A Jazzy Little Murder: A Violet Carlyle Cozy Historical Mystery (The Violet Carlyle Mysteries Book 11) by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Vi found Jack sitting in the great hall with Hargreaves standing nearby. The two men looked up in utter unsurprise to see Violet heading down the stairs in Victor’s robe, wet hair, and no jewelry at all.

“Poor Hargreaves,” Violet said as she put her hand on the railing and made her way down the stairs. “You must dream of working for Aunt Agatha.”

Hargreaves was not impervious in the slightest when he shook his head. “I consider it both a duty and a privilege to look over you and Mr. Victor, my lady,” Hargreaves told her gently.

“Then,” Victor said from the head of the stairs, “you’ll understand my dismissing you with the understanding that you’ll look over Vi.”

Hargreaves froze, then relaxed. “Perhaps she needs me a little more than you.”

“She showed up here without a coat, an umbrella, or an escort,” Victor said to both Jack and Hargreaves.

“I am hardly a child,” Violet protested. She thought for a moment and then added, “Though we’d be honored to have you, of course, Hargreaves.”

“We’ll take your fellow,” Victor said. “He’ll probably be relieved to have a more standard mistress.”

“Out of curiosity,” Jack said, as he wrapped his arm around Violet, who was still wearing one of Victor’s robes, “what would you have done, Hargreaves? There would have been no stopping Violet when she decided she needed to speak with her brother.”

Hargreaves cleared his throat. “Ah, well. I try to think what Mrs. Davies would have told me to do and then I do that.”

“And what would have Agatha told you to do?”

“Chase her down with an umbrella and send over dry clothes,” Hargreaves answered simply. “Vi wouldn’t have been stopped even as a child, you realize.”

Jack didn’t seem surprised at the answer. He nodded. “I’ll speak with Clarkson in the morning. Given his expression when he told me where Vi was, I’m sure he’d prefer working elsewhere.”

Hargreaves hesitated and then excused himself.

“Out of curiosity,” Victor asked, “did the fellow survive?”

“For now,” Jack said. “It’s not looking good. The combination of the wound’s placement, the fact that he wasn’t clean when he was stabbed, and that he was using drugs has put a damper on his ability to survive.”

“So the drugs masked the pain of being stabbed?”

“That and the fact that the damage was hidden by his coat. No one realized he was slowly bleeding out until he couldn’t stand anymore. He probably only remained on his feet as long as he did because whatever he used gave him a false sense of strength. When his body processed the drugs, it all caught up with him.”

“Somebody tried to kill him, though?” Victor asked. “It wasn’t an accident?”

“It’s rather hard to make being stabbed in the back an accident. They’re trying to find the weapon, but we aren’t sure where it happened, and Bobby suggested it was Violet who stabbed him.”

“He did what now?” Victor asked.

“He said Violet did it. He said nobody hated him like Violet.”

“Is Vi in trouble?” Victor demanded.

“Hardly,” Jack said simply.

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