The Kitchens and Murdoch were sitting in the parlour after Sunday Mass. Arthur had accompanied them to St. Paul’s for the first time in almost a year. The egg-seller’s cure seemed to be working and although he now looked exhausted his strength was generally much improved. Without complaint he downed his twelve eggs and cream a day.
Beatrice poured Murdoch some more tea. He could see she was dying to tell him something but with the instincts of the born storyteller she was saving the news until the right moment.
What’s on your mind, Mrs. K.?” he asked her finally. She put down her teacup, her eyes bright with excitement.
“I have been wanting to chat about my little encounter yesterday but there simply has been no opportunity. You were out.”
Murdoch had attended his second salon dance the night before with Professor Otranto’s students. It had not been at all satisfying. He had practically destroyed the velvet dancing slipper of one of his partners and she had been most displeased.
“Now’s your chance, then, Mother,” said Arthur.
“I met the Rhodeses’ new cook at the market yesterday,” Beatrice continued. “Her name is Doris Winn. She’s from down east, your country, Mr. Murdoch. We fell to talking, you know how it is. She was surprised I knew about the family’s misfortunes. I didn’t say much, of course, merely made an enquiry after Mrs. Rhodes’s health.”
She glanced rather anxiously at Murdoch, but he smiled reassuringly.
“I’m sure you were absolutely discreet, Mrs. K.”
“For Mary’s sake get on with it, Mother,” said Arthur.
“Don’t rush me … Where was I? Oh, yes, Miss Winn. She told me that Mrs. Rhodes is planning to return to England in the spring and she’s not certain if she will ever come back to Canada. Her son and his fiancée are going to follow as soon as Miss Shepcote is out of mourning. And Mrs. Rhodes is taking the stableboy, Joe, with her. She’s made quite a pet of him, by all accounts.”
“I’m glad about that,” said Murdoch.
“Yes, poor mite. But here is the news. The doctor has moved out of the house! Just two weeks ago, a woman came to the door asking for him. Well, Doris had hardly got her feet wet, as it were, and she didn’t know as it wasn’t one of his patients, so she let her in. And then there was a dreadful scene. The woman wasn’t a patient at all but said she had been living with the doctor as man and wife for over two years. Can you imagine that?”
Arthur glanced over at Murdoch. “Did you have any idea about this, Will?”
“Let’s just say I’m not at all surprised. I suspected the good doctor was up to something to give him a guilty conscience.”
“According to Doris Winn the woman is completely vulgar. She has a daughter but the girl isn’t the doctor’s. She said it was because she wanted the girl to be adopted and have a respectable home that she came forward.” Beatrice sniffed. “It sounds noble enough, but from what Doris said the woman is just out for what she can get.”
“Almost makes you sorry for him,” said Arthur.
“Not too sorry, Father. A man in his position keeping a mistress should be ashamed … Anyway, let me go on. Mrs. Rhodes was home at the time and Doris said she was completely ladylike during the whole thing. Can you imagine? I wouldn’t be, I can tell you that.” She nodded over at her husband. “Fortunately Arthur’s never given me cause. Anyways, in the end she asked the woman to leave. The doctor packed up the very next day.” She lowered her voice. “Doris thinks they may even divorce. I feel the most sorry for the Shepcote girl myself. She’s had enough scandal to deal with.”
She paused and it was clear the real dirt was about to be dished. “Doris said she’d run into that wicked Edith Foy last week who’s been saying all manner of dreadful things about the family. A case of the pot calling the kettle black, if you ask me, after what her own husband done, but there you go. Fortunately she’s got her head on her shoulders, has Doris Winn, and she took it all with a pinch of salt.” She stopped to savour the moment. “I’m referring to young Rhodes.”
“What do you mean, Mother?”
“Mrs. Foy claims he’s not quite, er, natural. There was some scandal to do with a stableboy last summer. It was all hushed up but apparently his mother found them … together. There are whispers he associates with known – what is the word, Arthur? Miss What’s-it?”
“You’re thinking of Miss Mollys, I believe, Mother.”
“Yes, that’s it. However, the young fellow is going to marry Miss Shepcote, who by all accounts adores him. That’s sure to set him to rights. After all, boys do odd things sometimes, don’t they?”
Murdoch liked young Rhodes for his kindness to Joe Seaton, and he too hoped his marriage would straighten him out.
Arthur changed the subject. “How’s Mr. Quinn doing?”
“Almost recovered. I dropped in to see him yesterday, as a matter of fact. He’s eating solid foods now.”
“No more dognapping, I hope.”
“No, he’s sworn off it. He knows what would happen if he tried that again. I can’t ignore it next time.”
“Thank the Lord for those dogs. You might have been killed and we wouldn’t have liked that, would we, Mother?”
“Not at all.” She made the sign of the cross over her neat bosom. “Every time I think of you and that Antichrist my blood runs cold.”
“He’ll hang, won’t he, Will?”
“If I have anything to do with it.”
“At least he’s confessed to doing for Shepcote. Miss Harriet won’t have to think her father committed a mortal sin,” said Beatrice.
Murdoch thought privately that given everything else Shepcote had been guilty of, that might not be high on Harriet’s list of problems. According to Canning, it had been Shepcote who forced opium on Therese. She had managed to run off from the Yeoman Club, where they’d taken her, but the drug and the bitter winter night had overwhelmed her.
“Such a tragedy. And what a dreadful hypocrite that man was,” said Beatrice.
“Yes, indeed.”
Murdoch thought of the sordid pictures he’d found in Shepcote’s desk. He hadn’t told the Kitchens.
Suddenly Beatrice clapped her hands together like a child.
“Mr. Murdoch, I almost forgot to tell you. We are getting a new boarder. She’s a niece of Doris’s. A widow with a seven-year-old boy and she desperately needs a nice lodging. I offered our place. Now that Arthur is getting better there will be no danger, I’m sure. She can have the backroom. Her name is Enid – strange name, it’s Welsh, I believe. She is still a young woman, a looker, according to her aunt.” Beatrice smiled slyly at Murdoch. “She’s probably been lonely without a husband. Perhaps you could interest her in dancing lessons.”
“Mother,” protested Arthur, “you’re not trying to do a bit of matchmaking, are you? Will isn’t interested in that sort of thing, are you?”
Murdoch chuckled. “I’d be glad to have a partner at my dance class. Let’s hope she’s got iron toes.”
What he couldn’t say was that he had a sudden hope that a suitable woman would obliterate the memory of a scrawny, not too clean prostitute, whose tears had wet his cheek as he held her close in his arms.
Acknowledgements
First, I wish to thank Eric Wright, who has been with me on this long journey and helped me more than I can ever say. Also, great thanks to Robert Wright of Robert Wright Books, who kept me supplied with countless treasures of authentic material. The archivists at the Ontario Archives, the most fascinating place in the city, were always courteous and helpful, especially Leon, and I thank them. Finally, my eternal gratitude to my agent, Teresa Chris, and to Ruth Cavin, my editor, for believing in me.
MAUREEN JENNINGS’S first novel in the Detective Murdoch series, Except the Dying, was published to rave reviews and shortlisted for both the Arthur Ellis and the Anthony first novel awards. The influential Drood Review picked Poor Tom Is Cold as one of its favourite mysteries of 2001. Let Loose the Dogs was shortlist
ed for the 2004 Anthony Award for best historical mystery. Night’s Child was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award, the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award, the Barry Award, and the Macavity Historical Mystery Award. And A Journeyman to Grief was nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award. Three of the Detective Murdoch novels have been adapted for television, and a Granada International television series, The Murdoch Mysteries, based on the characters from the novels, is entering its third season on CityTV and UKTV.
COPYRIGHT © 1997 BY MAUREEN JENNINGS
First published by St. Martin’s Press 1997
First McClelland & Stewart mass market paperback edition 2004
This trade paperback edition 2010
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright
Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Jennings, Maureen
Except the dying / Maureen Jennings.
(A Detective Murdoch mystery)
Originally publ.: New York : St. Martin’s Press, 1997
eISBN: 978-0-7710-4320-8
I. Title. II. Series: Jennings, Maureen. Detective Murdoch mystery.
PS8569.E562E93 2010 C813′.54 C2009-906986-5
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
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