A Crossworder's Gift (19 page)

“When
I'm working,” Martha parried. “When I'm not, I can be a total slug … And anyway, I don't go on duty until I'm
well
fortified with major doses of caffeine.”

“I'm afraid breakfast means braving the elements,” Sara announced, pulling herself erect in her habitually straight-backed pose. “The kitchen's going to be frigid. Ditto: the foyer and butler's pantry. But the gas is on—I hope.”

Kate and DiAnne volunteered to fetch food for all while Weezie and Martha began picking up pillows and stacking mattresses. When they came to the needlework kneelers that had been discarded the previous evening, they held them up to Sara.

“Return them to the chest, don't you think?” she advised. “Our fingers are too cold to work properly. We'll be a mess of pinpricks.”

Weezie and Martha rolled the five kneelers together, and opened the chest's wood lid.

“Oh, the smell is so comforting,” Weezie sighed. “So old-fashioned …”

“I never thought I'd hear you taking comfort in the past, Louise,” Sara jested. “What next?”

Weezie merely raised her eyebrows, bent her body closer to the woolly needlework, and reached for a handful of finished kneelers. “A rose … a daffodil … snowdrops … oh, this is nice: love-in-a-mist. No poisonous leaves or petals here.” She unrolled four more. “Clematis … marigold … a petunia … stock … Oh, how I adore the scent of stock … It reminds me of my mother …” Weezie pulled out additional kneelers, oohing and aahing over them in a manner quite unlike her “bad girl” image, then sat back upon her heels. “There's a puzzle stuffed into one …”

“They're all a puzzle, if you ask me,” Martha said. “Canvases dotted with holes that don't become real pictures until you finish stitching them.”

“No, I mean a real puzzle. A crossword thing …” Weezie chuckled as she lifted paper gone yellow and brittle with age. “Here, Sara, you're good at these, aren't you?” Weezie laughed again. “It probably contains a message detailing Mrs. Pierce's instructions on the care and cleaning of textiles. Maybe the old—maybe our ‘benefactress' had a playful side after all … No, no, wait, better yet; maybe it reveals where she stuffed the body of her ‘disappearing' husband!”

“Well, if our crosswording friend, Belle Graham, were here,” Sara said with a kindly smile, “she'd certainly jump to that most outrageous of conclusions.”

Kate and DiAnne returned with a tray brimming with coffee and fresh-made muffins to find Sara, Weezie, and Martha huddled together on the sofa, filling in the crossword.

“Ah, Weezie's found herself another game,” DiAnne observed with a smile. “Let's hope it doesn't produce any more embarrassing moments … I suggest you three put that aside and have a pick-me-up first.”

Martha was the first to rise, her nose drawing her toward the steaming coffee. “Manna from the gods. You two have certainly come up with a feast. Homemade muffins, too?”

“From scratch. Credit Kate on that.”

Weezie dropped the puzzle on the side table, as DiAnne approached her and Sara with two cups of hot coffee. Before they could take a sip, a pounding sound echoed from the brass knocker on White Caps' front door.

“My goodness,” Sara said with a start. “Who on earth could that be?”

“There's only one way to find out.” DiAnne set the coffee down and walked into the foyer. She returned a moment later, followed by Kate's husband, Andrew.

“I figured you ladies must have gotten yourselves snowed in,” he said. “I borrowed Ricky's four-by-four, so I was able to make it up the hill. That drive's a sheet of ice, though. We're going to need to get a plow and a snowblower in here if you have any hope of getting your cars out before April Fools' Day.”

Kate walked over to him; she didn't say a word, just gazed at her husband in love, relief, admiration, and joy.

“I missed you …” Andy said, then turned and faced the other women. “Umm … I'd be glad to offer you all a ride home, but, ah, there's really only room for two in the truck.”

“We understand completely,” Weezie announced. “Don't you worry, Andy, we'll work something out.” She pulled her cell phone from her purse. “We'll call in the Marines.”

“Thanks.”

Kate grabbed her coat from the entry hall closet, and the two of them nearly ran out the front door.

“Well, well, well,” Weezie said, “who would have guessed? The loving husband cometh with the snowman!”

Martha took another thoughtful sip of coffee, then added a quiet: “Oh, please, if Andy Stamp was having an affair, I would have heard about it months ago.” Then she slowly turned her gaze on DiAnne, whose mouth fell open:

“You knew about—me? Back when?”

“Might have.”

“Oh, Martha! And you never …! And I was so …! Oh, I'm so sorry!” There weren't enough words to sufficiently express DiAnne's chagrin.

Martha held up a hand. “No apologies necessary.” She smiled at DiAnne and then Weezie, and finally looked toward Sara, who was resolutely completing Prudence Pierce's crossword.

Finished, Sara passed the puzzle to the others, who read it in silence.

“Poor woman,” Weezie finally said. “And to think that all this time—”

“No,” DiAnne and Martha countered, almost in unison; and DiAnne followed it with, “There's nothing poor, or even remotely sad or tragic, about these words. In fact—”

“In fact, it's a most ‘prudent' of messages,” Sara added. “And timely …”

“Aren't we lucky to be the ones who found it?” DiAnne concluded. “Rather than someone else.”

A Stitch in Time

ACROSS

1.  Tie

7.  With 7-Down, what & when partner

10.  Smoke's end

14.  Run out

15.  Owned

16.  A woodwind

17.  Thought; part 1

19.  23-Across output

20.  Irate

21.  MFA studies

22.  Georgia or Virginia

23.  It sounds just like you

24.  Thought; part 2

27.  Golf item

28.  Consumed

29.  Thought; part 3

35.  Offer

38.  Author Haley

39.  Morning moisture

40.  Study; with up

41.  Gents

42.  Source of thought

46.  Sup

47.  Army bed

48.  Thought; part 4

53.  Arrest

56.  Assert

57.  Log or sode lead-in

58.  Large book

59.  Thailand neighbor

60.  Thought; part 5

63.  Rifle rounds

64.  Summer drink

65.  Less ornate

66.  Kill off

67.  Bro's sib

68.  Kitchen gadgets

DOWN

1.  Taunt

2.  Yoke attachment

3.  Steeple

4.  Following in or out

5.  Mrs. Custer portrayer

6.  Adored one

7.  With 7-Across, what & when partner

8.  Waste maker

9.  Lyric poem

10.  Tuxedo neckwear

11.  Sub

12.  Molar

13.  Phone or vision lead-in

18.  Laugh sound

22.  Fill

24.  Constant Comment

25.  Layer

26.  “The bestest”; abbr.

27.  48-Down locale; abbr.

29.  Emoter

30.  Corida cheer

31.  Inker

32.  Germany for short

33.  35-Down, in Hawaii

34.  Possess

35.  Feather stole

36.  Roadhouse

37.  ___Moines

40.  Iota

42.  Relaxed

43.  Siouan

44.  Scolding sound

45.  Garden tool

46.  Microphone inventor

48.  Historic mission

49.  Ruth's mother-in-law

50.  Music-man Giuseppe

51.  Duelers

52.  Spanish aunt

53.  ___Dame

54.  Brown stone

55.  Miller & Reingold

56.  Adorned

58.  Despot

60.  Auto fuel

61.  Cooking meas.

62.  Gov. watchdog grp.

To download a PDF of this puzzle, please visit
openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords

The Answers

To download a PDF of the answers, please visit
openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords/answers

Digger's Challenge

Poetic Justice

Still, Man Wasted Talent

There's a Hitch!

A Stitch in Time