The Butterfly's Cocoon (The Thornton Mysteries Book 5) by Ellen Read

Author:Ellen Read [Read, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Easy Reads Publishing
Published: 2023-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

James didn’t join them for dinner, or later in the drawing room. Alexandra didn’t blame him. His bad headache aside, one of the people who might ask after his health could be the one who assaulted him. Not that any one of them might have meant James harm. The intruder just didn’t want their identity known.

After saying good night to Edith, he went upstairs to his room. Alexandra arranged for a dinner tray to be taken to him.

‘I’ll go up later to see how he is,’ Edith told Alexandra.

‘Of course, you must, darling.’

Aunt Bridget and Uncle Duncan were to have gone back to their home until they heard about the attack on James.

‘Thank you for staying with us for another night or two,’ Thomas said to them as they stood in front of the unlit fireplace.

‘We thought you might need some extra moral support,’ Duncan said.

‘You don’t have any idea who might have assaulted James?’ Aunt Bridget asked.

‘None,’ Alexandra said. ‘Benedict and I went to the labyrinth earlier today and there’s nothing to indicate who’d been there, or why … and why is the question I’d like to have an answer to.’ Alexandra glanced over their guests. Not all the speakers were at dinner tonight, only those staying at Thornton Park, other than Li Bao, who had asked if he might stay as he had a matter to discuss with Steven Lin. Others went to their homes in Melbourne and would return in the morning.

‘It’s difficult to imagine why anyone would want to hurt James,’ Edith said.

‘I don’t think anyone wanted to injure James. The bigger question, Edie, is why anyone was in the labyrinth in the early hours of the morning,’ Alexandra said.

Preston entered the drawing room and announced that dinner was served.

Conversation during dinner was desultory until Allan Cunningham exclaimed the one word, ‘Utopia!’

Alexandra sighed. The man was a consummate show-off, an extrovert, gregarious and scene-stealing.

‘Has anyone read Sir Thomas More’s Utopia?’ Allan didn’t wait for an answer. ‘He wrote it in 1516, suggesting a fictional island society existed in the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South America.’

‘Have you undertaken an expedition to this island, Mr Cunningham?’ Alexandra asked. ‘Supposing it exists.’ She thought that was doubtful, since the book was fiction.

‘I haven’t, but I will one day,’ Allan said, his eyes sparking with his excitement and interminable energy.’

Alexandra glanced at his brother, whose head tucked down into his neck, all the while shaking it ever so slightly.

‘I wonder if, on such an island, a lost civilisation might be found, along with the answer to eternal life,’ Allan Cunningham added.

Sebastian Iraklidis sat forward. ‘Plutarch, in the 1st century also wrote of the blissful and mythic past of humanity.’

‘The Peach Blossom Spring,’ Li Bao said, ‘written by a Chinese poet, Tao Yuanming, also describes a utopian place where a sense of timelessness prevailed.’

‘Do you think the people who lived in these lands were immortal?’ Thomas asked.

‘How can we tell?’ Li Bao replied. ‘It is possible, even probable.’

Alexandra noticed that Li Bao shot a glance at Steven Lin, who then ducked his head for a moment.

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.