Chapters (50)
- COVER
- PRAISE FOR TITLES BY MIRANDA JAMES
- ALSO BY MIRANDA JAMES
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT
- DEDICATION
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- AFTERWORD
- LETTER TO THE READER
- SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM BLESS HER DEAD LITTLE HEART
“Good morning, sir.” The cherub advanced toward me, smile intact, hand extended. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you before. Winston Eagleton, publisher.”
I shook his hand as I responded to his cheerful introduction. “Charlie Harris, librarian. Pleased to meet you, sir.”
He nodded and moved toward the bench. “Carrie Taylor, what a sight for an old man’s eyes you are, to be sure. Lovely and girlish as ever.”
Mrs. Taylor regarded Eagleton blandly. “You’re as full of the blarney as ever, Winston. Either that, or you’re decades overdue for an eye exam.”
“You and Della-the-ever-delightful will have your little jokes.” Eagleton offered Ms. Duffy a smile no less genial than those he gave Mrs. Taylor and me. “Della, you know very well indeed that I reprint only out-of-copyright material, or copyright material with the appropriate permissions.” He wagged a finger at her in a playful gesture. “You really must stop saying such things, or Winnie might have to sue.”
“Tell Winnie that he knows very well indeed that I have enough money to hire a lawyer who will bury him in that hobbit hole for the rest of his smarmy little so-called life.” When she finished delivering that mocking, menacing statement, Della Duffy got up from the bench and pushed her way past Eagleton and me. She headed down the sidewalk to the parking lot, got in her car, and peeled out of the lot while the rest of us watched in silence.
“I don’t know who did a wee in her porridge this morning,” Eagleton observed in a cheery tone, “but our Della is in a right old slather.”
“Isn’t she always when she doesn’t immediately get what she wants?” Mrs. Taylor sounded tired. “Put her and Gordon in a gunnysack, shake them up, and who knows which one would fall out first.”
I hadn’t heard that expression in a while, and I couldn’t argue with Mrs. Taylor’s observation. Della Duffy appeared to be every bit as arrogant and self-centered as Gordon Betts, and with the two of them around, our event with Electra Barnes Cartwright could end up a disaster.
“How quaint.” Eagleton sat down beside Mrs. Taylor. “Carrie, I have the most wonderful news, and I wanted you to be the first to hear it as the publisher of the EBC newsletter.”
“What wonderful news?” Mrs. Taylor didn’t appear all that interested.
Eagleton chuckled merrily. “Why, the news that I’m going to publish the long-lost volumes of Veronica Thane’s adventures.”
EIGHT
Mrs. Taylor snorted in an unladylike manner. “Winnie, where did you get such an idea? A few years ago EBC wrote to me and told me that when the publisher canceled the series, she was happy to move on and write different things.”