Watson & the Countess 03 The Penny Dreadful Curse by Anna Lord

Author:Anna Lord [Lord, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: publishing, murder, jew, sherlock, dickens, york, varney the vampire, shambles
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Miss Isabelle Flyte had finished entertaining her lover and was now moping about listlessly in a lacy French peignoir liberally drenched in parfum de rose. The book by Nellie Bly was lying on the settee, face-down, opened at the first chapter. She apologized profusely for her state of undress but the Countess waved away her concern, citing that she was female, foreign, and that the peignoir was French. Over cups of scented tea and some shortbread biscuits she wracked her brain for the exact day her lover arrived with the package wrapped in brown paper but it continued to elude her.

“I don’t know if this will be helpful,” Miss Flyte volunteered in recompense for her poor memory, sensing the Countess’s disappointment, and being the sort of young woman who had been trained to please, “but I have noticed that Mrs Dicksen often gives a package wrapped in brown paper to Miss Titmarsh while they are seated together at church.”

The Countess straightened up. “Are you sure?”

“Quite sure. More tea?”

The Countess nodded. “How often would you say you have noticed such an exchange?”

A thoughtful wrinkle puckered the pretty brow as the young hostess refilled their china cups. “I have noticed it numerous times, probably every month. Yes, every month. Mrs Dicksen arrives at church with a package and Miss Titmarsh leaves with it. I thought at first it might be a gift, but the wrapping is very cheap and not the sort of thing you would expect from a lady of quality like Mrs Dicksen, and there is no ribbon. It is tied with string and simply passed over from one to the other while they sit in their box pew. There is never any acknowledgement that a gift has been given or received.”

“I think you would make an excellent journalist, Miss Flyte. Your powers of observation are first class. If you ever decide to make a career of it you must let me help you. Have you ever mentioned your observation to Mr Dicksen?”

“Oh, no,” responded the young woman, pink with praise, emboldened, and heady at the thought of her dream one day coming true as she passed her guest some milk and sugar. “I thought it might anger him.”

“Anger him?”

“Well, what could the package be, I asked myself, and I concluded it must be a manuscript because it is the right size and shape and wrapped the same way as manuscripts are, and so I concluded Mrs Dicksen must be secretly passing her husband’s work to Miss Titmarsh, though I cannot imagine why. I’m afraid my imagination stalled at that stumbling block and has made no progress since.”

“Yes, why?” repeated the Countess meditatively, sipping her tea. “That is exactly what journalists do. They ask themselves questions and then search for the answers.”

“The way Nellie Bly did,” gushed Miss Flyte, “when she admitted herself into the lunatic asylum to observe the treatment of the inmates for herself.”

“Precisely!”

But what was the truth? Questions were mounting but no answers were forthcoming. What would

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.