Page 42 of A Dead End Wedding

When she disappeared, three small wooden and silver chests sat on the table where the chessboard had been.

Uncle Mike opened the lid of the one nearest him and whistled.

We all rushed over to look.

She hadn’t been kidding about “chest of jewels.” Each of the small boxes contained what had to be a fortune in gems.

Jack looked into the other two boxes, and he whistled, too. “That’s a queen’s ransom right there.”

He looked at me, flipped the lid shut on one box, and grinned. “Let’s donate our box to Dead End, Tess. What do you say?”

“I say absolutely,” I said immediately, even though faint thoughts of a new roof at the house danced through my mind.

“Same here,” Uncle Mike said, closing the lid of his box.

Carlos, who’d been flirting with a few of his many admirers, strolled over and looked into the open box. “Well. Ididsuffer injuries in my battle.”

He paused, no doubt enjoying the way everybody was leaning forward to listen to him, holding their breath.

“But I’ll donate mine, too.”

The cheering and applause would have lifted the roof if we’d been indoors. No matter what happened next, we’d be okay. Even if we had to move in the end, we had the means to start over now.

“Lorraine, why don’t you take these into your possession until the bank opens, and you can put them in the Dead End town account safe deposit box? I reckon there’s some kind of conflict of interest if I take them home and give them to the mayor.” Uncle Mike grinned, letting the entire town know theywere in on the joke, and a dozen Dead Enders escorted Lorraine home, helping her carry the chests.

“Shelley will be happy to give up the chalice,” I told Jack. “She’s so worried she’ll break it. But I bet we’ll never get Mrs. Frost to give up that arrow.”

“She shouldn’t,” Jack said. “She started us all off, and she earned that prize. I’ll fight anybody who tries to take it away from her.”

I laughed and hugged him. “I think we’ve had enough fighting this week. Let’s go home and at least get a nap. I’m opening the shop late today. Maybe not till noon. All this drama takes a lot out of a person.”

“At least we have until Wednesday for whatever ‘alliance’ may be,” Eleanor said, in between yawns. “I’ll try to come in this afternoon, Tess.”

“No, please don’t worry about it. Take the day off and get some sleep. I doubt the shop will be busy. Everybody in town will be home taking a nap.”

Just before we headed for the truck, Susan caught up with us.

“I ran those license plates. Twyla Tharsin rented that car. She’s not a reporter, either. Well, she was. But now she heads up a rabid anti-Fae society, and she tries to attack Fae royalty whenever she can find them. She’s a scary person, Tess. The guns and bombs kind of scary. I put the entire team on notice to keep her out of Dead End. Be careful.”

I yawned. “Sorry. I’m exhausted. Okay. I doubt she’ll stop by again after Jack scared them. But I’ll keep a lookout.”

When Jack and I got home, I spent some time cuddling my cat, Lou. Then I walked outside and left a wedding invitation on the table next to Braumsh’s tent.

When I came back inside, Jack gave me a disbelieving look.

“Hedoessmell better these days,” I whispered. “Anyway, there are going to belotsof flowers in the church.”

“But—”

“He’s a Dead Ender.”

“Are yousurewe can’t elope?”

I threw a pillow at him.

17

Tess

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