A Plain Malice: An Appleseed Creek Mystery (Appleseed Creek Mystery Series Book 4) (31 page)

I bristled. Now I was mad. “You
forbid
it.”

“And I d
on’t want you around Curt any more either.”

I straightened. “Curt had nothing to do with this. He happened to be there when I
was sick. He’s not responsible for what happened.”

“He’s responsible for enough. You know
that as well as I do.”

“He deserves a second chance.”

“Not with you he doesn’t. Stay away from him.”

I sat up straighter in my seat.
“Timothy, I’m not an Amish woman nor I will never be one. You can’t order me around. I want a partner, not a boss for a husband. You’d better figure that out now, or this relationship is going nowhere.”

He clenched the steering wheel. The muscles on his arms tightened. The side of his jaw clenched and unclenched. Just as quickly as the anger overcame him, it was gone.
His shoulders sagged and the veins on his forearms deflated like the air out of a tire. “I don’t want to be your boss, and I love you because you’re strong, brilliant, and independent. I don’t want to change you or make you to be any other way than what you are. But I do want to protect you, and I’m failing at that. I’m never there when you need me.” The smallest of tears gathered in the corner of his eye and slid to his cheekbone.

I reached over and wiped the tear from his ch
eek. The tear hung from my finger until it fell to the upholstery-covered seat. “I love you for wanting to be the one to protect me, but you can’t be there every second. I’ll admit I seem to find more trouble than most girlfriends—”

The corner of his mouth tilted up in a wry smile. “You can say that again
.”

“But you will have to trust me to take care of myself. You know I will come to you when I need help, don’t you?”

“I do. The problem is you don’t always recognize that you do until it is too late.”

We drove in silence the rest of the way to the inn. Timothy thought Pearl would be willing to leave the inn, but I wasn’t so sure. Pearl was afraid and for good reason. If she felt she was safest
in her own room in the Dutch Inn, there was no way we would be able to convince her to go anywhere else.

The pickup rolled into the circular drive of the Dutch Inn. Timothy
parked in the empty spot by my Beetle. Ephraim stood in the middle of Jane’s garden, hosing down the flowers. Gross.

Timothy
unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me toward him as if I were a small child. He murmured into my hair, “I’m sorry. I want to kiss you, but I’m afraid you are too sick for it.”

I chuckled into his chest. “You can kiss me if you would like. I brushed my teeth at the hospital.”

He barked a laugh and then kissed me.

As he kissed me,
I couldn’t help but be reminded of that last kiss I had received from Curt and wondered how I would tell Timothy about it without upsetting him again. I placed a hand to his smooth cheek and decided that was a conversation for another day.

An hour later, Timothy continued to try to convince Pearl to leave the inn.
Pearl wasn’t going anywhere. Timothy and I sat with her at a tiny table in one corner of the lounge. Duke and Jimbo played a game of chess on the other side of the room, and in the middle of the room, Bitty, Bobbi Jo, and Raellen compared quilting kits they purchased at a quilt shop in Charm.

Pearl wrung her hands. “I can’t leave here. The room
Jane gave me is very nice. It’s only for two more nights. My cousin’s body will be released Wednesday. I’ve made arrangements to fly home with it.” She choked on her words.

I reached across the tiny round table and squeezed her hand.
“Then, I will stay here too.”

Pearl smiled. “Thank you, Chloe. You
’ve been too kind to me, and it’s so nice of you to offer your home to me. I’ll be much more comfortable here at the inn.”

“I think this is a bad idea, but I’ll stay too if this is what you want to do
,” Timothy said. After my “you’re not the boss of me” speech, he treaded lightly.

Pearl beamed at him. “Thank you. You
two are the perfect couple.”

She wouldn’t think
that if she had been in Timothy’s pickup an hour ago.

Pearl struggled to her feet. “I think I will go to bed.”

Timothy jumped up to help her.

My cell phone on the table read eight ten in the evening. Outside the light was dimming over the garden with the setting sun.

“Did you eat anything?” Timothy asked Pearl. “I’m sure there’s something in the kitchen we could find for you to have.”

“I have some crackers in my room,” Pearl said. “Those will be fine. I haven’t felt much like eating lately.”

That I could understand. Food. Ugh. I wondered if I would ever be able to think about food again without wanting to toss my cookies.

“Thank you again,” she said and shuffled from the lounge.

Timothy sat back down. “I think you should go to bed now too. It’s been a long day, and you’re still not feeling well.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

“Don’t deny it. You’re as green as a frog.”

I’m sure that looks very holiday festive with my red hair.

I picked my phone up from the table. “Okay, but I’m going to bed because I want to, not because you told me to.”

He smiled. “I’m okay with that.”

In my room, I’d just changed into my pajamas when the room door burst open, and I literally fell off the bed. “Surprise!” Becky bounced into the room and leaned over me. “Chloe, are you okay?”

“
I’ll be fine after I shove my heart back behind my sternum.”

She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear. “Maybe I should have knocked?”

“That would have been nice,” I muttered.

She helped me off of the floor
. “You aren’t hurt, are you?”

I rubbed my elbow. “Not really.”

“Good.” She dropped her extra-large overnight bag on the floor.

“What are you
doing here?” I sat crossed legged on the bed and set my iPad to the side. “And how did you get inside my room?”

“
Jane gave me an extra key for the room.” She dangled the key in the air. “And Timothy called me. You don’t think he’d let you sleep alone when you had been poisoned. You need to tell me all about that, by the way. I want all the details.”

“Trust me, you don’t. Most of them are beyond disgusting.”

She hopped onto the other twin bed. “Hmmm, never mind. Maybe I don’t want to know.”

I moved
m iPad to the nightstand. “Timothy really didn’t have to call you. I’m fine, and he’s sleeping on the first floor in this inn too.”

“You know my brother. He
’s protective.”

Like a mama tiger.

It was dark outside. “How did you get over here so late?”

“Danny gave me a lift.” She
beamed. “We’ll have a sleepover.”

I laughed. “Becky, we live in
the same house. I’m not sure that qualifies us for the sleepover material.”

She hopped off the bed. “I’m
putting on my PJs. I just bought some new ones at the Polaris mall last week. They are pink silk with tiny little pies and cookies on them. They’re so cute.”

I bit my lip to stop myself from telling her she should be saving her money for school—whatever school that might be—not spend it on silk pajamas with baked goods printed them on them. She needed to make her o
wn decisions and choose her own path. Becky didn’t like me telling her what to do, as much as I didn’t like Timothy telling me what to do. I tried to remember that. She left the Amish so that she could make her own decisions. I had to let her do that.

Becky scooped up her bag and went into the bathroom.
“And maybe you can tell me more about the Alex Tate guy.”

Oh boy.

“I don’t know much about him,” I admitted when Becky came out of the bathroom.

She bounced onto her bed. “You don’t think he has anything to do with those
people, who died, do you?”

I shook my head.

“Then who do you think did?”

I leaned back against the headboard. “I don’t know.”

“What about the deacon?”

“He does have a motive. He doesn’t want more bus tours in the district, and the bishop said there wouldn’t be any more after what happened. If that was the end the deacon was trying to achieve, he got it.”

“Who else?”

“There’s the bus driver, Hudson.”

Becky wrinkled her nose.

I laughed. “He’s not the nicest guy, but Dudley was giving him money to keep quiet about Dudley’s gambling business. He won’t get that money anymore now that Dudley is dead. And dislikable as he is, I don’t see any reason for him to want to hurt Ruby.
Along with the gambling, Earl Kepler is a suspect. He’s a recovering gambling addict. Dudley may have pushed him too far to try to get the other man to relapse.”

She hugged a pillow to her chest. “So you think Dudley was the intended victim? Not Ruby?”

“I think that’s much more likely, but I can’t be certain, at least not yet.” I placed a hand to my forehead. The headache I had in the hospital returned with a vengeance.

“Chloe, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I think I just need some rest.”

“Of course, you do,” Becky said, jumping off of the bed to turn over the overhead light. “Good night.”

I heard her even breathing in a matter of seconds. I stared at the ceiling. How I envied her ability to fall asleep so easily.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a start.
What time was it? Where was I?
I hadn’t pulled the curtain closed over the French door leading to the balcony, and moonlight filled the small room and slashed across my pillow. Maybe that’s what had woken me up. Moonlight hit Becky directly in the face too, but she didn’t stir. I climbed out of the bed, and the pine wood floor felt like an iced over pond under my bare feet. I closed the curtain just enough so that the moonlight would not disturb Becky.

I grimaced as my gut churned.
I wondered if a cup of tea would help. It would require a walk to the kitchen on the first floor. The Dutch Inn wasn’t a coffeemaker/tea bags in the room kind of place. Jane said guests were welcome to the kitchen. I didn’t think there would be any Amish cooks in there at this hour. I picked up my phone from nightstand. Two in the morning. I tucked it into the front pouch pocket of my hooded sweatshirt along with the room key.

Quietly as possible I put on a pair of sock
s and my tennis shoes. I didn’t want to walk around the inn in my bare feet. As I straightened, another wave of dizziness overcame me.

Should I wake Becky?
In the moonlight, her white-blonde hair fanned out on the pillow like an iridescent halo, making her even more beautiful. Aaron would faint dead away had he seen her like that. My heart ached for Timothy’s best friend. He was a kind and cheerful—well, cheerful until Becky told him she didn’t love him—man, and deserved happiness. I closed my eyes and whispered a prayer for both of them.

Glancing at Becky on
e last time, I slipped out the door and tripped over a body.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Strong arms caught me before I hit the hall floor. “Chloe, are you okay?” Timothy hissed whisper was on the edge of frantic.

I
lay on top of him and rolled off. “What are you doing here?”

Timothy was fully dressed and lying prostrate across the threshold to my room.
He sat up. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said defensively.

“You were guarding my door?
” I asked.

Even in the dim
med light from the wall sconces, I could see Timothy’s neck and cheeks turn red. “So what if I was.”

“I thought you sent Becky to watch over me.”

He snorted. “She’s doing a great job since you’re out here, and she’s in there sound asleep. I’m glad I decided to stay here tonight.”

“You were going to sleep on the floor all night.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” he muttered.

I tried to stifle a smile, but I could
n’t. How could I resist the idea of my Mennonite prince standing guard over me while I slept? I took his hand and coaxed him to his feet. When he was standing, I intertwined my fingers with his. “Come on before we wake everyone up.” I passed the elevator. “Let’s take the stairs. I’m still feeling a little dizzy,” I admitted.

His hold tightened on my hand.
“I knew you should have stayed at the hospital.”

“Were you planning to sleep across my threshold there too
?”

“Probably,” he admitted.

A grin crossed my face. Timothy caught my expression and relaxed. “You’re not mad?”

“No.” I kissed him on the cheek when we reached first landing. “In fact, I think it might be the most adorable thing I ever
seen.” I kissed him on the lips.