They turned to walk back to the Institute.
Ruffy smiled at his friends. “She can be at peace. Justice is one thing. Peace is another.”
“She had a good friend,” Tucker said. “Arlene.”
“Come on, you rascals.” Harry called to her friends.
Arlene smiled. “If I had made a move toward you, I think I would have been attacked.”
“Scratch your eyes out!” Pewter spat.
“Bite your legs,” Tucker promised.
“Push you over,” the ever-growing Irish wolfhound threatened.
“Climb up your back and claw your face while Pewter climbed up your front.” Mrs. Murphy said exactly what Pewter wanted to hear.
As they took a few steps onto the farm road, Tucker turned around to see Ruffy walking with his human.
“Look,” the corgi announced.
The other three watched, Ruffy’s tail wagging, looking up at the human ghost.
“Love never dies,” Mrs. Murphy said.
Dear Reader,
Pewter’s message reeked of unearned self-regard. I took it out of here.
Hope you are well.
Dear Reader,
I found my letter. See what I live with? A thief. What does Mrs. Murphy contribute to these books? Dull. The cat defines tedium.
I, on the other hand, burst with ideas and excitement.
As for human history, who cares? All they do is repeat the same stuff over and over. Only the clothes change.
Cats are far more interesting except for you-know-who.
Dear Reader,
Someone save me from these cats.
P.S. Pirate doesn’t know his ABCs yet. He can’t write. But he, too, has to live with this.
For Professor Iris Love
She has held the past in her hands
Therefore she knows the future.
THE NATIONAL BEAGLE CLUB
Founded in 1887 by farsighted and good people, the National Beagle Club benefits from continued solid leadership. If only we could send them to Congress.
I am certainly grateful to Lis Kelly, the archivist. She certainly has a task.
Liz Reeser, the assistant treasurer of the National Beagle Club, an events coordinator, and a major contributor to Hounds F4R Heroes, took a lot of time with me and made me laugh in the bargain.
Arie Rijke, M.D., Master of the Waldingfield Beagles, allows me to bedevil him. Watching him hunt his hounds, listening to tales of the past, needs of the present, has been invaluable. The other staff members of the club have also been wonderful.
Kathleen King, formerly of Ashland Bassets, whose late husband, Al Toews, was Master of Bassets, as always finds me odd tidbits of information when asked. She hunts with Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club and we have hunted behind bassets with intense pleasure.
Amy Burke Walker, Jt. MB of Holly Hill Beagles, cochair of the Triple Challenge and a member of the board of directors at the National Beagle Club, endured far too many questions from myself. We both whip-in to the Waldingfield Beagles and she whips-in to me with the Oak Ridge Foxhounds. On foot, I simply imitate her if I am able. Amy has won the Best in the Nation award two times, maybe more, for whipping-in. When she is whipping-in to me, on horseback, I know that side is covered. But I keep asking her questions and she bears it in good grace.
Hounds F4R Heroes was started by Steve Fox, ably assisted by his wife, Trish, and Matt Lafley is a cofounder. If you Google Hounds F4R Heroes, you will see if your state has such a group. This is a relatively new development and one worthy of our support.
Allow me to give thanks for the Waldingfield Beagles who left us and are now in the Happy Hunting Grounds after a life doing what they loved. I love it, too, and owe them a great deal, as I do to the people of the above-named pack. A good time is had by all.
Without Geoffrey Ogden and Jan, his wife, this novel would not have been possible. Given their long careers in service of our nation, postings overseas to sometimes dangerous places, I was astonished and sobered by their information. Geoff, among his other successes, was president of the Middleburg Hunt Club. When I talk to him I never want him to stop, whether it concerns our State Department or foxes. As for Jan, I look older, she does not. Grateful as I am for her service, I find this deeply unfair.
Finally, Joy Cummings and Harriett Love, her sister, came up with all manner of ideas about poisons. I hope to stay on their good side.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ideally, the eighteenth- and twenty-first-century story lines should neatly tie up at the end. You, even if this is your first Mrs. Murphy mystery, know the past impacts the future. In truth, it is never past.
There is so much happening in 1787, were I to push this into 1788, this novel would be a thousand pages. Any writer producing such heft is probably too arrogant to know to need his or her editor.
There’s Sheba’s jewels, which will be resolved in the next Mrs. Murphy novel, or again this would be too long.
I am indebted to Geoff and Jan Ogden.
Also to Kathleen King and her dear friend Jack Burke.
Tracy Devine, my editor, is a true literary editor. This is not to suggest I deserve her, only to suggest we both love literature and can natter on about Shakespeare, etc.
I will do as she so politely suggests.
I will also try to make production deadlines. Lisa Feuer is head of production. There’s not a writer in the stable who does not benefit from her eye.
As for those eighteenth-century characters to whom I am tied, you may not know their private futures but you know what’s coming in the world.
Here it is a few decades and two centuries later and we all live in the shadow of the guillotine.
All the best,
Rita Mae
Books by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
WISH YOU WERE HERE • REST IN PIECES • MURDER AT MONTICELLO • PAY DIRT • MURDER, SHE MEOWED • MURDER ON THE PROWL • CAT ON THE SCENT • SNEAKY PIE’S COOKBOOK FOR MYSTERY LOVERS • PAWING THROUGH THE PAST • CLAWS AND EFFECT • CATCH AS CAT CAN • THE TAIL OF THE TIP-OFF • WHISKER OF EVIL • CAT’S EYEWITNESS • SOUR PUSS • PUSS ’N CAHOOTS • THE PURRFECT MURDER • SANTA CLAWED • CAT OF THE CENTURY • HISS OF DEATH • THE BIG CAT NAP • SNEAKY PIE FOR PRESIDENT • THE LITTER OF THE LAW • NINE LIVES TO DIE • TAIL GAIT • TALL TAIL • A HISS BEFORE DYING • PROBABLE CLAWS