Free Many Unpleasant Returns by Judith Alguire Page B

for lunch. “Where are you going?”
    â€œRudley” — she gave him an aggrieved look — “I’m going into town to have lunch with Frances. I’ve mentioned that to you several times.”
    He crossed his eyes. That damn Frances Blount. God knows what she would fob off on Margaret this time. Probably yards of teal and fuchsia garlands. “Do you think you should, Margaret? In this weather?”
    â€œIt’s stopped snowing. The roads are quite clear.”
    â€œWhat if you run into freezing rain?”
    â€œThere isn’t any freezing rain projected, Rudley.”
    â€œIt could.”
    â€œWe could have a tornado, but I don’t think we will.” She leaned over the desk and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Rudley, there’s no need to worry. It isn’t expected to start snowing again until late evening and I’ll be home by then.”
    â€œDon’t let that woman talk you into anything garish.”
    â€œRudley, I don’t intend to bring home anything but some bayberry candles. Frances called to say they just came in.”
    She sailed out the front door, just as Tim came up the back steps. “I finally found the jingle bells,” he said, holding up a length of old leather studded with bronze bells.
    Rudley examined them with a sigh. “They’re starting to look as if they’d seen better days.”
    â€œThey’ll be all right, Boss. I’m going to take some saddle soap and brass cleaner to them.”
    â€œGood.” Rudley brightened. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the sleigh bells.”
    â€œI’ll put them in the closet for now,” said Tim. “I promised the Sawchucks I’d get them downstairs in time for lunch.”
    â€œWhere’s Tiffany?”
    â€œWith her beau, I imagine. She’s on vacation, Boss.”
    Rudley harrumphed around as Tim went upstairs to help the Sawchucks. He didn’t care to have Tiffany and Thornton in the inn, on the same floor, in — as they had finally revealed to him — adjoining rooms. And when they did reveal it to him, they acted as if he should have known all along. “We couldn’t very well have Tiffany staying in the bunkhouse while she’s on holiday,” Margaret had said. “And the best room left happened to be the one next to Mr. Thornton’s. You wouldn’t want Tiffany to have anything but the best.”
    â€œWell…”
    â€œThe only other option would have been to have Tiffany stay with me in our quarters and you could have stayed in the room adjacent Mr. Thornton.”
    That comment made the veins at his temples throb.
    â€œNothing will happen, Rudley, that wouldn’t happen if she were in the bunkhouse and he was in a room at the inn. They’ve been in Toronto together.”
    â€œThat’s the point. They were in Toronto.”
    Rudley sighed. He knew Mr. Thornton was a dud, but if Tiffany was determined to marry a dud, there was nothing he could do about it. Young women, he considered, have no taste in men. Not like Margaret. He smiled and did a little two-step behind the desk. Yes, they made men different in his day. I wasn’t a bad catch. Well-mannered, reliable, with some prospects. Properly raised, the son of an old-fashioned general practitioner and a resilient mother with the patience of Job. He inherited the best from both. His father had expected him to follow in his footsteps, but from the moment he walked into the old Baltimore Hotel in Galt for his first summer job, he knew he was to become an innkeeper. In the past thirty years, in spite of a series of misadventures, he and Margaret had been a source of comfort and excellent service to a regular stream of guests. He ran the inn with a firm but gentle hand and it wasn’t always easy riding herd on a spirited staff and a group of eccentric guests always eager to jump the traces and run amok. He