Рита Браун - Furmidable Foes

Furmidable Foes is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 by American Artists, Inc.

Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Michael Gellatly

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

BANTAM BOOKS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Brown, Rita Mae, author. | Brown, Sneaky Pie, 1982- author. | Gellatly, Michael, illustrator.

Title: Furmidable foes / Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown; illustrated by Michael Gellatly.

Description: First edition. | New York: Bantam Books, [2020] | Series: A Mrs. Murphy mystery; 29

Identifiers: LCCN 2020000581 (print) | LCCN 2020000582 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593130032 (hardcover: acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780593130049 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. | Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. | Women detectives—Virginia—Fiction. | Women cat owners—Fiction. | Cats—Fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3552.R698 F87 2020 (print) | LCC PS3552.R698 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2020000581

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2020000582

Ebook ISBN 9780593130049

randomhousebooks.com

Book design by Diane Hobbing, adapted for ebook

Cover design: Victoria Allen

Cover illustrations and hand lettering: Sara Mulvanny

ep_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

The Cast of Characters

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Authors' Notes

Books by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown

About the Authors

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

THE PRESENT

Mary Minor Haristeen, “Harry”—She is in charge of Buildings and Grounds at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, which was finished in 1787. She loves working outdoors whether at the church or her own farm, where she nurtures crops, horses, and the house pets. She’s pretty good to her husband, too.

Pharamond Haristeen, Dvm, “Fair”—A veterinarian who specialized in equine reproduction. He is a year older than his wife and they married out of college; for her that was Smith, for him, Auburn. People think Harry got her nickname through marriage but her first name is Harriet, which she dropped in high school because she liked the sound of Mary Minor. She has her ways, to which Fair is accustomed.

Susan Tucker—She grew up with Harry, Fair, and her own husband, Ned. She and Harry are cruising toward forty-four so it’s safe to say they truly know each other. This does not mean they agree on everything, but they do love each other.

Ned Tucker—He is serving his first term in the House of Delegates in Richmond, about one hundred miles east. He never interferes in what messes his wife and Harry have created or fallen into. Dealing with the blowhards in Richmond is easier than dealing with these two best friends.

The Very Reverend Herbert Jones—The beloved pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. As a combat captain in Vietnam, he realized he could lead. After the war he entered the seminary, as he chose to lead through the church. Solid, warm, watched over by three Lutheran cats, he is a man doing what he was born to do.

Janice Childs—One of two partners in Bottoms Up, a successful brewery, with Mags Nielsen. Tall, blonde, a good athlete, what you see is what you get. Like Harry and Susan, she is a member of the Dorcas Guild at St. Luke’s, the women’s group. If she says she’s going to do something, she does it.

Mags Nielsen—Thrilled with the growth of the brewery. She is task oriented and can interfere in odds and ends with the Dorcas Guild, but she is generous with her time and money.

Pamela Bartlett—She is now in her mid-eighties. She is president of the Dorcas Guild and remains active in other organizations in central Virginia, plus she is physically active. Age is what you make it and she has made a lot of it by keeping going.

Sheriff Rick Shaw—He keeps order on an inadequate budget. Harry’s nosiness drives him bats but she can be helpful and he can’t help but like her.

Carlton Sweeny—An assistant horticulturist at Montpelier Estate, the house of James and Dolley Madison. It was home to Carlton’s people, also owned by the Madisons. He likes walking where his ancestors walked and loves his work. If you can plant it in the ground, he’s interested.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURYBig Rawly

Maureen Selisse Holloway—Rich beyond imagination, she owns Big Rawly, still in the Holloway family today. Susan Tucker’s maiden name is Holloway. Maureen’s younger second husband, Jeffrey Holloway, not well born, works with his hands and is divinely handsome, which overcomes the above. She has a sharp business sense, is farsighted, and can be brutal and ruthless when she needs to be.

Jeffrey Holloway—A cabinetmaker not of Maureen’s class. He likes working with his hands and Maureen finally gave in to it by building him a large shop and a forge where he can build four-in-hand carriages. The vehicles are beautiful and reliable, and his success makes him happy, so she’s happy.

CLOVERFIELDS

Catherine Schuyler—Highly intelligent; assists her father in his business. Her passion is breeding and training horses. Impossibly beautiful, she is married to Major John Schuyler, a hero of the Revolutionary War. It is a good marriage.

Rachel West—A warmer personality than her sister, older than her by two years, the twenty-two-year-old Rachel is married to a former P.O.W., Charles West, a British Captain captured by Catherine’s husband at the Battle of Saratoga. Both were involved in building St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, which Charles designed, thereby finding his passion apart from his wonderful wife.

Ewing Garth—The owner of Cloverfields, the father of the above sisters, he is a sound businessman. He pays attention to our economy, nascent, as well as Europe’s. He is a warm, kind man who greatly misses his deceased wife.

FREE MEN

Martin—In his early forties. He and his partner catch runaways. He is keeping his eye out for more lucrative work as the New World, like the Old, favors education as well as money. He is not well born and not educated, but he can read and write.

Shank—Younger than Martin, he likes their work well enough because sometimes there are good paydays for catching slaves. However, like Martin, he wouldn’t mind a change of career if it means more money. The travel alone is exhausting.