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Synopsis
Unlucky-in-love artist Annabelle Britton decides that a visit to the seaside town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the perfect way to get over her problems. But when she stumbles upon a smoky gray cat named Alastair, and follows him into a charming cottage, Annabelle finds herself in a whole spellbook full of trouble.
Suddenly saddled with a witch's wand and a furry familiar, Annabelle soon meets a friendly group of women who use their spells, charms, and potions to keep the people of Portsmouth safe. But despite their gifts, the witches can't prevent every wicked deed in town . . .
Soon, the mystery surrounding Alistair's former owner, who died under unusual circumstances, grows when another local turns up dead. Armed with magic, friends, and the charmed cat who adopted her more than the other way around, Annabelle sets out to paw through the evidence and uncover a killer.
Release date: February 2, 2016
Publisher: Berkley
Print pages: 336
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A Familiar Tail
Delia James
Double, Double, Paws, and Trouble . . .
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
About the Author
1
I WANT TO be really clear about a few things. I don’t chase after stray cats, I don’t break into houses and I most definitely do not steal valuable antiques from dead people.
At least, I didn’t used to.
My name is Annabelle Amelia Blessingsound Britton. My well-meaning parents settled this bit of nom de overkill on me at the request of my grandmother Annabelle Mercy Blessingsound Britton back when she declared that her dying wish was to have a namesake granddaughter. I was already on the way, and it was only after they filled out the birth certificate that my folks realized Grandma B.B. wasn’t departing this vale of tears anytime soon. Or ever.
Some other pertinent facts and figures about yours truly:
Age: 35.
Profession: Freelance artist and illustrator.
Relationship Status: Emphatically single.
Height: Short.
Weight: Seriously?
Skin: Exceptionally pale, except when burned lobster red.
Eyes: Goldy-browny-amberish, kinda.
Hair: Medium brown, shoulder length, with either too much curl or not enough, depending on the day.
Location: On the road with most of what I owned crammed into two jumbo-sized red suitcases tossed in the back of my Jeep Wrangler, heading up I-95 from Boston to the quaint seacoast town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a couple of weeks to visit my best friend, Martine.
Technically, it’s about an hour from Boston to Portsmouth, but thanks to a pileup on the interstate, it was already going on four o’clock when I eased my Wrangler off I-95 and past the car dealerships and motels that clustered near the Route 1 roundabout. The two-lane highway snaked under a railroad bridge and bent to the left, becoming Lennox Avenue, and just like that, the scenery ceased to look like an off-ramp town and became beautiful New England.
I followed shady twists and turns past old homes that ranged from stately to eclectic. Another turn, and the homes gave way to converted brick warehouses lining the banks of the Piscataqua River. I put the windows down and breathed in the late-June air filled with freshwater, seaweed and a hint of diesel fuel from the massive black-and-white tanker chugging under the huge steel-girder bridge. My shoulders, tense from the drive, too much caffeine and not enough food, finally began to relax. Portsmouth was not a place I had visited before, though I knew my grandmother had lived there for some time. But I already had a feeling I was going to like it here, and my feelings about places tended to be surprisingly accurate. Spookily accurate, in fact, but that was not something I liked to go into.
My initial destination in town was a three-story Colonial-era brick box of a building with a peaked slate roof and a sign declaring it to be THE PALE ALE INN, EST. 1768. As I turned the key to shut off the Jeep’s engine, the inn’s door opened and an African American woman in a scarlet chef’s coat strode out.
“Martine!” I shouted.
“Anna!” My friend wrapped me in one of her patented spine-crushing embraces. Martine Devereux was almost six feet tall, with deep brown skin and arms like a major league slugger. A professional chef, as well as my best friend since forever, Martine spent her life wielding knives and fire in confined spaces, not to mention barking orders with a force and speed that would put a drill sergeant to shame. “I was starting to wonder if you’d make it!”
“Traffic,” I said, and Martine groaned in deep Bostonian sympathy. She also took my arm and gestured grandly to the saltbox tavern with its weathered shutters and wood-framed windows.
“Welcome to my castle!” Martine gazed on her restaurant with open pride. She’d been over the moon when she got this job. The Pale Ale was a Portsmouth institution. The tavern had been around since before certain radicals met there over tankards of the namesake beer to plot revolution. Now it was the kind of landmark restaurant that got stars in the guides and on the Web sites. My friend had been handed the mission of modernizing the cuisine while keeping true to its New Hampshire heritage. I had no idea how she did that, but I knew Martine was up to the challenge.
“We just finished the family meal, and we open back up in about an hour, so I haven’t got time to do the total girlfriend reunion right now, but I really wanted you to check the place out.” She gave me a significant look and I winced. I couldn’t help it.
Sometimes, some places—homes, buildings, vacant lots, doesn’t matter—give me . . . call it a Vibe. Everybody else can find the place perfectly comfortable, but it will leave me cold, or even sick. Other places that might look ready to be condemned can make me instantly cheerful, even bubbly.
Thankfully, the Vibe was not a constant, or I wouldn’t be able to walk into a grocery store without doubling over. In fact, I really wished I could just brush the Vibe off as part of that overactive imagination common to us artistic types. I would have, too, if it wasn’t for the times I couldn’t make myself walk into a place and afterward I’d find out there’d been a recent death or a divorce or some other disaster. Or maybe it was a birth or a marriage. The good impressions could be just as freaky as the bad ones.
I took a deep breath. “You know I can’t control the thing, Martine.”
“You will tell me if you pick up anything, though? This is important.”
Martine was one of the few people I’d told about my Vibe. I didn’t talk about it partly because I didn’t want to give people extra reasons to think that Anna the Crazy Artist was actually, well, crazy. Partly because I had no control over when I’d get the impressions or how strong they would be. When they hit, if they hit, the feeling could be anything from a mild sensation in the back of my brain to a tidal wave that left me shaking.
Martine had held my hand through a couple of those shaky times, and if she ever thought I was crazy, she kept it to herself. The least I could do was let her know if her dream-job restaurant hit me with the karma stick. So I smiled and gave her an extra hug. “Okay. I promise.”
“Great. Come on in.”
Thankfully, when I crossed the Pale Ale threshold, nothing hit me except a wave of mouthwatering aromas reminding me I’d missed lunch. Servers dressed in immaculate black and white bustled around a spare but elegant dining room, lining up silverware on blue napkins and adjusting the white tablecloths. The clatter and bang of a kitchen in full swing drifted out from the swinging doors.
Martine was watching me, so I shook my head. She mimed letting out a deep breath as she steered us to a table by the windows. “Sean,” she called to the man working behind the bar. “I need a plate of the brisket tacos for my friend, who is about dead of starvation.”
“Yes, Chef!” he answered promptly and headed for the kitchen.
“I’m not about dead,” I muttered. Okay, I was hungry, but still. Martine was a wonderful person and an amazing chef. She also had distinct mother-hen issues.
“You are. You’ve been up since six.”
“I’m a morning person, and I ate breakfast. Pinkie-promise.”
“Maybe, but you skipped lunch.”
How in the heck did she always know? Her instincts about food were almost as spooky as my feelings about places.
“So, how’s Portsmouth treating you, Martine?” I said, changing the subject with my usual level of subtlety.
“Practically rolled out the red carpet.” She gestured around her dining room. “We’ve got a great staff, and there’s some local farmers who have been able to supply us with heirloom ingredients and . . .”
I let Martine’s talk of converting the Pale Ale to a farm-to-table restaurant wash over me and couldn’t help grinning. Maybe I wasn’t getting a Vibe from the building, but I got one from Martine. She’d found her place, and I was happy for her. Also a little jealous. I had been something of a drifter since I got out of college, and if I was honest with myself, it had started to get a little tiring.
Martine’s talk about ramping up the restaurant’s catering department and the upcoming luncheon they were putting together for some city bigwigs had faltered and I realized I hadn’t been paying attention.
“And then there’s this morning . . .”
“This morning? What happened this morning?”
She frowned at me. “This is what happens when you skip meals. You can’t concentrate. I was telling you how the boiler in my building burst this morning.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch. I tried to call to warn you, but you must have been on the road.” Since my one way-too-close call with an eighteen-wheeler, I always turned off my phone when I was driving. “Anyway, the building’s flooded, and they’re saying no hot water until Monday. My sous chef, Beverly, is letting me stay with her, but, well . . .”
I held up my hands. “Don’t worry about it. I saw a bunch of vacancy signs when I passed the motels by the highway.”
“Actually, I got you covered.” Martine pulled a business card out of her jacket pocket. “McDermott’s Bed & Breakfast, over on Summer Street. A friend of mine and her husband run the place. They’re expecting you, and there’s a discount since you’re a friend of the ‘family,’” she added, with air quotes. “Things should be all fixed by Monday.”
“Thanks, Martine. I appreciate it.” I dropped the card into my purse without looking at it. If Martine liked the place, it would be fine, and the food would be outstanding. What more could a girl ask for? Yes, the budget was a little tight right now. I hadn’t been working much over the past few months. I’d been staying with my oldest brother, Bob, and his wife to help take care of Dad while he recovered from his heart attack. Despite this, I could handle a few days of B and B pampering before settling down on Martine’s couch for the remainder of my two weeks.
“Here you go, miss.” Sean set a plate of fresh tacos and a martini glass full of pale golden liquid in front of me. “Enjoy.”
Sean the bartender was very tall. He looked to be somewhere in his late twenties and wore his golden brown hair pulled back into a ponytail that was long enough to brush the collar of his white shirt. His beard was full and neatly trimmed, and it worked well on his round face.
“What’s this?” I lifted the glass.
“That’s a Ginger Lady, the Pale Ale’s latest custom ‘mocktail.’” He paused to make the air quotes. “Seltzer, lime, ginger, of course, bitters and some orange blossom water for the perfume. Seemed a little early for the hard stuff.”
I sipped the drink. It was bright gold and slightly fizzy. I got spice, lime and something warm and clean, with just a tiny bit of sweet, which was perfect. I hate drinks, even soft drinks, that taste like sugar water.
“It’s delicious.” I sipped again.
“Glad you like it.” Sean gave a little waiter bow and, catching his boss’s not entirely approving stare, beat a strategic retreat back to the safety of the bar.
“New?” I guessed. “Still trying to show off for the chef?”
“Trying to show off for somebody.” Martine lifted an eloquent, and not very subtle, eyebrow.
“No,” I said, or rather mumbled, because my mouth was now full of a delicious and spicy brisket that had been wrapped in a fresh corn tortilla. “Family meal” was when the restaurant staff all ate together before their shift started, and Martine made sure her staff ate well. “Plus, no,” I added. “I’m off men for the duration.”
Martine sighed. “Anna, that thing with Truman was approximately forever ago.”
“That ‘thing’ you’re referring to was when the nineteen-year-old, exceptionally perky blond woman arrived on our doorstep at three in the morning.” Sometimes what happens in Vegas just won’t stay in Vegas. This was a life lesson Truman, my now very much ex, learned just a little too late. “And it wasn’t forever ago. It was eight months, two weeks and six days.”
“But who’s counting? You need to get back on the horse.”
“I’m thinking about getting a cat. Does that count?”
Martine sighed heavily. She also looked like she was about to add something, but I was spared any further assessment of my social life when the dining room door opened behind us.
“Uh-oh.”
I twisted around and saw an older blond woman stride into the dining room. Her gray slacks were tailored, and her white blouse didn’t show a single wrinkle. Neither did her face, come to that, even though as she got closer I could see she was old enough to be somebody’s grandmother. Her hair was pale blond, cut short and perfectly coiffed, and her nails were perfectly buffed and polished. She had a designer purse across her shoulder and a matching portfolio in the crook of one arm. Taken together with the designer scarf around her throat and the pearls around her wrist, her outfit and accessories were probably worth as much as the deposit I’d put down when I bought my Jeep.
“Mrs. Maitland.” Martine got to her feet, her most professional smile set firmly in place. “We weren’t expecting you this afternoon.”
“Chef Devereux,” the woman answered coolly. “I have the changes to your proposed menu for the chamber of commerce luncheon. I thought you might want some time to look them over before we talked.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her portfolio. I couldn’t read it from where I sat, but I did see there were a lot of circles and crossed-out lines on it.
Martine didn’t bat an eye. Well, she almost didn’t. “Thank you. I’ll make sure Beverly gets these and—”
“I would prefer to consult with you directly. I have another appointment now, but if you could call . . . as soon as it’s quite convenient.” Mrs. Maitland shot me a sideways glance.
And she froze. Her tight, polite smile faded into a deep frown.
Martine looked from me to the blond woman uneasily. “Elizabeth Maitland, this is Anna Britton, a friend of mine from Boston.”
“How do you do?” I held out my hand and gave her my own special smile, the one I reserve for tricky clients and reluctant gallery owners.
She did not take my hand. Instead, she leaned forward, like she was trying to make out a blurred face in an old photograph.
“What is your full name?”
I pulled back. “Annabelle Amelia Blessingsound Britton.”
“I knew it,” Mrs. Maitland breathed. “You have that Blessingsound look. You’re her granddaughter, aren’t you?”
“Umm . . . which her?”
“Annabelle Mercy. Did she send you here?”
“You know my grandmother?” It was only Martine’s slightly panicked look that kept me from asking what the heck was going on with this woman, and what business it was of hers whom I was related to. It was, however, pretty obvious that Mrs. Maitland was an important client for the restaurant, so now was not the time to pull out the Boston attitude, or too many questions. “What a nice surprise,” I made myself say, very politely. “I’ll be sure to tell her we talked. She’s living in Sedona these days, you know.”
“I did not know.” Mrs. Maitland pressed her mouth into a hard, straight line, which made me think she was disappointed to hear Grandma was still aboveground, wherever that ground was. “Well, welcome to Portsmouth, Miss Blessingsound Britton. I trust you will enjoy your brief stay. Chef Devereux, I will be expecting to hear from you shortly.”
With that, Mrs. Maitland marched out, a little faster than she’d come in. It almost looked like a retreat, except that Mrs. Maitland was clearly not the retreating kind.
Martine was staring at me. I didn’t blame her. “Who in the heck was that?” I asked.
“That was Elizabeth Maitland, daughter of one of the oldest and richest families New Hampshire ever saw. Her son’s heading up this lunch we’re catering.” She held up the menu, with all its circles and X’s. “And she’s got opinions about it.”
“I can tell. But is she usually that . . . pleasant?”
“No. Not that I’ve seen a lot of her.” My friend turned the menu over in her hands. “I didn’t know your grandma B.B. lived in Portsmouth. I thought her people were from Massachusetts.”
“They are, or they were. But Grandma was born here.” And she’d lived here until she met her husband, Charlie, the man I knew as Grandpa C. After that, they lived just about everywhere except here. “I didn’t know she still had any friends left in town.”
“If that’s your idea of her friends, I’d hate to meet your idea of her enemies,” said Martine.
“Yeah. Probably not a good idea to start that family history project with Mrs. Maitland there.”
“Seriously?”
I shrugged. “Not my idea. Ginger’s.” Ginger was my sister-in-law and genealogy was the love of her life, after my brother Bob and their son, Bobby III. She was constantly on the hunt for new tidbits for her scrapbooks and family trees. “When she heard I was coming up to visit, she practically gave me a take-home quiz.”
“And she can’t just call up Grandma because . . . ?”
“Sensitive subject. Grandma’s always been a little fuzzy about why they left Portsmouth and didn’t come back. Dad thinks it might be because he was going to show up a little, ah, early, and they didn’t want people doing too much math.” But considering Mrs. Maitland’s little display, I couldn’t help wondering if there might be something more to that story. Like maybe Grandma stole Grandpa out from under her cosmetically straightened nose?
“Well, if you’re going to get into all that, you should look up Julia Parris, too,” Martine said. “She runs the Midnight Reads bookstore, and she’s an expert on local history. If there’s a Blessingsound branch in Portsmouth, she’ll know all about it.”
“Thanks. Maybe I will.”
“One thing, though,” said Martine hesitantly. “Julia Parris and Mrs. Maitland don’t exactly get along . . .”
“Either?”
“Either. So you might want to take anything she tells you with a grain of salt.”
“Listen to you, already the expert on all the local gossip.”
Martine chuckled. “It’s a small town, and you’d be amazed what people will say in front of their waiter. Now, I hate to shoo you out, but there’s less than an hour before we open for dinner . . .”
“I’m going, I’m going.” I took another swallow of my ginger mocktail and grabbed my purse.
“Call when you’re settled at McDermott’s, okay? The restaurant’s closed Monday. We can make it a girls’ day after we get your stuff moved over to my place.”
Martine had one of her minions wrap up the rest of my tacos in a take-out bag, and we hugged one more time. I got myself out of everybody’s way and started across the parking lot, my head full of random thoughts of friends and families and old towns and grudges, and how many things could get lost in the cracks of time. I had the taco bag in one hand and fished around in my purse for my keys to open the Jeep.
“Merow?”
Merow?
I froze. I blinked and I stared.
A cat crouched on the driver’s seat and stared right back at me.
2
“MEROW?”
The cat on my driver’s seat tucked all four of its paws underneath its belly. He (or she) was a solid smoky gray color, with a surprisingly delicate face and bright blue eyes. Somebody had given him (or her) a matching blue collar with a silver bell, but I couldn’t see any tags. I also couldn’t see any sign that she (he?) planned to get out of my car anytime soon.
I looked back at the inn and half expected to see Martine laughing at me. After my comment about getting a cat, this had to be a joke. I mean, the Jeep’s doors were locked, the windows were up and the top was on. How could a cat get inside unless somebody deliberately put her (him?) there?
But our table at the window was empty and the inn door was still closed.
I looked at the cat. The cat looked at me. We both blinked.
“Shoo?” I suggested.
The gray cat yawned, displaying a curling pink tongue and a whole lot of very white teeth.
I folded my arms. “All right. What do you want?”
The cat blinked his (her?) slanting blue eyes at me again. It looked uncomfortably like he/she was waiting for me to say something sensible.
“Okay. We’re gonna do this the hard way.”
I lunged forward as if to make a grab. With a rolling growl of feline contempt, the cat flowed away from my hands. Victory! Or so I thought, until I realized the cat was now pressed against the pavement, under the Jeep, and right beside my front tire.
I swore. The cat hugged asphalt and put his/her ears back.
“Hey. Everything okay out here?” called a man’s voice from behind me.
It was Sean the bartender. He was strolling out from the Pale Ale, wiping his hands on a side towel.
I sighed and sat back on my heels. “I seem to have a cat.”
“Yeah, you sure do.” Sean bent down to peer under the Jeep. “Hey, you know what? That might be Alistair under there. Alistair?” He held out his hand and spoke in that gentle, coaxing tone used by people who were comfortable around animals. “Hello, big guy. You got half the town looking for you, you know that?”
Alistair, if that was the cat’s name, was not impressed. He just pressed his belly closer to the asphalt and glowered at the impertinent human.
“Who’s Alistair?”
“Oh, he’s a local legend.” Sean rested his elbows on his thighs. “Alistair, the ghost cat of Portsmouth.”
“Seriously?” I thought about how he’d been inside my locked Jeep just a minute before and felt a small shiver creep across my neck.
“Seriously,” answered Sean. “His owner died, maybe six months ago, and nobody’s been able to lay hands on him since. Whenever anybody gets close, he just”—Sean made a hocus-pocus gesture—“disappears!”
“Well, I’m seeing him now, and he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. How come nobody took him to a shelter or anything when he lost his owner?” I knew, of course, that cats were famous for self-reliance. I also knew this was New England. It was only a matter of time before the weather turned too hot, or too cold, or too wet, for anybody’s comfort.
“I told you, it’s like he disappears.” Sean straightened himself up, and it was a long way up. “But we can try. See if you can keep him here. I’ll go round up a box and some towels.” Sean trotted back toward the inn, leaving me to stare at the cat.
“Okay.” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. Alistair gave another little growl and extended his claws like he meant to dig in. How was I supposed to keep him there if he decided to take off? Then I remembered my bag of tacos. I pulled one out, tore it in half, and held it toward the recalcitrant feline.
“Here, kitty.” I inched forward. “Puss, puss, kitty, kitty, kitty?”
Alistair twitched his ears and shrank backward, clearly unimpressed. I reminded myself that this cat had lost home and owner. He’d been out in the cold for months. Of course he was nervous around strangers.
“Come on, Alistair.” I leaned forward, bracing myself with one hand against the fender. “You’re not going to turn down free food, are you? I warn you, Martine won’t like it.”
This time Alistair stretched his neck out to sniff my offering. He sniffed again. He took a tentative lick of taco. This was followed by a much more enthusiastic lick and a nibble. I found myself smiling. I reached out and rubbed him between his ears. As Alistair nibbled and licked at the brisket taco, I noticed the smoke and silver color of his fur, the delicacy of his face and the way it contrasted with his rounded belly and hindquarters. If I’d had to guess, I would have said he weighed in at fifteen pounds of surprisingly sleek feline, maybe more. What breed was he? And how was he keeping himself fed? He didn’t have any of that ragged, desperate air of an abandoned pet.
“So what’s the answer, big guy?” I held out my fingers so he could lick off the last of the taco sauce. “Huh, Alistair? What’s been keeping you out in the cold?”
Alistair lifted his face and gazed at me with those slanting baby blues.
And he vanished.
I am not being metaphorical. He really vanished, as in there one second, gone the next. There was no trace of tail or whisker left behind, just me toppling back onto the asphalt and the remaining half a taco flying away to land splat! on the pavement.
“Ah, shoot,” said Sean, who must have come back out at some point while the cat was giving me a heart attack. He carried an empty cardboard box in one hand and a white bar towel in the other. “Did you see where he . . . hey, are you all right?”
No. No. I really was not all right. My hands were shaking and my mind was doing that running-around-in-circles thing that happens when you don’t want to believe what you’ve just seen. So I did what anybody would do under the circumstances.
I lied.
“Yeah, sure, fine. Just . . . startled.”
I don’t know if Sean believed me or not, but he did put the box down so he could pull me to my feet. I needed his help way more than I cared to admit.
“Oh, well.” He shrugged. “We tried, right? I’ll let Chef know Alistair’s hanging around the parking lot. Maybe we can call Critter Control to bring a humane trap out.” He stopped and put one broad hand on my trembling shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. Fine,” I said again, and this time I tried to really mean it. “I . . . You . . . you said something about the cat, Alistair . . . being a ghost?”
Sean chuckled. “That’s just something the local kids have started. They say Alistair died with his owner and now he’s some kind of vengeful feline spirit.”
“Vengeful? Why vengeful?” I thought about that delicate face, the plump belly and the way he fastidiously nibbled on his taco. “Vengeful spirit” was not the description I’d have picked, even after he vanished . . .
No. I wasn’t going to think about how Alistair vanished. Because that didn’t happen. It was impossible. Like getting into a locked car.
Sean glanced behind him, and the good h
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