The eighth book in the Aurora Teagarden series, 2003

My thanks for the advice of wonderful people like John Ertl, Kate Buker, the Reverend Gary Nowlin, and Michael Silverling. I may not have always used their information and advice correctly, but that fault is only mine. Special thanks to Ann Hilge-man and all the other real Uppity Women.

I paid almost no attention at all to the last conversation I had with my stepsister-in-law, Poppy Queensland. Though I liked Poppy-more or less-my main feeling when she called was one of irritation. I was only five years older than Poppy, but she made me feel like a Victorian grandmother, and when she told me she was going to foul up our plans, I felt very… miffed. Doesn’t that sound grumpy?

“Listen,” said Poppy. As always, she sounded imperative and excited. Poppy always made her own life sound more important and exciting than anyone else’s (mine, for example). “I’m going to be late this morning, so you two just go on. I’ll meet you there. Save me a place.”

Later, I figured that Poppy called me about 10:30, because I was almost ready to leave my house to get her, and then Melinda. Poppy and Melinda were the wives of my stepbrothers. Since I’d acquired my new family well into my adulthood, we didn’t have any shared history, and it was taking us a long time to get comfortable. I generally just introduced Poppy and Melinda as my sisters-in-law, to avoid this complicated explanation. In our small Georgia town, Lawrenceton, most often no explanation was required. Lawrenceton is gradually being swallowed by the Atlanta metroplex, but here we still generally know all our family histories.