Time of the Lilacs: Flower Shop Series

By Natalie-Nicole Bates

Micki Bennett lives a solitary life in a little village where she spends her time lovingly tending a small graveyard on her property.

 

After a ferocious spring storm, Micki rescues a lost young woman hiding inside a collapsing crypt.

 

Catherina Cabot has quite a story to tell.

 

She claims that after the murder of her family, she was imprisoned inside the crypt for over one hundred years. What she missed the most were the tiny bunnies that frolicked among the landscape that was filled with nothing but lilacs.

 

Micki is torn between believing whether Catherina's story is true, or she is merely disturbed and has assumed the identity of a long-deceased woman. As the two grow closer, they realize they have a lot more in common than they first thought, and that Fate may have sent them both a springtime miracle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Perfectly Poisoned Press
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223365587

Natalie-Nicole Bates

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author. Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia. She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.    

Book preview

Natalie-Nicole Bates

Time of the Lilacs

The Flower Shop Series

First published by Perfectly Poisoned Press 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Natalie-Nicole Bates

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Natalie-Nicole Bates asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Natalie-Nicole Bates has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Epilogue

About the Author

Also by Natalie-Nicole Bates

Chapter 1

Chapter Separator

Spring had most definitely not sprung.

Micki Bennett rose from her bed at 6:55, as she did every morning. Most of her night was spent awake from the near-constant thunder, and torrents of rain pounding incessantly on her roof and windows. It was the worst storm in the area for years. She wished she could just jump out of her bed, run into the kitchen, make a cup of tea, and then get back into bed and huddle under the blankets and just spend the day there. The only thing that would make that wish even better was if she had a special someone to cuddle with under the blankets.

Still, she had a job to do.

Wrapping up warmly in a terry cloth robe that while comfy, had seen better days, she sat on the edge of the bed, and reached for thermal socks. As she slipped the sock on her foot, a boom of thunder rocked her tiny cottage, followed by a flash of lightning that could be seen through the narrow crack in the heavy drapes covering the old-style sash window.

She hurried to the hallway, intent on completing her morning task, and hopefully getting back into her bed for another hour or two of precious sleep.

In the closet, she reached for her bright pink raincoat and stepped into her rain boots. Finally, she made her way to the kitchen and grabbed the ring of keys from a hook, took a flashlight from a drawer, and opened the door.

Almost immediately, the wind took the door from her grasp and sent it with a tremendous bang against the exterior stone of the cottage. Stepping out, she grabbed for the door. After a minor tug of war between her and the wind, she managed to get the door securely closed.

At once, the wind whipped her hair all around her face, and icy rain pelted her skin. A fog hung in the air, and swollen rain-filled clouds rolled through the grey sky. Micki turned on the flashlight to cut through the foggy air. She hurried her way from the cottage, and through the puddles of gathered rain on the path, to the imposing wrought iron gates. With one hand, she attempted to brush away the raindrops that clung to her eyelashes and fumbled to hold the flashlight steady as she used the key to open the padlock and pushed open the gates.

The purchase of the cottage, which sat in an isolated area of the upscale market town of Edgerton, had been a steal, dramatically underpriced for the sought-after area. Yet, the cottage, or more pointedly, what stood on the grounds of the cottage, was not for the squeamish. The cottage was once upon a time ago a chapel, and what surrounded the chapel was a small graveyard. A