The Summerfield Bride (Dory Sparks Mysteries Book 4) by C.G. Oster

Author:C.G. Oster
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2019-08-23T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

THEY MET CHARLIE WATERMAN in a bar, sitting in beige trousers and a white shirt. He was fanning himself in the warm bar, looking a little like a blonder and younger version of Clarke Gable. Attractive in a way the girls would fawn over. Yet Corny hadn’t like him and neither did Livinia. His name hadn’t really come up in any of the interviews with the other girls, except Annabelle. It made Dory very curious about him.

“Ain’t half hot,” he complained as he grudgingly rose and kissed Livinia on the cheek. “Livinia Fellingworth, looking as lovely as ever. Chucked that beau of yours, I hear.” He nodded to Dory and shifted his hat off the table and onto the spare seat.

“Turned out to be such a bore. How are you, Charlie?”

“One cannot complain in peacetime. Out of a job, finally.”

“Yes, you were in the Requisitions Office, weren’t you?”

“Four long years. Penance for my sins.”

“What shall you do now?” Livinia asked.

“Absolutely nothing. I heard you were down in France after that bad business.” That bad business had to refer to Lady Wallisford, Dory assumed.

“Well, things got a little awkward. The south of France is never awkward.”

“No matter what one is running from. Will you head back?”

“Maybe toward winter. One does so adore wintering by the Med.”

“Yes, invariably.”

“Now you know this awful business with Cornelia Vellsted,” Livinia said. “We were both there at the time. Dory here is having her wedding dress designed.”

“Congratulations,” he said with a nod. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, as if taking her measure.

“Thank you,” Dory replied.

“What’s your take on it?” Livinia asked.

With his lips pursed, Charlie blinked. “I mean, it’s absolutely atrocious what happened. I don’t know who could have done it.”

“You’re such an awful liar,” Livinia chided. “Tell me what you know.”

“Frankly, I don’t know anything. And as much as Freddy adored her, because he did, she could be a downright bitch.”

A woman at the next table harrumphed and gave them a scathing look.

“You didn’t like her,” Dory said.

“It’s not an issue of like. I never had a problem with her, but Corny knew what she wanted and if you stood in her way, heaven help you.”

“And what was it she wanted?”

“A nice, big wedding, of course. Isn’t that what all girls want?”

“Not all of them,” Livinia said tartly.

“Are you saying you’d say no?”

“I’m saying, I’m not getting married for the sake of a wedding.”

“Then you are smarter than most.”

Clearly, Mr. Charles Waterman didn’t have the greatest opinion of women. And as opposed to what he said, he didn’t seem to have liked Cornelia Vellsted all that much.

“So who was standing in her way?” Livinia asked playfully. It occurred to Dory that she was being flirtatious, even as she had clearly stated she didn’t like him.

“No one stood in Cornelia’s way. That was the point, darling. Heaven help you if you got in her way. Like I said, she was a downright bitch.”

“But to which of them?”

“Livinia, you know better than that. They are all as bad as each other.

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