Murder at the Mikado

by Julianna Deering

He rang up the chief inspector and told him what Mrs. Landis had said.

  “A syringe in her sitting room, by George. And my men missed it?” Birdsong grumbled under his breath. “I suppose I’d better go round there and see what’s what. You coming?”

  “Not this time, I’m afraid. I have a little mystery here that needs solving. But I would like to know what you find out, if you’d ring me back when you have a moment.”

  “I certainly will. Um . . . everything all right there, Mr. Farthering?”

  Drew couldn’t help smiling at the poorly disguised concern in the gruff voice. “I hope so, Chief Inspector. I truly do.”

  He hung up and went to find Madeline. He found her at the back of the garden, a thin cardigan wrapped around her, her shoulders hunched against the cold as she stared at one of the rosebushes.

  “It was so lovely this summer,” she said, not looking at him. “Now it’s bare and dead.”

  “Not dead.” He moved closer to her. “Just bare at the moment. You’ll see. Come spring it will be bursting with blooms again.”

  “Not if it’s dead.”

  “Madeline—”

  “Things die, Drew.” She gave him a sorrowful look. “Even the beautiful things.”

  “Madeline—”

  Her sorrow changed then to a determined cheerfulness. “Did you talk to the chief inspector?”

  “Yes. He’s going out to see Mrs. Landis.”

  “I suppose you’ll want to join him.”

  “He’s a qualified police inspector. I expect he can handle this sort of inquiry. I’ve something else I must look into.” He took both of her hands in his. “I want to know what’s really upsetting you. It has to be more than Mrs. Landis.”

  “I don’t want you to be around Fleur. Is that so hard to understand?”

  “What do you think I’m going to do, Madeline? Run off to the Argentine with her? Why don’t you believe me when I say I’m not the slightest bit interested in her?”

  “I believed you when you promised you wouldn’t pursue the case, and I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

  He bit back a sharp retort. They never quarreled. Not really. Surely he could get her to understand. Surely she wasn’t serious about making him drop the case. Not when he was so close to getting some real information about his mother. There had to be something else on her mind.

  “You’ve been unhappy,” he said, studying her face. “For the past couple of weeks now. What is it?”

  She shook her head, not speaking.

  “What are you afraid of, Madeline?”

  Something flickered in her eyes, and then she looked away again. He merely stood there, listening to her breathing, the breaths coming more quickly than usual. Finally she spoke.

  “I haven’t been honest with you, Drew.”

  She looked at him with that directness he admired but with none of her usual playfulness mixed into it, just pain and remorse all at once.

  “Go on.”

  “I told you some time ago that I don’t have anyone waiting for me back in America. That’s true. I don’t. But I did once.”

  “That’s hardly surprising,” he said, trying to keep his tone light. “Girls like you don’t come along every day.”

  A touch of color came into her cheeks, and she huddled deeper into her cardigan. “His name was Jimmy Adams. We’d known each other for ages, and everyone just assumed we’d eventually marry. I thought so, too. He had started giving me hints that he wanted to ask me, and I was all ready to say yes. We were such great friends and got along so well, it seemed the right thing to do.”

  “Obviously something happened.”

  She nodded. “Her name was Diane, but they called her Dinah. Short for dynamite. She was too. There was always a commotion wherever she was, and the boys were wild for her.”

  “And I suppose your sweetheart fell for her. I’m so sorry, darling.”

  “It’s a pretty common story, isn’t it? He told me for weeks that he didn’t care anything about her, that she was worse than a flirt and he would never want his name linked with hers.”

  Drew squeezed her hands, trying to rub some warmth into them. “I suppose you broke with him when you found out he was seeing her.”

  Madeline shook her head. “I didn’t know about it until they were in a car smash. She was behind the wheel. They’d been to one of the roadhouses out on the highway, someplace none of our friends ever went, and both of them had too much to drink. She hit a tree, and he was thrown out. He died two days later.”

  “And the girl?”

  Madeline’s eyes flashed. “She was only bruised. I don’t know what happened to her after that. Moved on to someone else, I suppose. I hadn’t really thought about her for a long time. Not until—”

  “Not until Fleur.” He brought her hands to his lips. “No wonder this has been difficult for you. But, truly, love, believe me—”

  “I do! Drew, I do believe you. That’s what makes this so awful. I don’t think you’re interested in Fleur. I don’t think you’d betray me. I just . . .” Her breath hitched. “I don’t think I can marry you.”

  “Please, darling, don’t say that.” He squeezed her hands more tightly, fighting the dread that swept over him. “You can’t mean it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You still love him,” Drew said, forcing the emotion from his voice. “Is that it?”

  “No.” Her eyes brimmed over with tears once more. “I never loved him.” She laughed softly, shaking her head. “I mean, yes, I loved him. I truly did, but I wasn’t in love with him. Not the way a wife should love her husband.” Again she looked away. “Not the way I love you.”

  “Then why . . . ?”

  “I knew him for most of my life, Drew. And I still didn’t really know him. If I hadn’t seen him dead there in the hospital, if I hadn’t read the police report about the accident for myself, I would never have believed it. I would have sworn it was all a mistake, that it was someone else. You and I . . .” She reached up to touch his cheek. “We haven’t even known each other six months.”

  “So what are you saying?” he asked. “That you want to put things off a while until you’re sure? Or that you want to end things entirely?”

  She lowered her eyes. “It doesn’t matter how much I love you. I just can’t marry you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so hasty about saying I would, but I can’t. I know that now.”

  “I thought we were past this. I thought—”

  “I wouldn’t have said yes if I hadn’t meant it. Then Fleur showed up and made me realize I just . . . I can’t go through with something like I did with Jimmy. Not again. Not when I love you so much more.”

  “Madeline—”

  “We’ve had fun together, Drew, these past few months. Why can’t we just go on the way we have been?”

  “Fun?” He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his clenched fist to his forehead, gritting his teeth until the surge of pain had passed. “Is that all it’s been? Is that all you want?”

  She looked at him again, and there was hurt in her eyes. Then that look was gone, replaced by cool resolve. She gave him a tight smile.

  “It’s been exciting and even rather frightening at times, but I guess I got too caught up in all the excitement to be practical.” She shook her head, catching an unsteady breath and then smiling again. “It doesn’t matter. I love you, Drew, I really do, but I’m not going to marry you.”

  She slipped the diamond off her finger and, leaning over to kiss his cheek, pressed it into his hand. He seized the opportunity to pull her into his arms, holding her as close as he could.

  “Please, darling, don’t do this. Don’t go. You’re not yourself right now. You’re . . . I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s not you. Please, before you do anything rash, just stop and think. I love you. I want you.” He pressed his face against the curve of her neck. “I need you. Madeline, don’t do this. Please.”

  Her arms went around him, and she laid her chee
k against his.

  “Drew . . .” she whispered.

  Her fingers felt light on his skin, tender and loving, and he was almost sure she was going to tell him she had changed her mind, that everything she’d just said was only the result of nuptial nerves. But then she abruptly pulled away and took several steps back, increasing the distance between them.

  “I’ll make sure everything is canceled,” she said. “Aunt Ruth and I made all the arrangements. We’ll make sure they’re all unmade as quickly as possible. You don’t have to do anything. I hope . . .” Tears glistened in her eyes, but she blinked them away, her face a mask of serene resignation. “I hope you’ll see, and very soon, that this is best for the both of us. Friends still?”

  He stared at her outstretched hand, the entire world suddenly turning bleak. “Madeline, please . . .”

  “I’m not going to quarrel with you over this. It is the way it is. If you don’t want to be my friend anymore, I can understand that. Just tell me.”

  He took her hand and pressed his lips to it. “I love you, darling. I would never try to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.” Madeline, don’t go. Please don’t. He clutched her hand more tightly. “Are you sure this is what you want? I mean, truly sure?”

  She shook her head, lips quivering, and then took her hand from his. “But it’s what’s best.”

  Drew nodded slowly. “All right, darling, if you’re sure you don’t want to think things over. I suppose I don’t have much choice, do I?”

  She reached toward him and then clasped her hands together in front of herself. “You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, Drew. Not if I could help it.”

  “I’m certain you wouldn’t mean to, but you have. You are.” He studied her for a moment. “Would it make a difference if I agreed to drop the case? If we totally forgot about Fleur?”

  “No. You should go on with the case. Miss Cullimore won’t tell you anything about your mother if you don’t.”

  “But you’re right. Our future is more important than anything in the past, yours or mine. If I don’t find out about my mother, then I don’t. We can still—”

  “Finish the case. Then find out about your mother. I’ll still help you, if you like.” She bit her lip and offered her hand once again. “So, friends then?”

  “Of course.” He shook her hand. “Friends.”

  “And I am right, and you are right, and all is right as right can be!” The words from that infernal Mikado wouldn’t leave his head.

  She stood there for a moment, clearly unsure of what to do next. Then she gave him a little nod. “I had better go see to some things now. I suppose I’ll see you at dinner?”

  He made a slight bow, one he would have used in the most formal of occasions. “Of course.”

  Without another word she strode back into the house. He followed her inside and sank down onto the library sofa. Numb. That was all. Even before the blazing hearth fire, he felt numb. The real pain would come in time. Right now he was too stunned to think. Thank you, Fleur.

  “Well, it’s all over.”

  He looked up to see Nick standing in the doorway.

  “What?” Drew blinked. “Come in, old man. What is it?”

  “Between Barbie and me. The whole thing’s come a cropper. Not that I wasn’t expecting it, not that I mightn’t even think it’s for the best, but—”

  “Same with me and Madeline.”

  Nick’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  “I don’t know how to make it any clearer. As of this moment, everything is off. Madeline has decided she was a bit too hasty in accepting my proposal and would rather we remain merely friends.”

  “I can hardly believe it. I thought she was utterly mad about you.”

  “As did I. She claims she is still, but she won’t marry me.”

  He realized he was still holding the engagement ring, holding it so tightly that it was digging into his hand. He slipped it into his coat pocket.

  Nick shook his head. “Bad luck, old man. I’m sorry. Still, I’ve been given to understand that it would hardly be a really serious engagement if it hasn’t been broken off at least once. Perhaps she’s been reading too much Oscar Wilde. Do you think she absolutely means it?”

  “She says she does.” Drew blew all the breath from his lungs. “I don’t quite know what to make of it myself.”

  “What exactly did she say?”

  “She wanted me to abandon the Ravenswood case.”

  Nick winced. “I was wondering when it would be too much for her.”

  “Having Fleur about? Yes, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that, but it has. Fleur gives me another firm kick to the jaw.” Drew shook his head. “No, that’s not fair. I can’t blame Fleur for this. Not really. Yes, she has treated a number of men most abominably, myself included. She’s still spoilt and brazen in many ways, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t changed. Or at least that she doesn’t want to be better than she has been. She claims she does. I mean, don’t we all?”

  Drew braced one elbow on his knee and leaned his chin in his hand. After all, was not his whole faith founded on the idea that no matter how steeped in sin, willing hearts could be made clean and new? He had found it so himself, and he could not rightly deny her the same grace. No, he couldn’t blame this quarrel with Madeline on Fleur.

  “So why don’t you?” Nick asked.

  Drew straightened, looking up at his friend. “Why don’t I what?”

  “Why don’t you drop the case? Surely Madeline is more important to you than this murder investigation.”

  “Of course she is. Actually I was on my way to tell Landis I was done with it when I got a visit from Miss Cullimore.” Drew paused. “Nick, she knew my mother. My real mother. Before I was born.”

  Nick grinned. “A break at last. Splendid.”

  “Yes and no. Miss Cullimore won’t tell me anything unless I solve this case, or at least prove positively that she’s not mixed up in it.”

  “So you can’t drop the case, after all.”

  “I offered to, if that would patch things up between me and Madeline, but it didn’t seem to help.”

  “Madeline’s that angry over it?”

  “Not angry,” Drew said. “Scared, I think. A while ago, someone rather like Fleur came between her and the man she expected to marry, and then it all ended by cracking him up in a car. Being around Fleur brought it all back to her.”

  Nick frowned. “I’m not sure I see the connection.”

  “I’m not entirely sure I do, either,” Drew admitted. “I think she’s afraid that if she was wrong about someone she’d known all her life, she shouldn’t be making commitments to someone she hasn’t known half a year yet. But what can I do? I can’t make her marry me if she doesn’t want to.”

  Nick shook his head. “It’s just not right, Drew. You’re perfect for each other. Besides, I don’t know of another girl I could stand having about the place all the time. Well, Carrie, I think, but she would be for me and not for you.”

  Drew gave him a rueful grin. “Certainly. Well, try convincing Madeline of that.”

  “That doesn’t seem too likely.” Nick’s forehead wrinkled. “Well, is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Thanks awfully, old man, but I don’t expect there is. You might send up a prayer or two before you turn in tonight.”

  “And what if the answer is no?”

  After a long moment, Drew gave him a thin smile. “I don’t much like to think of that.”

  “It could be, you know,”

  “Yes, I know. I know it very well.”

  They were both silent for a while, and then Nick turned to leave. “I’ll let you alone now, eh?”

  Drew nodded, and an instant later he heard the soft click of the library door shutting. He was alone.

  Alone.

  His eyes stung, but he blinked them hard, clenching his jaw until he feared the bones would crack.

  Madeline was going. She would
stop all the wedding plans, send out cancellation notices to the guests, and soon after, go back to America. Might as well be China or the South Pole.

  “Oh, God,” he breathed, “show me what to do.”

  Though it was a meager prayer, it was the only one Drew could manage.

  Seventeen

  Madeline hurried up the stairs to her bedroom. She had to get inside while she could still hold back the tears. Drew. How could she leave him now? But she couldn’t marry him. Not if she wasn’t absolutely sure. She had been sure. At least until that Fleur Landis came around, knocking out every bit of self-confidence and certainty she had.

  “There you are.” Aunt Ruth approached her outside their bedroom door, fashion magazine in hand. “If I were to wear something special to your wedding, what do you think of . . . ? Whatever’s wrong, child?”

  Madeline shook her head, not trusting her voice enough to speak. Instead she bustled her aunt into the bedroom and shut the door behind them.

  “Well?” the older woman asked.

  Madeline plopped herself onto the bed and wiped her nose with her pocket handkerchief. “Nothing.”

  Aunt Ruth narrowed her eyes. “I know you better than to believe that, Madeline. Now, what is it?”

  Madeline forced a tight smile. “Drew and I have decided we won’t be getting married after all.”

  Aunt Ruth’s eyes widened. “What? What happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I just want to cancel everything. Do you have a list of everyone we invited? I’ll have to let each of them know it’s off. I suppose I should have some sort of card printed up and mailed out. How do they handle these things?”

  “Just a simple announcement that the wedding will not be taking place.” Aunt Ruth sat down beside her. “Are you sure it’s as bad as all that? I thought you loved him?”

  Tears sprang into Madeline’s eyes. “I do. I just don’t think . . . I shouldn’t have said I would marry him. I’m not ready.”

  Aunt Ruth pursed her lips. “Well, you could have fooled me all this time. And just what makes you sure you aren’t ready?”

  “It’s . . . it’s Fleur. I’m afraid . . .” Her throat tightened. “I’m afraid.”