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“Fair enough,” was the last thing either of us said before quietly moving through the house and very quietly letting ourselves outside.

We held hands as we moved toward the dark figure to get a better look. The sound of a shovel breaking the soil rang out through the night.

“What was that? Do you think someone’s burying a body?” I whispered, fear surging through my body.

“I think…” Charles said, leaning down to whisper in my ear. “That my wife needs to stop watching so many true crime documentaries.”

“Who’s there?” a man called into the chilly night air. Apparently we hadn’t been quiet enough. I blamed our extreme sleepiness for us being careless enough to get discovered in our covert spy operation almost immediately.

Charles let go of my hand and moved in front of me to shield me from the stranger.“We were just coming out for some fresh air,” he announced, creeping closer with me behind him.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” I shouted, my voice quaking.

The man clicked on a flashlight and shone it beneath his face, creating a ghoulish affect.“It’s me, Bill.”

“Gardening at night a habit of yours?” Charles’s voice was light and airy, conversational. He was an expert at questioning witnesses and suspects alike.

“Usually, no, but there was no time during the day, what with the fiasco on the stairs and all the room switching. Tomorrow will be another busy day, so I figured I’d just knock this out now, before the old lady realized I’d fallen behind on my chores.” He took a step back, releasing a familiar foul smell into the air.

“Is that skunk cabbage?” I asked, immediately moving to pinch my nose.

Billy swept his flashlight toward the freshly planted cabbage. About half the gorgeous yellow roses had been uprooted to make way for their highly undesirable replacement, and this made me quite sad. The bees loved those roses and were likely planning on constructing their new hive nearby. Now the same plant that had driven them from their apiary would ruin this new location, too.

“Why would you tear up flowers and plant skunk cabbage in their place?” Charles asked, sounding genuinely curious. I knew him well enough, though, to see that he was just two steps away from levying a serious accusation the porter’s way.

“It’s all these darned bees,” Billy complained, lifting a hand to wipe sweat from his brow. “They’re scaring the guests. Madame Blue suspects they’re to blame for our lack of return bookings. She needed the money, so she wants them out of here. Obviously we can’t kill them, so I’m trying to drive them away using more natural means.”

“But you’re ruining the garden in the process,” I argued, protective of the place where we’d spent so much time over the last couple of days, the place my parents still remembered so fondly from decades past.

Billy swung his flashlight toward the uprooted roses.“These guys? Nah. I’ll move them to pots for the time being, then return them to this soil once the bees have left. No harm, no foul.”

Except this was incredibly harmful to the bees. They would be forced to leave their ancestral land, just because Madame Blue didn’t realize her unfriendly staff and deteriorating house were the real reasons so many guests never returned.

Charles and I, for one, couldn’t wait to get out of there.

19

The next morning, Charles and I were up early despite our strange nighttime excursion. He was excited to visit Charlene and her mother so we could all say goodbye before we packed up and headed to a nice, safe,boring hotel chain in town. I would take boring all day long if it kept my husband from facing any more misplaced misfortunes.

The only problem was that we had no idea what time Blaire might wake up, and I didn’t want to be the one to roust the cranky young adult from her sleep. So Charles and I busied ourselves by grabbing showers in the communal bathroom and packing up our luggage. When that was done, we scarfed down some protein bars that Charles had picked up on his latest supply run.

“After this, it’s only the finest Southern dining for the rest of the week,” he promised, pulling me into his side for a snuggle.

“Laxative-free, too, right?” I joked before offering him a peck on the cheek. He needed a shave, but I also liked this laidback vacation version of my new husband. The scruff made him appear even more handsome. Maybe I could convince him to grow out a beard.

He dropped a hand to his stomach in memory.“Ugh. I sure hope so.”

I quirked a brow.“Too soon?”

“No, it’s just…” His words fell away. “Did you hear that?”

Both of us directed our gazes toward the closed door, where the sounds of soft but persistent scratching rose to meet our ears, then suddenly fell away.

“Do you think it could be Charlene?” I asked, filled with joy at the thought. I assumed we’d have to wait at least another couple hours to see Blaire and the cats, but maybe I was wrong.

Charles was grinning like a maniac, too.“Only one way to find out.”