Ribbing and Runes

Contents
Introduction
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
A Note from Nancy
Also by Nancy Warren
About the Author


Introduction
Can a secret runic message lead to murder?
As Lucy and Rafe plan their wedding, everyone wants to get involved. The vampire knitting club are crafting the gown, William’s catering, the Miss Watts are making the cake. Everything’s under control. Or is it? Just as Lucy begins to believe there won’t be a hitch in their plans, she receives a curious wedding gift that leads to murder.
Between hen parties, her parents arriving early, running a knitting shop and a murder, will Lucy make it down the aisle in one piece?


Praise for the Vampire Knitting Club series
"THE VAMPIRE KNITTING CLUB is a delightful paranormal cozy mystery perfectly set in a knitting shop in Oxford, England. With intrepid, late blooming, amateur sleuth, Lucy Swift, and a cast of truly unforgettable characters, this mystery delivers all the goods. It's clever and funny, with plot twists galore and one very savvy cat! I highly recommend this sparkling addition to the cozy mystery genre."
Jenn McKinlay, NYT Bestselling Author
“I’m a total addict to this series.” *****
“Fresh, smart and funny” *****


Chapter 1
Planning a wedding is stressful at the best of times, but when the groom is a vampire who’s been around for more than half a millennium, the guest list gets complicated. However, Rafe and I had easily agreed that we wanted to keep the number of guests to a reasonable limit. We’d probably have opted for a low-key registry wedding if it hadn’t been for my mother. We’d visited my parents in Egypt to tell them the good news in person, and to my surprise, my archaeologist mother, who spent her life in chinos, work boots, and a field hat, went all mother-of-the-bride on me.
“Oh, how I’ve dreamed of this day,” she’d said, misty-eyed. “My baby, finally getting married.”
What was this “finally” business? I wasn’t even thirty yet.
After that we traveled to New Zealand, where Rafe had a collection of rare manuscripts to evaluate, and we took some time to enjoy each other away from the prying eyes and busybodies who surrounded us at home. It was fantastic, and in three weeks of sightseeing and relaxing, of being treated like the most important woman in the world, I was more than ever certain I was doing the right thing. Because marrying a vampire comes with some issues, let’s face it.
We arrived back in Oxford to find the members of the vampire knitting club were determined to knit or crochet my wedding dress, and William Thresher, Rafe’s butler and general manager of the estate, was already planning menus. Needless to say, a simple registry office wedding was pretty quickly off the table. We agreed to hold the wedding at Rafe’s manor house, which would soon be my home, too, and I started buying bridal magazines.
I asked my cousin Violet to be a bridesmaid. Our friend Alice agreed to be the matron of honor. Jennifer, my best friend from Boston, was coming, as we’d been promising to be each other’s bridesmaids since we’d watched Friends together as kids. Lochlan Balfour, Rafe’s friend from Ireland, would stand up for Rafe.
William would cater the event, and his sister Olivia was doing our flowers. The whole event was falling into place so easily, I got nervous.
So far, so good. Then came my trickiest dilemma.
What was I going to do about Gran? She was a vampire but too recently turned to appear in public. But how could I not invite my beloved grandmother to my wedding?
It was a problem I couldn’t solve, and it was Gran herself who came up with the solution. “My love,” she said when I asked her what to do, “I can watch your wedding from the window.”
There were so many rooms with windows in the estate that it would be simple to arrange the ceremony so Gran had a perfect view. I hugged her. “It won’t be the same as having you right there, but it’s a brilliant idea.”
“I’ll be right beside you in spirit, as you know,” she replied.
We didn’t put an announcement in the local paper or anything, as we wanted a private affair, but somehow word got out. To my delight, congratulations-on-your-engagement cards started arriving at the shop and Rafe’s home, as well as a few gifts.
I think it would be fair to say that wedding fever gripped the vampire knitting club the minute they found out that Rafe and I were getting married.
I was excited, too. Who wouldn’t be? I was marrying the love of my life and soon to be moving into what Rafe called a manor house and I would have called a castle, and, to be blunt, my money worries would be over. He was also brilliant, entertaining, occasionally funny, and a vampire. I appreciated that no relationship was perfect, but getting past the undead thing had been the biggest sticking point to us finally getting together.
But now that I’d made the decision and had the emerald and diamond engagement ring on my finger to prove it, the vampires were all in.
There’d been some initial fear that I might give up Cardinal Woolsey’s Knitting and Yarn Shop when I got married, but as soon as I reassured them that I wasn’t quitting my job, all worries were at an end.
They had opinions on everything. Where we should honeymoon, whether I should keep the flat above the shop in case I ever needed to stay over in town, and even whether Nyx would be happier staying with them when I went home at night. Nyx was my black cat familiar. I appreciated that they were willing to let her stay in the labyrinthine tunnels underneath Oxford where some of the vampires had their lair, but I assured them that Nyx would be perfectly fine commuting along with me. She was my familiar,