Elizabeth Lynn Casey - Southern Sewing Circle 10 - Wedding Duress

Praise for the
Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries

Taken In

“What first hooked me on the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries . . . and what keeps me coming back for more, is Casey’s characters and the ties that bind them.”

—
Smitten by Books

“I was completely
Taken In
by this story and I know you will be, too!”

—
Escape with Dollycas

“I love the setting and the coziness of the town. I’ve loved getting to know each and every one of the characters—feeling right at home among them. And I’ve loved the murderous predicaments they’ve all found themselves in. But the camaraderie between the ladies is what makes the story so much fun!”

—
Marie’s Cozy Corner

Remnants of Murder

“Eccentric characters, small-town quirks, and southern charm . . . This book is a winner.”

—MyShelf.com

“A well-written, character-driven, and definitely cozy mystery.”

—
Fresh Fiction

Let It Sew

“Elizabeth Lynn Casey has created wonderful, caring characters and placed them in a beautiful place . . . Whether it be a book fair or a crafting session, you will be inspired.”

—
Escape with Dollycas

“A definite page-turner . . . Casey always keeps me guessing . . . Warmth, good ole southern comfort, with a dose of small-town, friendly chatter gossip.”

—
Cozy Mystery Book Review

“The best book yet in this wonderfully crafted series.”

—
Dru’s Book Musings

Reap What You Sew

“The Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries are full of down-home fun and charm and a group of ladies readers will look forward to visiting with again and again.”

—
The Mystery Reader

“Tori is fun, sassy, smart, and crafty in more ways than one. I loved her wit, humor, and the small-town-girl feel I got from her . . . I like feeling the connection to the characters, like they are old friends coming into my home for the night to sew and solve mysteries together.”

—
Two Lips Reviews

Dangerous Alterations

“I always look forward to seeing what disaster of the criminal vein befalls Tori and the sewing circle. And why not? This series has its own brand of charm, intrigue, and unique characters.”

—
Once Upon a Romance

“Elizabeth Lynn Casey keeps her readers entertained with
Dangerous Alterations
through her wonderful storytelling skills that feature light humor, gentle romance, and always an intriguing, suspenseful mystery to be solved. What more could you ask for in a cozy mystery?”

—
Fresh Fiction

Deadly Notions

“I always enjoy visiting Tori and her friends in Sweet Briar. They are their own band of sisters who squabble and pick at each other yet will drop most anything to lend a hand.”

—
Once Upon a Romance

“A perfect addition to the Southern Sewing Circle series. With strong personalities vibrating off each page, the twists and turns of the story line, and the exceptionally exciting ending, this one will please them all!”

—
The Romance Readers Connection

Pinned for Murder

“[Mixes] a suspenseful story with a dash of down-home flavor . . . Visiting with the charmingly eccentric folks of Sweet Briar is like taking a trip back home.”

—
Fresh Fiction

“A relaxing and pleasurable read. Ms. Casey has sewn together a finely crafted cozy mystery series.”

—
Once Upon a Romance

“An excellent read for crafters and mystery lovers alike. Elizabeth Casey has a knack for threading together great story lines, likable characters, and surprises in every page. The women in the Southern Sewing Circle are friends we all wish we had. This book was terrific from beginning to end.”

—
The Romance Readers Connection

Death Threads

“A light, fun mystery with southern charm and an energetic heroine.”

—
The Mystery Reader

Sew Deadly

“Filled with fun, folksy characters and southern charm.”

—Maggie Sefton, national bestselling author

“Sweet and charming . . . The bewitching women of the Southern Sewing Circle will win your heart in this debut mystery.”

—Monica Ferris,
USA Today
bestselling author

“A smooth, entertaining read, especially for those who like their stories light, and the mystery is clever. Settle down with some tea and a nice piece of red velvet cake and enjoy yourself.”

—
RT Book Reviews

Berkley Prime Crime titles by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

SEW DEADLY

DEATH THREADS

PINNED FOR MURDER

DEADLY NOTIONS

DANGEROUS ALTERATIONS

REAP WHAT YOU SEW

LET IT SEW

REMNANTS OF MURDER

TAKEN IN

WEDDING DURESS

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

penguin.com

A Penguin Random House Company

WEDDING DURESS

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author

Copyright © 2015 by Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.

BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-18654-5

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / April 2015

Cover illustration by Mary Ann Lasher.

Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

For you, my readers . . .
Thank you.

While there are still many more adventures ahead for Tori and the rest of the sewing circle, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have allowed these wonderful characters to become part of my world.

Thank you, Emily Rapoport. It has been my honor to bring the Southern Sewing Circle ladies to life. They’ve made me laugh many times over the past several years and for that I am eternally grateful.

A thank-you is in order, as well, for my editor, Michelle Vega, who has embraced this series. Knowing they make you laugh in all the right places has been great fun! I can’t wait to see where we go next!

And last but not least, a huge thank-you goes to my agent, Jessica Faust. Having you in my corner has made this whole journey even more special.

One by one, Tori Sinclair watched each of her friends emerge from the bank of dressing rooms in a burst of autumn color, their chosen hues and styles stealing her breath as they stepped onto the semicircular platform and turned in her direction.

“You look absolutely”—she stopped, swallowed, and started again, her voice choked with emotion—“
stunning
.”

Leona Elkin’s flawlessly manicured hand fluttered to her chest just before she spun around to face the trifold mirror on the opposite side of the platform. “As we all know, there’s not a single color out there I
can’t
showcase, but that said, I have to agree with you, dear, Smoldering Blaze may well be one of my best.”

“Said no one ever,” Rose Winters groused from her spot in the center of the group. Sweeping a trembling hand to her left, the eighty-something matriarch of the
Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle met and held Tori’s gaze. “If you want me to take mine and Dixie’s in at the waist so they’re a bit more fitted like everyone else’s, I can do that, Victoria.”

“No. No. They’re perfect.
You’re
perfect.
Everyone
is perfect. I couldn’t be more pleased than I am.”

“Mine wasn’t supposed to be fitted neither, but the start of a new school year always means more cookie-eatin’ for my grandbabies and me.” Leona’s fraternal twin, Margaret Louise Davis, peeked down at her even plumper than normal Warm Cinnamon–hued self, shrugging as she did. “Don’t really matter none, I s’pose, on account of it bein’ your weddin’ ’n all. Anyone with a workin’ lightbulb in their noggin won’t be lookin’ at anyone ’cept you, Victoria.”

Slowly, Leona turned back, her lashes half-mast across her hazel eyes. “That may be true of Milo, but he won’t be the only man there . . .”

“Oh, put a sock in it, will you, Leona?” Rose stamped her thick-soled dress flats on the carpeted riser and scowled. “When Victoria said
stunning
, she was talking to all of us, not just you. And last I checked, there weren’t any dimwitted male thirty-year-olds on the guest list for you to play temporary sugar momma to, so all eyes
will
be on Victoria . . . as they should be.”

Lips twitched up and down the line as Leona’s mouth gaped, then closed, then gaped again.

Tori began a mental count to ten, reaching seven before Leona’s retort finally came.

“There is nothing
stunning
about an Old Goat in a Harvest Wheat”—Leona took in Rose from head to toe—“
housecoat
shuffling her way down the aisle at a speed akin to dripping molasses.”

Then, before anyone could react, Leona snapped her finger in the direction of the cameraman positioned just over Tori’s left shoulder. “You’re getting a good, long, close-up angle of this one for the show, right, Skip?”

“
This one?
” Georgina Hayes, clad in Dusky Sunset, echoed from her place at the opposite end of the line. “Do you mean
Rose
?”

The faintest hint of a smile appeared on Leona’s seemingly ageless face in conjunction with the answering nod she sought from her cameraman. “Skip knows what I mean, don’t you, gorgeous?”

The handsome twenty-year-old added a wink to his second nod and then ducked behind the Cable TV camera perched atop his shoulder.

Nina Morgan, Tori’s friend and fellow employee, blinked once, twice. “I—I . . . I’m not sure what to say right now.”

“I can think of a few things,” Rose muttered as she took Debbie Calhoun’s ready hand and stepped down off the platform, stopping briefly to address Tori directly. “If you want to go with eight bridesmaids instead of nine, I understand.”

Reaching out, Tori took hold of Rose’s hand and squeezed it gently. “It would be unfair of me to remove Leona from the bridal party after she’s already paid for the dress.”

A flash of amusement, magnified by Rose’s bifocals, temporarily eased the hurt Tori hated to see on anyone, let alone one of her dearest friends. “I wasn’t talking about Leona, Victoria.”

“I was,” she whispered back. “Now come on, Rose, you know how Leona is. Shake it off, okay? You earned my distinction of
stunning
just as much as everyone else.”

“Maybe in my earlier days, when I wasn’t wincing with every move I made.” Rose closed her eyes for a moment, only to open them as she turned toward her dressing room. “I’ll take this off now and hang it up.”

When the elderly woman was out of earshot, Dixie Dunn waddled across the platform in Muted Pumpkin to stand in front of Leona, hands on hips. “Must you always be so
nasty
? So—”

“
Hateful?
” Georgina added. Then, holding her hand upward, Sweet Briar’s long-standing mayor began ticking off more options. “
Mean?
Thoroughly unlikable?
Despicable?
”

Leona sliced her hand horizontally in front of her neck to indicate Skip should stop filming and put away his equipment. Once she was sure he was otherwise occupied, she turned angry eyes in the mayor’s direction. “
I’m
hateful, Georgina?
I’m
mean?”

As heads began to nod across the platform, Leona took several long moments to include each and every member of the assembled bridal party in her death glare. “What about
Rose
? Did you
hear
the disparaging things she said to me just now? The way she implied men are only interested in me for my
money
?”

Georgina laughed. “And your point?”

Again, Leona’s mouth gaped.

Again, Tori began to count, this time making it to nine before being cut off by Beatrice Tharrington.

“Did I tell all of you my ace news?”

All eyes turned toward the soft-spoken, twenty-two-year-old British nanny, dressed in Quiet Barley, and waited.

Beatrice took a deep breath and then let it out, her
greenish-colored eyes round with a kind of wonder and excitement that was rare for the otherwise shy girl. “My governess is coming, here—to Sweet Briar! To work for Jim and Julie Brady. I made the suggestion after they fired that rather cheeky Cynthia Marland and had no one to look after their three children. I suggested Miss Gracie as the perfect replacement and she’s actually coming! In fact, she’s due to arrive first thing in the morning. Isn’t that luvvly-jubbly?”

Margaret Louise’s eyebrows rose upward. “Luvvly-jubbly?”

Beatrice’s pale skin reddened just before her gaze dropped to her feet. “It means . . . lovely,” Beatrice whispered.

“I think it’s a wonderful expression,” Melissa Davis said from her spot on the edge of the platform. Then, turning to her mother-in-law, she added, “Sounds like something
you
might say, Margaret Louise.”

“Well, then, I reckon I might be addin’ it to my repertoire after today.” Margaret Louise winked at Beatrice. “Assumin’ you don’t mind sharin’ it with a loudmouth like me, of course.”

Debbie stepped forward in a burst of Soft Russet and touched a gentle hand to the young girl’s back. “When you said
governess
just now, did that mean this woman took care of
you
as a child, Beatrice?”

“Oh yes! Miss Gracie made my childhood
magical
,” Beatrice replied. “And now, because she’ll be with the Bradys, I’ll see her at the park and school events just about every day. It will be divine!”

“Certainly helps explain why you’ve been grinnin’ like a possum eatin’ a sweet tater ever since you walked
through those doors.” Margaret Louise pointed toward the bridal shop’s front door. “I reckon it’ll be like havin’ your momma here, won’t it?”

Beatrice didn’t need to utter a word. Her face-splitting smile said it all.

“Would you like to bring her to the wedding as your guest? It might be a great way for her to meet people,” Tori offered. “In fact, at last check, every single teacher at Sweet Briar Elementary School will be at the reception, along with most, if not all, of the office staff. Miss Gracie can meet the children’s teachers and principal, and they can get to know her a bit, as well.”

“I shall ask her as soon as I see her.” Beatrice ran her hand down the front of her satiny dress and then rose up on the balls of her one-inch silver heels for a little twirl. “I feel like royalty in this dress, Victoria. Thank you so much for including me.”

For a moment, she was afraid Leona was going to widen her battlefield to include Beatrice, but whatever smart-aleck thought lifted the woman’s eyebrow halfway to her hairline remained unspoken, setting off a domino of relieved sighs around the room in the process.

Tori wished she could attribute Leona’s sudden self-restraint to some sort of spiritual awakening but she had a sneaking suspicion it was more likely due to the click of Rose’s dressing room door and the chance to get one last jab in where her true nemesis was concerned.

Leona, of course, didn’t disappoint. Lifting her body-hugging dress halfway up her calves to reveal her own four-inch version of the agreed-upon silver-colored shoe, the woman
tsk
ed audibly beneath her breath. “I’m so glad
I don’t have to wear flats with a satin gown. It’s just so—so
nursing home
, don’t you think?”

“Hush, Twin!” Margaret Louise scolded amid a chorus of gasps from the rest of the bridal party.

“What?” Leona batted her false lashes with feigned innocence. “Did I say something wrong?”

“You opened your mouth, didn’t you?” Rose hissed as she shuffled across the room to Tori with her bridesmaid dress draped across her arthritic arm. When she reached her destination, the matriarch lowered her voice so only Tori could hear. “I tried to carry the shoe box out here, too, but I’m afraid I dropped it one too many times.”

“I’ll get your shoes and
your dress to you tomorrow evening when I come to your house for
my
final fitting.” Tori liberated the dress from Rose’s arm and draped it, instead, across the back of her chair before turning to take her friend’s frail hands inside her own. “Thank you for coming today, Rose. You looked lovely.”

“I wouldn’t miss your special day for anything in the world, Victoria.” Tugging her left hand free, Rose cupped the side of Tori’s face. “Milo Wentworth is a lucky, lucky man.”

“And I am a lucky, lucky girl to be able to spend the rest of my life with a man like Milo
and
the truest, most wonderfully loving friends a girl could ever hope for.” Tori captured Rose’s hand inside her own and held it against her skin more closely. “I love you, Rose.”

A single tear escaped from beneath Rose’s bifocals. “I won’t let this thing with Leona threaten your day, Victoria. You have my word.”

With the underside of her thumb, Tori wiped all
residual wetness from the elderly woman’s cheek while doing her best to smile through the answering tears she, herself, refused to shed. “Thank you, Rose, that means a lot. But really, I can’t imagine
anything
threatening my wedding day.”