Shadows of Madness by Tracy L. Ward

Author:Tracy L. Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: murder mystery, medical mystery, whodunit, historical mystery, london 1800s, 19th century london, margaret marshall, marshall house mystery, peter ainsley mystery, victorian murder mystery
Publisher: Tracy L. Ward

Chapter 19

Margaret tried not to think about what she planned to do the next day as she readied herself for bed. If she was honest with herself she’d acknowledge her own apprehensions about going to Eloise Locke’s home, the lion’s den in many respects. There was no telling who might be present the next day when Margaret paid her a visit, but she secretly prayed she wouldn’t be expected to be alone with the woman, especially after learning what she had done to Jonas and that poor girl with the long auburn braid.

She felt a chill rip right through her as the October winds rattled the small panes of glass that made up her windows. There was no place to light a fire, so before she undressed Margaret searched the room for extra bedding, anything she could throw over her bedclothes to keep her warm through what she expected would be another cold, restless night. She couldn’t bring herself to ask Peter to exchange rooms, not when she had been so adamant that she would be fine in the maid’s quarters.

Inside the chest at the foot of her bed she found two folded blankets of white, one felted and one knitted. Already her chin had begun to quiver against the cold. Hastily, she pulled the blankets from their place in the chest and threw them over the footrail of the metal bed.

PING!

Margaret stopped at the sound and realized it was something attached to the knitted blanket. A gemmed ring! Realizing the claws securing the gems in place were wrapped in the fibres of the blanket, she gently twisted the ring left and right until the piece of jewellery was free. She brought it to the light of her bedside lamp and saw that it was an emerald ring, with three tiny gems clustered together on a thin band of gold, a small trinket to some or a glorious collection of precious stones to others.

Margaret moved it around in the light but saw no engravings or markings to indicate who the ring might belong to. It was definitely a woman’s ring that could slide down all of Margaret’s fingers except one. Could it belong to Molly, Mrs. Crane’s kitchen maid? Margaret doubted the girl could afford such a piece. A gift, perhaps. Or pickpocketing spoils?

Margaret closed her eyes against such a negative thought. The events of the last year had made her distrustful and quick to assume the worst. Leaving the ring on her finger, Margaret searched the chest and looked for anything else that could help identify the owner. She found nothing but a piece of braided string. Now that she thought of it, Margaret hadn’t happened upon anything in that room that belonged to the maid. If she didn’t already know Mrs. Crane to be an honest woman, she’d doubt that a maid named Molly even existed.

The girl had likely just gotten married or decided to live out. She decided she would ask Mrs. Crane about it in the morning.

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.