Murder on a Midnight Clear by Sara Rosett

Author:Sara Rosett [Rosett, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Sixteen

“I’m sorry—um—” I couldn’t come up with any sort of coherent response that would smooth over the highly inappropriate fact that Madge and Tommy were in the bathroom together, both in a state of undress.

Madge shot a furious look at Tommy, then said, “No, we’re sorry to disturb you. You’d better come and let us tell you about it.” Madge turned away and went through the opposite door in the bathroom into a spacious room where she slipped on a pale green dressing gown.

Tommy made a motion indicating I should precede him into the bedroom. The velvet lapel of the dressing gown lay against his collarbone, leaving his neck and jaw exposed. The long red scratch stood out starkly against his pale skin.

I was still holding the lavender soap. I put it down on a table in my room, then walked through the steamy bath. I felt my face flushing at the awkward situation, and my velvet dress suddenly seemed too warm, but I certainly couldn’t shut my door and walk away—especially not after discovering the missing pages from Bankston’s notebook contained information about Tommy.

Madge gestured with the hairbrush she still held, indicating I should take the upholstered armchair, then she plopped down on the dressing table stool and spun around so that her back faced the mirror triptych. Tommy went to the far side of the room near the window and lit another cigarette.

Madge said, “It’s not nearly so scandalous as it seems. The long and short of it is that Tommy and I are married.”

“Married? But your wedding is in February.” The newspaper-reading public was fascinated with the two lawn tennis stars. Since they’d announced their engagement, I’d seen several articles about them and their upcoming wedding.

Madge aligned the edges of her dressing gown over her knees. “The wedding in February is all for show. We’ll be married twice over.”

Tommy, with his gaze on the blurry view out the fogged window, said, “We’ll have tied the knot good and tight.”

I looked from one of them to the other. “I’m sorry, but I’m frightfully lost. You’re married, but you’re having a wedding?”

Madge rotated the hairbrush handle as if it were a tennis racket. “Let me tell you the whole thing. Tommy and I did a mad, impulsive thing. We married last June. We were determined to do it despite the fact that my family didn’t welcome Tommy as a son-in-law. We had the banns read in a little church in London. I used my middle name, and Tommy used his real name.”

“Tommy Phillips is quite a common name.” His words had a bitter undertone to them.

“Don’t be like that, Tommy. It was a lovely day even though we did it in a hidden way.” Madge turned back to me. “Two charwomen were our witnesses. It was really quite romantic—a secret wedding.” She lowered her chin and looked up at him in a flirtatious way. The corners of his mouth went up, seemingly reluctantly.

Her face broke into a wide smile.

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