by Beth Byers
Darling Jack,
I’ve written to your man about the house as well as to my own. Focus on the case with the surety that we’ll be escaping to the Amalfi coast as soon as we’re free of this crime. Come for lunch if you can.
With all my love,
V~
Violet rang the bell and sent one of Victor’s servants to hand deliver the messages. Then she examined her closet. She flipped through her dresses, noting how many Beatrice hadn’t presented to Violet in the last few weeks. The maid had been dressing Violet to her own preference, Vi saw. She grinned at the idea and took one of the rarely-worn dresses. It was grey with a wide square neck, a dropped waist, and pleats that reached to her mid-calf. With the rainy day, the grey dress seemed just the thing. Violet counteracted the dullness of the dress and wool stockings with a cameo at her neck, golden earbobs, a light layer of powder, and red lipstick. With darkened lashes and penciled in brows, Violet’s makeup was complete. She pursed her lips and grinned into the mirror.
Everything was brighter with red lips.
Chapter Sixteen
The breakfast room had been invaded by Mrs. Lancaster. Neither Victor nor Kate had arrived for the meal, but Violet faced the woman across the table.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Sicking up,” Violet said, as she poured herself a cup of Turkish coffee and a cup of tea. Excessive? Yes, but her night was affecting her. “Did you just get in?”
“I took the early train,” Mrs. Lancaster replied. “I expected someone to be down.”
“Hargreaves probably told Victor that you were here. I’m sure he’ll be down soon.”
“I’ll go up,” Mrs. Lancaster replied. “My daughter needs me.”
Violet knew she was on edge because of her dream, which is the excuse she gave herself for what she said next. “She doesn’t, however.”
Mrs. Lancaster’s attention snapped to Violet, who smiled as gently as possible. “Victor is seeing to her. You can be assured that he’ll take gentle and careful care.”
Mrs. Lancaster’s gaze narrowed on Violet—looking very much like an angry version of Kate—and snapped, “Sometimes a daughter needs her mother.”
Violet had too many responses to that and too many of them weren’t kind. She took a long drink of her coffee and let the flavour hold in her mouth while she thought. “Mrs. Lancaster, may I be frank with you?”
The woman also sipped her coffee before nodding once.
“Kate adores you. Victor likes you. I like you. You’re the type of mother I want to be.”
Violet wasn’t finished, and Mrs. Lancaster was well aware of it when she said, “Thank you.”
Very gently, Violet said, “You’re smothering them.”
The woman blinked rapidly, and she cleared her throat, nodding once. “I’ll go.”
“No one wants you to leave,” Violet told her. “We need you. Just not in the bedroom while Victor is holding Kate’s hair back. They need to suffer together for the baby. Victor needs to know just how difficult it is to bring a baby into the world. It’ll make him a better father and husband.”
Mrs. Lancaster sniffed. “Well, I guess…”
It was because Violet had been gentle, she realized, that Mrs. Lancaster had been willing to listen.
“Save us?” Violet begged. She reached out. “We have such a problem, and we need you,” Violet told Mrs. Lancaster about the previous night’s murder and the murder Jack had come back from working on in the north, and about the children. “He couldn’t leave them. I couldn’t watch him worry. We sent for the children, and they’re coming to Lila and Denny’s because Kate is so ill. But, I’m not ready to be a mother.”
Violet let her eyes well as she confessed, “I am struggling with melancholy that comes and goes. Jack is haunted by what happened to their mother. Kate is too sick to have a stranger’s children in the house. But we can’t just leave them!”
Mrs. Lancaster was holding Violet’s hand now. “Of course you can’t. Though I’m not sure Lila and Denny are the right choice.”
“They aren’t. Denny’s brother is the most likely suspect in Jack’s case. If Wendell gets arrested and taken in for this crime, Denny is going to need time to recover and Lila will focus on him. I know they seem like they’re idiots, but they’re devoted to each other.”
Mrs. Lancaster squeezed Violet’s hand. “We could bring them up to the orphanage I’m managing for you.”
Violet hesitated, biting her lip and waiting.
“Or we could find them a home.”
She looked up at Mrs. Lancaster and suggested softly, “You are struggling for purpose with Kate here.”
Mrs. Lancaster stared at Violet. They were both intelligent women, so Mrs. Lancaster didn’t need Violet to explain what she wanted. Instead she closed her eyes and considered.
“How many of them are there?”
“Four,” Violet said. “We could see to them financially. Their clothes, their nannies, their education.”
“I do need something to do. How shall I raise them?”
“Love them like you do Kate and teach them to expect a good start. The same type of beginning to their life you’d give a child you were the natural mother to.”
“So as if they were my own?” Mrs. Lancaster asked. There was a light in her gaze that told Violet that her guess that Mrs. Lancaster was at a loss was correct. She needed someone to love. These children needed someone to love them. Money shouldn’t be a factor. Not when Violet and Jack had so much of it.
Violet nodded.
“You were going to wait until I volunteered?”
“I hoped you’d step in and save us. Since we were being bluntly honest, I decided to just ask outright. You don’t need to fall in the blues too, Mrs. Lancaster. It’s a hard place to be.”
The woman laughed and let go of Violet’s hand to drink her tea. “You’re a clever woman. You got exactly what you wanted for Jack and Victor today.”
Violet smirked and then said honestly, “And what I wanted for you. We’re family now, ma’am. We’ll meddle with you, you’ll meddle with us, we’ll love each other, and occasionally we’ll have to just tell each other what we need.”
Mrs. Lancaster rose and picked up a plate. She turned to Violet and her voice cracked as she said, “I’ll love these children for you, but Kate is still my baby. I need to be part of her life as well.”
“Ma’am,” Violet told her, meeting her gaze straight on. “Kate would never forgive me if I tried to manipulate you out of her life. She needs to gain her balance with her new husband separate from you, but she does need you. We all do. You know we’re orphans, right? Mother us too, please.”
Mrs. Lancaster’s laugh was wet, and she loaded her plate with chocolate pastries and bacon. Violet followed suit, telling the woman about her theory of physically moving to help keep the blues away.
“Exercise seems like a good choice.”
“It helped Tomas when he was struggling with his shellshock. Denny walked with him for miles and miles if needed.”
“Denny always was a sweet boy. Good to his mother. A bit hard of hearing whenever you wanted him to do something he didn’t want to do, but sweet about it all. When his mother got quite ill after she had Wendell, Denny was underfoot constantly, reading to her, getting her whatever she wanted.”
Violet smiled and admitted, “Sometimes I forget that you’re his aunt. It feels like he’s more ours than yours.”
Mrs. Lancaster laughed. “He does choose you and your brother, you know. He and Lila could spend their time at home, but they don’t. They choose you and your brother instead. Victor is more of a brother to Denny than Wendell ever was. A bit judgmental that one, inclined to feel he was righteous in his actions because he worked so hard. Yet, if their mother got sick again? Denny would arrive the next day, and Wendell would have to be tracked down.”
Violet’s brows lifted, and she told Mrs. Lancaster about Wendell’s upset over the inheritance. His aunt
wasn’t surprised at either Wendell’s feelings or Denny’s surprise at those feelings. “Denny has always been a good boy. I hate to think that Wendell might have killed someone. His mother would go into hysterics at the sheer idea, but it is easier to believe it of Wendell than Denny.”
Violet rose and started to pace the breakfast room until Victor arrived. “I’m so sorry ma’am,” he said as he came into the room. “I should have come down as soon as you arrived.”
“Nonsense,” Mrs. Lancaster said. “Violet and I have had a good chat, and she’s enlisted my help. Your job is to take care of Kate.”
Victor’s jaw dropped. A moment later he tried and failed to hide his reaction.
“I was smothering you. I knew it. Don’t think you’re getting rid of me because you aren’t. You need to get your nursery in order, and not just for my grandchildren. These children will visit with me when I come, and I’ll be coming often.”
Victor turned to Violet, shocked. She winked at him and then shot him a look that told him to keep his mouth shut and agree to the demands. He did in a dazed sort of madness that needed him seated with Violet handing him a loaded breakfast plate and Mrs. Lancaster handing him a coffee. His mother-in-law left to look in on her daughter before she made a list for the servants regarding Victor’s long-neglected nursery.
“Vi—” Victor blinked madly at his twin. “What in the world?”
“Mrs. Lancaster has agreed to save some orphaned children.”
“What?”
“Kate is getting four adopted siblings.”
“What?”
“Mrs. Lancaster is going to evolve from a smothering mother-in-law to a wonderful mother-in-law whose life is concerned with raising the poor orphaned children of a murdered woman while also being an attentive and caring grandmother.”
“I—” Victor dazedly drank half of his coffee and then blinked at Violet as though ensuring she weren’t a phantom. “Say that again.”
Violet explained in detail. When she finished she said, “You now owe me forever.”
He nodded blindly. “I do.”
“You do,” Violet repeated. “Don’t worry. I’ll remind you whenever it becomes pertinent.”
Victor snorted into his coffee. “I have little doubt of that, Vi.”
She grinned as someone knocked on the breakfast room door and then stepped inside. “My lady,” Hargreaves said, “Mr. Wakefield’s man of business has arrived.”
Violet rose, squeezing Victor’s shoulder as she left the breakfast room and joined the man in the parlor. “You received my note?”
“I did, my lady,” he said. The man was an older fellow in a pinstriped suit with a bowler hat in his hands. “I also received a note from Mr. Wakefield.”
Violet waved the man to a seat. “Were they conflicting?”
“Rather the same essential message, my lady, except yours requested that you pay half the amount for the house whereas Mr. Wakefield verified that he’d pay the entirety. I’ll stop by the house and see what I can ascertain as to the sale of it.”
Violet left the man to it, requesting that he come by Victor’s house once the facts were acquired. She did not care if the money came from herself or Jack. They both had more than they needed and, in the end, it would be lumped together and given to their children.
Violet paced the parlor while she waited, until she finally got fed up with herself and went to the office that Victor had created for her. It was a smallish room near the library that held enough room for a desk and her typewriter. She’d had it lined with bookshelves and turned it into her own private writing and reading room.
She sat down in front of her typewriter and stared at the blank page for several long minutes before she started the story of an earnest young man, an archeological dig in Egypt, and the horrors that were found in the sand.
Chapter Seventeen
Jack’s man of business appeared at the same time as Jack, walking up the steps of Victor’s house within steps of each other. When Violet was called to the parlor, Jack and Mr. Flannery rose in unison. Vi’s gaze flicked between the two of them, but neither gave away whether they had been able to acquire the house.
“Well, Flannery,” Jack said as they were seated again. “What have we learned?”
“They are moving,” Flannery said. “They did intend to sell, and they are very interested in receiving an offer. The house is quite out of date though in good shape. I was able to examine it and even call in our firm’s inspector. A new roof will be necessary before long. The floors need to be refinished. New paper. The furniture is intended to be sold with it, but I suspect you won’t want to keep much of it. It’s very worn.”
“Did they accept the offer?”
“They are speaking with their man, but I think they will. I have little doubt that the house will be yours if you want it. The gardens are quite lovely. It’s very roomy. Much larger than this house.” The man laid out a sketch of the floor plan with detailed notes for every room. Violet glanced at Jack, who nodded, and she took them up.
“We’ll do the repairs as soon as we can take possession,” Jack told his man. “Make a list of everything that could possibly need to be fixed or updated. If we work hard and quickly, we should be able to have it done before the wedding.”
Violet looked at Jack, certain that joy was shining in her eyes. She wouldn’t have even dared to hope of a house so close to Victor’s. One that she could redo. How much fun she would have replacing old furniture and having the place painted and papered to her specifications.
The man left with the notes he’d made, promising they’d be typed up and sent to her soon.
“We’re buying a house without even seeing it,” Vi whispered to Jack. “We must never tell Victor.”
Jack laughed, and she saw how the darkness had faded from his gaze. Now to keep it out of him. “How did you sleep?” he asked, however, oblivious to her resolve.
She hesitated too long to get away with obfuscating the truth, so she admitted, “Not well. You?”
“The same,” he replied.
“Did you find anything out today? Were you able to speak to Mr. Clarkson?”
“He took a rather heavy dose of sleeping pills and was unavailable when I arrived this morning,” Jack said. “I told his man to make it clear I expected him awake and fully sober when I arrived after tea.”
Violet tangled their fingers together, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Did you get my note?”
“I did,” he said. “The Amalfi Coast will be just the thing. I will sleep in a chair overlooking the sea.”
Violet played with her ring on her free hand and asked, “So what have you learned?”
Jack shook his head. “Greyly was a very odd man. Barnes found his journal this morning in the safe. The man had intended to use Hephaestus and the obsidian blades to give credence to a self-created cult.”
“A what? Maybe they were the killers!”
“Except,” Jack said, shaking his head, “the people who were part of it were together. It’s in the interviews. They were interviewed separately, they all agree on their locations, and they have nothing to gain.”
Violet leaned back onto his arm and muttered, “What fantastical nonsense.”
“At least it explains why he was doing that weird archeological find with the obsidian blades. It wasn’t for university acclaim, it was for this group of people.”
Violet played with her ring as they sat together. “You have to wonder if the archeologists who were working for Greyly might have felt differently about their work if they had realized what Greyly was intending to do with it.”
“I don’t disagree with you there, but I talked to them last night, Vi. They know they’re a laughing stock. The unfortunate part of this is the only one who wasn’t fully aware of what he’d gotten into was Denny’s brother.”
Violet winced and then pushed up onto her knees next to Jack on the sofa. “Mrs. Lancaster has agreed to see to the children. She says she
’ll raise them, or at least give it a go.”
Jack huffed out a relieved breath that Violet didn’t think either of them had realized he was holding in. He cupped Violet’s chin. “So this is what having a helpmeet is like. I tell you my worries and you solve them.”
“Says the man who told his man of business to buy me a house today simply because it was two doors down from my brother’s house, and to pay any price.”
Jack leaned his forehead into Violet’s, pressing them together. They shared the same air and a precious silence as relief filled them both. They relaxed into each other, curling towards one another as they breathed in and out in near unison. “I adore you, Violet Carlyle.”
“I adore you, Jack Wakefield.”
“April feels like it is forever away. Where shall we go on our honeymoon?”
Violet pulled a little back. “I’m not sure I really care where we go.”
“I thought we might take a month somewhere warm.”
“Somewhere with a blue sea?”
“And hot air.”
“Cocktails with fruit?” Vi suggested.
“Hammocks in the sun.”
“Sold on this idea, my good man,” Violet said. The door to the parlor opened, and they turned to see Victor in the doorway. “I wondered how long it would take you to appear.”
Victor winced, glancing over his shoulder and saying, “Perhaps some tea, Hargreaves.” To Violet, he said, “Father can be more terrifying than you realize.”
Violet snorted and propped her chin on her hand, with her elbow resting on Jack’s shoulder, as she told Victor, “You are forever in my debt, twin.”
“I won’t be able to pay out, darling Vi, if Father kills me.”
Violet twisted around, dropping back into a normal position on the sofa next to Jack. “Can you believe this cowardice?”
“Your father does have a way of promising you that he can kill you and hide your body forever in the same tone of asking if you’d like a cigar. I suspect you get your Machiavellian mind from your father.”
Violet scoffed at both of them and then asked, “Where is Mrs. Lancaster?”