Dying To Be Heard: Historical mystery set in the lead up to World War 1 (Dr Margaret Demeray) by Paula Harmon

Author:Paula Harmon [Harmon, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: January Press
Published: 2023-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Was the letter from Abney himself? It seemed too direct for someone who knew how to keep his involvement hidden.

Margaret found it hard to decide how to behave in response. The sender of the letter might guess that she’d pass it to Fox, but they had omitted to add a threat to make her do so. Let what lie, exactly? And what would happen if she didn’t?

Perhaps it was a hurried mistake. But how could she show that she was heeding the letter’s contents? Should she go about looking frightened or angry? She was both. She was also certain that even if Abney knew she’d married Fox, and where she lived and worked, he wouldn’t harm her himself. However, that didn’t stop him instructing someone else to do it.

Knowing Fox couldn’t put a watch on her, Margaret cycled to work on Tuesday. The postman had arrived as she was leaving and she had taken a single letter from him with some anxiety, but it was in an unfamiliar, old-fashioned ladies’ hand and postmarked from Paddington the previous evening. She opened it, saw Mrs Tabor’s name and address printed at the top, and took it to work to read there. She couldn’t face it at home. Besides, it might contain something useful to confirm identification.

In her office, Margaret braced herself and withdrew the contents.

Dear Mrs Foxcroft,

One must tell you that one’s daughter is not dead.

One despairs more than ever at the state of the nation when one considers the incompetence of the police. They gave me to understand that she had been killed by a train or similar yesterday, when in fact they meant that they thought she had been killed in some despicable manner on Saturday. One would let them continue their investigations until they realised their mistake, but one has been led to believe that this might cause a friend of yours to be implicated, since she is acquainted with Rhoda.

Of course, your friend may yet be responsible for the death of whomever was found with an earring so like my mother’s around the time Rhoda tells me someone assaulted her and snatched it from her ears. A robber is no loss whatsoever to civilised society, Even so, one cannot see why a lady should commit murder. One uses the word lady with reservations, since one gathers that this woman, you, and to one’s horror, the granddaughter of an old friend – have all encouraged Rhoda in the dangerous nonsense which is the Suffragette Menace.

One hereby wishes you to understand that you are not to contact Rhoda. She is considering her iniquities with a trusted relation, to whose home she was escorted on Saturday evening.

On receipt of the news brought yesterday by the policeman and you, one assumed that she had absconded from that address and had died. One therefore telegraphed one’s cousin to remonstrate – at an expense which one expects the police to reimburse – only to receive a reply that Rhoda was where she should be.

Ultimately, she will return home, and thereafter, she will remain at home unless accompanying me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.