Murder at Midnight: A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery (The Violet Carlyle Mysteries Book 28) by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2021-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Vi slowly opened the door to the library and heard her stepmother say, “They never should have taken in a child like that.”

“Ellie—” her father started. To their relationship’s good, he sounded as furious as Vi felt.

“Don’t look at me like that Henry. I said it then, and I think it now. If they had to be charitable, couldn’t they toss her in a girls’ school and pay for typing classes? I saw no reason then that they’d have to share our good name. And look what they’ve done with it.”

“Mama!” Geoffrey snapped. “Ginny didn’t do anything.”

“Even if she wasn’t the one who pushed poor Harvey’s child down the stairs, you can be sure that one of those other girls were involved.”

“Mama!” Geoffrey tried again, but their father cut through it all with, “Ellie, enough! Ginny—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Lady Eleanor cut in.

“You’re lucky that Vi can’t hear you,” Geoffrey snapped. “She already barely tolerates you, and Ginny—”

“Oh do be quiet, Geoffrey. Vi is hardly my first concern. Octavia was your future. Do you realize how much money Harvey Twain has? If she’d lived and you’d played your cards right, you’d have been set for life.”

“Mother!”

“Eleanor!”

“Someone has to look after his interests, Henry. You do nothing for Geoffrey.”

“He’ll hardly be hurting,” Vi’s father countered.

“He’s from generation after generation of men who haven’t had to work and here we are now, with a fortune that you’re splitting between too many children and Geoffrey is left with only scraps!”

“Mother!” Geoffrey groaned.

Vi’s father, however, said, “That is a fantasy, Eleanor. And you well know it. Every one of my uncles has a position and works for their income except for Melvin.”

“Melvin was wise enough to marry well,” Lady Eleanor snapped shrilly. “Is it so wrong to want the same for Geoffrey?”

“Mother,” Geoffrey cut in icily. “Ginny is my friend, and I despised Octavia Twain.”

Lady Eleanor gasped and then almost yipped, “Do not say such things. Constables are everywhere. Why do we even come to Vi’s events? Every time we turn around someone turns up dead. It’s a miracle I haven’t been murdered yet.”

“It really is,” Geoffrey said. Then lower he added, “It’s a wonder you’ve survived this long.”

“Geoffrey!” Lady Eleanor and Vi’s father said at the same time.

The earl added, “Son, even when your mother makes us want to murder her, we need to treat the women in our lives with respect.”

Geoffrey grumbled but didn’t argue. Vi took that moment to enter the library from the back door.

“Father, I wonder if I might speak to you for a few minutes?”

Lady Eleanor’s gaze widened and Geoffrey’s eyes searched Vi’s face. She didn’t hide her anger, and Lady Eleanor crossed her hands in her lap and glanced to the side, fixing her gaze on the fire.

“Of course, Vi,” her father said, standing and crossing to her.

They slipped into the adjacent room, and Vi said, “Ginny had a scuffle with Octavia earlier.”

“You don’t think that means they scuffled again?”

“No,” Vi said, firmly. “I

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