A deadly secret is tangled up in Yesterday’s Threads, and Anna is racing the clock to get it unraveled.
In 1859, Elisabeth Margaret Nelson traveled to Crocker, Indiana to meet her new husband and start a new life. Her family never saw her again. The story of her death and a heartbroken husband who grieves his entire life is a sad tale for sure. But is it true?

When Anna Yesterday receives some vintage dresses from the local museum, she’s excited about highlighting them at Crocker’s annual Apple Blossom Festival. But someone wants the dresses back, and they’ll apparently stop at nothing to get them—leaving a trail of murder and destruction in their wake.

As Anna and Pratt work to uncover the deadly intrigue behind the vintage dresses, interference of another kind is working its way to the surface. All too soon, Anna and Pratt find themselves neck deep in trouble from more than one dimension—and wondering which will get them first!

~~*~~

Morticia stood in the center of the workshop, her eyes closed, head slightly back. She hadn’t moved for several moments and Pratt was starting to wonder if she’d put herself into some kind of trance. Her arms hung straight and loose at her sides, her hands open, fingers completely still.

A cold breeze slipped past and Pratt’s head came up. The sweater Anna had left hanging on a hook on the wall jittered slightly as the breeze passed through. He concentrated hard on the spot but saw nothing.

A soft scratching noise brought his head up, searching the ceiling for signs of the cause.

Pratt sat on the cot Anna had put out for them and frowned with frustration. Ever since that night in Saint Louis he’d been blocked. Completely blind to any spectral activity. Morticia told him it was his own doing. Pratt didn’t feel particularly resistant, but he didn’t argue, because what he and his partner had faced that night would have caused anybody to block.

“I feel two spirits.”

Pratt’s attention returned to Morticia. “Hostile?”

“Only one. The other is…”

A shriek split the silent room and Pratt jerked in surprise, surging to his feet.

Morticia raised a hand, halting him. “She’s upset.”

Pratt’s gaze slipped around the room, his hand moving to his belt in search of the gun he’d left at home. “You think?”

A putrid breeze, filled with the sour stench of death and decay, blew past them, pulling Morticia’s hair back from her face. She sucked in a breath, her eyes snapping open. Her body went rigid and her eyes turned black, unseeing.

Just like that he was back in the house in St. Louis. That horrifying house. He surged forward, reaching for his friend. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

Like with his partner years earlier, Pratt tasted his helplessness on his tongue, and felt it as a bone deep chill in his chest. “Ticia!” He grabbed her arms and shook her gently. Her eyes drifted closed and her head drooped forward.

…help… Pratt’s gaze snapped sideways, toward the soft sound of a terrified voice.

Something whipped past. Something dark and shadowy. “Bess!”

Another shriek had Pratt pulling Morticia closer, wrapping an arm protectively around her.

Jossy! Help me…

Pratt followed the sound with his gaze. The shadowy form surged past again, following a lighter shadow that rippled around the edges. In their wake, items flew into the air and surged sideways, crashing against the first unyielding surface they met.

Across the room a chair flew off the ground and spun in circles before shooting toward him. He pulled Morticia down, dragged her under the heavy workroom table and left her there, hoping the table would protect her from the stuff flying around the room.

Pratt ducked as a heavy, hardbound book flew toward his head and, when he straightened again, grunted with pain as a chair slammed into his ribs.

Wrathy varmint! A granular, white substance flew through the air and everything slammed to the floor. Pratt knelt down and touched the white stuff scattered around his feet.

Salt.

He grinned. “Good move, Bess.”

He felt her presence nearby and tried to open his mind enough to see her. A whisper-soft touch on his shoulder had him spinning around. For just the merest blip in time a terrified clown face appeared before him, the bright makeup running down a pale cheek.

He reached for her, feeling a tingling coldness beneath his fingertips.

Get Jossy… The image exploded outward, fracturing into nothingness as Pratt struggled to understand.

Cold, hard hands grabbed his shoulders, flinging him across the room as another shriek filled the air. Pratt hit the wall beside the door, his head smacking the doorframe hard enough to make him woozy.

A furry ball shot past him. Bones was spitting and yowling, his fur standing away from his body like an irate porcupine. Pratt instinctively covered his face with his arms, expecting to feel teeth and claws piercing his skin. But the cat flew off the ground and hit the roiling shadow, yowling as it flung him sideways.

Bones hit the edge of the table and crumpled downward. “No!” Pratt shoved himself off the ground, fighting dizziness as he gained his feet. His gaze was fixed on the unmoving cat, knowing Anna would be devastated. “Bones…”

Something swirled over the cat, something dark and indistinguishable. Pratt rushed toward it, thinking the angry spirit was attacking. But before he reached Bones the shadow shot upward and away, surging across the room.

A moment later a long, drawn-out shriek exploded through the room and the overhead bulb shattered, casting him in virtual darkness. Only the weak light from a small window in the back door offered any light.

Pratt stood still for a moment, listening. His breath roared through his lungs, his chest heaving. He was breathing as if he’d run a marathon. The sound was impossibly loud in the looming silence.

Finally, a groan from beneath the table spurred Pratt into action. He felt his way along the wall to the small table where Anna kept a candle for times when the power went out and, after a moment of fumbling, managed to light it.

He carried the candle over to Morticia and helped her sit up. “Are you all right?”

Her eyes looked glazed but she nodded. A beat later her hand shot out and grabbed his arm. Pratt gave a less than manly chirp. Her fingers dug into his skin, her expression intense in the flickering light. “Something’s calling her here, Pratt. She’s very angry about whatever it is.”

He nodded and helped Morticia to her feet. “We’ll find it.” Then he remembered Bones. Hurrying toward the small, crumpled form, Pratt settled the candle on the floor and moved his hands over the cat. He was relieved to find him breathing.

Someone squatted down beside him and Pratt shivered.

“Stupid varmint.”

It took Pratt a second to realize Morticia hadn’t spoken. He turned his head slowly, finding himself looking into a barely substantial, overly painted face. He grinned. “Bess?”

She smiled back. “You was expectin’ maybe Wild Bill Hickok?”

The cat twitched beneath his fingers and opened its eyes, mewling softly. Pratt felt Morticia’s hand on his shoulder and he laughed. “We could have used Wild Bill a minute ago.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” his friend the ghost responded as she started to fade. “Gotta find Jossy.”

And then she was just…gone.

 

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All Romance eBooks

A deadly secret is tangled up in Yesterday’s Threads, and Anna is racing the clock to get it unraveled.
In 1859, Elisabeth Margaret Nelson traveled to Crocker, Indiana to meet her new husband and start a new life. Her family never saw her again. The story of her death and a heartbroken husband who grieves his entire life is a sad tale for sure. But is it true?

When Anna Yesterday receives some vintage dresses from the local museum, she’s excited about highlighting them at Crocker’s annual Apple Blossom Festival. But someone wants the dresses back, and they’ll apparently stop at nothing to get them—leaving a trail of murder and destruction in their wake.

As Anna and Pratt work to uncover the deadly intrigue behind the vintage dresses, interference of another kind is working its way to the surface. All too soon, Anna and Pratt find themselves neck deep in trouble from more than one dimension—and wondering which will get them first!

~~*~~

She pulled into the lot at the museum and parked next to a small, low-slung car with two doors. Anna was pretty sure she’d seen Mindy tooling around town in the sexy little black sports car. Which meant that, if her car was still there, Mindy hadn’t left the museum. Anna reached over to the passenger seat of her own Smart car and extracted the dress bags. She started toward the museum’s front door, clicking the doors locked on her car as she walked away.

Traffic moved along the streets in the distance, but the part of Crocker where the Bickershaw Museum stood was quiet. All the shops and businesses around the place were closed for the night, their owners gone home to dinner.

The early Spring weather had grown steadily cooler as the day had progressed, and the cooler air touching the heated asphalt had created a haze along the ground, which felt eerie when mixed with the unnatural silence.

Anna moved more quickly toward the hulking frame of the building, the bags in her arms sliding against each other, in danger of slipping from her grip. She stopped once to adjust the load in her arms and heard the soft snick of something coming from around back of the museum. It sounded like a door closing.

Anna waited, listening for Mindy to come around the building, heading toward her car. No footsteps sounded on the concrete sidewalk leading around back and no other sounds lifted up from the haze. The night fell back into unnatural silence.

Anna started walking again, her gaze sliding over the façade of the big building. The windows along the front seemed to glare at her, their rippled, old glass capturing the light from the parking lot in uneven ribbons that segmented the glass.

She shivered as a moist breeze slipped through the trees. The softly rustling leaves sounded like whispers to her overactive imagination. Anna shook off her fears and started up the staircase.

Something flared inside the house, bright and quick like the flash of a match. She stopped, peered through the eye-level window, and saw nothing. Thinking it must have just been the play of distant headlights over the glass, she started up again.

The front door was locked so she pounded, calling Mindy’s name. No one came. Anna bit her lip, trying to decide what to do. She reshuffled the dresses and started back down the stairs, deciding to try around back. Maybe the sound she’d heard had been Mindy going back into the building from an errand or something.

She hurried back down the stairs and followed the sidewalk to a small, unobtrusive wooden door at the back, lower corner. She figured the door would have been for servants in the original use of the house. Now she was hoping it led to the work area of the museum, where she assumed they kept the items in need of repair or storage.

Anna tried the knob and was relieved to find it unlocked. She stepped inside, further comforted to see the space was softly lit. “Mindy? It’s Anna Yesterday. Are you here?”

Silence met her query, only the soft drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet breaking the stillness. “Mindy?” She started forward, walking toward the warm, yellow glow of light spilling from a doorway across the room.

As she neared the door, someone moaned. Anna slammed to a halt. She waited, listening. Another long, drawn-out moan brought the small hairs up on Anna’s neck. “Mindy?”

She moved reluctantly forward, stopping in the doorway of the lighted room. It sounded as if someone was hurt. The room was lined in aromatic, cedar planking and filled with clothing racks that held bag after bag of what Anna assumed was vintage clothing—no doubt Lissie and Felix Bickershaw’s clothing. Several of the bags were unzipped and dresses in all colors and fabrics spilled from the plastic, their hems looking more ragged than they should.

Another moan had Anna spinning on her heel and she found Mindy lying on the floor in a pool of blood, a large pair of black-handled scissors protruding from her chest.

“Oh my god, Mindy!” Anna dropped the dress bags and hurried over to the other woman, grabbing one of her hands to check her pulse. Mindy’s skin was ice cold and her pulse was weak. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

Mindy’s eyes fluttered and one of her hands reached toward Anna, clasping her wrist with surprising strength. “Be careful…”

The door behind Anna slammed shut and she leapt to her feet, exclaiming in surprise. She rushed over to the door and tested the knob, finding it locked. With a cry of fear, Anna jerked on the knob and then put her shoulder into the door, finding it heavy and well seated in its frame.

Anna screamed for help, feeling panic clawing at her lungs, just as the lights in the windowless room went out, casting them in complete, inky darkness.

 

All ebook formats

All Romance eBooks

A deadly secret is tangled up in Yesterday’s Threads, and Anna is racing the clock to get it unraveled.
In 1859, Elisabeth Margaret Nelson traveled to Crocker, Indiana to meet her new husband and start a new life. Her family never saw her again. The story of her death and a heartbroken husband who grieves his entire life is a sad tale for sure. But is it true?

When Anna Yesterday receives some vintage dresses from the local museum, she’s excited about highlighting them at Crocker’s annual Apple Blossom Festival. But someone wants the dresses back, and they’ll apparently stop at nothing to get them—leaving a trail of murder and destruction in their wake.

As Anna and Pratt work to uncover the deadly intrigue behind the vintage dresses, interference of another kind is working its way to the surface. All too soon, Anna and Pratt find themselves neck deep in trouble from more than one dimension—and wondering which will get them first!

CHAPTER ONE

Yesterday, 1859

Elisabeth Margaret Nelson shifted the curtain back and looked out the stagecoach window. Over the last few hours the green, rolling hills had grown gradually flatter and the rutted, dirt roads busier. She dropped the curtain and sat back as another wave of stomach wrens assaulted her.

What had she done? Had she made a terrible mistake? She’d walked to the end of a plank and stepped right off…that’s what she’d done. Lissie wrung her hands and looked around at the other passengers. The older man in the opposite seat, beside the window, had been staring at her from the first moment, his dark eyes speculative.

He had to wonder what a young woman was doing travelling alone, without a companion. Lissie had begun to wonder that too. She’d thought it sounded like a grand adventure when Felix had suggested it, insisting that they needed time alone. But she’d never been more terrified in her life. Lissie clutched her reticule closer under that questioning gaze and gave him a small, uncertain smile.

“Do you have family waiting for you in Crocker Miss?”

Did she have family waiting for her?

“Yes. My hu…” Lissie swallowed hard, still not believing it was true. “My husband is waiting for me.” He’d gone ahead to prepare a place for them to live. Or that was what he’d told her. Deep down Lissie doubted a man as handsome and vibrant as Felix Bickershaw could love a girl as ugly as she.

Lissie frowned, glancing down at the overstuffed reticule in her hands. She felt the man’s eyes on her again and discreetly shoved the velvet indispensable under her cloak. They’d all told her he only wanted her dowry. Lissie had believed it was true. Though Felix looked down at her with softness in his pretty, blue eyes, there was a certain coldness waiting just beyond that look, a negligence of her regard, which convinced her he didn’t so much love her person as what it could get him in life.

Lissie didn’t care. An ugly heiress with no prospect of finding love, she’d settled instead for a one-sided infatuation with a handsome man who could at least give her the appearance of a storybook life.

Lissie was sure she would eventually win him over to an abiding affection at the very least.

The stagecoach dipped dangerously and Lissie pitched forward, catching herself on the window frame before she landed in the lap of the cantankerous matron across from her. It was obvious from the woman’s stern gaze that she thought Lissie a trollop of the worst order because she traveled unaccompanied.

Lissie told herself she didn’t care. In just hours she’d see her beloved Felix and all would be well in her world.

Sometime later Lissie woke from a doze to the sound of shouting and the clanging of pans. She shoved the curtain aside and eagerly took in her first view of Crocker, Indiana. The sweet smell of countryside had been replaced by the moldering stench of animal dung, overlaid by the yeasty smell of spirits and the spicy tang of something cooking over a fire.

Lissie’s mouth watered and she covered her stomach with a hand as it rumbled unhappily. The muddy street was filled with men on horses and fast-moving carriages. The wooden walkways that lined the log and limestone buildings on either side of the street were busy too. Lissie’s gaze took in the women dressed in fine clothing, carrying parasols against a burning afternoon sun, and excitement seared through her.

She’d never been in a real town before. Maybe some of the beautiful, well-dressed women watching the stagecoach rumble through town would be her friends. That would be lovely.

If only they wouldn’t judge her for her plainness. Surely the cache of jewels she carried in her reticule and the equally sparkling visage of her handsome husband would win her some friends.

For the first time in her very young life, Elisabeth Margaret Nelson realized she liked her chances for a happy future. It was a heady feeling indeed.

 

Present Day

Anna laughed at the antics of her furry companion as he flew straight into the air, one fat paw slapping at a speck of dust dancing through a sunbeam. Bones landed and immediately sprang into the air again, twisting midair, and shooting off after a feather that had fallen from one of the antique hats she was cataloguing.

“That critter is addlepated,” Bess groused.

Anna turned a smile her way. “He does have his moments.” She inclined her head toward the dresses Bess was fondling. “Do those bring back memories?”

Bess sat on the counter, a dark blue silk ball gown spread across her knees. Her hands petted the rich silk with reverence. “There weren’t much occasion to get close to fine duds where I lived.” She grinned, showing uneven teeth in a crooked smile. “There was lots o’ Kentucky jeans and homespun though.” Her hand stalled on the fabric, her gaze lifting. “But on occasion a slicked up lady would stay at the inn alongside the doggery. I was known to clean the floors at that inn a time or two. I always wished I could touch the fine dresses then.” Her gaze had gone soft with the memory. Bess shook her head as if shaking off her thoughts. “Them fine ladies didn’t cotton to bein’ touched by my kind. They was too high-falutin’ for a no-account like me.”

Woven into the cavalierly delivered words, Anna read the pain and shame Bess must have felt at being shunned by people she viewed as her betters. It nearly broke Anna’s heart and helped her understand a bit better why Bess was the way she was.

In fact, over the last weeks, since they’d lost Joss, she and Bess had grown a little closer. Thinking of Joss freshened the sting of his loss and Anna’s smile slipped away. She straightened the brim of a straw hat decorated with wide, burgundy velvet ribbon, Anna settled the hat onto the display form. Tears stung her eyes before she could stop them.

“He’ll be back soon,” Bess offered softly.

Anna sniffed and nodded. “I know he will. I just miss him.”

“I reckon I do too.” Bess’s gaze slid to Bones, currently winding around Anna’s ankles purring, and hardened. Her heavily painted lips turned downward. “Stupid varmint.”

Anna reached down and ran her hand over Bones’s soft fur. After three weeks of regular feedings, she could barely feel the big cat’s spine anymore. “Why don’t you like Bones?”

Bess shrugged, her gaze turning shrewd. “In my day the Chinamen cooked them critters up for supper. Stringy beasts. Not even worth the chewin’.”

The front door bell jangled and Anna turned to smile at Pratt Davies, her employee. A good employee and a landmine of distractions, Pratt was six and a half feet tall, with brutally short, dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes framed in thick, light-brown lashes. He was classically handsome, with a strong nose, a broad jaw, and full lips that always curved into a sexy smile when he looked at her.

And against her better judgment, Anna found herself quickly falling for him. “Good morning, Pratt.”

“Hey, boss.” He turned the sign on the door to Open and started toward her, a small white bag in his hand. Like an orange streak across the floor, Bones flew in Pratt’s direction and jumped on his shoe, hissing at him as he batted his paw toward the paper bag. Pratt shook his leg, frowning down at the angry animal. “Get off me you crazy cat!”

Anna hurried over and scooped the puffed up feline into her arms. “I don’t know why he hates you so much.”

“I swan, that critter don’t like nobody but you, Miss Anna,” Bess offered helpfully.

Anna set Bones down and picked up the gowns, dragging the silk one from Bess’s reluctant fingers.

Pratt reached for them. “Here let me help you with those.” His long fingers brushed Anna’s arm as he scooped them up, sending ribbons of awareness sliding through her. His clean, masculine scent washed over Anna, along with the sweet aroma of fresh baked goods.

“What have you got in that bag, Pratt?” She leaned closer, eyeing the promising grease spot on the bottom.

He held the bag out to her and she took it with a squeal of delight. “I brought you a cream-filled donut.”

Anna opened the bag and inhaled it. “You are my hero, Pratt Davies.”

Bess rolled her eyes and looked at her fingernails, obviously disgusted.

He grinned. “Well that was easy. I’ll bring you a jelly-filled too next time.”

She shook her head, grinning. “You want coffee?”

“Sure. Where do you want me to put these?”

“Could you hang them on that rack in the back of the shop, please? I need to go over them and get them ready for sale.”

“Absolutely.”

 

Pratt enjoyed watching Anna sway toward the back room. She looked very pretty in her ankle-length flowered dress and strappy sandals. Heading toward the back of the store, Pratt walked through a cool spot. He scanned a look around. “Miss Bessy, you there?”

The hat sitting on the head-shaped form lifted and danced on the air. Pratt smiled. “I brought you something too.” He extracted a box from under his arm, setting it on the table. “Since you kick my butt at chess every day, I thought I’d teach you Backgammon, something I’m good at.”

The air beside his cheek moved and something that felt like the flutter of moth wings touched his cheek. “You’re welcome. We can play on my lunch hour.”

He left the box on the table and walked into the back room, feeling good about the progress he’d made with the cranky specter. He still couldn’t see Bess, apparently the spirit of a saloon girl, but he’d been trying to help Anna keep the ghost’s spirits up since the girl’s fellow specter Joss disappeared. It hadn’t been easy. From what Anna had told him about the ghost, Bess sounded singularly untrusting and cynical. But it was important to Anna that the girl stay positive until they could get Joss back. So it had become important to Pratt.

The delicious smell of coffee met him as he pushed open the door separating Anna’s workshop from the store and headed toward it. The tiny kitchen area in the back corner of the workshop was pristine as usual and Anna had already placed the two donuts he’d brought on a paper plate and poured two steaming mugs of coffee. He sat down at the tiny, round table and watched as she put fat-free creamer in her coffee and added a sugar substitute.

Pratt sipped his coffee and closed his eyes with pleasure. As a cop in St. Louis, he’d learned to drink his coffee strong and black. The coffee at the police station could have doubled as roof tar, so he wasn’t picky. But coffee from Anna’s single-serving, high-end coffee maker was the highlight of his day. “You know you’ve spoiled me with this coffee.”

She sat down across from him and picked up her donut. “Who’s spoiling whom? If I wasn’t worried about my butt spreading beyond the width of my doorways I’d really enjoy this donut you brought me.” Despite her words, Anna wasted no time dunking the donut in her coffee and taking a delicate bite. “Oh god, that’s good.” She chewed and swallowed, smiling. “Thanks so much for this, Pratt. It was really nice of you.”

He chewed his own donut and shook his head. “I have selfish reasons. I really look forward to sitting here with you in the morning and visiting over coffee.”

Anna looked down at her coffee, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. “I enjoy these morning visits too. But you don’t have to feed me, you know.”

He shrugged. “It’s an excuse to buy donuts. You know I gave them up when I was a cop. I wasn’t strong enough to withstand the ridicule.”

She laughed. “The old cop eating donuts cliché. Yeah, I can see why that would spoil the fun of a good donut.”

“It was either give them up or become a closet donut eater. I couldn’t bring myself to be a sneak eater, it seemed lowering somehow. Fortunately there are no clichés about antique store clerks and donuts so I’m free to indulge my obsession with greasy pastries now.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Obsession huh? Maybe I should worry more about your backside than mine.”

Pratt reached across the table and skimmed a finger along her jaw. “You can worry about my backside any time you want, boss.”

She snorted, her cheeks turning a deeper shade of pink.

Pratt stabbed a finger at that morning’s copy of the Crocker Sun. The headline was surprising to say the least. Local Man’s Grave Disturbed.

“This is pretty weird, huh?”

She nodded, her mouth full of donut. When she’d swallowed she said, “Felix Bickershaw’s been in that crypt for over a hundred years, it’s very odd that somebody would vandalize it now.” She shook her head. “The world’s full of strange people.”

“True dat. So what’s on tap for today?”

She licked her fingers and wiped her lips with a paper napkin. “Those antique ball gowns you just hung up for me. I’m going to work on getting them ready for sale.”

“That’s not really up my alley but let me know if I can help.”

She nodded. “Actually, you could start refinishing that oak washstand if you want. I’d like to get that on the floor before the Apple Blossom Fair. It should sell for top dollar during the fair.”

“The one with the mirror?”

“Yeah. Would you mind?”

“Sounds perfect.”

Anna smiled and stood up, carrying the empty plate to the trash. “Great. Thanks.” She headed for the door, stopped and turned back. “See you at lunch?”

He grinned. “Tuna on whole wheat?”

Anna grinned, nodding. They’d fallen into the habit of splitting a sandwich every lunch break. They took turns bringing the sandwich in and it was Pratt’s turn. “Sounds wonderful.” She smiled and left, feeling his gaze as she walked away. Anna wouldn’t deny that she liked the feeling.

She liked it a lot.

Bones hurried across the shop when she exited the workroom, mewling and snapping his tail. He hated when she went to the back without him and never failed to tell her about it when she returned. “Oh, I’m sorry, boy. I left you behind again didn’t I?” The big tom cat folded himself around her calf, his eyes closing with pleasure as he rubbed against her leg. Anna reached down and scratched behind his ears. “You need to stop going after Pratt if you want to join us in the break room.”

Bones looked up and meowed plaintively as if denying that he would ever do such a thing.

“Uh-huh.” She grinned.

The bell over the front door jangled and Anna stood up, cringing when she saw who’d sidled through her door. She wondered if she had time to duck back through the workshop door and get Pratt…

“There you are!” Mike Pots, the head librarian at the Crocker Library was a skinny, middle-aged man with slicked-back, dark hair that always looked greasy. He hurried over and clasped her hand in a clammy grip, his eyes looking even larger and buggier than usual behind the perpetually cloudy lens of his wire-rimmed glasses. The man was strange, but that wasn’t why Anna tried to avoid him. He’d had a crush on her for years and didn’t seem inclined to notice her constant rebuttals.

Anna forced herself not to grimace from his clammy touch. “Hi, Mike. What brings you to Yesterday’s?” She really hoped he wasn’t there to ask her out again. She had just about decided to lie and tell him she was already in a relationship.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the Apple Blossom festival?” Grinning, he held a flyer up in front of her nose.

It was the first time she noticed the stack of flyers he had pressed against his skinny chest.

“How could I forget that? I donated an antique bedroom set to the auction.” Anna took the flyer and headed toward the sales counter along the side wall of her shop. She reached into a box on the shelf beneath the counter and pulled out some tape. “I’ll take a few of those if you can spare them. I can put them around the shop and take a couple to The Finishing Touch.” Anna lived in a small, quaint apartment over the town’s only funeral parlor, which also doubled as a home decorating shop.

Mike peeled several flyers off his stack. “I really appreciate that, Anna. I need to get back to the library soon.”

Anna took the flyers and placed them on the counter, hoping he’d get the message and leave as she turned her back on him.

“Hey, if you’re not doing anything…”

“Yeow!” Bones leapt straight up off the floor, claws extended, eyes bulging, and all the fur standing straight up on his body, making him look twice as big as he was.

Startled, Mike jumped, his arms lifting in a fear reaction. Flyers went everywhere.

A moment later, Bones jumped up onto the counter and lay down, casually cleaning one of his paws as if nothing ever happened. He didn’t appear to notice the chaos he’d caused.

“I’m so sorry. You must have startled him.” Anna hurried around the counter to help Mike pick up the scattered flyers.

“That cat’s got issues, Anna,” Mike groused.

She kept her gaze down so he wouldn’t see her smile. “Yeah, he doesn’t seem to like men much.” Actually, he really only didn’t like Pratt and now Mike. One man she liked a little too much and one she didn’t like at all. Anna couldn’t help wondering if the cat had sensed her unease with Mike’s presence. She shoved the last few flyers at him and guided him to the door. “Thanks so much for bringing these over, Mike. I think this year’s fair is going to be a doozy. I understand the new Mayor’s collected several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of things to auction off.”

He nodded as she opened the door for him. “We’re hoping there will be enough to update the children’s wing at the hospital.”

“That’s wonderful. You have a nice day, now.” Anna all but shoved him through the door and leaned on it with a sigh. Her gaze found Bones, still draped over the counter but no longer licking his paws. He stared at her, his green gaze looking more intelligent than it should have. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Bones meowed softly, his eyes drooping in feline flirtation.

She shook her head. “Hanging out with spirits has addled my brain. You’re just a cat. Of course you didn’t distract Mike so he wouldn’t ask me out. That’s just silly.”

Bones meowed again and jumped soundlessly from the counter, sauntering over to his favorite spot in the sun.

Anna laughed, heading toward the back wall, where the four gowns awaited her. The first gown was an antique wedding dress, its pristine silk and intricate lace trim slightly yellowed with age but still in good repair. She pulled the skirt up and checked the underskirt for dirt and tears, finding none. Next she checked the beadwork on the bodice and discovered a few of them were missing.

“I reckon I seen some beads like them ones in the back.”

Anna jumped, her hand going to her throat, and laughed. “You startled me, Bess. I didn’t know you were there.”

The specter glared back at her. “Sakes alive, Joss al’ays tol’ me you was skeery.”

At mention of Joss, Anna frowned. She missed him so much and worse, she was really worried about what had happened to him.

“There’s no call to get all grum, Miss Anna. Joss ain’t all that far away. He’ll find his way back.”

Anna fingered the delicate lace on the wedding dress and nodded, blinking back tears. “I know, Bess. You’re right. He wouldn’t want us to mope around anyway.” Anna smiled. “Thanks for letting me know about the beads. Do you think you could go get them and I’ll see if they match?”

Bess disappeared without another word, leaving Anna to deal with the feelings she’d stirred up again. Anna tried not to think about Joss. Every day he was gone it got a little easier. But she’d have to go a long way until it was easy, or even bearable. Joss had been such an important part of her life for so long that she no longer felt whole without him.

She sighed and reached for the next dress. It was a dark blue silk pelisse, with a turned down collar and a black cape. The pelisse showed more wear than the wedding dress had, and Anna was unhappy to see that the cape was badly worn at the hem. She’d need to send it to Connie Burkholder, the woman in Crocker who repaired Anna’s vintage clothing.

Bess appeared next to her, holding two tiny, pearl beads in her palm. “Thanks, Bess.” Anna compared the beads to the ones on the dress and was pleased that they matched fairly closely. They were a tiny bit larger but she figured Connie could move a couple beads from the side and put the larger beads where they wouldn’t be so visible. “They’ll work just fine.” Anna smiled. “Thanks for your help, Bess. I really appreciate it.”

The cranky specter shrugged. “Ain’t no great shakes.”

Anna knew better. She and Bess had always circled warily around each other, rarely having a kind word, but since Joss’s disappearance Bess had tried to be less disagreeable and more helpful. It didn’t make up for the loss of her friend, but Anna was glad for the change just the same. A thought occurred. “Would you like to try one of these on, Bess? I wouldn’t mind seeing them modeled before I send them off to Connie. It will help me decide how to display them.”

Bess’s heavily made up face lit with pleasure. “I reckon I could help ya out with that.”

“Great! Which one would you like to try on?”

Bess reached for the pelisse. Like the other articles of clothing, the form fitting silk was richly made for all that it showed its age a bit. “Good choice. I think…” Anna sorted through the dresses on the rack and came up with a light, cream-colored underdress. “This will work nicely beneath it.”

Bess’s grin widened. “I reckon it’ll do.”

“Good. You probably should try them on in the back though, I don’t want any customers who might drop in to see the dresses floating around the shop.” Anna grinned. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to help.”

Bess started toward the workshop door with the two pieces of clothing, her step lighter than usual. Bones scampered through the door before Anna could stop him. She sighed, shaking her head. Pratt had been a cop on the mean streets of Saint Louis for years, he could surely protect himself against a cranky tom cat.

Anna picked up a velvet reticule to examine. The clutch on the little, circular purse was bent and it no longer clasped tightly. She thought Pratt could fix it for her. The front door bell jangled and Anna carried the purse to the front of the shop with her.

A young woman stood just inside the doors, looking around with wide eyes. She was about five foot four and slightly plump, with light brown hair that she wore to her shoulders. It was stick straight and very fine. The most startling feature she had was her eyes, which were large and blue under a wispy fringe of bangs.

“Can I help you?”

The young woman turned to her and smiled in greeting. “Hello. Anna Yesterday?” She offered Anna her hand.

“That’s me, yes.” Anna returned her smile.

“I’m Elisabeth Nelson. Everybody calls me Ellie.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ellie.”

The girl flushed slightly. “I hope you still feel that way after I tell you why I’m here.”

Anna’s eyebrows peaked. “Really? Now I’m intrigued.”

The girl looked around as if trying to make sure they were alone. Finally she sighed. “I came to warn you. I think you might be in danger.”

 

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