Neither brother replied. Instead, they rounded the side of the house and watched as Ham got rid of the intruders and turned back to everyone else.
“I suppose I have to feed you,” Ham said.
Vi rolled her eyes and rose, crossing to Jack and snuggling into his side. “I’d rather go home.”
That was all he needed to take her by the hand and lead her to the automobile. On the way back to their house, she asked, “What do you think they’ll find?”
Jack shook his head and then admitted, “Whatever it is, it’s not payment enough for the life they led or the time they lost.”
Vi tangled her fingers with Jack’s and laid her head on his shoulder.
“You know what the treasure is for us?”
He waited for her answer, but she knew that he did know. The treasure was the realization of how lucky they were. They had parents who loved them. They had what they needed. They had happy childhoods and they had eventually found each other. It was so easy to joke they were cursed, but how could anyone be cursed who was so loved?
“What would your pirate werewolf say to his princess about the treasure?” Jack asked.
“He’d lift his love in his arms,” Vi told Jack, “and carry her to their bed and whisper into her ear, ‘You’re my treasure.’”
Jack laughed. But when they returned home, he did just that.
The END
Hullo friends! I am so grateful you dove in and read the latest Vi and friends mystery. If you wouldn’t mind, I would be so grateful for a review.
The sequel to this book is available for preorder.
September 1926.
Vi and Jack have settled into London for the fall, and they want nothing more than an excess of cocoa, coffee, good books, and time with friends.
They should, however, know better. Jack is brought into consult on a case in coziest of houses. Only all is not what it seems and no one is surprised when they find yet another body.
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A new series is also now available.
October 1925
Severine DuNoir was twelve when she discovered the bodies of her parents, and the day after the funeral, she was sent to a convent in another country. By the time she resolves to go home, her sole focus is to reveal what happened to her parents.
Coming home, however, unveils a far more sinister plot than she could have expected. It’s clear from her first night that something is afoot. The motives are many and the target is clear: Severine herself.
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You may also be interested in my new historical series, Bright Young Witches.
April 1922
When the Ku Klux Klan appears at the door of the Wode sisters, they decide it’s time to visit the ancestral home in England.
With squabbling between the sisters, it takes them too long to realize that their new friend is being haunted. Now they’ll have to set aside their fight, discover just why their friend is being haunted, and what they’re going to do about it. Will they rid their friend of the ghost and out themselves as witches? Or will they look away?
Join the Wodes as they rise up and embrace just who and what they are in this newest historical mystery adventure.
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Preview of The Mystery at the Edge of Madness
Chapter One
“I don’t understand,” Severine said, feeling particularly dim.
The gentleman smiled kindly. “I’m your guardian.” He had said it more than once, and his tone and delivery had turned slow to the point of speaking to someone who wasn’t quite capable of understanding.
It wasn’t that she didn’t know he was her guardian. Of course, she did. Regardless of her confusion, she was not an idiot. She’d heard of the mysterious Mr. Brand who watched over her inheritance in trust, but she hadn’t expected this fellow. He was not that much older than she. She’d expected a life-long school chum of her father or perhaps one of his mentors. A much older man filled with wisdom and a shared history with her father.
That was the key factor. Severine would turn eighteen in two days. This fellow had to be in his late twenties. Which meant, given her parents had died almost exactly six years ago, that he had control of the DuNoir estate when he was barely old enough to have his legal majority. He looked as if he were a mere year or two older than herself, so how had he looked six years before? The fellow had pale, nearly white, blonde hair, the sort of pale skin that showed every passing emotion with the shade of red he turned, and the blue eyes that revealed his thoughts. He was tallish, broad-ish, thinnish, and handsome-ish. He was very medium, Severine thought. Unremarkable really, except for that pale, pale skin, which wasn’t very remarkable to her considering her own pale, pale skin.
“Your father came to me just before he died, and he asked me to look after you. We had quite a long conversation, really.”
Her father, who had two brothers, business partners, a best friend, and a slew of friends, had discussed her with him when this man was barely a legal adult himself..
Severine took a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t understand your words,” Severine repeated. “It’s that I have a half-brother who could have served if Father was going to choose someone so young.”
“Your father didn’t want your brother to look after you. He wanted you to have your freedom. Your half-brother is of quite a different cloth than I am.”
“But Father didn’t love me. Mother either.” Her gaze moved to the convent where she’d lived since her parents’ death. Being raised in a convent didn’t inspire one to imagine a future of early freedom, let alone control of her inheritance and the two houses.
He coughed and avoided her gaze as he cleared his throat and blushed enough for her to be sure that Mr. Brand had suspected
