This is a brief excerpt from "Summertime" -- the historical romance I'm getting ready to send off to the publisher. I've kept it very short, not wanting to give away too much in this scene...just enough to hide an itsy-bitsy spider and maybe make you curious about what Linn and Ed find.
Dangling the key from her fingers, Linn returned to the parlor. "Why would anyone lock an armoire? Did she think somebody might steal her clothes? For that matter, why did she have the armoire here in the parlor?"
"Tabitha Ann wasn't quite like anyone else, remember."
Linn laughed. "How true." In a perverse way it seemed perfectly logical that the cantankerous old woman would leave her jewelry lying about in open boxes yet keep her clothing under lock and key.
"Nothing Tabitha did should surprise me," she said, as she slipped the key into the lock. She smiled as the key turned. "Yes, it works." She swung the doors open and peered inside. “What a musty mess!” She brushed at a spider’s web, jumping as its displaced owner scurried away. “But, what is this? I don’t understand.”
Ed came to stand close beside her. He too peered into the armoire. "It's empty."
Linn nodded. "An armoire in the parlor. No clothes, yet she kept the doors locked. That's odd, don't you think? No, wait! There’s something there." She quickly reached inside.
That's all folks! As I said, I don't want to give away too much here. I'll leave you guessing about exactly what Ed and Linn found in that musty, dusty armoire.
