an Impartial Witness (2010) by Charles - Bess Crawford Mystery Todd

Author:Charles - Bess Crawford Mystery Todd [Todd, Charles - Bess Crawford Mystery]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-01-14T19:07:37+00:00

I agreed and then told her I must return to Somerset.

She said, “You two didn’t quarrel, did you?”

Several times, I answered silently, then told her, “He’s not at his best today.”

“Don’t let that discourage you. I think he rather likes you.”

I smiled and said, with heavy irony, “Thank you, Alicia. You send me away happier than when I arrived.”

“Did he tell you,” she went on, “that Victoria, Marjorie Evanson’s sister, had a very public quarrel with him, just this morning. I don’t know what precipitated it. He was walking toward the church when she stopped him and suddenly there were loud voices and everyone turned to see what was happening.”

“What were they saying?”

“Marjorie was buried here in the churchyard. Did you know that? Not with her husband but with her family. When her body was released, Meriwether’s sister refused to let her be laid to rest in their family plot. I don’t know if Meriwether was told what her decision was. I think he’d have been very angry. But she told Victoria in no uncertain terms that Marjorie was no longer considered a part of their family.”

I hadn’t known that or I would have visited her grave when I was here for the garden party. But I should have guessed that Serena would carry her anger that far. She hadn’t come to the service.

Alicia was saying, “At any rate, Victoria accused Michael Hart of spending too much time there. I know he’s been there a few times, not what I would call an inordinate number, but she seemed to feel that having caused her sister so much grief in her life, it was keeping the scandal alive for him to be seen there so often.”

“She believes that Michael Hart was the other man?”

“I think she’s always been very jealous of the attachment between Marjorie and Michael. And so she thinks it was an unhealthy one.”

“What does the rest of the village have to say?”

“They’re of two minds, at a guess. Those who liked Marjorie believed the best of her. If she fell from grace, they say, it was out of loneliness. Those who are closer to Victoria and her father seem to think that Marjorie betrayed her family as well as her husband.”

“Never mind what the truth might be?”

“Never mind,” she agreed, nodding. With a sigh, she said, “I know how easy it is to fall from grace. I miss Gareth so terribly sometimes that I cry myself to sleep. I’m always afraid to answer the door, for fear Mr. Mason is on my doorstep this time, to deliver bad news. Sometimes after his leave is over and he’s been gone for months, I can’t quite remember the sound of my husband’s voice, or see his face as sharply as I did before. And one day someone comes along who is kind, thoughtful, his touch is real, and he’s there, and one is so hungry for companionship, for someone who admires one’s hair or makes one laugh, or just brushes one’s hand as he helps one into a motorcar, that one is susceptible.

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