by Beth Byers
“And has anyone seen Aunt Agatha?”
“She kept to her rooms today,” Victor said. “Despite the bellows of Uncle Kingsley.”
“A brilliant woman, your aunt,” Lila laughed. “We found your Mr. Davies in town. Spent much of the day with him. Gwennie made calf eyes at him, and he seemed intrigued with her charming smile. We learned that he lives in Leeds, works with his father, is a bachelor, and has always enjoyed Aunt Agatha’s spice.”
“So you learned nothing to rule him out?”
“Only that he has the good taste to admire our Gwennie’s fine eyes.”
Gwennie blushed and said, “Oh, stop it!”
“Well,” Victor said, “this holiday will be one to remember if we survive it.”
“Now you stop it, brother,” Violet ordered. She rose and asked, “Shall we play a game of billiards?”
“No,” Victor said, “we will. Darling, you check on Aunt Agatha and make sure she’s all right.”
Violet nodded and left her brother’s rooms. She walked to Aunt Agatha’s bedroom with her hand firmly on the rail of the stairs. Violet had never noted how steep they were. It infuriated her that what had once been a beautiful staircase with an eye to the beauty of detailing was suddenly something to be feared.
When she went to knock on Aunt Agatha’s door, Jack Wakefield stepped out of his father’s room.
“Oh,” she said lamely and then followed up with, “How is your father?”
“He’ll be fine,” Jack snapped and then closed his eyes, seeming to take himself in hand before he said, “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. Now or earlier today. May I have a few moments of your time?”
Violet nodded, and Jack led her down the hallway a bit. “This has got to stop.”
“I agree.”
“I need you to tell me why your brother assaulted Theodophilus Smythe-Hill and Algernon.”
Violet paused and then decided that lying or evading questions from the man who was trying to protect her aunt wasn’t a choice she could make. She glanced around, noted a scullery maid and said, “Perhaps we can walk some?”
Jack held out his arm, and she slowly took it. “It starts with Algernon. He has something of a sordid history of throwing his friends my way with too much information about my potential inheritances.”
Jack seemed to almost growl in the back of his throat though his face didn’t change. He took a rather tight grip on her arm as they walked down the stairs and then he led her to the back of the house where the orangery would be both warm and private.
“He seems to have lost rather a lot of money to the snake, Theodophilus.”
“Has he?” Jack asked silkily.
Violet knew he’d see the motive in that statement and as much as she regretted that for Algie, Aunt Agatha was higher on Violet’s list of concerns than her cousin’s money troubles.
“They agreed between themselves that if Theodophilus married me after being introduced by Algie that the debt would be forgiven.”
Violet blushed as Jack stopped. He dropped her hand and clenched his fist, so Violet took a seat on one of the stone benches, reaching down to trail her fingers over the plants that were growing nearby.
“My father will settle enough on me that—with the money from my mother and grandfather—it would make it unnecessary to struggle or work. However, I don’t believe that the snake wished for the money so much as the connection to my father. He is an earl, after all. It doesn’t mean all that much to me, but the snake thinks rather differently about the old connections. When you add in Aunt Agatha’s business connections and Uncle Kingsley and his friends, I suppose my connections are worth rather more than my semi-respectable inheritance.”
Jack dropped down onto the bench across the path from her and asked, “So your brother assaulted him for that? It seems rather a strong reaction.”
Violet didn’t want to relive the fear she’d felt as the snake manhandled her, but she had determined to be honest with Jack and help him find who was trying to hurt Aunt Agatha. Violet dropped her gaze to the ground and said, “Well. No. The snake caught me alone and…well…he manhandled me some. I was…well, I was afraid. If Hargreaves’s niece, Beatrice, hadn’t come along at just the right moment, I’m not sure what would have happened. I told Victor and he shrugged off his affable nature, gathered Denny up, and taught both the snake and Algie a lesson.”
Jack’s hands were grasping the stone bench so tightly that his fingers had turned white. Violet felt a moment of concern, but as her gaze flicked over his face, she realized she was entirely safe with him. This was an honorable man. The kind you called on when you were being threatened as Aunt Agatha had. This was the man who went to war and protected his country. No doubt he’d had some image of ideal England that he had been fighting for, but fight he did. It didn’t matter really why he’d fought or why he was here now. She was sure she was safe with him and that flash of trepidation died.
“That makes Algernon a much more interesting suspect than he was a few minutes ago. I wish you had told me earlier.”
“There’s more,” Violet said, explaining the change in Meredith’s circumstances. Jack seemed far less inclined to find Meredith’s situation suspicious. Violet supposed it seemed like the fate of many a woman after the war with so many men lost, but she wasn’t sure she agreed that it was so unremarkable. No woman wanted the life Meredith was leading. Having loved and lost and then being imprisoned in an unloving sibling’s home. Even if Meredith was fond of the children, they weren’t hers, were they? Her fate was to be powerless just as women were starting to really find a foothold in crafting their own lives.
Violet, herself, was an example of this. Her mother would never have been able to live in the city with an indulgent brother, writing stories on the side, and spending her evenings dating whom she chose. She was as likely to dance with a poor artist as a son of a peer, and neither were more appealing than the other. Even this attraction she felt for Jack would have been impossible in her mother and grandmother’s day. In these modern times, anything was possible.
Violet refused to let Jack go until she pointed out that Uncle Kingsley had arrived. It didn’t make him more suspicious than any of the rest, but he’d responded to the threat, which told Violet that Uncle Kingsley expected to inherit from his aunt. Maybe for himself. Maybe for his children. Either way, he had an eye on Aunt Agatha’s money.
“I told you what I found out,” Violet said to Jack. She could feel his gaze on her almost as though he were touching her. First her collarbone, then her cheek, then the curve of her lips. “Tell me what you have found.”
“No,” Jack said, flatly. “It’s dangerous. This person is trying to kill your aunt. I won’t put you in the line of fire as well.”
Violet hesitated and then said, “I can’t make you tell me. But you are spiting yourself. I may well be able to provide context that even Aunt Agatha cannot. She doesn’t know all the secrets of myself and my cousins. We’re the main suspects, aren’t we?”
“You are a suspect,” Jack told her honestly. “You all are. I haven’t been able to entirely rule anyone out.”
“Then ask me your questions. Tell me what you know. Let me help.”
“If you are the criminal,” Jack said gently. “Or your brother, your context could lead me astray.”
“Better astray but moving forward than blindly treading water,” Violet shot back. “I won’t deny that I hate being a suspect. I hate that Aunt Agatha is concerned that I might be trying to hurt her. That you think I might have caused your father’s accident. That anyone could believe my focus is so on money that I’ve forgotten my soul, but I swear to you I have not.”
“And your brother? Do you think I don’t see how he is in the forefront of your heart and mind? You would lie for him.”
“We shared a womb! I know him better than I know myself. I don’t have to lie for him.”
“Or you think you know him and are wrong,” Jack sa
id almost gently. “I checked out your marriage proposal. I checked out that Tomas St. Marks is really as rich as gossip says. I believe that you have a much easier way to get money. That doesn’t extend to your brother.”
“Of course it does!” Violet said. “If I married Tomas, Victor’s very best friend, do you think that Victor wouldn’t live in our household? Do you think Victor doesn’t wish I loved Tomas as he deserves to be loved? He does. He does because it would put the two of them together. They’re brothers in their hearts. Victor would live with us. He’d lose the expense of a household, and he wouldn’t need more money.”
“And when he wants to marry?”
Violet took in a slow breath and then said, “Victor is not a monster. He loves Agatha as much as I do.”
“I’d love to believe in him as fiercely as you do, Violet.” His hand twitched. Perhaps he wanted to reach towards her, but instead, he re-grasped the bench. “I won’t risk your aunt on sentiment.”
“All I am saying is that if you ask me questions about what you’ve learned, I might be able to help. Fine! Investigate us! Slap us on your suspect list. We’re on mine. But you’ll find, in the end, that it wasn’t Victor or myself. Let me help. Please. By Jove, if I’m not lying to you, Aunt Agatha is the closest thing I’ve had to a mother since I lost my own. Please, let me help. Please.”
Jack’s penetrating gaze flicked over her and then he said, “Your Uncle Kingsley has taken some rather spectacular losses.”
Violet leaned back, shocked to her bones.
“No doubt the reason Algernon offered you up was because his father was unable to rescue him this time from his idiocy. It turns out this isn’t the first time that Algernon has lost money like this.”
Violet leaned back, thinking over what she knew of Uncle Kingsley, Algernon, and…she hated to say it…Victor. Finally she told Jack, “Victor must have known that.”
“Why do you say that?”
“A few months ago, Algernon went from annoying cousin to almost seeming to flirt with me. I told Victor about it, and it stopped. I wouldn’t be surprised if he found out about the money. Algie doesn’t know me well enough to understand I won’t be married for whatever money I have. Algie wants to believe I’m desperate to be married despite the rumors of Tomas.”
“Do you love Tomas?” Jack asked Violet, and suddenly it didn’t seem like a question from an investigator. It felt rather like a question from a man to a woman. A man who might have noticed her eyes or her wit. A man who might see something in her. Something intriguing? Something possibly worth loving?
Her breath hitched, just a little, and she met his gaze. She told him, very clearly, “Tomas is my brother’s best friend. He has problems from the war. He feels secure with me. As for me, he has always made me feel safe and loved.”
Jack’s jaw tightened, but his face was impassive beyond that.
“It’s just that I don’t love him that way. I feel the same towards Tomas as I do towards Victor. I don’t want to marry Tomas. I want him to marry someone who loves him desperately and then be chums with her.”
Chapter 15
“Back to Kingsley,” Jack said. “What else do you know?”
“How much did he lose?”
Jack paused and then said, “Everything he has and more.”
“Oh, Uncle Kingsley,” Violet whispered. What would he do? Algernon could get a job and use his connections to see to himself. But Uncle Kingsley was a bit old to start a career and far too proud. He had children in the schoolroom and a wife to support. What a terrible mess! Why did people invest beyond their means? Why would anyone risk everything? Aunt Agatha had taught Violet time and again about proceeding with caution. About building a fortune slowly and with steady steps.
It was those same principles that had helped Violet and Victor increase their own income. Careful investing, careful purchases, careful, deliberate risks that wouldn’t handicap them.
“Did he ask Aunt Agatha to rescue him?”
“It is my understanding that he suggested to her that she join the investment, and she advised him strenuously against it. He’s since asked her for help, but she refuses to throw good money after bad.”
Violet could well imagine it. Uncle Kingsley had often acted as though Aunt Agatha’s success was a series of fortunate happenstances that had given her an unjustified sense of understanding business. Violet knew he was wrong about Agatha, but no one could convince Kingsley—a man—that his aunt might just be smarter in business than he was. Violet had heard him prose on, more than once, about the weakness of women’s minds, about their lack of capacity for mathematics and the sciences. About the way their minds were easily persuaded into the gothic and supernatural.
Violet was used as an example far too often because of her love of novels. Whereas Victor, who loved all the same novels, was never held up. He was a man who enjoyed a little fluff here and there. As though Violet could believe the great apes of Africa would raise a baby and Victor would recognize it as a fairy story. Of course, Violet recognized her novels as stories, but it didn’t matter. She was the fool and Victor was never reprimanded.
Violet gritted her teeth and leapt off her bench to pace in front of Jack. She muttered under her breath about the stupidity of men who assumed they were so wise and experienced because of a difference in plumbing. Her steps were quick and sharp and her words were barely audible. It seemed, from the smile on Jack’s face, that he caught too many of them. In her fury, she didn’t care.
“He’s here to keep himself in the will or get himself into it,” she stated with surety. “He’s got to be desperate for the money.”
“Do you think he’s not in it?”
Violet considered for a few minutes as she paced, her slippers clicking against the stone of the pathways before she said, “I doubt it. Aunt Agatha has never appreciated the way Kingsley has treated her. He always has this attitude that her fortune is a lucky accident and she should turn the control of it to him before she loses it all. She’s not a cypher despite his desire that she would be. Nor is Aunt Agatha the type of woman, with an excess of heirs, to give money to one who spent his life treating her as a fool.”
Jack nodded and then said, “What about Algernon? What would he do if he realized his inheritance from his father was gone?”
Violet’s steps continued. She had always been a pacer. Someone who moved while she thought. In the face of a potential murder, it was even worse.
“I don’t know. Aunt Agatha is fond of him, I think. When we were children, Algie, Merry, Vic, and I spent a lot of time with Aunt Agatha. John Davies on occasion as well. I don’t know that she favored any of us over the others. I really did think she’d leave her money to a hospital or a school. But if she’s determined to comply with her husband’s wishes to build a fortune as a gift for those she loves, then I would think the five of us would be the most likely heirs.”
“Do you think she’ll give it all to one?”
“Why would she do that?” Violet asked, genuinely shocked. “Just so one of us could be very blessed and the rest of us would look on in envy? That will ruin relationships. I don’t think so. Maybe for John since he was related to Henry. But Aunt Agatha doesn’t err on the side of the men like so many do. Merry and I are as likely to inherit as Vic and Algie.”
“Do you believe your cousin Algie would murder his aunt once he realized the fortune of his father was gone, he was in debt, and no one would save him?”
Violet hesitated and then admitted, “He’s thoughtless. I…maybe? But perhaps not. I could more see Theo killing Agatha to get the money back from Algie. Algie himself? I think he might just make grand promises about her imminent death even though he didn’t have any reason to actually believe she is at death’s door.”
“So who do you think is the would-be killer?”
Violet bit her lip and then admitted, “I…wish I could say I knew. I wish I had some reason to believe it was someone else. Anyone else. Of my family? I ha
ven’t a clue.”
Jack made a note in a notebook she hadn’t even noticed and then he asked, “What would Agatha do if she realized Algie has a gambling problem?”
Violet hadn’t thought about that. Agatha didn’t suffer fools and Violet could almost hear her say, ‘I’ll be damned if I spend a lifetime building an income and let him fritter it away.’
Now that she thought about it, how often had Aunt Agatha tried to teach them about investing? About curating your fortune? About carefully looking into where you might put your money? Violet would gamble her own money that neither Merry or Algie had ever listened to Agatha. Even Victor had only learned those things because he loved Agatha, not because he wanted to spend his time that way. He wasn’t a man for business.
If Agatha didn’t trust them with the money she’d built, just how would she leave it to them?
“I don’t know,” Violet said. “Does she not know? You make it seem like this has been a problem for a while for Algie. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is well aware of his issues. But, as far as the inheritance? I doubt she’d just hand him money that he could lose in months when it took her years to build it. Only…”
“Only?”
“Only there are ways around that, aren’t there? She could leave him a trust he couldn’t access the principal of? She’d probably do that for Merry, to be honest. Aunt Agatha was not at all pleased when she realized that the money Meredith received from Grandfather was gone before her husband had even died.”
Jack winced and Violet nodded. “Her husband got control of it when they wed, and when he died, she was left with nothing. Victor and I wondered, more than once, if her husband had married her for that very reason and then scolded ourselves for thinking it.”
Jack leaned back and he asked, “What about you and Victor?”
A part of Violet wanted to lie. She knew that Aunt Agatha was not displeased with how they’d treated their own money. Violet had asked for Agatha’s advice on more than one investment that Violet had pursued. Violet had received and followed suggestions that Agatha had sent.