Page 94 of Dead Serious Case 4 Professor Prometheus Plume

“Oh my god,” Ellis gasps. “I’ve never been arrested before! How exciting.”

EPILOGUE

Iroll over and slide my leg between Danny’s, pressing against the side of his body, and he wraps his arm around me and traces lazy circles on my back. I’m propped on one elbow, one fist holding up my head while the other hand plays absently with his chest hair.

“Mmm,” I hum in contentment. “This is more like it.”

We’ve spent the last twenty-four hours in bed and it’s been bliss.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the North Yorkshire Police had hiked through the woods and across the fields to get to us. It had taken many hours of explaining and interviewing, but they’d finally removed Professor Plume’s body to be transported to the nearest mortuary. Unfortunately, the professor had to suffer the added indignity of his remains being strapped to a stretcher in a body bag and hiked back through the snow.

Only the main roads were being kept clear, which meant the hotel was still pretty inaccessible. Mr Greyson had been arrested and also taken through the snow to the nearest police station once they’d found him some suitable winter gear, and Ruby, seeing herself as the Bonnie to his Clyde, and hopelessly enamoured of the fact—he’d literally hid a dead body for her—had chosen to accompany him.

The rest of us had crawled into bed and slept like… well, I would say like the dead, but the dead around here are definitely a lively bunch. They seem to be taking Bertie’s idea of a haunted hotel as a holiday destination to another level entirely, and I have a feeling I’ll need to have words with them before Danny and I leave.

As for Danny and me, things are perfect. Yes, we’re snowed in and will probably have to stay a few more days, but honestly, the hotel and its quirky residents are growing on us. We’ll probably end up being one of those couples who come back to the same hotel every year for our anniversary, and the thought fills me with warm bubbles of happiness.

It’s New Year’s Day tomorrow, and I just know next year is going to be the best because we’re getting married!I think with a shiver of excitement.

“What are you thinking about?” Danny rumbles in that sexy, sleep-rumpled accent of his.

“How much I love you,” I murmur. “And how Chan is going to go into an organisational frenzy when we tell him we’re getting married. What’s the bet that he’ll have an engagement party planned and booked by the end of the week?”

Danny chuckles. “Chances are high, bordering on certain.”

“I can’t believe that you’re going to be my husband,” I say quietly, leaning in to give him a slow kiss. Pulling back, I smile so hard my cheeks start to ache. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get annoying to be around—it feels like happiness and sunlight are spilling from every pore in my body. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve been around Ellis too long.

“I can’t wait to marry you.” Danny reaches up and traces my cheekbone.

“I don’t want to wait.”

“What?”

“I don’t mean we should run down to the nearest registry office as soon as we get back to London. I want a proper wedding with all our friends. I just…”

“You want your dad to be there.” Danny strokes his fingers along my jaw and I nod.

“I know I don’t have much time left with him, and he probably won’t even understand what’s going on, but I really want him there.”

“We’ll figure it out, love, even if we end up getting married at the care home and then re-create it for our friends and extended family after. Martin’s important to me too.”

“I know he is.” I lean in and kiss him again, then let out a wistful sigh. “I wish you could have known him before. He’d have loved you. I can just imagine you both sitting down for hours talking about our ancestors and history in general.”

“I wish we could’ve had that too, but we still have some great memories of blanket forts and Scrabble, and we’ll keep making those memories with Martin for as long as we can.”

I nod, feeling my heart ache a little at the thought of my dad.

“What are we going to do about our names?” I ask. “I’d love for us to have the same last name and I’d take Hayes in a heartbeat, but I’m the last Everett of my family line. It’s weird to think that my name will die when I do. It’s a bit sad to me, but then again, family bloodlines die out all the time, I guess.”

“You don’t have to give it up at all,” Danny says. “I was thinking we could keep both, like a partnership. Everett-Hayes or Hayes-Everett, whichever you prefer.”

His words bring my smile back. “I think it’s perfect.”

“And who says Everett is going to die out?” Danny says. “Maybe one day we’ll want to extend our family to include kids of our own.”

“Really?”

He shrugs. “It’s something to think about later on down the line, of course, and maybe we will, maybe we won’t. Our future isn’t written in stone, love. It’s whatever we decide to make it.”