The Violet Carlyle Mysteries Boxset 2

by Beth Byers

  Kate grinned and then seemed to catch the feeling in the air.

  “Oh, by Jove!” Denny looked at the twins and crossed to the bar. “Come, come Kate, Lila, we’ll need to drink heavily if these two are sniping at each other.”

  “I apologize for abandoning you while I was ill.” Violet’s emphasis simply made Victor frown harder at her. “Have you been bothered by the terrible gardener?”

  Victor’s glass clinked down heavily as the dinner gong rang, cutting off whatever he was about to say. Violet winked at her brother in his fury which deepened his fever-flush and reached even the tips of his ears.

  Jack handed Violet to her feet, tucking her close before her brother could strangle her. “What’s all this?” Jack’s question was low enough that only Violet could hear.

  “Victor scolded me. We’re in a snit. Stand clear.” Vi didn’t bother to lower her voice, and Victor growled and then coughed into his handkerchief. “Also, sick Victor is a bloody bastard who lashes out. Be prepared. The man you know is gone and even the schoolroom version of him would find him churlish.”

  Jack seated Violet at the foot of the table and took the seat to her right. Kate sat next to Victor with Lila and Denny across from each other. Violet had never been in the dining room, but some of the table leaves had been removed, so it was easier for the twins to scowl at each other.

  “I am not sick.” Victor’s glassy eyes met hers in a near rage, and she raised her wine glass in mockery before taking a sip.

  “If he’s sick…” Jack was clearly going to advise Violet to patience and understanding. That wasn’t, however, how things worked when the twins fought. Violet never, ever let Victor treat her poorly, which he only ever did when he was sick.

  “Then he’ll learn.”

  “Ah.” Jack coughed back a laugh.

  “Drink up, my lad.” Denny topped off Jack’s wine glass. “You’ll need it.”

  The shock on Kate’s face was almost as surprising as Victor’s blush when he noticed her reaction. He was drinking whisky, which told Violet he knew he was truly sick. They’d had the post-illness apology session enough times to be certain he also knew how he was behaving.

  Their gazes met and a silent conversation darted between the two of them. Violet’s expression accused him and his was the sort of guilt-filled acknowledgment that he knew he was being horrible but that nothing was going to change.

  “Victor…” Kate’s hiss wasn’t quite low enough, and he turned his ferocious frown on her. He jumped a moment later, and Violet was almost positive that Denny had kicked Victor before he could ruin things between himself and Kate. He tried smiling at her but she seemed unappeased.

  Jack took up the conversational gauntlet as Victor turned his scowl on Denny. Between the two friends, they kept Victor from completely throwing his life to the hounds. When dinner was finished, Kate turned on the wireless and Victor fell asleep in an armchair. Violet left them all to wander the room, trying to fight off her anger at her brother, but it wasn’t working.

  She glanced outside, saw figures shadowed against the lawn and wondered if the gardener was really working this late. She almost turned to ask about the man again, but the sight of her brother having succumbed to sleep and her friends whispering to each other around his fitful form kept Violet from speaking.

  From what she’d seen of it, the house was nicer than she expected. The good bones that Victor had bought had taken well to the updating they’d arranged. It was a house that anyone would be proud to own, the gardens were enough to stop you in your tracks, and Violet hated it. She scowled at her reflection and hoped her feelings about the house were caused only by being ill and by Victor’s behavior.

  She tried to imagine the next round of holidays in this house and shuddered. It didn’t matter that the furniture was new and she’d chosen much of it. It didn’t matter that the floors were gorgeous or the paper had been well hung on the walls. There was just something about this house that was turning her away, and she couldn’t quite pinpoint what was causing her feelings.

  Chapter 4

  The next day dawned bright and blue, and Violet rose feeling even better. Certainly the excess of sleep was contributing to her current feeling of euphoria.

  The breakfast room was empty when she arrived, but she had her new journal, a new fountain pen, and some time to gather her thoughts. The sun shone through the French doors and Vi glanced outside. A quick memory of the sculpted hedges struck her.

  With the sun shining and her feeling so much better, Violet felt it was time to step outside. She ended up leaving by the front door because she didn’t know where the back or side doors were. The gravel of the drive had been recently raked and the flower beds and massive flower pots were abounding with early blooms. Violet leaned down to sniff one of the flowers, which didn’t smell nice at all. The scent definitely didn’t match the flower’s looks.

  The path around the house was carefully laid with grey bricks that matched the home. The birds were singing and Violet spied one that was swooping in to land for another worm. No doubt there was a nest nearby. Was it too early in the season for hatchlings? She really had no idea.

  She walked towards the back garden and paused. Victor and Kate were walking there on the green. He was just lifting her hand to his mouth, and she was looking up at him through her lashes. Violet wasn’t sure that there was anything that could show true love more than the way they were looking at each other, and she wasn’t going to interfere. As much as the spiteful side of her demanded revenge, Violet wasn’t quite that petty.

  She turned and tiptoed away and could only hope that her dog, Rouge, didn’t catch her scent. The dog would come belting towards Vi, barking joyously and then Victor and Kate would expect her to join them.

  She was smirking as she crept away and then once she was out of sight, she took off towards the other end of the house. As she went pelting past, the front door opened and Jack stepped out. He caught her running, and she put her finger to her lips as he settled his fists on his hips.

  Vi winked and then darted to the other side of the house. A second later, she heard him chasing after. Violet swung around the side of the house just before he caught her and then darted towards the small orchard. Perhaps if she could get among the trees…a moment later, she felt his arms wrap around her, and she was pulled off her feet.

  Jack’s mouth was pressed into her ear as he asked, “What are we escaping?”

  Violet wiggled until he set her down. “Romance.”

  “Romance?” His gaze narrowed on hers.

  “Victor’s,” she expanded. “Love is in the air. Sisters are unwanted. Even twin sisters. Besides he’ll probably turn back into a vicious child if I’m around.”

  Jack’s face cleared a little bit. “I’m afraid I heard him coughing this morning. Too proud to take to his bed?”

  “Pride has nothing to do with it,” she said. “Vic just hates being ill and is too much of a fiend to be persuaded into anything. Are we bicycling and having a picnic today?”

  He felt her forehead. “We were all waiting to see if you were well enough. With Victor ill…”

  “I think perhaps I will be well enough, but I am afraid there is no persuading Victor to sense.”

  “Perhaps not too far for you then,” Jack said firmly.

  “Are you being protective?” she teased.

  “Get used to it, luv,” he told her seriously and took her hand. “Did you eat?”

  “I got full after a piece of toast.”

  “You need to eat,” he told her.

  Violet ignored him and reached up to run her fingers over the apple blossoms. “Have you explored the town at all?”

  He shook his head. “Lila and Denny went into town and were scolded by the pastor when he caught Denny kissing Lila. They were quite out of the way, not in the middle of the road. To hear Denny tell it, they were scolded as though they’d been discovered streaking naked through the green.”

  “We’r
e scandalous,” Violet told him. “It’s Victor’s fault. We can be nothing other than drunk, rich, idiots after the way Victor purchased this place.”

  “Only sometimes,” Jack laughed. Something caught his attention and Jack frowned. Violet turned to follow his gaze, but she couldn’t quite see what he was seeing. He was unfairly taller than her, she thought.

  Jack placed his hands on her waist and lifted her. The orchard ended with hedges that faded into a wood. The gardener, Philip, was leaving the wood with a woman trailing after. Her dress was askew and she was saying something to Philip that had him turning and making a sharp movement.

  Violet gasped as Jack set her down and pulled her into the shadow of a tree. They pressed together out of sight as Philip went stomping past. He was a good ways down the orchard, far enough that he didn’t notice his audience. The woman followed after and he turned suddenly. Violet bit her lip to keep silent when Philip took the woman’s hand and yanked her to him. He pressed quite a violent kiss on her, but she didn’t object. The gardener said something into her ear and then hurried out of sight.

  Violet watched unashamedly as the woman straightened her dress. She smoothed back her hair. She calmly let her mussed hair down, ran her fingers through it, smoothing the locks. A quick twist of the wrist later, and it was in a precise knot at the base of her neck. A moment later, she pulled out her compact and updated her soft peach lipstick. Pasting a smooth expression on her face, she transformed herself from Aphrodite to a conservative country woman. Once she was put back together, she hurried back into the wood.

  “There must be a trail back there,” Jack murmured.

  “There must be someplace to have an assignation back there,” Violet added, shaking her head with admiration on how easily the woman had adjusted her look. Violet would never have been able to go from scandalous to respectable so easily.

  Jack’s voice was a little husky when he asked, “Shall we go find it?”

  Vi gaped at him, and he laughed.

  “You tease!” She smacked his chest. She guessed, however, if she said yes…well…no. He wouldn’t take her to some just-used place in the woods. If she let him know she wasn’t unwilling, how would he react? Did she want to…?

  Jack watched her face and then tucked her under his arm, enjoying the shadows with her.

  Violet blushed at the thought and then deliberately changed the subject. “I understand that there is a rose garden here somewhere. Something truly lovely. We met a woman at the train station who was irritated that we might not be caring for it properly.”

  Jack took her hand and kissed her fingertips, not seeming to mind the awkward transition from assignations to rose gardens. She looked up at him, smiling, and they rounded the home. She had this surreal moment where she realized that she and Jack had echoed the same movements of Kate and Victor not long before.

  When Violet had witnessed her brother’s love, she had thought they seemed to be the perfect example of love, and yet she and Jack weren’t so different. The problem was that Violet was certain Victor was in love and she wasn’t as certain of Jack’s feelings.

  It was at the back where the rose gardens rolled out. Double doors headed down from the house with a large, covered patio. A walk extended from the backdoors to the rose garden. Violet paused in sheer, shocked appreciation. The roses were just beginning to bloom, but even from this distance she could see that there were a number of shades. She had no doubt that some would be called fanciful things like Queen Anne’s Petticoat or Polaris’ Blossom.

  “If you were going to name a rose something fanciful, what would you call it?”

  Jack tugged one of her locks of hair lightly and countered, “What would you name it?”

  “I was just thinking that Polaris’ Blossom sounds fun,” she said. “You?”

  “Ah…Violet’s…”

  She smacked his arm before he could finish. “Stop it with that piffle.”

  Jack took her other hand, drawing her into a dance position, and waltzed her across the garden and back to the front drive. “Shall we walk?”

  “You’re checking how strong I am, aren’t you? Before we take up the bicycles?”

  He grinned at her and winked. “Perhaps.”

  The walk down the drive didn’t push Violet too far, but she was hiding that she was a little tired. What was he looking for? That she leaned on his arm more than usual? That she turned pale?

  “Perhaps.” Violet tapped her lips and scrunched her nose at him. “You can’t pull the wool over my eyes, my good man. I am no bunny lost in the woods, unable to find her own way.”

  “You spent too much time with those Americans on the ship. Speaking of piffle, the term bunny…”

  Violet gasped, fluttering her fingers against her chest and batting her lashes. “What’s this now? Albert and Belinda were the bee’s knees. Simply tip-top!”

  Jack looked up from her and tensed. Violet followed his gaze and saw the woman from the wood. She was, however, walking on the arm of another man. The lane was narrow, so Violet could see the expressions on them. The woman was carefully blank with no more expression than a china doll. The man, however, hissed into the woman’s face. Violet could see her lean just slightly back, but he didn’t take the hint to stop crowding the woman.

  They were walking so close together as to be clearly belonging to one another…only that man was not Philip the gardener. Just what had Violet and Jack witnessed?

  “Oh,” Violet breathed. She smiled at the couple as they drew near and called, “Good morning!”

  “Well now,” the man said, “you must be the folks who purchased the old Higgins place. Heard all about that.” The man was about forty or so and the woman on his arm had to be near Violet’s age, barely in her mid-twenties.

  “Her brother, Victor Carlyle, is the homeowner.” Jack held out his hand. “I am Jack Wakefield. This is Lady Violet Carlyle.”

  The man’s brows lifted and he nodded at Vi. The woman smiled prettily at both of them, and Violet breathed out in relief that they hadn’t been caught at being peeping-toms. “Joseph Baker. I’m one of the local barristers. This is my wife, Melody Baker.”

  Violet would never cease to be amazed at her capacity for playacting at that moment when she grinned and held out her hand. “Delighted to meet you. We were just out catching the air. I’m afraid I have been rather under the weather and missed most of our journey through the village.”

  “Heavy drinking will do that,” Mrs. Baker said sweetly, almost righteously. “It’s better to keep drinking to the minimum. I find a strict regimen of fruit, vegetables, and exercise to keep me quite healthy.”

  Violet blinked at the outright cattiness delivered so sweetly and so judgmentally. It wasn’t Violet conducting affairs in the wood, nor was enjoying alcohol so very wicked. Breaking one’s wedding vows, however…and with a gardener. What would the respectable Mr. Baker think of that? “Such good advice.”

  Jack nodded to both of them and they walked on. The moment they were out of hearing Violet muttered, “Of all the cheek.”

  “These people are determined to dislike you given the way the house was purchased. They’ll learn and repent. Don’t worry, little love.”

  “I am neither worried nor little. You, sirrah, are simply mountainous.” Violet shook her head. “All that snideness to our faces and after we caught her with another man. Do you think her husband was out looking for her because he knows she strays? Or was it just unlucky happenstance that she ran into him? Maybe that’s why she keeps her lipstick in her pocket. Otherwise her husband would catch her with it kissed off and know it wasn’t him who did the mussing.”

  “She seems like a woman who is prepared for that eventuality.”

  Violet snorted. “You called her loose so smoothly. You deliver a wicked barb. It is too bad she didn’t hear it.”

  “She met you on the street and called you a lush to your face. We were never destined to be friends.”

  They returned to the h
ouse with a little more vigor since Violet was running on irritation. It seemed to be enough energy to set aside Jack’s concerns so when Victor suggested fish and chips at the pub for lunch, Jack didn’t disagree.

  Violet would have if she thought Victor would listen. Even Kate’s hesitation wasn’t enough to get her brother to turn from his idea to have lunch at the pub. Violet watched him shiver, shook her head, and knew he was determined to dig his own grave. She was rather inclined to let him and then watch him stumble in.

  “Are you sure?” Kate asked carefully, her eyes wide with concern.

  Victor shrugged in reply, not even seeing the concern on Kate’s face. “It’s not too far, and I’d love to try whatever those fizzy drinks were again. You will adore them.”

  Violet smiled, trying not to wince. The first thing they’d do in the town was eat lunch and hunt up the clever bartender? They were cementing their reputation, weren’t they? Jack seemed to follow her thoughts even though all she said was, “Fish and chips does sound lovely. It has simply been forever since I’ve had some done well.”

  “That does sound nice,” Kate agreed, though she wasn’t successful at masking her concern. Victor was too blind from his illness to note it.

  Lila and Denny simply glanced at each other. They were as concerned as the rest of them, but no one objected verbally. Denny only said, “I’m always good for some chips.”

  “Or fish,” Lila said for him.

  “Or a good pint in a pub,” Denny added.

  “Or a box of chocolates from the shops,” Lila said, poking his side. He’d expanded a bit on their last vacation. The food had been abundant and amazing. So very different from what they normally enjoyed.

  Violet had been grateful to have Kate along on the trip to Cuba, speaking to the chefs and learning about the recipes. If Violet was not mistaken, when Kate wasn’t buying books, she’d been buying herbs and spices to attempt duplicating the food in England. The woman really needed a cook in her household to do the heavy lifting. Victor wasn’t going to want to watch his wife slave over a stove. She’d just hire some brilliant chef, especially since Kate seemed to be intrigued more intellectually than by a desire to practice herself.