Read A Touch of the Grape: A Hemlock Falls Mystery (Hemlock Falls Mystery series) for Free Online Page A

could PREP PANS!" She sifted flour over the cookie sheet with a fine disregard for her face, hands, and blue jeans, tossed the sifter aside, then took her twenty-inch stir-fry lid and used it to trace a circle on the floured sheet. "We have to lay off Kathleen, too? 'Cause if we do, forget it. I didn't study that hard, then work my buns off to be a waitress." She grasped the upper part of the pastry bag in her right hand, and, with her left, guided the tip of the bag around the circular guide on the sheet.
    "That's one of the largest cream puffs I've ever seen, Meggie."
    "One of?" Meg looked up with a reluctant grin. "It's going to be the biggest. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm calling it. The Largest Cream Puff in the World au Chocolat. It's for the Crafty Ladies. Sugar and a touch of the grape. Those women love both. Did you come in here by way of the dining room? Did you see how many Hurricane drinks those ladies have had already? If I don't get this pastry out there soon, they aren't going to remember eating it."
    "What's in it?"
    "The usual cream puff stuff. Just a lot more of it."
    "I'm sorry we had to lay off all the sous -chefs."
    "Well, I'm sorry that I told you I'd rather eat a rat than be a waitress. I'll waitress if we need it. I'll scrub my own pans, scrub my own floor, and yours, too. Quill. I refuse to believe that this is anything other than a tem porary condition." She slid the cream puff ring into the oven with a slam. "It's this business with John that has me so huffy. I can't believe he's deserted us like this. What a jerk! What kind of loyalty is it, anyway, to just go out and get another job right under our noses?"
    "Slavery went out in 1862."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean that we don't own him. We don't own anyone. I think it's pretty remarkable that he's stuck with us this long. And when you think about it, Meg, he's always put us and his poor sister before his own needs. What kind of job is this for a talented guy with an M.B.A.? He hasn't had a date in ages, since there's no one in Hemlock Falls to date, except maybe Marge Schmidt and she's not all that keen on guys. Plus she's older. Plus she's mean …"
    "Got all the personality of an attack tank," Meg agreed.
    "He hasn't had a steady relationship with a woman in all the time I've known him here. It's more than an hour's drive into Syracuse to the theaters and the clubs and any kind of social life at all …" Quill trailed off. She told herself that it had been a terrible choice for John to make. That he loved the Inn, and the job, as much or more than she did. That he was moving to Long Island out of loyalty to them. "It's not the better pay that's forcing him to take this job, Meg, although it's considerably better. And I don't think it's because they're offering him better opportunities, although he'll have three employees working for him. And it's not be cause it's a more interesting job, either. I mean, this bank wants a strategic plan for the year 2000. John's going to visit most of the two hundred branches this bank has all over the world. A couple in Australia, if you can believe that."
    "So if it's not all that horribly boring stuff—a lot of money, great travel, and a short train ride away from the greatest city in the known universe, which is to say, New York—why is he taking this horrible job?" Meg asked. Both eyebrows were raised almost to her hairline. She placed both hands onto the counter, leaned over, and shouted, "I mean to say, QUILL! Earth to QUILL!! If that's not why he's taking the job, what is it?"
    "It's me," Quill said miserably.
    Meg looked at her sharply, then said with a deceptively casual air, "Oh?"
    "I'm a terrible partner. I forgot to write down the amount of a couple of checks …"
    "Again?"
    "And this time, the insurance company canceled our policy."
    "They what?"
    "The check John wrote bounced because he thought there was more in the account. Oh, he's fixed it, as usual, but honestly, Meg. I must drive him