by Morgana Best
We both laughed, but then John sobered up. “You’re booked to fly back to Australia tomorrow. Obviously you can’t stay here any longer, as it mightn’t be safe. Cassandra, Douglas, and the Black Lodge might not yet know that they don’t have what they want, but we can’t take any chances.”
The enormity of it hit me. Of course I couldn’t hang around the UK. But what about the cat? “John, I’ve inherited Aunt Beth’s cat, Merlin. I’ll have to get her back to Australia somehow. I’ll need time to arrange that. I’ll have to look into quarantine, and I imagine there will need to be vet checks first, and I’ll have to pay for her flight.” I drew a deep breath, suddenly worried about Merlin.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll organise it.”
“You’ll arrange it all? I’ll send the money over for her flight.” I wondered where on earth I’d get the rest of the money, as I was sure that Aunt Beth’s thousand pounds wouldn’t cover it all. Perhaps I’d have to get yet another credit card and max it out too. My spirits sank.
John shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. It’ll all be arranged. We’ll take care of it. We’ll have the cat delivered to your address as soon as possible at our expense. It’s the least we can do.”
I wanted to insist, but it was better that way. If the undisclosed government agency would pay for Merlin’s flight and quarantine, all well and good. I thought it would be better simply to thank him.
I looked up to see John regarding me. “And I’ll send someone over to your aunt’s house to fetch Merlin now. She can stay with me until she leaves for Australia.”
“Thank you. That would be great!” I said with huge relief. I smiled at him in what I am sure would have appeared to an observer to be quite a sickening way, only there were no observers as the security had seen to that.
Chapter 18
I awoke the next morning exhausted after alternating between tossing and turning and being scratched by Merlin, so I dressed hurriedly and quickly put on my make up. Merlin, as well as my things, had arrived the afternoon before from Aunt Beth’s house.
John was downstairs in the kitchen. His hair was sticking out in all directions and he was unshaven, dressed only in a bathrobe. He had dark circles under his eyes. I assumed that Merlin had slipped into his bedroom at some point in the night.
“Misty, we’re running late,” he said in an urgent tone. “Here’s your coffee.” He put my coffee down and frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t drive you to Heathrow. Our agents will be driving you. It mightn’t be safe for the two of us to appear together so soon in such a public place. It’ll only draw attention to you. I’m quite sure you should be safe at this stage, but we have to err on the side of caution.”
I simply nodded.
“Are you ready to go?”
“Yes.” By way of goodbye, I managed to stroke Merlin’s fur before she swiped at me.
I was sad to see the last of John Smith—or was it the last of him? He had shown up on Whitehaven Island and in High Wycombe, so maybe he would show up again in Australia. I certainly hoped so.
The three men who drove me to the airport didn’t say a word, stiff upper lip and all that. I stared out the window trying not to cry. My whole time in England had been an emotional rollercoaster.
Thankfully, the journey wasn’t long. As we approached Terminal Three at Heathrow, they informed me that I was to proceed straight to security and not to acknowledge the presence of the men, who, they also informed me, would be nearby keeping an eye on my safety.
I collected my luggage and walked without incident through security, and then looked for coffee. I still didn’t feel one hundred percent, and the lack of sleep the previous night had left my head full of cotton wool.
I walked into a café, attracted by the signs boasting both fairtrade and organic. I handed over around three pounds for a large vanilla almond latte, and was surprised I didn’t have to pay extra for the almond like I always had to back in Australia. The chocolate croissant looked good, but I knew that the food on Qantas flights was abundant and I’d soon have plenty to eat on the plane.
After a second tall vanilla almond latte, it was time to go to the bathroom. The men from John’s unexplained government organisation were still there, although inconspicuous, even to me. I wondered how they would feel about me going to the bathroom.
I was drying my hands when a tall, elegant woman approached me. She was holding a large envelope and I figured at first that she must have been one of those people who approaches gullible tourists and asks them to carry a package on a flight.
She handed me the package, said, “Open it in private,” and gently pushed me back into the stall, all in one fluid motion. My time in England had been weird, and it looked as though the weirdness was going to follow me right up to my departure.
I shut the door behind me and tore open the envelope. Inside was my silver chain, minus the keys and the seal. There was also a note, made from a piece of paper folded over. I opened it and read it.
I thought you’d like your chain back. We owe you a favour. Cassandra believed that the chamber had been destroyed. We lied to her as she was causing us too much trouble and we didn’t want her to rejuvenate. Your fake page will fix that.
Oh, and no hard feelings, I hope.
Douglas. xxx
P.S. Flush the envelope and this note.
I laughed despite myself. The nerve of that man! At least I could see the funny side of it. I put the chain around my neck and under my shirt, and flushed the envelope and the note in the toilet.
I walked back out, looked at myself in the mirror, and smiled. My life had been dull and boring. Now, in a couple of weeks, I had acquired a cat of questionable temperament, had solved a murder, had become the Keeper of a society about which I knew absolutely nothing, and had been thrust into a world of alchemy and secret societies.
I wondered what the next few weeks had in store for me.
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Next Book In This Series
His Ghoul Friday Book 3
Arts and Witchcrafts
* * *
With Aunty June in tow, journalist Misty Friday arrives in a touristy Aussie town to write about the ghost tours. But when she stumbles upon a centuries' old murder mystery, she will need to crack the cold case before those keen to bury the town's secrets end up burying her.
Follow Misty as she navigates her way through the clues, solves a murder, and does her best to discover just why John Smith is in Australia.
Also by Morgana Best
ALL MORGANA BEST BOOKS ARE COZY MYSTERIES
Witches’ Brew (Witches and Wine, Book 1)
A B&B that doesn’t serve breakfast, a dead body, and something strange in the dark room at the end of the corridor . . . Pepper knew moving back home wasn’t going to be easy.
Pepper Jasper moves from Sydney to the cozy town of Lighthouse Bay, answering a desperate plea from her aunts to help with their failing Bed and Breakfast business.
She discovers her aunts are more eccentric than she remembered, the Bed and Breakfast does not serve breakfast, and the cottages for lease have strange themes. And what’s more, within minutes of her arrival, she stumbles across a dead body.
Pepper soon has her hands full, contending with a murder mystery, irritating guests including the enigmatic Lucas O’Callaghan who is convinced every woman wants to fall into his arms, and her aunts, who are hiding more than one dark secret.
Who - or what! - lurks in the forbidden room at the end of the dark corridor?
And why do the aunts insist she drink copious quantities of special label wine?
Find out what awaits Pepper Jasper at Mugwort Manor.
Miss Spelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 1)
Amelia Spelled believes in baking it til you make it . . .
But when
her boyfriend dumps her, her boss fires her, and she's evicted from her rental thanks to a cooking mishap, Amelia finds herself all dressed up with nowhere to dough. Amelia is just about ready to pie for help when a handwritten letter is slipped under her door.
Now she is off to country Australia, where a mysterious house is not the only thing that awaits -- there is also the revelation that she is a witch. But if Amelia thinks she'll have time to process these new developments, she's dead wrong. There is a murder, and she's the number one suspect.
Will Amelia cook up a way to solve the crime, or are her spells as bad as her baking? And just what -- or who -- does the dashing man lurking in the shadows want?
A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)
USA TODAY Best-selling series
Laurel inherits a funeral home, to discover it's a dead-end job.
Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from Melbourne to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.
There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, a wise-cracking ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.
When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?
Or will this be the death of her business?
Christmas Spirit (Prime Time Crime, Book 1)
What would do if you saw a ghost?
Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on.
However, her reputation as a clairvoyant medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead.
This all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.
A Tale of Mer-der (His Ghoul Friday, Book 1)
Aussie journalist Misty Friday has several problems, not the least of which is her name.
Misty's mean boss sends her to an island resort in the Great Barrier Reef to investigate a paranormal event, but mermaids and murder throw her off the track.
When Misty makes waves, she attracts the attention of the murderer and one mysterious stranger. Will Misty get to the bottom of this, or are there too many red herrings?
Live and Let Diet (The Australian Amateur Sleuth, Book 1)
Funny cozy mystery
USA TODAY Bestselling series
What will Sibyl find when she moves to a small Aussie town? Deadly snakes and redback spiders? Sure, but she also finds something unexpected . . .
Sybil Potts moves to Little Tatterford, a small town in the middle of nowhere in Australia, seeking to find peace and quiet after the upheaval of her divorce.
Although the town is sleepy and nothing has ever happened, her arrival coincides with a murder in the boarding house adjacent to her cottage.
Sybil soon finds she is at odds with the attractive Blake Wessley, the exasperated police officer trying to solve the murder.
After Sibyl narrowly misses becoming the next victim, she turns her attention to the suspects. Is it the posh English gentleman, Mr. Buttons, who serves everyone tea and cucumber sandwiches -- crusts off, of course -- or her quirky landlady, Cressida Upthorpe, who is convinced she knows what her spoiled cat, Lord Farringdon, is thinking?
Or is it somebody else entirely?
Sweet Revenge (Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries, Book 1)
Funny cozy mystery
What would you do if you were medically unable to gain weight? Eat chocolate and solve murders, of course . . .
When a car accident leads to extensive plastic surgery and an inability to gain weight, Cocoa Narel finds herself transformed from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
No longer forced to temper her love for chocolate, Cocoa opens a candy store and begins to enjoy the sweet life along with her quirky rescue cat. But when her high school bullies start being murdered one by one, Cocoa becomes the prime suspect.
Can she clear her name, or does the true culprit have a few Twix up their sleeve?
Sea Witch Cozy Mysteries: Four Book Box Set
USA TODAY Bestseller
Goldie Bloom has four problems: her boss, her boyfriend, the fact they are the same person, and the fact that person is cheating on her.
After discovering she has inherited an old home on the Gold Coast waterfront, this murder solving Aussie sea witch packs up her collection of 5 inch stilettos and moves.
She's not expecting to move in with a room mate named Persnickle, just as she was not expecting to trip over a dead body on her first day.
Is she the intended victim, and can she really be arrested for drinking coffee?
This Box Set has 4 books:
1) Broom Mates (novella)
2) Broom With A View (full length novel)
3) Broom For One More (full length novel)
4) Broomed for Success (full length novel)
Also available individually: Book 5) Broom Service.
SERIES BY MORGANA BEST
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries
1) Sweet Revenge
2) The Sugar Hit
3) Murder Sweetly Served
4) Chocolate to Die For
First 3 Books available in Box Set:
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries: Box Set: Books 1-3
The Australian Amateur Sleuth
USA Today Best-selling series
1) Live and Let Diet
2) Natural-Born Grillers
3) Dye Hard
4) The Prawn Identity
5) Any Given Sundae
6) The Last Mango in Paris
First 3 Books available in Box Set:
Australian Amateur Sleuth: Box Set: Books 1-3
USA Today Best-seller 2020
Too 20 (paid) Book Amazon US Store 2020
Prime Time Crime
1) Christmas Spirit
2) Ghost Hunter
3) There Must be a Happy Medium
All 3 Books available in Box Set:
Prime Time Crime: Box Set: Books 1-3
Witch Woods Funeral Home
USA Today Best-selling series
1) A Ghost of a Chance
2) Nothing to Ghost About
3) Make the Ghost of It
4) Ghost Stories
5) Ghost Blusters
6) Repossessed
First 4 Books available in Box Set:
Witch Woods Funeral Home: Box Set: Books 1 - 4
USA Today Best-seller 2020
Top 17 (paid) Book Amazon US Store 2020
His Ghoul Friday
1) A Tale of Mer-der
2) The Witching Hour
3) Arts and Witchcrafts
4) Make Some Magic
5) Witch Hunt
First 3 Books available in Box Set:
His Ghoul Friday Three Book Box Set
The Kitchen Witch
1) Miss Spelled
2) Dizzy Spells
3) Sit for a Spell
4) Spelling Mistake
5) ExSpelled
6) The Halloween Spell
7) Spellcheck
8) The Halloween Love Spell
9) Spell It Out
10) Wedding Spells
11) The Halloween Pumpkin Spell
12) Sweet Spell of Success
13) The Halloween Onesie Spell
14) Christmas Spells
These are grouped into Box Sets of 3 books each. The first is
The Kitchen Witch Box Set Books 1-3
Witches and Wine
1) Witches’ Brew
2) Witches’ Secrets
3) Witches’ Charms
4) Witches Magic
5) Witches’ Spe
lls
6) Witches’ Craft
7) Witches’ Cat
First 3 Books available in Box Set:
Witches and Wine: Box Set: Books 1-3
PAPERBACK. All Morgana Best’s books are available in Paperback and Large Print Paperback. Check each book’s page on the website for links to shop.
About Morgana Best
USA Today bestselling author Morgana Best survived a childhood of deadly spiders and venomous snakes in the Australian outback. Morgana Best writes cozy mysteries and enjoys thinking of delightful new ways to murder her victims.
