Of Dubious and Questionable Memory (9 page)

“A reminder,” Jasper said, a smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “A reminder of all your fine adventures.”

“Well… thank you,” I said. “But you'll have to hold him just a minute longer. I intend to take a drive.” I took the opportunity to skip back over the walkway and to where Ray stood, amused, arms crossed over his chest.

A smile tickled his lips. “Forget something?”

“I am about to get on a mechanized contraption and speed over the city streets with Merinda at the helm.”

“Yes, you are.”

“So I reckon before I embark on this reckless adventure, I should at least kiss you goodbye.”

We both stole a look at Merinda and Jasper, who were too busy speaking of gears and cogs and speed and directions to notice Ray unfold his arms, grab me around the waist, and finish what we had started in the kitchen.

“It's not big enough for the two of us!” I told Merinda a few moments later.

“Nonsense! How do you think Jasper and I got here?” She positioned herself over the bar stretched between the wheels and I settled cautiously onto the seat.

“But you're in trousers. I'm in a dress!”

“Are you chicken, Jem DeLuca?”

No. I certainly was not.

She took the handles and kicked the apparatus into gear. I held on for dear life, never quite finding a comfortable position for legs ensconced in bloomers and skirt and corseted torso, squeezing my eyes shut while the breeze played over my hair and cheeks. She kicked the pedal harder, and we accelerated.

“Are we going too fast?” she yelled over the wind and the roar of the motor.

Knowing she would ignore me if I said
yes,
I squeaked, “I don't know!” and held to her more tightly.

We swooshed onto Parliament, and I opened my eyes just enough to take in a few amused onlookers as we sputtered and squealed over the bumpy pavement, nearly colliding with a streetcar. Merinda was laughing too hard to notice a gathering throng.

When we skidded and veered onto Yonge, she screeched the contraption to a stop, my ears still ringing.

Merinda stroked the sleek frame of the motorbicycle. “Marvelous, isn't it?”

My head was pulsing, my heartbeat staccato. “Oh, yes,” I said lamely. “It's something, all right.”

We sped through the crackling bright, the clanging trolleys bordering us as we slid over and around the tracks. Overhead grand billboards winked down, spurting and buzzing in their electric promenade. I held out my arms to the rustling wind and opened my eyes so wide I wouldn't miss a blinking, kaleidoscopic thing.

Merinda's laughter mounted and finally surpassed the hum of the quickening engine as we sped recklessly, without destination, into the night.

Epilogue

Several months later, as winter frosted the windowpanes and ice slicked the Toronto streets, an envelope arrived. Inside were two newspaper clippings, dated several weeks apart. The first extolled the excitement around a strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Workers had been given the hour decrease that Nicholas had rallied for a few months earlier, but salaries were cut along with the hours. The article was tremendously exciting, telling of militia and bayonets, violence and tension, hunger and horrid conditions in the raging winter.

The second article brought the pleasant outcome: Mill workers had settled the strike with a twenty-percent wage increase.

I would always remember the letter that accompanied the article. “It just takes a step, doesn't it?” Del had written. “One little step to try and understand someone, and the whole world can change for you.”

The Herringford and Watts Mysteries

Can't wait to read more of Merinda and Jem's adventures? Find out what's next for the intrepid detectives in The Herringford and Watts Mysteries.

A Singular and Whimsical Problem

Christmas 1910.
Merinda Herringford and Jem Watts would be enjoying the season a lot more if they weren't forced to do their own laundry and cooking. Just as they are adapting to their trusty housekeeper's ill-timed vacation, they are confronted by the strangest mystery they've encountered since they started their private investigation firm.

In this bonus e-only novella, what begins as the search for a missing cat leads to a rabble-rousing suffragette and the disappearance of several young women from St. Jerome's Reformatory for Incorrigible Females. From the women's courts of City Hall to Toronto's seedy docks and into the cold heart of the underground shipping industry, this will be the most exciting Christmas the girls have had yet.

The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder

In 1910 Toronto, while other bachelor girls perfect their domestic skills and find husbands, two friends perfect their sleuthing skills and find a murderer.

Inspired by their fascination with all things Sherlock Holmes, best friends and flatmates Merinda and Jem launch a consulting detective business. The deaths of young Irish women lead Merinda and Jem deeper into the mire of the city's underbelly, where the high hopes of those dreaming to make a new life in Canada are met with prejudice and squalor.

While searching for answers, donning disguises, and sneaking around where no proper ladies would ever go, they pair with Jasper Forth, a police constable, and Ray DeLuca, a reporter in whom Jem takes a more than professional interest. Merinda could well be Toronto's premiere consulting detective, and Jem may just find a way to put her bachelor girlhood behind her forever…if they can stay alive long enough to do so.

A Lesson in Love and Murder

The legacy of literary icon Sherlock Holmes is alive and well in 1912 Canada, where best friends Merinda Herringford and Jem DeLuca continue to develop their skills as consulting detectives. The city of Toronto has been thrown into upheaval by the arrival of radical anarchist Emma Goldman. Amid this political chaos, Benny Citrone of the Royal North-West Mounted Police arrives at Merinda and Jem's flat, requesting assistance in locating his runaway cousin—a man with a deadly talent.

While Merinda eagerly accepts the case, she finds herself constantly butting heads—and hearts—with Benny. Meanwhile, Jem has her own hands full with a husband who is distracted by his sister's problems but still determined to keep Jem out of harm's way.

As Merinda and Jem close in on the danger they've tracked from Toronto to Chicago, will they also be able to resolve the troubles threatening their future happiness before it's too late? Independence, love, and lives are at stake in
A Lesson in Love and Murder,
the gripping second installment of the Herringford and Watts Mysteries series.

About the Author

Rachel McMillan
is a keen history enthusiast and a lifelong bibliophile. When not writing or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto, where she works in educational publishing and pursues her passion for art, literature, music, and theater. Visit Rachel at
www.a-fair-substitute-for-heaven.blogspot.com
.

About the Publisher

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www.harvesthousepublishers.com

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