The Body at the Roman Baths: A gripping and charming cozy crime novel (A Georgina Drake Mystery Book 5) by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy [Hardy, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Published: 2025-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

‘Lizzie accepted Timothy’s proposal,’ Georgina said. ‘It’s all here. Our darling Lizzie is betrothed to Timothy! The whole household is delighted. Frederick is very fond of Timothy and says he believes his friend will be a good husband to Lizzie. I wish they could live closer to us, but the great-aunt with whom they will live resides in London. Timothy is travelling back to London for a couple of days on Friday to give his family the good news. He will also talk to the university and his friend at the British Museum. Plans are underway already to hold a ball on October 3rd, to celebrate the engagement. And it is settled that Lizzie shall be a spring bride.’

‘So why did she marry Edwin instead?’ Bea asked. ‘Can Timothy remember anything about proposing to Lizzie?’

‘Doris?’ Georgina asked.

‘I’ve already asked. He says it was the happiest day of his life. Lizzie’s father gave him permission to propose. He walked with her in the gardens by the herbaceous borders – obviously within view of the house, so it counted as being chaperoned,’ Doris said. ‘And he asked her to marry him. She said yes. Timothy was going back to London to tell his family about the engagement, and to start sorting out his job and their future home. William allowed him to use the carriage to go the train station. And then it’s all a blank, until the moment he was shot.’

Georgina turned back to the diary. ‘Oh, my God. Listen to this,’ she said. ‘This is from the Friday, when Timothy was going back to London. I cannot, cannot believe what has happened. Edwin Rutherford came here in high dudgeon, demanding to speak to William in private. He left, some fifteen minutes later. And what William then came to tell me will break poor Lizzie’s heart. Timothy Marsden is already married. To think he would have stood in our parish church, in front of everyone we know and love, to plight his troth to Lizzie when he was not free to do so…’

‘It sounds horribly like Jane Eyre,’ Bea said.

‘I agree. And it’s not true,’ Doris said. ‘Timothy was never married. He loved Lizzie Walters, and she was the only woman he’d ever asked to marry him. The only woman he wanted to marry.’

‘It smells incredibly fishy to me,’ Sybbie said. ‘Timothy was “married”’ – she made elaborate speech marks with her fingers – ‘and the person who uncovered that fact, suspiciously shortly after Timothy became engaged to Lizzie, was the person Lizzie had repeatedly turned down.’

‘It doesn’t sound likely to me, either,’ Bea agreed. ‘Where was Edwin’s evidence of Timothy’s supposed marriage? Did Amelia and William really take his word for it?’

Georgina turned over the page. ‘No – or at least Amelia didn’t. I cannot believe Timothy would be so duplicitous. He loved Lizzie. I cannot see him as an Edward Rochester type, locking his mad wife in the attic and pretending that the marriage had never happened, so he could marry again wherever his heart pleased.

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