Silver Bells & Murder: A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B08GXYNNT2
Published: 2020-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

They’d gone for a constable, Violet could see. Ham had caught up and Mr. MacAdam had taken them into the village to find a fellow. Violet met Jack’s gaze and saw the banked fury in his expression. His jaw was flexing and she knew he was eyeing her carefully as if she’d been attacked instead of come home to a rather horrible body.

“Constable Livingstone, may I present my wife, Lady Violet Wakefield?”

Vi just kept herself from rolling her eyes at the honorary title. It was done on purpose and Vi could see the constable caught that.

“Bit of a muck-up before you came upon the body?” he asked her.

“I haven’t actually come upon it,” Vi admitted. “I fear I tend towards nightmares, so I trusted my friends and stayed away.”

“Had a lot of nightmares about dead men, then?” he asked, stepping into the house.

There was an awkward silence among the friends while Mr. MacAdam glanced among them. Both of the gents caught the tension, but no one explained. They were failing already, Violet thought. It was time to throw herself on the sword.

Vi forced out a tear and then lifted a shaking hand to her face. She hoped she was coming across as trembling versus having a seizure in only her hands. “Oh this has just been the worst week even before we found a body. I just…I just…”

She took the handkerchief that Jack handed her and turned to the side as if she was striving to hold in her tears. She should not have looked up because Smith was just stepping into the hall and his amusement at her fake tears made it difficult to hold back a burst of laughter.

“Vi darling,” Jack said, when her shoulders started shaking. He pulled her into his arms and told her, “Chin up, my love. It’ll be all right.”

With her face pressed against his chest, she was able to focus on producing more of the right emotion for the moment.

“Jack and I were detectives for Scotland Yard until rather recently,” Ham said softly, as if he were trying to keep her from hearing. “I fear our families have been more exposed to these dark things than they’d like.”

By Jove, Vi thought, that was rather poetic.

“So who’s the dead fellow?” the constable asked. “Better lay an eye on him. Wakefield, why don’t you get your wife to her room to calm down and we’ll take a look.”

Vi stiffened but only Jack knew. She was nothing but steel spine and fury when Jack carefully tugged her towards the stairs, keeping her out of sight of the locals.

“Do they know who it is? Did Smith figure it out?” Jack asked as he hurried her up the stairs.

Vi shook her head. “Smith has been laying a scene.”

Jack didn’t like hearing that but he said nothing. “What the devil, Vi?”

“I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. By heavens, Jack, there’s a body in that office. Whatever have we done to turn gods and karma against us in this way?”

They reached the bedroom and Vi took a seat on the bed.

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