Betrayal on the Bowery by Kate Belli

Author:Kate Belli [Belli, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

“Mr. McCaffrey! I cannot believe we haven’t formally met—it does seem odd. Doesn’t it seem odd, Wilbur?”

“We were introduced to Mr. McCaffrey at the Hall’s garden party last summer, dear,” Wilbur Stewart, Genevieve’s father, reminded his wife. He smiled gamely at Daniel and shook his hand, his brown eyes kind and welcoming.

Anna Stewart, Genevieve’s mother, dismissed this with a flap of her hand. “That was in Newport, which hardly counts. I mean, of course, I cannot believe we haven’t had you to the house before. Genevieve has been sorely neglectful on that count, and I should have gone ahead and issued an invitation myself. Now do come in and make yourself comfortable.”

Daniel remembered meeting the Stewarts at Florence and Bertie Hall’s party the previous summer, it was where Genevieve’s brother Charles Stewart had come close to giving him a thrashing. They were just as he recalled: Anna, a statuesque woman with graying, dark blonde hair, perpetually in the midst of delivering a passionate lecture to whomever was nearby, and Wilbur, while outwardly quieter than his wife, a brilliant lawyer who seemed to possess compassion and intelligence in equal measure.

He liked them. It was easy to see how Genevieve had formed into the person she was, with parents such as these.

“Hello, McCaffrey.” Genevieve’s brother Charles met them on the way to the dining room, offering a decidedly cooler reception. They shook hands, but Charles was giving him an unfriendly, assessing look. Daniel could hardly blame the man. If his sister had been in the kind of danger Genevieve had put herself in the previous year, he would be wary of the man involved as well.

Anna had them all seated at an oval mahogany table. The dining room was small by most New York society standards, as the table probably sat no more than twelve comfortably, but it was still an elegant room, brighter than current trends tended to dictate, going against the present preference for heavy paneling.

Easy conversation was kept up as the soup was being served, much of it centered around the eldest Stewart brother, Gavin, who was returning from Egypt in a few weeks’ time.

“He’s been there for almost three years,” Genevieve remarked, taking a sip of water. She looked lovely, as always, today in a lightweight, dark pink dress with pretty bands of embroidery crossing the bodice.

The same shade of pink, he realized with a start, that had dominated the room in which they had spent the night.

“I’m sure you’re all looking forward to his return,” Daniel said, feeling unusually flustered at the sight of that pink.

“Aha!” Wilbur cried, holding a finger aloft in triumph. A finger on his other hand marked a place in a large, red-bound volume. Daniel blinked. Even though he was only one guest and this was not a formal occasion, it was still quite unusual for one’s host to have a book at the dining table. “The hieroglyph Gavin drew in his last letter is of Anubis, not Seth, as I originally thought.” He gazed around the dining table in glee.

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