The Fragile Flower

by Kerry J Charles

  THE FRAGILE FLOWER

  A Dulcie Chambers Museum Mystery

  by Kerry J Charles

  EDMUND+OCTAVIA

  THE DULCIE CHAMBERS MUSEUM MYSTERIES

  by

  Kerry J Charles

  An Exhibit of Madness (Previous Title: Portrait of a Murder)

  From the Murky Deep

  The Fragile Flower

  A Mind Within

  Last of the Vintage

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE FRAGILE FLOWER Copyright © 2016 Kerry J Charles. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the author at kerryjcharles.com or Edmund+Octavia Publishing at EdmundOctavia.com.

  Cover Image: #4 White Convolvulus

  1876, Charlotte Anna Lefroy

  This image is in the public domain.

  ISBN-10: 0-9894576-3-X

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9894576-3-7

  Edmund+Octavia, Falmouth, Maine, USA

  This book is dedicated

  to those who took the chance

  with a leap of faith.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Preview: A MIND WITHIN

  About this Series

  About the Author

  I found I could say things

  with color and shapes

  that I couldn't say any other way

  - things I had no words for.

  ― Georgia O'Keeffe

  CHAPTER 1

  “They call it Young Man’s Death.”

  The voice slid softly down the back of Dulcie’s neck. It wasn’t a whisper or a murmur, but the gentle melodious voice of a woman who had lived in Bermuda for a lifetime. Dulcie turned slowly and smiled. “Do you know why?”

  The woman laughed, a beautiful, low sound like the turquoise waves rushing against the shore nearby. “It is a name from the old country. My grandmother was English. I visited her in Cornwall when I was a very little girl. Once, I picked this flower,” she gestured toward the painting on the wall behind Dulcie. “My grandmother, she gasped and said, ‘Cassandra, do you have a boyfriend? Because if you do, he is in big trouble now!’ Of course then I made her explain it all. They say that if a girl picks this flower, her lover will die.”

  “Did you believe it?” Dulcie asked.

  The woman shook her head gently. “Of course not! First, I did not have a boyfriend. Second, I was born too practical, an old woman even at a young age. I had no time for nonsense. And third,” the woman leaned closer to Dulcie and said sotto voce, “she was crazy as a bat!”

  Dulcie burst out laughing. The sound rang in the otherwise silent room. She held out her hand. “I’m Dulcie Chambers. I’m here from the States.”

  The woman held out her hand as well, beautifully dark with a simple yet perfect sapphire and gold ring on it. She shook Dulcie’s hand. “I am Cassandra Watts, a volunteer here at the Bermuda National Gallery. However, I believe that you are more than just from the States Ms. Chambers? You see, I’ve always kept up with my studies. Dr. Dulcinea Chambers is the director of the Maine Museum of Art. Would you be the same Dr. Chambers, or is this an amazing coincidence of mistaken identity?”

  “You’re right, I confess. No coincidence. I’m going a bit incognito at the moment as a quick break.” Dulcie sighed, trying to put thoughts of her situation at home out of her mind. “As you must know, however, if this,” she waved toward the paintings, “is in your blood, it’s impossible to take even a quick break.”

  Cassandra smiled. “You are right. When I travel I must see the museums wherever I go. But tell me, does this exhibit interest you, or simply the museum in general?”

  “I’ll be diplomatic and say ‘the museum’ but between the two of us, I’m very interested in this exhibit. Botanicals have always fascinated me. I think it’s the cross between science and art, and possibly even a bit of historical witchcraft thrown in for good measure.” Dulcie looked back at the painting on the wall. Convolvulus. Morning glory. She had seen variations of them so many times growing wild back in Maine.

  Cassandra looked over at the painting as well. “Yes, the balms and teas of herbal healers long ago. I think that with all of our pills and shots today, we have lost the effect of a good healing.” Her blue eyes were the same color as her ring and sparkled equally as much. Dulcie could imagine Cassandra living centuries earlier, mixing potions and healing people with ‘mystical powers.’ As if reading Dulcie’s mind, Cassandra leaned toward her and whispered, “My Aunties told me that I have witches in my ancestry!”

  Dulcie’s eyes were wide. “Do you think that’s true?” she asked.

  Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. “First one must believe in witchcraft. As for me, I believe in science,” she smiled, then nodded toward the paintings, “and art.”

  Dulcie understood. Art. It was her salvation. The constant in a life that kept changing. She could always find herself again, stay centered in the confusion, when she walked into a museum and simply wandered through the quiet galleries. Sometimes she wondered if it was that feeling, more than any interest in history or the artwork itself, that drew her to the career she had chosen. She pulled herself from her thoughts realizing that Cassandra was speaking again.

  “The artist here was a woman. I find that interesting. Lady Charlotte Anna LeFroy. Her husband was the Governor of Bermuda in the 1870s, and a scientist. She must have enjoyed science too, as these works are only a few of her botanicals. She did many paintings in Tasmania where they also lived. India as well, where she travelled with her first husband.” Cassandra turned to Dulcie. “Don’t you find it unfortunate that women of the past often led such exciting lives, yet it is the men that we hear stories of? We know little of Lady LeFroy. We must try to learn about her from her work.”

  Dulcie nodded in agreement. The morning glory vines curled and spiraled around each other like miniature corkscrews. They were so delicate. Dulcie could imagine Lady LeFroy concentrating hard, pushing aside the rest of the world, and using a tiny brush to create them. She would have been completely focused on her work, oblivious to anything happening around her.

  That’s what Dulcie wanted to do right now. Tune out everything else but her work. She turned to Cassandra. “I’m considering an exhibit of botanicals from around the world for my museum,” she said. “I’m glad to find an example of a woman artist that I might be able to include.”

  Cassandra smiled. “As am I.” She put her hand gently on Dulcie’s arm. “You must let me know how you do with your work. I see great things in you Dr. Dulcinea.” She squeezed Dulcie’s arm gently as though she were a little child, then drifted off into the shadows of the next gallery.

  Dulcie turned aw
ay from the final painting in the exhibit, pushed through the heavy glass doors and stepped lightly down the carpeted stairs. She emerged onto the wide stone steps that fronted the building. Squinting in the bright light, she searched through her bag for her sunglasses. Only after a few moments of rummaging did she realize that they were still on top of her head.

  She slid them down then looked around, trying to decide what to do next. This trip to Bermuda had been a lark. No, it was actually an escape. Her cell phone had at least five unread text messages. Fortunately they had stopped once she left the US since she didn’t have international calling access. She did have email, however, and did not even want to check that.

  Dulcie slowly descended the imposing steps. The late afternoon shadows were beginning to encroach on the street. Carefully looking in both directions several times — Bermuda traffic came from the opposite direction from what she normally expected — she crossed and made her way to the waterfront.

  A ferry blasted its horn as it pulled away from the dock. She watched it for several minutes as it went across the harbor toward Salt Kettle. ‘Dan would love it here,’ she thought. Her brother was back in Maine running his business of giving tours around Casco Bay on the small yacht that he and Dulcie had bought. Dulcie could imagine him doing the same thing in Hamilton Harbor.

  Bermuda was the closest place that she could think of where she could truly run away. Nova Scotia had been a possibility, but geographically it seemed too much like Maine for her. The flight to Bermuda from Boston had been under two hours, but when she arrived she felt as though she was half way around the world. The water was a brilliant aqua. The houses, painted soft pastel colors with white roofs, looked like cakes with fondant icing. To her ear everyone spoke with a gentle accent, somewhere between British and a Caribbean lilt. She had laughed to herself thinking how flat and ugly her voice must sound to them.

  Her passport was due to expire in a few months. A moment of panic had set in after she bought the non-refundable ticket, but had forgotten to check her passport’s date. She had just made it in to the country under the pesky six-month rule. She had to remember to renew, just in case she needed to escape again.

  There it was once more, that word: escape. Why did she need to escape? There really was nothing to escape from. She had never had a relationship with him. They had never really even been on a date. There was the one “thank you” dinner, but that was all. Yet she felt betrayed. Why?

  Deep down, she knew why. Even though they had not been intimate by the usual definition, the fact that they worked together on two separate murder cases threw them together in a very intimate way. Dulcie tried to convince herself that they were simply working too closely. However, she could not deny that he had seemed to show more of an interest in her than was strictly professional.

  But then, the bombshell. He was unavailable. Completely unavailable. He must have known it would affect her, or he would have mentioned it from the start. He must have known it did affect her, or he would not have seen any need to leave multiple text messages.

  She was not going to let it bother her any more, however. She shook her head vigorously and walked on down the street. Nicholas Black would continue on the path of his life, and she would continue on hers. And hopefully those paths would not cross again.

  #

  Nicholas Black sat back in the uncomfortable wooden chair and looked around the conference room of the law offices that his grandfather had founded. He had just finished signing papers. The lawyer handling his case, the droning Robert Cavanaugh, Esquire, walked in the room as Nick put down the pen. “Ah, good. Perfect timing,” he said in a nasally voice with pudgy lips that barely moved. “She’ll contest again probably, but this time she can’t stall any longer. We’ve got her.” He tapped Nick’s laptop with the eraser end of his pencil. The computer contained the critical piece of evidence, grounds for divorce that were irrefutable: adultery.

  The first time that Nick had asked for a divorce, just after he had finished law school, she had laughed at him. The issue was money, of course. It had always been money. That’s why she had married him in the first place, although he had been completely unaware of the fact. Stupid of him, in retrospect. They had known each other since childhood, yet she had never shown any particular interest in him then.

  She had managed to stall the divorce proceedings on several occasions. Not content with a standard alimony payment, she was simply holding out for more money. She knew that when he reached the age of thirty, only several months away at this point, he would receive a huge trust fund. If they divorced before then, she would get none of it. But by dragging everything on until his birthday, she would then be entitled to half. Prolonging everything had little impact on her life other than requiring her to maintain a low profile. It was all lawyers’ work.

  Why had Nick married her? He sighed as Robert Cavanaugh, Esquire shuffled through the papers. Nick knew why. He was young. He was easily manipulated. He let his family rule his life. She was beautiful of course, which always affects the situation, especially for a relatively inexperienced college boy. She had also done everything in her power to entice him. That is, until the day after the wedding, which had taken place the day after his graduation from Harvard. That’s when it all began to change.

  Nick had not recognized it immediately, but their ‘similar interests’ quickly began to fade away. He had always enjoyed museums. She now found them boring. He liked to sail. She suddenly hated how the wind snarled up her hair. He liked to go to his family’s quiet beach house and spend the evenings reading a good book. She now preferred to stay in Boston and go out at night with her friends.

  When he mentioned his troubles to his parents, their response was decisive. “Make it work. Besides,” his father had said, “when you become a lawyer and join the firm, she’ll be an asset.” Nick didn’t want an asset. He wanted a friend. He wanted a companion. He wanted a wife.

  He had been in law school for two years and was facing the bar exam. He had taken to closing the door of his study for hours so that he could review for it. In fact, he had not been studying. He had been doing nothing but stare at the walls and wonder how to get out of the mess that his life had become. As the day of the exam drew nearer, he knew that he was not ready. He also knew that he had never intended to take it in the first place.

  His link to Robert Cavanaugh, Esquire had begun as a class project in law school. Nick had been researching a case and his father, now retired, had suggested Cavanaugh as a good source of information. Of course the younger lawyer could not refuse to help the son of a senior partner and grandson of the firm’s founder.

  The relationship between Cavanaugh and Nick could not exactly have been termed a friendship. It was more of a mutual understanding. Cavanaugh was many things, but stupid was not one of them. He quickly realized that Nick’s questions did not exactly pertain to the case that he was studying. Cavanaugh knew that they were of a more personal nature. He sympathized with the young law student. Robert Cavanaugh, Esquire had been used for his money too, and had also experienced some difficulty extricating himself from his own situation.

  Now Cavanaugh looked across the table at Nick. “Yep, you’ve got her this time. And not a moment too soon as you’re well aware.” The final word hummed through his nose. “I’ll get this through as fast as I can.”

  Nick nodded. He would have smiled, but he found no pleasure in any of it. He was tired, drained. “Thanks, Bob. You don’t know how much I appreciate this. I know it’s been tough, especially with my father not exactly supportive.”

  Cavanaugh waived his hand quickly over the table, as if to clear away the invisible dust in the air. “He’s retired. The rest of us are in charge now. Besides, he doesn’t know what it’s like to get hosed. Or at least, I don’t think he knows.”

  This time Nick did smile, although ruefully. “No, I don’t think he does.” His parents had always been on the same team, putting family honor and pride before anything else
. He had heard many arguments behind closed doors, but before the rest of the world they were a united front. Personal happiness, individual happiness, was irrelevant.

  Cavanaugh collected the papers together, tapped the edges on the table several times until they were perfectly aligned, then stood up. Nick did as well. He stuck out his hand and shook Cavanaugh’s awkwardly.

  “I’ll let you know a court date. And it will be well before your birthday, you have my word,” Robert Cavanaugh, Esquire squawked through his nose. With that, he held the door open for Nick, who walked through it for what would be, hopefully, the last time.

  #

  Dulcie returned to her room at the Hamilton Princess Hotel. She usually liked to stay somewhere near a beach so that she could swim, but this was a different sort of excursion. For this trip she just wanted to ride the ferry around the harbor, stare at the palm trees waving over the ocean, and of course visit the Bermuda National Gallery, an easy walk from the hotel.

  Truth be told though, the biggest draw of the Hamilton Princess for her was high tea, to which Dulcie had happily succumbed the day before. When she was in Bermuda she had to restrain herself from having high tea every single day, which she could have, easily. ‘Why don’t we do this in America?’ she had thought once again while eyeing the three-tiered plate stand. The waiter had carefully described all of the little sandwiches and treats, but Dulcie could not remember a single one. It didn’t matter. They were all so good. She’d attempted to appear ladylike as she devoured them all while sipping tea and reading a book.