Mountain Ice (David Dean Mysteries)

"Make him a villain in one of your stories," Dean suggested. He earned a quick look from Cynthia, but the remark hit home.

"I will," Gladys answered with a sneer that was almost scary. "The rotten, lying bastard. He ravaged me, and he used me, just to gain access...." The Deans left her to her dreams, and simmering hatred.

"We have to do something," Cynthia said, as tears began to stream down her cheeks. "It's so frustrating! I feel so controlled! That-man! He's so despicable! How could anyone go so far as to seduce that pathetic woman, just to get close enough to terrorize his wife? He's so damned manipulative! So evil!" Dean put his arm around his wife's trembling shoulders.

"Just take a deep breath. We'll get through this business, somehow." He held her for what seemed like minutes.

"It's not just Jerome Shipton. It's Edith, too. I keep trying to be sympathetic to her situation but you know how I feel about abortion. And now she's coerced Donald Ryland into helping. There are so many couples who would give anything to have that child. Just because her husband's a bastard doesn't mean her baby wouldn't be a perfect little person the right parents would cherish and love. She's just casting it away like yesterday's trash." Then, his forty-year-old wife totally surprised him. "I'd love to have a little baby."

Finally, Cynthia calmed down enough to continue serving breakfast. The two of them managed to finish attending to the chatting guests, the late rising climbers and the Quincy sisters. Neither Gladys nor Edith emerged from their quarters. Fred returned, a tad on the sheepish side, and Dean filled him in on the recent happenings. He seemed embarrassed by his overnight absence.

"Spent the night on Miss Worthington's sofa. I forgot my new keys and didn't want to wake you folks." Dean didn't comment. He too was troubled to distraction by Shipton's presence, enough to pass up such an obvious chance to pull Fred's leg.

Fred read the latest transcribed pages of Annie Quincy's journal while the Deans cleaned up the dining room. Donnie joined the old man in the back office. Fred emerged long enough to pass on breakfast, a sure sign the widow Worthington had fed him, and he was off to do his morning research. Donnie left with him, after supposedly gaining his mother's approval. All of the guests, excepting Gladys and Edith, had vacated the inn by the time the Deans finished the morning chores. Ryland and Jerome Shipton had left on their own, presumably for the ice park.

Now that the busy morning activity no longer occupied Cynthia's mind, she again was visibly upset about Bird Song's latest guest, Jerome Shipton, and the penchant for trouble that surrounded his presence. Dean, cognizant of this, suggested they take the afternoon off. Cynthia protested, citing the accumulating chores and full house, but reluctantly agreed.