Murder in the Daytime (A Miss Alice Murder Mystery Book 6) by Blythe Baker

Author:Blythe Baker [Baker, Blythe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

9

I sent our maid, Bessie, with a note for Mrs. Holworthy, requesting a meeting with her and Robert Wade. Mrs. Holworthy had made it clear she didn’t suspect Robert Wade, but if Ivy was telling the truth about the argument she’d overheard between Robert and Andrew, then it would be negligence not to look into it. What could be so bad that Mr. Wade would rather die than Mrs. Holworthy discover it? And had he, instead, decided he’d rather kill the person who knew than kill himself?

“Sherborne could have stayed for lunch,” Catherine said. “He rushed off before I could say hello.”

“He had other matters to attend to,” I said, though I knew no such thing. Truthfully, I knew it would have been polite to invite him to lunch, and he likely would have accepted the offer. But I did not want Sherborne to spend more time with my family.

Despite my constant assurances that there was nothing going on between Sherborne and myself beyond our working relationship, I could see that Catherine suspected otherwise. The more time Sherborne spent in the company of my family, the more attached Catherine would become to the notion that he and I were together, and I was not sure that was a good idea.

Catherine spooned a bite of something mushy into Hazel’s mouth, swiping the spoon across her bottom lip to keep it from dribbling down her chin, and sighed. “That is too bad. When Charles arrives, I’m sure he’ll want to see Sherborne. The two of them got along well when he came to Yorkshire.”

“Mr. Sharp was in Yorkshire?” Papa asked, showing an unusual amount of interest in the lunchtime conversation.

“Briefly,” I said. “He only came for a day and a night.”

“To see Alice,” Catherine added.

Papa frowned. “Why is it I am only now hearing about this?”

“We spoke about it at length just the other day,” Mama said. “You were sitting right where you are now with your paper.”

His mustache twitched. “I just think I ought to know when my daughter is seeing a man. That is any father’s right.”

“It is not,” I said sharply.

Everyone turned to me, and I swallowed down my frustration. “I mean that I am not seeing anyone. Mr. Sharp is assisting me with a case.”

“A case?” Papa asked, looking from me to my mother, confusion written in the lines of his forehead. “What sort of case?”

Mama quickly filled him in on the preceding days’ events, and his perplexed expression remained fixed until she was done.

“You are solving crimes?” he asked.

“Not officially, but yes,” I admitted. “I have been for a little while now.”

His lips opened and closed, words failing him. “I’m not sure…I didn’t realize…when did—”

Before he could form an entire thought, the door opened, and Bessie came bustling into the room. She must have just returned from her outdoor errand, for her cheeks were still pink from the chill.

“Miss Beckingham?”

Catherine started to turn before she remembered that was no longer her name.

“Yes?”

“I left your letter with Mrs. Holworthy’s maid, but before I could even make it down the steps, the lady herself was there.

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