Mischief at Marsden Manor: A 1920s Murder Mystery by Jenna Bennett

Author:Jenna Bennett [Bennett, Jenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magpie Ink
Published: 2024-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

The others were still on the lawn when I got out there, standing in a group in the middle of the grass, in roughly the spot where Francis, Christopher, and I had stood this morning when the bullet had whizzed by. I glanced at the wall on my way past, and saw that the bullet was now gone, and so was the chip of stone it had kicked loose.

The afternoon sun lit up Christopher’s butter yellow hair, and Crispin’s silver blond ditto, and brought out chestnut highlights in Constable Collins’s dark mop. They all three turned towards me when they heard the door shut.

“Darling,” Crispin said after a moment, neutrally, at the same time as Christopher uttered a more welcoming, “Pippa.”

“I just had a talk with Dominic Rivers,” I said. “He said you’re the one who invited him here this weekend.”

Crispin glanced up at the top floor of the manor. I wondered whether he could see Rivers up there—my first instinct would have been to check the window, had I been Rivers and been told about the gathering on the lawn—but if he did, he didn’t react in any way. After a moment, he turned his attention back to me. “Only in the sense that he rang up to congratulate me after the engagement notice ran in the Times, and I said something along the lines of ‘the more, the merrier.’”

“So it wasn’t a formal invitation?”

“Not from me. Laetitia may have followed up with something written.”

“You told her that you had invited him?”

“Of course I did.” He sounded surprised that I’d ask. “It’s more than my life is worth to get on the wrong side of my intended, Darling. You know that.”

I made a face. “Of course.”

Constable Collins had followed this exchange back and forth impassively, but now he asked, “So Mr. Rivers did receive an invitation?”

“If he says he did, I’m sure he did,” Crispin said. “I wouldn’t have invited him if he hadn’t phoned me—we’re not close; more associates than friends—but perhaps Laetitia wanted to round out the numbers. Cecily was a friend. So are Violet, Olivia, and Serena. And of course there’s Constance and Philippa who had to be invited.”

“You could have told me to stay home,” I said, stung.

He flicked me a glance. “I didn’t mean it that way, Darling.”

“How did you mean it, then?” Because he certainly made it sound as if my presence here, and Constance’s as well, was a necessarily evil.

And in Constance’s case, maybe that was true. She was Laetitia’s cousin as well as Francis’s fiancée; it would have been impossible to leave her out. Not that anyone would have wanted to. Constance is supremely unobjectionable. But for myself, I would have been happy to stay home had he indicated that I wasn’t welcome.

“Don’t be a prat, Crispin,” Christopher said, and put an arm around my shoulders. “You know it wouldn’t be the same without her.”

Crispin looked at me down the length of his nose. It wasn’t a fond look, and he managed to make it quite condescending in spite of being just a few inches taller than 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.