Murder at the Christmas Market (A Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe Mystery) by Dawn Brookes

Author:Dawn Brookes [Brookes, Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913065737
Publisher: Oakwood Publishing
Published: 2022-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

16

Edna had been waiting for Horace to finish talking – or rather listening – to the rambling Bruce Melville, but she was getting impatient. She grabbed Horace’s arm.

“I need to talk to you.” Bruce took the hint and headed over to bend someone else’s ear.

“That was rude, Edna,” said Horace.

“If I’d waited for him to shut up, it would have taken all night. I’d have asked Elsa, but she’s disappeared with Marge and the sozzled Christina. Why did the police change their minds about interviewing us? Did they arrest Gina?”

Horace straightened his tie before taking her arm. “I can’t say anything here. Let’s grab a drink and go through to Marjorie’s sitting room.”

“No need. There are drinks in there; you should know that by now.”

“Yes, but I’m partial to mulled wine and one of those lovely young waitresses has just brought up a fresh tray.”

“Lovely young waitresses! Good heavens, Horace, you are so politically incorrect.”

“I don’t see any harm in calling a woman lovely if she is easy on the eye, and if she happens to be working as a waitress as well… I rest my case.”

“Except they’re generically known as servers or waiting staff these days.”

“I can’t imagine that you wanted to discuss gender wars with me, Edna, as interesting as the topic might be. Do you want a glass or not?” Horace lifted two glasses of red mulled wine from the tray which was fast becoming empty. Edna snatched one from his hand, almost spilling it in the process.

“Looks like I’ve got one. We’d better move before anyone else grabs us.” She noticed Colm McCleary heading in Horace’s direction, but steered her friend out of the room before he caught up with them. They almost bumped into Fred who was shuffling along the hall.

“Where are you two going?”

“For a tête-à-tête in the sitting room. Coming?” said Horace.

Fred followed them through, looking longingly at the glasses in their hands. “Where did you get those?”

Horace opened his mouth, but Edna intervened before he started waxing lyrical about beautiful women in uniforms. “Here, have mine. I’d rather have a Scotch, anyway.” She handed her glass to Fred and poured herself a whisky from Marge’s drinks cabinet. “Is Marge still with that Christina woman?”

Fred flushed, making Edna wonder what had happened.

“Yes. I gave them a hand to get her upstairs, but left Marjorie and Elsa helping her get to bed. She’s had a lot to drink.”

“Talk about stating—”

“The bloomin’ obvious,” Horace finished for her, laughing loudly. “That’s your catchphrase, Edna.”

“Humph. I don’t use it that often.”

Fred opened his mouth, but closed it again, not saying anything.

“Back to the subject in hand, Horace, why did the police leave so early?” Edna sat down with her whisky in hand.

“I was wondering about that too,” Fred said, plonking himself down on an armchair.

“We’ll have to wait for Marjorie for the ins and outs of it, but the police left with Sally Sutherland who, for reasons unbeknown to Marjorie, appears to have fallen on her sword.”

“But Sally hasn’t done anything wrong,” said Fred.

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