The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood

Author:Kerry Greenwood [Greenwood, Kerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: A Phryne Fisher Mystery
Published: 2011-02-22T22:00:00+00:00

‘Be civil, women!’ snarled Old Man Lo with his mouth full.

‘If you spoil the first good dinner I have had in twenty years, I will strangle all of you and sell your carcasses to the cat food man. Not that he’d have you,’ he added. ‘The kind adoptive grandson is asking you a polite question. Answer politely.’

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‘Sung Ma was my lover,’ said Old Lady Chang. She paused for a challenge, but none came. ‘One night he came to me with tears in his eyes and said that he was going home and begged me to come with him. He said he would take me as his first wife. He said that he had adequate means and that his family would accept me. I said yes, but only if we take the Lin gold.

The Lins are Sze Yup, I said, our enemies. Steal their gold and we shall make merry on it in Canton.’

‘And what did Sung Ma reply?’ asked Fuchsia, interested.

‘That he’d not betray his trust. That he was shocked that I could suggest such a thing. He left me . . . yes, he left me.

I was angry.’

The lines of the old face, blurred with age, were still fine.

She must have been bewitching when young, thought Lin. As beautiful as a goddess, with the internal ethics of a demon.

A fox-spirit.

Fuchsia flicked a finger and Second Cousin Kong lifted Old Lady Chang up in her nest of pillows as she coughed.

Each cough shook her frail body, from the elaborate coiffure down to the lily feet. Lin wondered if it would shake her apart.

The rest of the diners returned their attention to their food.

Lin wished he had brought three lacquered ducks. It was amazing how much these wispy little people, so thin that sunlight ought to go right through them, could eat. He hoped that Fuchsia had bought pills to prevent indigestion, though he was sure that that thorough young woman would have added them to the order for the Health and Harmony tea company.

Mr Lo’s brother offered an observation. ‘It was all the fault of her worthless brother,’ he said, nodding to Fuchsia as she refilled his tea cup. ‘Chang Gao was a big, strong, lazy ruffian and decided, once their father died, that his sister would earn 206

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his living for him. She could not refuse. She could not even walk far without help. She could not scrub or cook or muster sheep, could she?’

‘More virtuous women could sew,’ said Miss Annie severely.

‘And did, until our eyes were ruined and our fingers bled. More virtuous women made shoes and paper fans. I and my sister made artificial flowers.’

‘Artificial flowers won’t bring in enough to suit a bully like Chang Gao,’ said Mr Lo.

Mrs Lo gave Mr Lo a look which would have scorched paper. He subsided.

Miss Chang had recovered and Fuchsia gave her some wine.

A little colour came into her chalk-white face.

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