Murder in the Shadows: A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery (The Violet Carlyle Mysteries Book 16) by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2019-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Violet paced the parlor, staring at the list of names. The thing about those names was that they were nonsense. Lady Eleanor had given them to Violet and then shoved harder on Harry Mathers. Why? Harry Mathers had been a knowing contributor to the fraud associated with Danvers. He’d been put in prison with dark men and had gone mad. Maybe he’d always been mad. The sort of quid pro quo negotiation that ruined people and destroyed their lives. Maybe the madness had become emphasized when he had endless time to think about it.

“Violet?”

She looked up to see the concerned gaze of her twin. The hatbox of letters was open on the couch where Violet had been sitting, and she was pacing to outrace the letters. How true were they? How much of that longing in Lady Eleanor’s letters was real? How much of it was romantic? Was she nurturing the love because it gave her something to focus on when she realized that luxury wasn’t all it seemed from the outside?

“They were like Denny and Lila,” Violet told him. “Eleanor and Mitchell. They were raised together in the same little village. Their families were extremely close. Up until she met Father, everyone assumed she’d marry him. Just like Denny and Lila.”

“But Denny and Lila really were devoted,” Victor said without sympathy. “Denny and Lila weren’t wealthy at first. Lila is pretty enough she could have snapped up one of the wealthier lads. Instead, she married Denny, and they struggled just like you and I struggled. Sardines and eggs, darling. Worth it to save ourselves from the choice Eleanor made.”

Violet rubbed her hand over her chin as she paced. “He never married.”

“So he loved her more than she loved him.”

“Or, the broken trust between them destroyed his ability to trust anyone at all.” Violet glanced at Victor and said, “What if you dropped in on Kate and found she was with a lover instead of her mother.”

Victor looked as though he’d been punched in the kidney. “Don’t say such things.”

“You’d be ruined. Would you ever love or trust another woman again?”

Victor hadn’t lost his sick look as he shook his head. “Probably not.”

“I want to meet Geoffrey’s birth father,” Violet told Victor. “I want to talk to him, but I’m afraid that he won’t talk to us.”

“Father went to visit Geoffrey. He said he’s bringing both Geoffrey and Ginny home for a bit.”

“Do you think Geoffrey will be all right? I’m so worried about him. I don’t know that Father—I don’t know if I trust him to make everything well with Geoffrey. He doesn’t have the best history of doing right by his children.”

“Who knows, Vi? Father is who he is. He knew that Geoffrey wasn’t his and never let it bother him. Maybe all Geoffrey needs to know is that Father always loved him. My question is about Geoffrey’s other father. What do we call him? Real father feels wrong.”

“I don’t know.” Violet lifted a brow. “You aren’t

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.