Dorchester Terrace: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry [Perry, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Historical, Traditional British
ISBN: 0345510631
Amazon: B005EGXTC6
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-04-03T05:00:00+00:00

THE FOLLOWING DAY CHARLOTTE was in the parlor giving serious consideration to the matter of whether to buy new curtains, possibly in a different color, when she heard Daniel shouting angrily. He must have turned at the bottom of the stairs to go along the passage to the kitchen, because his feet were loud on the linoleum.

The next moment Jemima came after him.

“I told you you’d break it!” she shouted. “Now look what you’ve done!”

“I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t left it there, stupid!” Daniel shouted back.

“How was I to know you’d go banging around like a carthorse?” Jemima was at the bottom of the stairs now.

Charlotte came out of the parlor. “Jemima!”

Jemima stopped in the passage and swung around, her face flushed with anger. “He broke it!” she said, holding up the remnants of a delicate ornamental box. She was close to tears from fury and disappointment.

Charlotte looked at it and knew it was beyond mending. She met Jemima’s eyes, so much like her own.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think there’s anything we can do with that. I don’t suppose he meant to.”

“He didn’t care!” Jemima retorted. “I told him to be careful.”

Charlotte looked at her, and imagined how tactful Jemima’s warning had likely been. “Yes,” she said calmly. “You’d better put it in the wastebasket, under the lid so you don’t keep looking at it. I’ll go and speak to him.”

Jemima did not move.

“Go on,” Charlotte repeated. “Do you want to make it better, or worse? If I talk to him about it in front of you, it will definitely make it worse, that I can promise you.”

Reluctantly Jemima turned around and climbed slowly back up the stairs.

Charlotte watched her until she had disappeared up the next flight as well, to her own bedroom, then she went along to the kitchen.

Minnie Maude was peeling potatoes at the sink. Daniel was sitting on one of the chairs at the kitchen table, swinging his feet and looking miserable and angry. He glared at Charlotte as she came in, ready to defend himself from Jemima if she was immediately behind.

“Did you break it?” Charlotte asked.

“It was her fault,” he responded. “She left it in the way!”

“Did you mean to?”

“Of course I didn’t!”

“Daniel, are you sure?”

“Yes! That’s not fair! I didn’t see it.”

“That’s what I thought. So what are you going to do about it?”

He looked at her resentfully. “I can’t put it together again,” he protested.

“No, I don’t think anybody can,” she agreed. “I think you’ll have to find her another one.”

His eyes widened. “I can’t! Where would I get it?”

“You won’t get one just like it, but if you save up your pocket money, you might find one nearly as nice.”

“She shouldn’t have left it there!” He drew in a deep breath. “It’ll be all my money for weeks! Maybe months!”

“What if she puts in half?” Charlotte suggested. “Her half for leaving the box in the way, your half for not looking where you were going and breaking it?”

Reluctantly he agreed, watching to see if she was pleased.

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