realized that it was true. The reading had been so entertaining, she’d be chuckling about it for weeks.
DO NOT preheat oven yet—dough must chill before baking.
1 1/2 cups melted butter (
2 cups cocoa powder (
2 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs beaten (
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour (
1/2 cup white sugar in a small bowl (
Melt butter and mix in cocoa until it’s thoroughly blended. Add brown sugar. Let it cool slightly, then mix in beaten eggs. Add soda, salt, and vanilla and stir. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Roll dough into walnut-sized balls with your hands. This dough may be sticky, so roll only enough for the cookies you plan to bake immediately, then return the bowl to the refrigerator. Roll the dough balls in the bowl of white sugar and place them on greased cookie sheets, 12 to a standard sheet. Flatten them with a spatula (
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for a minute or two and then remove the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. (
Chapter Fifteen
When Hannah got back to the shop at four o’clock, she found Andrea waiting for her. “I thought you had a showing.”
“I did.” Andrea started to smile. “I sold it, Hannah. John and Wendy Rahn made an offer, and Mrs. Ehrenberg accepted it. John’s older brother owns the land next to it, and they’re going to farm the whole parcel together.”
Hannah patted Andrea on the shoulder. “Good for you!”
“Al said I was a genius for showing it to John and Wendy. And he told me that from now on, I can work my own hours. That means I’ll have even more time to help you. Do you have to bake more cookies, Hannah? I think I’ve got the hang of rolling those dough balls now.”
“Thanks, but the baking’s all done for today.” Hannah draped a towel over the box she’d carried in from her truck, so her sister wouldn’t notice that the only cookies left were the lopsided ones she’d made.
“How about Lucy? Did you get a chance to talk to her at the meeting?”
“She never showed up. Gail Hanson brought her camera, and I ended up taking the pictures.”
Andrea frowned. “I wonder where she is. Nobody’s seen her all day.”
“Bonnie Surma said this isn’t the first time that she’s flaked out on an assignment. Lucy was supposed to cover the Brownie Scout award ceremony last month. She never showed, and Bonnie had to ask one of the mothers to take pictures.”
“Then you think she’s just out chasing down a bigger story?”
“I don’t know what to think, but I don’t have the time to drive around town looking for her. We’ll just have to catch up with her at the bake-off tonight. If she’s alive and kicking, she’ll be there.”
Andrea shivered at Hannah’s choice of words. “I wish you hadn’t said that. I’ve got a real bad feeling about this.”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” Hannah advised. “We’ve spent the whole day chasing after Lucy and we should have been trying to help Danielle. Are you any good at talking to shrinks?”
Andrea’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean, like in counseling session?”
“No, on the phone. Danielle said that Boyd made an appointment with his shrink on Tuesday, right after he gave her that black eye. I need to find out if he kept it.”
“I can do that.” Andrea reached for the phone. “That’s Dr. Holland at the Holland Clinic in St. Paul?”
“Right. I’d like to find out what they talked about, but I don’t think Dr. Holland will tell us that. Shrinks don’t like to discuss their patients, even if they’re dead.”
“Leave it to me.” Andrea looked very confident as she punched out the number for directory assistance and asked for the number of the Holland Clinic.
Hannah listened as her sister got Dr. Holland on the phone. That took some doing because he was with a patient, but Andrea managed to convince the receptionist that her call was an emergency. She couldn’t tell much from Andrea’s side of the conversation. “I see,” and “Of course I understand,” weren’t very revealing.
“What did he say?” Hannah asked, after Andrea had hung up the phone.
“Not a whole lot. Boyd kept his appointment, but Dr. Holland said he couldn’t tell me what they discussed. He told me that Boyd arrived at two o’clock and he left the clinic at two-thirty.”
“That’s only thirty minutes.” Hannah was surprised. “Don’t most counseling sessions last an hour?”
“Fifty minutes. I asked Dr. Holland about that. He said that Boyd cut his session short because he had to drive back to Lake Eden for a parent-teacher conference after school.”
“Danielle didn’t mention that.” Hannah pushed the steno pad over to Andrea. “Check out our notes.”
Andrea paged through it to find the notes she’d taken. “Here it is. Danielle said Boyd drove to St. Paul to see Dr. Holland, and he didn’t get home until after six that night.”
“Danielle didn’t know he’d gone back to the school.” Hannah thought about that for a moment, then reached
