"It's never happened to me before."
"You're under stress," Angelica explained reasonably. "Who wouldn't be with the possibility of a murder charge hanging over her head?"
"I did not kill Doris Gleason, and I wish everyone would just stop saying that."
"My, we are very, very testy today. Mind you, right about now I could go for a tight embrace with a handsome man. And so far I've liked every man I've met here in Stoneham. They seem like the marrying kind."
"You'd be bored silly within a month and you know it," Tricia grumbled.
The idea of Angelica living nearby-and the possibility of Bob Kelly as a possible brother-in-law-was enough to make Tricia physically ill, especially since she still wanted to believe he had a hand in Doris's death. Too bad she didn't have a shred of evidence to prove it.
Time to ask the big question that had been so much on her mind. "Ange, isn't there any hope you and Drew can get back together?"
Angelica's mouth tightened, and she took her time before answering. "No."
"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"
"Oh, it's all so tedious," she said, with impatience.
"You obviously haven't found someone else. Has he?"
Again Angelica's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "If you must know, yes. And she's ten years older than me, with a face full of wrinkles! Some woman he works with. They talk about math and physics and bonsai, of all things. One thing led to another and…he asked me to move out so she could move in."
And that's why Angelica had lost weight and come to Stoneham-to lick her emotional wounds. And Tricia had dropped all those snide comments about Drew in front of Bob the night before. "I'm so sorry, Ange."
"It was his house, after all," she continued, her gaze riveted on the road. "Drew isn't a beast. I'll get a good settlement. He paid for the trip to Aspen, and for storing my things until I find a place to settle. He's really been very kind."
Except for tossing her aside like an old shoe. But then Christopher had been just as generous when he'd announced he'd wanted his freedom, too. Maybe the Miles girls were just doomed to be unlucky in love.
"It's taken me a few months," Angelica continued, resigned, "but now I'm ready to move on. I mean, what choice do I have?"
"There's no chance of counseling, or-?"
Angelica shook her head. "Apparently he's loved that woman for years, but always thought she was unattainable. Then her husband died last year, and Drew figured he wasn't getting any younger. Not that he was unhappy with me, he later told me. But one thing led to another and…well, the rest as they say is history."
Tricia let out a breath. At least Christopher hadn't left her for someone else. Freedom for him meant solitude, which he'd apparently found and savored.
"Ah, here we are." Angelica slowed the car and turned off the highway onto a long gravel drive lined with decades-old maples. A little white cottage stood in a clearing, looking like something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with its forest green shuttered windows, gabled, slate roof, its foundation surrounded by alternating pink and red rosebushes still in bloom.
"Oh, Ange, it's darling," Trish said. "Can we go inside?"
"I wish. But the agent who showed it to me this morning said she couldn't come back today. I just wanted you to see it, to see what you think."
"I love it." And it was far enough away from the village that Angelica might not want to drive into town come winter when the roads were reputed to be icy and treacherous. Bad Tricia wanting to keep her sister at bay! And really, she wasn't sure she felt that way anymore. Well, at least some of the time, and that had to be progress. Didn't it?
"Do you want to walk around the yard?" Angelica asked, hope coloring her voice.
"Sure."
The sisters got out of the car and walked ten or so yards to stand before the cottage. "Isn't that slate roof just incredible?" Angelica asked.
A few tiles looked skewed; did that mean it leaked? Tricia sidled between a couple of rosebushes, shaded her eyes, and peered in through one of the leaded glass windows. The room inside was bare, but the walls, in neutral tones, looked freshly painted and the floors shone like they'd just been sanded and sealed.
"That's fir flooring, and look at the wonderful fieldstone fireplace. Imagine how cozy it would be on a cold winter's night," Angelica said wistfully.
Tricia stood back. "It's delightful. I had no idea a sweet little place like this was even available locally."
Angelica's smile was tentative. "I'm glad you like it. I thought you might be angry with me for wanting to live near you. It might not be forever, I just-I need you right now. Is that too terrible a thing for a sister to say?"
Touched, Tricia rested a hand on her sister's arm. "No, and I'm happy you feel that way. I just wish I could leave all the baggage from our childhood behind."
"I have none. But then why should I? I was the cherished child they never thought they'd have, and you were…well, you weren't expected. By that time Mother had moved on to other pursuits."
Angelica's words were nothing Tricia hadn't considered for herself too many times over the years, yet it did hurt to hear them. She withdrew her hand.
Angelica frowned. "I've spoiled the moment, haven't I?"
Nothing new, Tricia felt tempted to say, instead she turned and walked back to the car. Angelica took the hint and followed. Once inside, she started the engine, backed into the turnaround, and headed down the drive for the highway once again.
"Where to now?" Tricia asked, not caring what the answer was.
"I thought it might be fun to have dinner at the inn tonight. My treat. What do you say?"
Since the idea of cooking for herself was always a turnoff, and Miss Marple wouldn't be expecting her dinner for several hours anyway, Tricia nodded.
As she drove, Angelica gave a running commentary about the cottage's charms and its drawbacks, including the lack of closet space and how she thought she might like to add a patio and lap pool to the backyard and did Tricia know anything about pool maintenance?
"No."
Meanwhile, Tricia turned her attention back to Winnie's newspaper clippings. She must have circled forty or fifty addresses and Tricia wasn't sure she had a detailed map of the area to check them out. Stoneham had no map store, and she wasn't aware of any of the bookstores catering to local history, either. Maybe the chamber of commerce had done an advertising map. If she ran into Bob, she'd ask. Other than that she decided to just call Frannie at the C of C office on Monday.
Others must have had the same early-dinner idea as Angelica because the inn's parking lot was jammed, and though she circled the lot twice, there simply were no empty spaces. "Darn. Now I'm going to have to park behind the inn in the bungalow lot."
"So, there's a back entrance, isn't there?"
"Is there? I don't know."
Once behind the inn, Tricia pointed out the door that led to the building's secondary entrance, and Angelica parked the car next to the Dumpster, the only available spot in the back lot. They got out of the car and she pointed to the white Altima with the Connecticut plates that sat in front of the door. "Look, there's that stupid car that's been taking all the desirable parking places in the village. I've had enough. I'm going to ask Bess who owns it."
Angelica marched ahead, leaving Tricia struggling to keep up.
Bess was once again stationed at the inn's reception desk, but she was helping another guest and the sisters had to wait to gain her attention. Tricia wandered over to a wooden rack that held brochures detailing the local attractions, and much to her delight found a stack of chamber of commerce maps of Stoneham. She scooped one up. Dinner now seemed unimportant.