Buttoned Up (22 page)

I could imagine it, and what I imagined was cramped and uncomfortable. I made a mental note to see if I could come up with some work for Mike around the B and B. It wouldn’t solve all his problems, but it might help.

“Well, look who’s here! One of the guests of honor!”

I didn’t know there were guests of honor for the week’s festivities, so Luella’s comment surprised me. That is, until I turned away from watching Mike work and saw who was headed our way on the dock.

Alice Defarge—or was it Margaret?—and talk about a legend! The Defarge twins had lived their whole lives on South Bass and they owned the island’s only knit shop. As far as I’d heard, neither of the ladies—seventy-five if they were a day—had officially been named a guest of honor, but the Defarge reference was lost on no one. At least no one who knew anything about the Dickens book. In
A Tale of Two Cities,
Madame Defarge is the iconic figure who sits knitting in the shadow of the guillotine.

Thankfully, our own Defarges were far less ghoulish. In fact, the sisters—who I’d met at various potlucks and island functions—were as sweet and as friendly as can be and this one—whichever one she was—sure enjoyed the reference to being the guest of honor. Her smile was as bright as her snowy white hair.

I adjusted my black-framed glasses on the bridge of my nose. “Alice or Margaret?” I asked Kate out of the corner of my mouth when the old lady neared.

“Alice.” As subtly as she could, Kate pointed, indicating Alice’s white cotton pants and her sky blue, short-sleeve shirt. “Margaret always wears something pink.”

I’m sure I’d heard that before but this time, I told myself not to forget it.

“Isn’t this great fun!” In the light of the setting sun, Alice twinkled like a prom queen. Just like her sister, she was a tiny woman with a neat, poofy hairdo and a spring in her step. “I only hope . . .” Her gaze moved past us to the lake. “There are some pretty dark clouds out there. I hope the weather isn’t going to spoil our celebrations this week.”

“There’s a chance of rain tonight,” Luella told her. “But nothing for the rest of the week. Will you and Margaret join us for dinner?”

Another blast of wind kicked up over the lake and brought with it the distant rumble of thunder. “Thank you , but . . .” In no time at all, Alice headed back the way she’d come. “I’d better help Margaret get our picnic settled over in the park. Just in case it starts to rain and we need to pack up in a hurry.”

“Nice lady,” I said when she was gone.

“A real sweetheart,” Chandra confirmed. “So’s her sister.”

“And you’d better be really careful every time either one of them is around,” Kate advised, then laughed when she saw the look of disbelief on my face. She grabbed onto my arm. “I’m just saying. Hasn’t anybody told you? The Defarge sisters—”

“Are the biggest gossips on this or any other island,” Luella said. “There are a lot of people around here who believe that’s why they opened their knit shop in the first place. You know, so they’d have a ringside seat right downtown and they could keep an eye on everyone and everything that happens around here.”

“They know your business before you know your business,” Chandra added. “And there’s nothing they like better than telling the world.”

By the time they were done with their warnings, my smile was tight. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t have any business worth discussing.”

“Right.” Kate split the word into two syllables. Right before she grabbed her dinner dish and took it with her when she went to the boat in the next slip to chat with its owners.

“Anything you say.” Chandra had already finished her plate of food, but when she walked down the dock to visit with some of our neighbors, she took the bottle of red wine with her.

“Good luck with that,” Luella said, and she, too, walked away, leaving me alone on the dock and wondering what had just happened.

For like a half a second.

That was when I realized I wasn’t alone, and the reason they’d all pulled up stakes and fled was suddenly all too evident.