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  Ruprecht had not spoken all this time. Finally, he said, “People think times are worse than they have ever been, but that is not correct. Things might be bad in the world today, but things have been bad before, worse even. Bad times invariably turn to good times. Why, think of Sulla’s proscription.”

  “Prescription for what?” I asked, confused.

  Ruprecht allowed himself a little chuckle. “Not prescription, proscription. It means a decree of condemnation to death or perhaps banishment. It reminds me of Alder.”

  I did not want to ask him how, but he pushed on regardless. “Alder was facing a sentence. Sulla was a Roman general who revived the dictatorship and handed out many sentences. He executed thousands of people as well as their families simply because they opposed him, saying it was in the best interest of the Republic. Times haven’t changed, you know, but as Pythagoras said, ‘Friends share all things.’” He paused to tap his chin. “No matter what horrors life throws at us, we will surely get through it with the help of our friends. There is no more powerful force than love.”

  Camino and I exchanged glances. Ruprecht was off on one of his philosophical bents again.

  Ruprecht was still speaking. “And Euripides said, ‘Friends show their love in times of trouble.’” He nodded slowly as he spoke.

  “Where are you going on your honeymoon?” Camino asked as soon as Ruprecht stopped to draw breath, in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

  “It’s a surprise, a secret location,” Alder said.

  I groaned. “Not another secret. It’s been one secret after another the last week or so. I’ve had about all the secrets I can tolerate.” I looked up at Alder. “Okay, maybe one more secret will be fine.”

  “Where are you going to live when you come back from your honeymoon?” Thyme asked us.

  “I like the new look of the house,” Alder said, “but Amelia doesn’t want us to live here.”

  “I really do want to live here,” I said. “It’s just that I didn’t think it was fair to you.”

  His eyebrows knit together. “What do you mean?”

  I was going to respond, but Thyme cut in first. “Amelia is always going on about how newly married couples should live in a fresh house and not live at either partner’s house,” she explained.

  Alder released me and looked down at me. “Is that the real reason?”

  “Yes. I wanted you to feel a house was equally yours.”

  “I’d love to live here,” he said. “My home is wherever you are.”

  The house suddenly turned on the TV. This time, it was the music channel playing ‘Love Is In the air,’ an old song by Aussie singer John Paul Young.

  Everyone laughed. “Your grandmother approves,” Alder said.

  “Oh yes, my grandmother certainly wants you to live here. That’s why she decorated the whole house like this and added an altar room for you,” I said. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to live in my house. They always say a newly married couple should live in a completely new house.”

  “Who’s this ‘they’?” Camino said with a smirk.

  I smiled too.

  Alder stood up. “Amelia, I’ll need some help in the kitchen.”

  The others all said their goodbyes and drifted away, and soon it was just the two of us.

  Alder took me by the hand and together we stepped into the kitchen, where saffron cake sat on the counter.

  “What do you need help with?” I naively asked my husband, but he only smiled and pulled me into his arms. “You don’t need any help in the kitchen, do you?”

  “I just wanted a cuddle,” he whispered into my hair.

  I thought about our vows, how he’d promised to buy me new knickers and eat my burnt cakes, and how I’d joked about his looks.

  “You really are the most handsome man I’ve ever met, you know?” I told him.

  “I know,” he said. “I have a mirror.”

  I stepped back. “Honestly, Alder.”

  He had a big, blazing grin on his face. “These looks are not going to last forever, Toots. Enjoy them while they’re hot.”

  “Toots?”

  I laughed as he pulled me back into his arms, and we danced as the world outside darkened, the streetlights twinkled to life, and the neighbourhood children played cricket in the park. One day they’d be our children, and I knew we’d be just as happy watching them run around as we were now, swaying sleepily in each other’s arms with our perfect wedding rings shimmering.

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  Next Book In This Series

  The Halloween Pumpkin Spell

  The Halloween Pumpkin Spell

  It's Halloween, and Amelia has a grave problem. She's batty about Alder and had a gourd time on her honeymoon, but now it's back to business as usual. Marina Mercer has arrived in Bayberry Creek to demand her yearly spell. Faced with the haunting prospect, Amelia has an uncandy sense of impending doom.

  Amelia thinks she will carve out some fun at the Halloween fair, but nearly trips over a corpse. What's more, something terrible has happened to Camino.

  Can Amelia and her friends solve the murder, save the day, and rescue Camino? Or will it be all tricks and no treats?

  * * *

  Get it here!

  Also by Morgana Best

  Witches’ Brew (Witches and Wine Book 1)

  Pepper Jasper does not believe in the supernatural.

  Pepper moves from Sydney to the cozy town of Lighthouse Bay, answering a desperate plea from her aunts to help with their failing Bed and Breakfast business.

  She discovers her aunts are more eccentric than she remembered, the Bed and Breakfast does not serve breakfast, and the cottages for lease have strange themes. And what’s more, within minutes of her arrival, she stumbles across a dead body.

  Pepper soon has her hands full, contending with a murder mystery, irritating guests including the enigmatic Lucas O’Callaghan who is convinced every woman wants to fall into his arms, and her aunts, who are hiding more than one dark secret.

  Who or what lurks in the forbidden room at the end of the dark corridor?

  Why do the aunts insist she drink copious quantities of special label wine?

  Find out what awaits Pepper Jasper at Mugwort Manor.

  Broom Mates (Sea Witch Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

  Goldie Bloom has four problems: her boss, her boyfriend, the fact they are the same person, and the fact that person is cheating on her.

  After discovering she has inherited an old home on the Gold Coast waterfront, this murder solving Aussie sea witch packs up her collection of 5 inch stilettos and moves. She's not expecting to move in with a room mate named Persnickle, just as she was not expecting to trip over a dead body on her first day. Is she the intended victim, and can she really be arrested for drinking coffee?

  * * *

  A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)

  Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.

  There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.

  When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?

  Or will this be the death of her business?

  Christmas Spirit (The Middle-aged Ghost Whisper Book 1)

  Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on. However, her reputation as a clairvoyant medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead. Thi
s all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.

  Live and Let Diet (The Australian Amateur Sleuth Book 1)

  NON paranormal cozy mystery

  Sybil Potts moves to Little Tatterford, a small town in the middle of nowhere in Australia, seeking to find peace and quiet after the upheaval of her divorce.

  Although the town is sleepy and nothing has ever happened, her arrival coincides with a murder in the property adjacent to her cottage. Sybil soon finds she is at odds with the attractive Blake Wessley, the exasperated police officer who is trying to solve the murder.

  After Sibyl narrowly misses becoming the next victim, she turns her attention to the suspects. Is it the English gentleman, Mr. Buttons, who serves everyone tea and cucumber sandwiches, or her landlord, Cressida Upthorpe, who is convinced that her fat cat, Lord Farringdon, speaks to her? Or is it someone else entirely?

  Sweet Revenge (Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries, Book 1)

  NON paranormal cozy mystery

  Narel Myers was given the ironic name Cocoa Narel by the cruel popular kids in high school, as she was far from elegant and was obsessed with chocolate. The truth of the matter was that her love of eating chocolate had caused her to become excessively overweight. Some years later, a car wreck leads to her undergoing extensive plastic surgery on her face and body. Now that she is medically unable to gain weight, she decides to indulge her love for chocolate by opening a designer chocolate shop.

  When people who bullied her at high school are murdered one by one, she becomes the prime suspect. Will she be able to prove her innocence when the police think she’s out for revenge?

  Will Carl, her best friend, stop flirting with the police long enough to help her find the real killer?

  * * *

  SERIES BY MORGANA BEST

  Witches and Wine (A fun, quirky cozy mystery series!)

  1) Witches’ Brew

  2) Witches’ Secrets

  3) Witches’ Charms

  4) Witches Magic

  5) Witches’ Spells

  6) Witches’ Craft

  7) Witches’ Cat

  First 3 Books available in Box Set:

  Witches and Wine: Box Set: Books 1-6

  * * *

  The Kitchen Witch

  1) Miss Spelled

  2) Dizzy Spells

  3) Sit for a Spell

  4) Spelling Mistake

  5) Ex-Spelled

  6) The Halloween Spell

  7) Spellcheck

  8) The Halloween Love Spell

  9) Spell It Out

  10) Wedding Spells

  11) The Halloween Pumpkin Spell

  12) Sweet Spell of Success

  First 9 Books available in Box Set:

  The Kitchen Witch: Box Set: Books 1-9

  * * *

  Sea Witch Cozy Mysteries

  1) Broom Mates (10,000 word Novelette)

  2) Broom With A View

  3) Broom For One More

  4) Broomed for Success

  First 3 Books available in Box Set:

  Sea Witch Cozy Mysteries: Box Set: Books 1-3

  * * *

  The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer

  1) Christmas Spirit

  2) Ghost Hunter

  3) There Must be a Happy Medium

  First 3 Books available in Box Set:

  The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer: Box Set: Books 1-3

  * * *

  Witch Woods Funeral Home

  1) A Ghost of a Chance

  2) Nothing to Ghost About

  3) Make the Ghost of It

  4) Ghost Stories

  5) Ghost Blusters

  6) Give up the Ghost

  First 4 Books available in Box Set:

  Witch Woods Funeral Home: Box Set: Books 1 - 4

  * * *

  And Morgana’s non-Witch Cosy mysteries:

  Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries

  1) Sweet Revenge

  2) The Sugar Hit

  3) Murder Sweetly Served

  4) Chocolate to Die For

  First 3 Books available in Box Set:

  Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries: Box Set: Books 1-3

  * * *

  The Australian Amateur Sleuth

  1) Live and Let Diet

  2) Natural-Born Grillers

  3) Dye Hard

  4) The Prawn Identity

  5) Any Given Sundae

  6) The Last Mango in Paris

  First 3 Books available in Box Set:

  Australian Amateur Sleuth: Box Set: Books 1-3

  * * *

  AUDIO. Most of Morgana’s books are currently on Audio.

  PAPERBACK. All Morgana’s books are available in Paperback.

  About Morgana Best

  After surviving a childhood of deadly spiders and venomous snakes in the Australian outback, bestselling author Morgana Best writes cozy mysteries and enjoys thinking of delightful new ways to murder her victims.

  * * *

  www.morganabest.com

  Excerpt from The Halloween Pumpkin Spell

  The Halloween Pumpkin Spell is the next book in this series

  I let out a bloodcurdling scream as soon as I saw the figure looming in the door to my bedroom. Adrenaline coursed through me. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

  Willow and Hawthorn ran out of the room in terror.

  But it was only Alder, half naked, towelling off his hair. “What’s wrong?” he shouted, the towel around his waist dropping to the ground.

  “I forgot I was married for a moment.” I lay a hand over my thumping heart and sighed with relief.

  “I’ve got to tell you, Amelia, most men get a little offended when their wives scream upon seeing them naked.” Blushing a furious pink, he scooped his towel off the floor and wrapped it around himself one more. “Two years ago I’d been shot and was in a hospital in Melbourne, and last year I was distracted because I was plucking up the courage to propose to you, but this year I’m not going anywhere, mentally or physically.”

  I yawned and stretched. “What do you mean?”

  “Two years ago when Marina Mercer came to demand her spell, I was away and someone tried to murder you. I won’t be away this year.”

  “Well, it wasn’t Marina two years ago. It was someone pretending to be Marina’s sister,” I pointed out.

  Alder pulled a face. “You’re beginning to sound like Ruprecht.”

  I waved one finger at him. “You should be pleased about that because he’s on your side about this whole Marina Mercer yearly spell thing.”

  Alder grimaced. “I just don’t like it, Amelia. Something terrible happens every year and it’s all because of that spell. There must a way you can get out of it.” He swiftly crossed the room and kissed me thoroughly. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said for the umpteenth time, before walking to the door.

  “Where are you going? I thought you said you weren’t going anywhere.”

  Alder frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that. I have to go to work.”

  I rubbed my forehead. I hoped Alder wasn’t becoming as strange as my other friends. I had to get some caffeine into me. That would make everything all right.

  I yawned and stretched again, pulled on my bathrobe, and staggered into the kitchen. I hurried over to give my Nespresso coffee machine a big hug and a kiss. As much as I enjoyed drinking coffee when I was out, there was nothing quite like the way I made it myself. I switched on the machine and listened to my favourite sound in the world.

  When the light stopped flashing, I made to pour the coffee, but a loud knock on the door forestalled me.

  “Not Marina Mercer already!” I said to myself. “Isn’t it a bit early?”

  Both cats fixed me with a glare and blocked my way. “Oh all right then.” I topped up their bowls with dry cat food and then hur
ried to the front door just as another knock came.

  I flung open the door. There, on my doorstep, was a giant pumpkin. A terrifying face was carved into the front of it.

  * * *

  Get it Here!