The Bagington Hall Mystery by N C Lewis

Author:N C Lewis [Lewis, N C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

"What in heaven's name are you doing?"

A firm hand gripped my shoulder.

I spun around.

Dolly Trimmings stared back.

"I… er… well..." I kept my voice low as I fumbled for words, my eyes wide with embarrassment.

"Is that you, Miss Darling? Oh Gawd, yes, yes, it is you!" Dolly placed a thick finger to her wide hippopotamus mouth. "Eavesdropping, eh? Good for you. Only way to find out what's going on around here."

I hunched my shoulders and shifted my feet, trying to stop the flush I could feel on my cheeks. Then I collected myself, straightened my shoulders, and whispered, "Not intentionally, I was—"

"Stuff and nonsense," Dolly whispered. "Withers worries me to death, Miss Darling; he really does."

"Splendid," said the vicar, giving Withers a slap on the back. "A wonderful day for it."

"Indeed it is, Vicar Humberstone," replied Withers.

Dolly's birdlike eyes twitched towards the voices. "Withers is up to something. Do you know what they were talking about?"

Before I answered, Withers looked in our direction. If our presence surprised him, it did not show on his face. The man raised his top hat like a Victorian gentleman and tapped the sword cane on the ground. The vicar followed his gaze. His ruddy complexion seemed to deepen as he rubbed a hand over his heavy moustache.

In a voice that was barely a whisper, Vicar Humberstone said, "Well, hello, Dolly and Miss Darling."

Instantly, I was on the alert. Was the vicar testing how far his voice travelled and how much we might have overheard?

I was about to say, Pardon, can you speak up? when Dolly said, "How do, Vicar? I just got 'ere, but Miss Darling has been watching you two miscreants for quite a while. Ain't that so?"

The sight of two piercing sets of male eyes, with their cold, hard stares, produced in me a moment of dread. The skin on my face tingled. I could feel it stretching tight over my cheeks as I forced a smile. For some seconds I could neither think nor speak. When I began to think, I thought very quickly, and my subconscious and conscious mind worked together. But what they came up with was hardly worth the effort.

In a thin voice I said, "Gentlemen, I was looking for Mr Harbottle. Have you seen him?"

Withers and the vicar stared back with unblinking eyes.

Now my face did a passable imitation of a beetroot.

I tried again. "I believe Mr Harbottle came this way; did you see him?"

The sun dipped behind a cloud. The chatter of squirrels sounded out above the peace of the early afternoon. Neither Withers nor the vicar moved. For a few moments, it seemed they would stand there all day, like so many of the stone monuments scattered about the church graveyard.

"Miss Darling," said Dolly, breaking the silence. "I have been thinking that you really ought to give a little subscription to the parish magazine."

"But—" I murmured.

"We ought not to think of ourselves," interrupted the vicar. "Cromer is a small village. Our local magazine is in need of extra help.

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.