Innkeeping with Murder - Tim Myers [66]
At that moment, there was a scream just outside Alex’s office.
Alex and Elise bolted out the front door together to find Marilynn Baxter, one of the exhibiting potters, pale and quivering on the front porch.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, searching for some reason, any reason for the woman to have screamed so fiercely.
“I saw a snake,” she said shakily, her finger pointing to the small copse of trees that stood between the inn and Bear Rocks, a granite formation close to the inn that sported the oddest shapes and forms in twelve counties.
“It’s all right now,” Elise said, scanning the ground near them. “Whatever it was is long gone.”
Craig Monroe, the other half of the husband-and-wife pottery team participating in the fair, came rushing up to them. “What happened, Marilynn? I heard you scream! Are you all right?”
Suddenly conscious of all of the attention, Marilynn said curtly, “I saw a snake, Craig, a big one.”
“It was probably just a garter snake,” Alex said, trying to ease some of the tension.
“It doesn’t matter what kind it was,” Marilynn snapped. “I hate all snakes! They are absolutely vile creatures!”
Craig put an arm around his wife. “You’re okay now. Let’s go finish setting up, Marilynn. There aren’t any snakes around our exhibit.”
“There’d better not be,” Marilynn hissed as her husband led her back to the temporary fairground. Craig Monroe offered a silent shrug of apology to Alex as they walked away.
As Alex and Elise started back inside, she paused and said good-naturedly, “If I can’t get you to change your mind about this fair, we should at least see what we’ve let ourselves in for. Are you interested in walking around the displays before Shantara opens the gates? Things were so crazy last night, I didn’t even have a chance to see them setting up their booths.”
Though Alex knew Elise wasn’t thrilled about having the Golden Days Fair at Hatteras West, he realized that she would never let anyone else know how she truly felt. The offer of a tour was her concession to making the best of what she considered a bad situation.
“Sounds good to me,” Alex agreed as they reversed directions.
The two of them gave the pottery area a wide berth as they started their tour.
Bill Yadkin, one of the two blacksmiths working the fair, already had a hearty fire going in his portable forge. The big, fierce-looking young man stared intently at the coals as they burned. Rachel Seabock, a traditional woodworker who used only the hand tools she’d inherited from her great-grandfather, hovered near the young blacksmith. Though Rachel was a decade older than Bill, it was obvious from the look in her eyes that there was more than just friendship between the blacksmith and the woodworker.
Alex thought about skipping past them, but Elise forged on before he could steer her to another exhibit. She said, “That fire feels good this morning,” as she warmed her hands near the coals.
Yadkin smiled. “We’ll see how you feel around noon when the day starts to heat up.”
“No thanks,” Elise said. “What’s in the fire?” she asked, pointing to the center of the forge. Alex looked into the burning coals and saw a foot-long tapered shaft of metal glowing a dull orange.
“I’m making another stake for Rachel’s canopy. Somebody walked off with the last one.”
Rachel said proudly, “Bill’s building up quite a clientele. His business is really taking off.”
“You don’t have to sell me every minute of the day, Rachel,” Yadkin said shortly.
“I wasn’t... I didn’t mean . . .” Rachel said, looking flustered. After a deep breath, she continued. “I’d better take Jenny that rocking chair she ordered before the fair gets into gear today,” Rachel said. “I swear, I never thought a weaver would be one of my best customers,” she added with a shrug before hurrying off.
After she was gone, Alex said, “Rachel’s a big fan of yours, isn’t she?”
Yadkin shrugged. “Yeah, too much, sometimes,” he grumbled as he moved the glowing shaft around with a long set