A couple months work with a pair of surprisingly capable helpers - and a third who was good at taking care of the more delicate odds and ends - and the pub was pretty much done. Not open yet, of course, but if you managed to get past the tall Scot working on the outside window, you'd see a fairly impressive sight.


( Read more... )

If asked, Ben intended to say it was for the children. Which it was, but it was also for him - since somehow the Deck had lasted so many years without some enterprising Scotsman building a golf course. Admittedly, his mini golf course, composed mostly of obstacles that he'd collected from various Diamond storage rooms and barns, was definitely not ( Read more... )

The first day of every year, no matter how much she's drunk or how late she's stayed up, Säde is always up to watch the first sunrise from the highest hill in the Deck. The castle towers are usually crowded with the leftovers of celebrations, and anyway she prefers the walk in the chilly air ( Read more... )

It was time yet again to undertake an onerous chore: deciding what to wear for the Feast of Fools. Claudia glowered at her closet, wondering how much trouble she'd get into if she "accidentally" tossed a lighted match inside...after dousing the contents with gasoline. Probably more than she'd care to handle, really. So she merely sighed, strode ( Read more... )

Ben was not, strictly speaking, an impulsive kind of man. At least...not anymore. He'd grown out of the tendency, sometime between when he slid into the gray area between legal and illegal, back in Aberdeen, and when he'd run his way to Diamond Castle. In his old age, he'd grown more cautious. A little analytical, and certainly one to think through ( Read more... )

Less than two weeks now til Christmas, and Eden's holiday spirit is in full swing. She's finished almost all her shopping, presents mostly wrapped and waiting. She's gone ice skating once already with Avery, and has made plans to talk more folks into the same. She's still singing carols almost nonstop. There's only been one thing missing from the ( Read more... )

Snow. Why did there have to be snow? Hadn't the weather gotten this out of the way back in October with that freak storm? One would think they'd run out of it. Caleb could almost resign himself to a cold winter, if it was just the temperature. But the frozen flakes falling through the air as he's out running errands in town are gathering in his ( Read more... )

"Come they told me~ BA-RUMPA-PUM-PUM~" Damn that Eden anyway, thinks Tess as she realizes she's singing at the top of her lungs as she pulls up to her next stop. Her battered Ford truck hauls a little open trailer and inside the little trailer the reason for her visit: Six teeny, tiny, fluffy living Swiss Valais sheep looking for homes ( Read more... )

Adrien Fitzgerald is usually seen dressed in only the latest styles. Whether it's jeans, slacks, dress shirts, shoes, he always looks good. Presentable. Not so much the case right now ( Read more... )

Being friends with a bartender had more pluses than minuses. For one, Ben probably got more free scotch than any man in the Deck, thanks to meeting and befriending Dan, the regular bartender at the Diamond pub that was just a little darker and rougher than the Four Suits. For another, people seemed to tell bartenders absolutely everything, and Dan ( Read more... )