Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel
Page 32
"Oh?"
The man sighed and shook his head slowly, but turned to look at her, his face grim.
"Yes. He seems to feel that you, Miss Farris, might be the best person to replace him, when he dies. That position has always been held by a Westmorland before and breaking that tradition isn't a thing he wishes to do. Naturally, you can turn that down and if other things..." He stopped and glanced at Bethany, then shook his head a little.
The glance lingered on long enough that Martin stiffened, which was, Gwen knew, probably correct. Beth and Ferdinand had dated, a long time before. It had been a bit of a scandal, actually. Neither of them had wanted to break up though.
"Well, we have time. We should go and mingle? People will want to congratulate you, Miss Westmorland, on your impending nuptials. Congratulations to you, Mr. Cordell."
Then he walked off, to do just that. After a while Chris got separated off, and took Martin along with him, which left just the two of them.
Bethany and her.
"Oh! I finished the story, earlier today. I'm thinking of calling it "A Fine Price: A Bethany Westmorland Mystery" I think it will go over pretty well. It's all about how you saved the world, twice." Smiling, Gwen held up two spread fingers.
Beth blushed. It was a rare thing for her.
"I don't know. They'd probably rather read about the real hero wouldn't they?"
"Who me? Sidekick girl? Nah. It was always your story, Beth. That's the way it should be too. I'm just the narrator. It's another tradition from where I come from. Getting to tell the tale of the brilliant detective from a remove." She patted her friend on the arm, and then took it, to lead her off to meet the world.
After all, the story had ended, and was actually good, all the way around. It was time for her friends to all have a real shot at being happy too.
She was.
And probably would be, until later than night when she went to bed and lie there, wondering when the Elder Gods were going to rip her from the world. That was for later though, and right now, she was pretty pleased with how things had turned out, over all.
With that in mind she turned her mind to the party, and actually tried to mingle. It was, as strange as the idea seemed to her, fun.
It was the best day that she could ever remember having, in fact.