“I just know that Jack wasn’t responsible,” I said, repeating my earlier assertions.“He doesn’t like the smell of alcohol.He wouldn’t have gotten within three feet of Peanut.”
“A teetotaler llama?”Oliver shot me an amused look.“Well, I could use a glass of wine after today.”
“I thought these tables were going to be put together for a larger group,” Cameron said, shooting a look of annoyance at Oliver.“There are six of us for dinner with Henry and these tables are four tops.”
“I can eat in the kitchen,” Oliver said.“As the staff.”
There was a bit of bite in his words.There seemed to be tension between him and Cameron.I made a mental note to ask him about it later.
“That’s ridiculous,” Cameron said.“You’re Sophie’s best friend and my brother’s boyfriend.Of course you’re eating with us.”
“Where is Henry?”I asked.I hadn’t seen him at all at the festival.
“He’s upstairs changing for dinner,” Cameron said, immediately removing place settings from one table and shifting them to another.Then he started to wrestle the table a few feet over to align with another.My father jumped in to help him.
I glanced down at my elf costume.“The option to change clothes would be amazing right now.”
My mother clearly agreed.“Go put something of mine on,” she said.“We’re in the Lighthouse room.I’m sure your father left it unlocked.He never worries about my jewelry being stolen.”
I sent Oliver a help-me look.
He jumped in and said, “I’ll show you which room it is.Don’t want you walking in on anyone.”
“Great, thank you.”I’d prefer one of my mother’s stylish Anne Taylor outfits over this elf costume, even if she and I didn’t really share the same taste in clothing.
“Today was something else, wasn’t it?”I asked Oliver as he and I moved toward the grand staircase.
“It was quite the spectacle.”
“I really think someone pushed Peanut off the cliff.Even drunk, how do you just fall off?It hasn’t rained in over a week.Nothing was muddy or slippery.”
“Or you could be seeking a murder where there is none.”
“But…if it was a murder, who would you suspect?”
“I daresay Saint Nicholas.He’s a rather suspicious looking fellow.”
I paused on the fourth step and looked at my best friend.“Why are you talking like that?”
“In what way am I speaking?”
“Like you’ve joined the Victorian acting troupe when I wasn’t looking.”
“It’s rather entertaining, I daresay.”
If he said “daresay” one more time I wasn’t responsible for my actions.“Do you miss acting?”
“No, I don’t miss acting.I have a current role right now.”We reached the upstairs landing and he gestured with his arm.“I’m acting as a house manager for a renovated inn.”
Interesting.It concerned me that Oliver wasn’t truly content in this new role.“How is that going?”
Oliver led me to the Lighthouse room.If I had been expecting a wooden lighthouse nailed to the door, I was very wrong.There was a bronze placard with the words on it in a classy font.The door was unlocked.
Once we were inside, Oliver said, “It’s going.But I’m a stickler and Cameron’s a stickler and sometimes we don’t stickle in the same way.”
“Is that a word?Stickle?”
“It is now.”
