Murder in Park Lane by Karen Charlton

Author:Karen Charlton [Charlton, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503955622
Published: 2019-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

My Dearest Magdalena,

Duddles is married.

I am wretched and in great need of consolation. Please call on me at your earliest convenience.

Yours affectionately,

Caroline Clare

Oh dear.’ Magdalena put down Lady Caroline’s note, fetched her cloak and asked Mrs Hobart to find her a hackney carriage. She’d been dreading this day.

Her good friend Lady Caroline was twice widowed and for years had enjoyed the companionship of a sweet-natured young man called Henry Duddles. Unfortunately, Duddles was the heir to his uncle’s shipping fortune and Baron Lannister had recently placed the young man under considerable pressure to marry and produce an heir – something the childless and older Lady Caroline couldn’t provide. The baron had threatened to cut Duddles off without a penny if he didn’t settle down and do his duty and had even found a suitable young woman for him to marry from a wealthy neighbouring family.

Lady Caroline claimed she was sanguine about the situation and had repeatedly wished Duddles happiness in his new life. But Magdalena suspected her friend still harboured a secret hope that this loveless match wouldn’t take place and Duddles would return to her arms.

Magdalena asked Mrs Hobart to delay their evening meal then hurriedly descended the steps towards the waiting carriage. To her delight and surprise, she saw Stephen walking down the street towards her. She hurried to greet him. In a breathless babble of English, peppered with a few Spanish expletives about the cruelty of Baron Lannister, she told him of her urgent mission to Lady Caroline’s.

Stephen glanced down the street and frowned. ‘But where’s Teresa? Surely you didn’t intend to travel out alone? I’ve asked you to take Teresa with you when you leave the house.’

‘Oh, I forgot. She has the afternoon off and is with her beau, Alfie Tummins.’

The young coachman had been courting Teresa for several years and Magdalena dreaded the day Teresa would leave her to become Mrs Tummins. Alfie was besotted with her Spanish maid, although Teresa seemed more excited about the prospect of Magdalena’s new baby than walking up the aisle just at the moment. But Magdalena knew everything would change once she held the infant in her arms and Teresa thought about having a child herself.

‘Never mind,’ Stephen said. ‘I’ll come with you instead. I need to speak to Lady Caroline myself regarding a police matter.’

‘Please don’t tell me she’s been misbehaving again,’ Magdalena said as he helped her climb into the carriage.

He smiled. ‘No, I just need to ask her about a group of elderly aristocratic women whom she may know.’

‘Lady Caroline knows more men than women.’

Stephen’s attractive dark eyes twinkled and he raised one eyebrow sardonically. ‘I think most of London is aware of that.’

Magdalena smiled and silently agreed. The younger daughter of the impoverished Earl of Kirkleven, Lady Caroline had first scandalised the high society of London when she’d eloped with Victor Meyer Rothschild, a member of the wealthy Jewish banking family. After Victor’s death, she’d married again, this time to a minor baronet, and lived quietly in the country until he too died.

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