Green House Hospitality

By L Malka

Content warnings for parents: This book is not intended for young children and includes themes that may be troubling to some readers, including attempted sexual assault and references to spousal emotional abuse.

Rules of the House:
Be very polite.
Do not lie.
Keep your promises.
Guests are under the host's protection.
All those with goodwill toward this house may enter it
Fairy time is different from human time.
Mind your step in the garden, the paths are narrow.

The Green House Bed and Breakfast is like many other B&Bs in New England. The kitchen serves eggs, the staff is friendly, and the rooms are clean and comfortable. But inside the walled garden, the House keeps a magical secret. Now, the magical world of the garden and the mundane world of the House are colliding, and manager Syringa Green's life may never be the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L Malka
• Release date: Mar 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005835033

L Malka

L. Malka is a pseudonym.

Book preview

Green House Hospitality

L. Malka

Published by L. Malka at Smashwords

Copyright 2021 L. Malka

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, the please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Prologue

1. You Are Welcome Here

2. Lady Green’s Unhappy Marriage

3. Secrets and Names

4. For Lady Sara

5. Housecall

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Prologue

The house at 37 Dorset Street in Salem, Massachusetts, had always been there. At least, no one remembered it ever not being there, and to be fair it had been there much longer than any of the other houses on Dorset Street. The yard was surrounded by a low wall of irregular stones. The front door had been replaced many times. The door frame had been repaired, and rebuilt, and widened over the years. Above the door was a sign, green letters on a pale cream background, that read:

Green House Tavern

Est. 1694

Closer to the street, a larger sign contradicted this identification:

Green House

Bed & Breakfast

From the street, it was possible to see the way the house had grown, in fits and starts, over the years. The original house was a tidy square, with symmetrical windows of old, wavy glass on either side of the door, and the kind of windowsills made to support a cooling pie. Above and behind this charming edifice, three stories of additions crowded each other, reaching toward the roof like saplings in the forest. The house was crowned with a cacophony of gables and eaves, with windows winking down, promising passersby tempting secrets.

Green House had many secrets.

According to the tourist brochures, Green House was named for the original owner's niece, who had taken ownership of the house in 1692. The Widow Braithwaite had died, leaving no known heirs. Determined to keep the property in the family, Sarah Green had converted it to a tavern in 1694. Additional rooms were added, and the main room became a popular bar. 80 years later, signers of the Declaration of Independence argued by the hearth. For several decades, the House was part of the Underground Railroad, a fact the current owner, Syringa Green, was especially proud of.

The truth was a little more complicated, as such things often are.

*~*~*

Curtis Wetherby was not, as he had told his wife and friends, attending a business conference in Des Moines. He was meeting his girlfriend for a weekend at a quaint bed and breakfast in Massachusetts. His girlfriend would be arriving any minute, and he desperately wanted to be waiting for her, showered, in their room. Now if only his wedding ring would come off his finger!

It was in this distracted frame of mind that he entered the lobby of the Green House.

"Welcome to the Green House bed and breakfast, how