Murder at Mondial Castle by Issy Brooke

Author:Issy Brooke [Brooke, Issy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Victorian
Publisher: Issy Brooke
Published: 2019-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Adelia found herself pressed into service with the role of poor Philippa Lamb, which made her profoundly uncomfortable. She was glad that Dido had been led away to the house. Theodore did not notice why it might have bothered her, and she was keen to help him in his investigations, so she did not speak up. She girded her loins, metaphorically, and let herself be positioned by a yew tree. And this was an ideal opportunity, she realised, to finally ask Lord Mondial why Philippa had been there with him in the first place. At any other time, such a query would have sounded as if it were insinuating something. Here, it was natural, if she could phrase it correctly. And it was easier now his wife had left.

“Was Miss Lamb standing still or did she come walking up to you?” Adelia asked.

“What was –” her husband started to ask, but he was immediately jabbed by his mother, who understood just as clearly as Adelia that he had to be quiet and not influence things.

Lord Mondial rubbed his thumb along his jawline. He looked as if he were recollecting the events of the day, although as Adelia also held him in some suspicion, he could just as easily have taken the time to make up some lie. Still, he sounded convincing as he said, “I was walking along this path, heading for the ponds. There’s been some nasty blue algae in them so I decided, as I was out and about, to check on whether the gardeners had got on top of the problem yet. Killed a spaniel, you know, a few weeks ago. Dreadful stuff. As I came along here, I saw Miss Lamb come around the corner from the far end of the yew tree walk, and I hailed her. She came up to me around here, and I invited her to walk with me to the ponds and then back up to the house. I am always happy for my guests to walk in the grounds but when a young lady is alone, one worries.”

That was all fair enough, Adelia thought. He carried on, now asking Adelia to walk alongside him in her role as Philippa. “So Miss Lamb and I continued along this branch of the path and suddenly a man came out from behind that tree there.”

Theodore scurried into position. “This one?”

The Dowager Countess mewed in disappointment. “Oh, that’s not fair. I wanted to be the murderer.”

“Mother, please,” Theodore muttered in disapproval. Sometimes Adelia thought that the older Lady Calaway deliberately challenged convention, safe in the knowledge that no one was ever going to dare censure her. Lady Calaway laughed and let them continue with the reconstruction.

The scenario ploughed on exactly as Lord Mondial had described previously. Theodore, pretending to be a rather stiff and formal assailant, leaped out from behind the broad-trunked yew tree and pointed his hand at Lord Mondial, who said, “No, he waved it towards the young lady first.” Adelia wiggled her eyebrows at her husband but he ignored her and remained serious.

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