Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

“Miller, matey!” Pete chuckled. “Good to see ya, good to see ya indeed!” He limped quickly along the dock and wrapped his skinny arms around Miller, slapping him aggressively on the back in the weird way that some men do.

“It’s good to see you too,” Miller said. “This is Sadie Alden, she’s the new peacekeeper.” Pete released Miller and looked at me with confusion for a moment, before bowing over dramatically into a curtesy as if he had been presented with royalty.

“Ms. Alden, a pleasure it be, I’m sure,” he declared. “May I be asking, whatever did happen to Greta?”

“She was killed, Pete,” Miller explained. “I thought you would have heard by now.”

“Argh,” he scowled. “I suppose the rascal that did it is walking about happy as a clam, eh? Just you wait until I get my hands on that scumbag!” Pete began waving an angry fist in the general direction on the main island and I realized that I was staring at him with my mouth wide open. He was so weird that I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

“We handled it,” Miller assured him.

“Not the way I would’ve!” Pete snarled. “Throw ‘em to the sharks, the lot of ‘em!” Who was he talking about? I had so many questions that I didn’t know which I should ask first. “Any who, I suppose my little cannon show is what has brought such a fine lady to my shores.”

“Yeah,” Miller answered. Miller had looked at me and realized that I was still trying to understand Pete, so answered on my behalf. “Are you firing at Skerry?”

“Of course! I’d blast that cursed place right out of the water if given half a chance!” Pete replied. He pulled a sword out of a sheath hanging around his waist and thrust it skyward. I could have sworn that there hadn’t been a sword there only seconds earlier. Was this guy a witch? A pirate witch? What was his deal?

“Right…” Miller hummed. “But do you remember what we talked about the last time I came over?”

“Yes, of course! You told me to only fire at them if they deserved it!” Pete grinned.

“I’m pretty sure that isn’t what I said,” Miller replied.

“Well, let’s not get bogged down in the details,” Pete smiled. “Come, let’s venture on down to party central and talk about less horrendous things than those nasty folk over on Skerry and what they have done to irk me so much this time.”

Miller looked back and me and I shrugged. I hadn’t got the faintest idea what Pete was talking about, but he was already salsa dancing his way back along the dock towards the sand. We began to follow him, crossing the beach and walking between row after row of palm trees until we found ourselves approaching a flaming torch.

There was a clearing in the trees and torches had been set up around the edges to light it up, there was music playing and a dozen or so folk were dancing with drinks in their hands. It was a beautiful night for a party, if you ignored the lingering scent of burnt explosives from the cannon fire.

“Everybody, give your warmest of welcomes to the new peacekeeper, Sadie Alden!” Pete announced. The group cheered and clapped, then immediately got back to twirling. “She be here to settle this Skerry nonsense once and for all.” A smattering of applause followed that statement as if they hadn’t heard him.

What was the issue between this island and their neighbor? If Pete was with us at the party, then at least he wasn’t firing cannonballs at anybody. How long would the ceasefire last?

“Miller, you didn’t call ahead for a room my dear,” a woman said as she spun herself towards the two of us. “How do you know I have any space tonight?”

“I…” Miller stuttered.

“I’m kidding! Of course I have a couple of rooms for you both. Oh, you are going to get the full Honey treatment tonight,” she smiled.

“The Honey treatment?” I echoed.

“My name’s Honey, sorry I probably should have opened with that! I run the guest house here on Green Holt.” She reached out a hand to shake mine and soon Pete was hobbling over to join in the conversation. Alarmingly, he was still waving his sword around.

“Ah, a fine place it is too! No better place to rest your head than at Honey’s guest house,” Pete grinned.

“I see you’ve met old toothless,” Honey laughed.

“Toothless?” I said. I was so baffled by everything that had happened since we came ashore that I was just repeating random words that people were saying to me.

“Yeah, toothless Pete. He makes a very specific kind of first impression,” Honey said.

“But you have teeth?” I said, looking at Pete.

“That’s what you think!” he cackled, spinning away into the middle of the dance floor.

“I assume you are both here to deal with our Skerry problem,” Honey asked. She had stepped a little closer to one of the flaming torches and I could see that her hair was beautifully golden and curled elegantly down over her shoulders. She had a warm, friendly smile that was enough to make you forget that Pete was waving a sword around at a dance party.

“I’m not sure what the Skerry problem is,” I confessed.

“Oh, it’s a long story. Why don’t I take you to the guest house and you can try to get a few hours of sleep before Pete starts firing at them again?” she offered.

“Lead the way,” Miller said.

“We’re leaving, Pete!” Honey yelled. I looked over to see that he was now whacking the sword against a palm tree and dodging the falling coconuts while laughing hysterically. The rest of the group were clapping as he did this, and I almost couldn’t look away. “Honestly, when that man gets into party mode, he can’t hear a darn thing…” Honey mumbled.

When we had approached Green Holt, it hadn’t looked all that big. Something about the