Earl, Interrupted: A Harriet Honeywell Mystery by Kate Harper

Author:Kate Harper [Harper, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Harry was hardly back in her room for five minutes and had just finished relating her conversation with Darcy Poole to her husband – who had listened with gratifying attention – when there came a knock at the door. Harry cocked her head thoughtfully and arched an eyebrow. ‘Maid?’

‘We could always open the door and find out,’ her husband suggested, moving to do exactly that.

It was not a maid but Signore Caravello himself who stood on the threshold.

‘Hello,’ Aubrey observed cheerfully. ‘Do come in.’

The little man stepped into the room and fixed large, troubled eyes on his honored guests.

‘My lord,’ he began, hands rubbing together anxiously, ‘and my lady. The magistrate, Signore Alesini, he has come and requests a moment of his lordship’s time.’

‘That was relatively quick,’ Harry said approvingly, knowing that things could move rather slowly in Italy. ‘Immediate’ often translated into an hour or two. Perhaps violent, sudden death inspired prompt attention.

Signore Caravello gave her a pained glance. ‘His offices, they are not far from here and I sent for him most urgently.’

‘Why does he wish to speak to me?’ Aubrey inquired, a little bemused.

‘I told him that you are the Englishman in charge and it is an English lord who is dead so it is right that he speaks to you.’

Harry’s lips twitched. The little manager seemed very keen to pass on all responsibility for the death of one of his guests. It could not be good for business, this kind of unpleasantness and he seemed to think as it was an Englishman who was inconvenient enough to meet a messy end, one of his own kind could deal with the outcome. Really, she could hardly blame him.

‘Come along, Aubrey,’ Harry went and collected a cashmere shawl and draped it around her shoulders. The worst of the storm had passed, the violence of the thunder and lightning having quietened to a sullen, distant murmur but the rain still fell hard against the windows and it was chilly, despite the good fire in the hearth. Even though several lamps had been lit, it still felt gloomy in the room and she was keen to leave it and take a look at the man who would be investigating Lord Abercorn’s murder.

‘My lady,’ Signore Caravello said doubtfully, his eyes flickering between husband and wife, ‘the magistrate, he did not ask for you.’

‘An oversight, I’m sure,’ Harry assured him breezily and, taking possession of Aubrey’s arm, they made their way downstairs.

The manager had left the magistrate to cool his heels in one of the private rooms. There seemed to be very few people about and Harry wondered if it were the weather that had chased the other guests to their rooms or the unpleasant aftermath of tragedy. Signore Caravello led them to the waiting official, announcing them with a dramatic flair Harry had not thought him capable of.

‘Lord and Lady Talisker!’

The small man who had been taking his ease in a chair, a glass of wine and a plate of pastries at his side, jumped like a startled rabbit and rose hastily to his feet.

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