Kilt at the Highland Games Read Online Free PDF

Spruces popped into her head. The hotel did look a little like a castle when seen from the village below. It had five octagonal towers, four rising to four stories and one to five . . . with a cupola on top. Of course it wasn’t built of stone, like a proper castle, but rather of wood. Its glistening white walls stood out against a backdrop encompassing every shade of green under the sun—the tree-covered mountains of western Maine.
    This pleasant image shattered at the sound of the bell over the door. Liss started, then relaxed when she saw that it was Sherri Campbell who’d entered the shop.
    â€œAny news?” Liss asked.
    As Sherri headed for the stockroom, she shook her head. Liss could hear her friend filling a mug with coffee and adding sugar and creamer. When she emerged again, she homed in on the Emporium’s “cozy corner,” an area designed with both book browsers and bored spouses in mind. Shelves within easy reach of two comfortable chairs held books about Scotland’s history and scenic beauty, biographies of Scottish people, and a selection of novels set in Scotland. A few large coffee-table books were, appropriately, displayed on the coffee table Liss had placed between the chairs.
    She retrieved her own mug, nearly full and still hot enough to be drinkable, before threading her way through racks of kilts and tartan skirts and shelves loaded with Scottish-themed knickknacks to join her friend. She sank down into the second chair and took a swallow of the coffee before she burst out with the question that had been plaguing her ever since she’d realized that Angie and her children were nowhere to be found.
    â€œHow can three people just vanish into thin air?”
    â€œI wish I had an answer to give you, but at this point you probably know more than I do.”
    â€œHow do you figure that?”
    â€œI wasn’t here during the fire. I didn’t make it to the scene until a couple of hours ago.”
    â€œBe grateful you didn’t have to watch the bookstore burn to the ground.” To quell the lump in her throat, Liss hastily took another sip of her coffee.
    â€œI should have been here.”
    â€œIt was ghastly.”
    â€œI know. That’s probably why I convinced myself that I should stay at home. I didn’t have anyone to stay with the kids, but Adam’s fourteen. I could have left him in charge of Amber and Christina.”
    â€œAdam is a good kid, as responsible as any young teenager I know, but Christina isn’t even three months old, and Amber is only four. You have no reason to feel guilty about being a good mom.”
    â€œThe siren woke us. Then we could see the flames and smell the smoke from the house. I felt so helpless.” Sherri stared into her coffee, as if the answers she was seeking were hidden in the bottom of the ceramic mug.
    â€œSo did everyone who was here. Be glad you were a few blocks away.”
    â€œMike Jennings is the new guy. What if he—?”
    â€œNew here, but not inexperienced,” Liss reminded her.
    She was unaccustomed to seeing Sherri like this—insecure and in need of reassurance. She wondered if it was a form of postpartum depression. If it was, she was doubly glad she and Dan had decided not to have children.
    â€œStill—”
    â€œCut yourself some slack, Sherri.”
    Hearing the sharpness in her voice, Liss instantly regretted snapping at her friend, but maybe firmness was called for.
    â€œYou’re supposed to be on maternity leave,” she continued. “In fact, if I remember right, you weren’t planning to return to work until next week.”
    Liss directed a pointed look at the uniform Sherri wore. It was obvious she’d gone back on the job ahead of schedule.
    A little silence fell between them as Sherri polished off her coffee.
    Liss absently rubbed the side of her calf through her lightweight cotton slacks. Lumpkin’s claws had left a