Till Death Do Us Purl Read Online Free PDF

for a class?”
    “Nothing like that,Edie. The knitting group is just doing a good deed. Rebecca Bailey is getting married and she needed some help knitting shrugs for her bridesmaids and finishing her gown.”
    “Rebecca who . . . ? Oh sure, I know who you mean. She’s making her own wedding gown, right?” Maggie simply nodded. “Well, good luck to her. Who’s she marrying anyway?”
    “Jeremy Lassiter. Do you know the Lassiters?” Maggie’s tone was polite, though they both knew Edie was acquainted with everyone in town. If not personally, then by hearsay, which was just as good in her book.
    “At-Las Technologies? Those Lassiters you mean?” She sat down at the table with a grunt and yanked open a few snaps on her coat. “Well, well. She reeled in a big fish. You wouldn’t think she was the type to go after money. To look at her, I mean. She seems so homespun. So wholesome and whole foodie.”
    Lucy actually agreed with Edie’s assessment. Though she would have phrased the impression in a more polite way.
    “Edie, please. You make it sound like poor Rebecca is a gold digger. She’s nothing like that. I’m sure it’s a total love match,” Maggie insisted.
    Edie shrugged, unfazed by Maggie’s scolding. “If you say so. Otherwise, she might be in for a little surprise. All mighty At-Las has hit some hard times, I hear. Her new in-laws might not be as loaded as she thinks.”
    Edie was still not conceding that Rebecca was not interested in Jeremy for his money, Lucy noticed. But her tidbit of gossip piqued Lucy’s curiosity.
    “What do you mean, Edie? Is the company having problems?”
    “You might say that. Lassiter’s partner, Lewis Atkins, up and left about a year or two ago. That was a nasty split. Nearly brought the whole place down around him. See it was Atkins and Lassiter from way back. At . . . Las, get it?” she asked the other women. “College roommates and close as brothers. They started that business fresh out of school with Lassiter’s father’s money. What, nearly forty years ago?”
    “Why did they part company?” Maggie asked.
    “Oh, the usual. Some fight over money or royalties from a patent. Something like that. Anyway, Atkins got a payout that drained the coffers. Not to mention the lawyers’ fees. So now Lassiter is left beating the bushes for investors. He’s definitely got a cash-flow problem since his BFF left. Mainly with the flow part,” she added curtly.
    “Investors? Is the family selling off shares of the company?” Maggie asked curiously.
    “I wish. I would have bit on that carrot,” Edie countered. “All my guy would tell me was that I could get in on the ground floor, on something big. But risky.” Edie paused and pulled outher knitting. “I was tempted. But I decided to pass.”
    Lucy had no idea of Edie’s net worth, but guessed that their local queen of hash browns was one of the wealthiest people in town, if not all of Essex County. In addition to a thriving business, a prime chunk of Main Street real estate, and a grand Victorian showplace she called home, Edie had been the sole heir to her father’s savings and investments, and spent almost as much time analyzing and manipulating her nest egg as she did knitting.
    “Rebecca’s future father-in-law is cooking up some hot new product and looking for R and D money,” Edie continued. “Research and development,” she translated.
    “Yes. We get that.” Maggie glanced at Lucy with a bland smile. “Nora Bailey did say that Jeremy’s father insisted that the wedding date be changed because there was something very important going on at the firm. Perhaps it’s all related.”
    “Sounds like. These things can be a boom or a bust. I need a safe bet at my age. It’s almost time to cash in my chips. Or time for my kids to,” she added with a laugh. “Hey, why did I come in here anyway? It sure wasn’t to talk over my portfolio. Oh, right, Some buttons for this little sweater I just finished.