by Beth Byers
Violet ordered another pot of tea and plate of sandwiches for them, and this time they’d both found their appetites. Helen had taken only a few bites of her smoked salmon sandwich when something else occurred to her.
“Hugo was angry with his father about Isolde. For a while, I wanted to believe it was because of me. But I think…”
Helen hesitated and Violet leaned forward. “All of your secrets about this. A villa for a year isn’t something you’ll get from anyone else. Your father just might send you to a home for unwed mothers.”
Helen shuddered and cleared her throat. “I’m not trying to protect myself. I’m just not sure why it happened the way it did.”
“Tell me,” Violet insisted and Helen shrugged.
“Hugo was upset about Carlton’s engagement to Isolde. Furious even. The fight between them wasn’t even close to normal. The one time they discussed it, it had been when Carlton took me to a play. They were yelling at each other in the hallway and we were all asked to leave. It was embarrassing. Even worse, Hugo was so angry it was alarming. I was worried that he’d actually attack his father.”
“What the devil?” Vi breathed and Helen nodded.
“I was still hoping that Carlton wasn’t serious about Isolde, so I suggested that he consider whether he really wanted to destroy what remained of his relationship with his son, but Carlton laughed. Said he was pursuing Isolde for the business connections, but Hugo’s reaction made it all the sweeter.” Helen laughed an angry little sound. “That was when I still allowed myself to believe that it was all lies, and he’d get the business connections and investments and leave her for me.”
“Hugo seems to be preoccupied with my sister,” Vi told Helen, who couldn’t help but shiver in sympathy. Isolde might have ‘stolen’ Carlton from Helen, but still, the girl found sympathy when it came to Hugo.
They finished their tea and Violet spoke again. “I don't know what will happen to your father in the coming months as the financial crimes that Carlton was a part of come to light. If you need help in getting a new start after your trip to the Amalfi Coast, you are not alone.”
Helen nodded, seeming emotional for a moment, and then she left Violet. Vi lingered over another pot of tea, sipping slowly. When Victor appeared an hour later, he ordered a bundle of sandwiches to go and they hurried to catch the next train out of Margate.
“Mathers has an alibi,” Victor told Vi, who nodded.
“So I understand,” Vi answered.
Vi told Victor what she’d learned and his brows rose as he heard Vi’s offer to use the villa while Helen had her lying-in.
Victor also learned that Hugo was a bounder. But he further learned that when Mr. Mathers had started to work with Danvers, things had been on the up and up. It was only after Danvers lost everything in a series of gambling failures that he’d started these investment schemes.
Mr. Mathers insisted that he’d only helped with the legitimate side of the business, but Victor seemed to disbelieve the man. Violet wasn’t sure what she believed, but if Helen was being honest, Vi was pretty sure Helen—like Victor—believed that Mr. Mathers was in deep.
“The poor blighter,” Vic said. “He seemed a little baffled by his life even as he was lying to me about what he knew.”
Victor and Violet eventually fell into silence. Violet pulled out her journal once again. She wrote for a while before she said, “I wish we could get what Jack knows about Gulliver. I feel certain we’d know who killed Mr. Danvers if we had details about that man.”
“Let’s invite him to our place for pre-dinner drinks, love. I’ll grill him and you sit and look pretty and admiring. He won’t be able to help himself to reveal all he knows in the face of our joint efforts.”
“I know we don’t know all that much about Mr. Gulliver, but Victor…I don’t like Hugo. Killer or not, he needs to stay away from Isolde.”
Chapter 19
The door was open to their house when they arrived and the twins glanced at each other before hurrying up the front walk. Whatever was happening?
The front hall held Hargreaves, their brother Gerald, Isolde, Beatrice, Giles, and the local bobby.
“What’s all this?” Victor asked as he set down his hat, gaze fixed on the policeman.
Violet slipped off her coat and her cloche and noticed that Isolde was a little pale, but she didn’t seem overly upset.
“Someone tried to force entry into your house, old man,” Gerald said. “The servants were all out and I had taken Isolde to lunch and a little outing. When we got back the bobbies were here and all was in a tizzy.”
Victor’s brows rose and he asked Hargreaves, “Did they get in?”
“No, sir,” Hargreaves said as he closed the front door. “The footman from next door noticed something was amiss and chased the blighter off.”
Victor frowned and turned the policeman while Vi said, “If we’ve avoided disaster, I’ll just run upstairs and get dressed.”
Isolde shook her head and handed Violet a note with her name on it. She’d seen glimpses of Jack’s notebook enough to recognize his handwriting. It was with a frown that she took the note.
It was, she knew, an ominous sign. Vi tossed the group a grin and a wink to cover her concern. “I’ll leave you to it.”
She skipped up to her room and opened the door. She glanced into her jewelry box. Nothing was amiss. Any concern that they’d actually been burgled faded. She’d left rather a lot of expensive jewelry outside of the safe. A laziness she’d need to correct.
Violet needed to read the note, but she felt the ominous brush of wondering. Had Jack intended to cancel the date yesterday by giving her an escape from the dinner and play? If he had, how foolish she’d looked when she’d told him that she wouldn’t play the games women played.
Violet slowly opened the note and read:
Violet—
I am unable to attend the dinner and play this evening.
Jack
What was she supposed to do with a note like this? Violet threw it to the side. A part of her wanted to pull out her journal and scribble all her feelings down, but they were too rambunctious even for that. Rather than get dressed, Violet threw her things to the side, stared at the mess for a moment and then hung up her clothes. The sight of them strewn about was making her fingers itchy.
She started a bath, playing with a combination of salts and bath oils, so her very skin would smell like a garden. She slid into the water, and when her mind wouldn’t stop racing, she slid under the water, holding her breath tightly. The pressure on her lungs drew attention from her doubts until she finally pushed from the water to tell herself, “You’re being ridiculous.”
Violet worked soap into her hair and then the sponge to run it over her limbs. “So, your date got canceled. That’s hardly something to have a fizz up about.”
Violet finished her bath, wrapped herself up in a nightgown and a kimono and made her way down to the dining room. Cook hadn’t been expecting them to stay in. Would they even have dinner?
“What’s all this?” Victor asked. “Don’t you have dinner plans? I tried to get Jack to come hear what we’ve learned, but he can’t be located.”
She smiled brightly, making herself a drink, as Victor followed her through the house. “He canceled. I thought I’d work on our story and…”
Victor laughed. “So you thought you’d put on a bright face and I wouldn’t notice that you’d suddenly decided that your kimono was outerwear and that you wanted a…is that a bee’s knees?”
Violet turned and raised a brow, holding up the bottle of gin. “Did you want one?”
“Yes, darling, I want one. As does Isolde. But you, old thing, don’t get to bounce around here pretending you aren’t in a fizz.”
Violet put less gin in his bee’s knees after that. He noticed, taking hers instead.
“You’re a devil.”
“You don’t have your best actress foot forward, love. Let’s see it now. I would say I
feel terribly bad about leaving you behind, but I’m off to meet up with Tomas.”
Violet shot Victor a narrowed gaze.
“I know already that you’d like to avoid his company since he has yet to propose to you again this year.”
She cocked her head and sipped deeply from her bee’s knees. “Oh, that’s sweet.”
“Just the thing you need right now. To help balance out the sour you’re pretending not to have. That chocolate liqueur we bought in Paris arrived today while we were gone. Some of the other things we bought might…”
Violet turned to Victor. “I love you, brother. But, go away. You’re trying to give me a list of things to distract me. Go and have a drink with Tomas, listen to some music, eat some food, indulge your senses. I can take care of myself.”
Victor grinned at Violet. “Well now. You are in a fizz. I told you so.”
“You, sir, will be in a fizz if you don’t leave me be.”
He escaped, but a few minutes later Isolde came in with a careful expression on her face.
“Oh, stop it.” Violet pulled all the bottles of alcohol from their cart and was examining them. “I’m fine.”
“Of course you are. Why wouldn’t you be?” Isolde sounded a little like a parrot, speaking the one phrase it had been taught without any of the right tones.
Violet shot Isolde a mocking glance. “Ring for someone and turn on the wireless. We’re going to be giddy.”
Isolde watched as Violet started opening bottles and sniffing them, putting them in inexplicable arrangements.
“What are you doing?”
“Playing,” Violet said and then when a song came on that she liked, Violet spun with the bottle in her hand.
“What is that you’ve got there?”
“Limoncello. Victor loves to buy alcohol. He buys it wherever we go. He’ll probably buy cases of Belgium beer and genever while we’re in Bruges. He’ll send some home to Father, some to Gerald, and stock his own ridiculous collection. While we were gone, he bought chocolate liqueur in France.” Vi tapped the top of one fanciful bottle and winked at Isolde, who looked suddenly intrigued.
Violet poured a little of the limoncello into two glasses and added some of the chocolate liqueur to one and some ginger wine to another.
“Whatever are you doing?” Isolde asked, watching Violet take a sip of one of the glasses and make a face. Vi handed the glass to her sister and tried the next one.
“I’ve always loved ginger wine,” Vi told Isolde, setting aside the two drinks she mixed, as well as her bee’s knees, and took a fresh glass and poured herself the ginger wine.
“Do you?” Isolde kept the limoncello and chocolate cocktail and sipped it. “I always assumed you just liked cocktails.”
Violet shrugged and admitted, “Oh I do. I like how creative they are. I learn how to make the ones I like. But sometimes, I just want a little glass of ginger wine, a good book, and maybe some chocolate.”
“You,” Isolde told her sister, “are blue and pretending not to be. Do you like Mr. Wakefield that much?”
Violet nodded as Beatrice opened the door in response to the bell.
“Darling, I know Cook expected us to be out, but we’ll be in. Will you bring us something to eat? Anything?”
“He cooked for Lady Isolde, m’lady. Did you want a tray?”
“Two trays. We’re going to listen to the wireless and ignore that there is quite a lovely dining room in this house.”
Violet changed the subject as soon as Beatrice left and once she was back with the food, Violet nibbled on it, sipped her single glass of ginger wine, and listened to the music with her feet up.
“I would like a kimono,” Isolde said after a long while. She’d cleaned up the mess Violet had made with the bar, letting her sister snuggle into the comfortable chair. “Perhaps we might go shopping tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’ll be done with my mope tomorrow and prepared to force clothes upon you. It won’t be necessary for anyone to press clothes upon me as acquiring them is as natural as breathing.”
Isolde laughed as Violet curled onto her side and fell asleep listening to the music. Isolde woke her not long after and got Vi up to her room where she slept the megrims away.
Victor woke Violet the next morning.
“I have the vaguest memory of having done something horrible.”
Violet pushed up her eye mask and scowled at her brother. “I was going to have a lie-in.”
“I dove right into my cups with Tomas. He was upset about you, I was upset about Jack leaving you with half a note, we indulged.”
Vi’s gaze narrowed on Victor’s.
“Of course, I snuck in here and read it. Don’t be slow, luv.”
Violet pulled her eye mask the rest of the way off and pushed herself up. Her steely gaze was doing nothing to cow her brother.
“Tomas was glummer than you were, love. We got well and thoroughly toasted without nearly as many nibbles as you and I usually order. I recall finding out where Jack lived. And then…did I go there?”
Violet’s mouth dropped open and she took her pillow to beat at her brother.
“I know, I know, but mercy. My head, Vi. My head!”
“Find him,” she ordered. “Find Jack and make it better. Whatever you did, undo!”
“By Jove, I will. I swear I will. I’ll find his place again. How did I find it drunk? I’ll explain that Tomas alone is like drinking with a fish. You are required to dance with him, so he doesn’t drown in gin.”
“Jack!” Vi cut in.
“Somehow it’ll make it all my fault. I was angry, you will have been all smiles.”
“Not smiles!” Vi said. “A little disappointed, but not shaken. Still clever. I went out with the girls. I didn’t miss a beat.”
Victor laughed. “Of course, you did! Why would a bright young thing like yourself stay home, make a mess in the bar, mix random drinks, and then console herself with ginger wine, the drink you prefer when you’re glum.”
Violet hit Victor with the pillow again and said, “Isolde and I are on a mission to acquire her a kimono.”
“That fiend!” Victor said and then held his head at the sound of his own voice.
“We’ll buy whatever we might need for Belgium.”
“So, nothing? Because certainly, your wardrobe is sufficient for the entirety of the globe.”
Violet ignored that comment. “After which, Isolde and I will have luncheon together and return home to a contrite brother who has made things right and is repentant. Perhaps in the mood to buy us both dinner at the Savoy.”
“I’ll make a reservation before I go.”
“See that you do,” Violet told him and then curled onto her side. “Ring for Beatrice on your way out. I think Isolde may have had all the things I mixed. She’ll need Giles’s concoction, aspirin, and probably some toast to soak up whatever booze is left in her stomach.”
“The poor bug,” Victor said. “I’ll be needing all those things myself to mend whatever I did.”
Chapter 20
Finding a kimono was easy given the infatuation that the British currently had with all things Asian.
Isolde moaned over two until Violet purchased them both with a second for herself. Vi selected a scarlet kimono with dragons embroidered on it. Her acquisitive soul demanded it the moment Vi set her eyes on it.
“Vi,” Isolde breathed, “look at this dress.”
Violet paused and walked towards it. From a distance, it was a simple nude beige dress. But as you approached the details appeared. Shimmering gold beading, lacy accents, fringe that lengthened the line of the body.
“Oh my,” Violet said.
“There’s a matching gold shimmer wrap,” the salesgirl said. “A headpiece too, if you like those.”
“You have to try it on,” Isolde said.
“We can adjust it to you specifically,” the girl said. “I agree. This color of nude would look amazing on your skin.”
Violet was
n’t difficult to persuade. She stepped out of the dressing room and turned in front of the paneled mirror, running her hands down her body. She didn’t need Isolde to say Vi looked amazing. She knew she did.
“She’ll take it,” Isolde said for Violet. The salesgirl sent for the seamstress, a woman about Vi’s age of Asian descent. Her dark brown eyes sparkled as she examined Vi in the mirror.
“You look lovely. It’ll take at least three days for the adjustments. When they’re done, we’ll have it delivered. If you’d like a second fitting instead, I can bring it, but you’ll find it’s perfect.”
“I’m sure it will be. We’ve heard the most wonderful things about your establishment,” Violet said. “I’ll pay, Isolde, if you want to look in at the hat shop? You said your cloche got crushed.”
Her sister nodded, looking excited for another hat while Violet spoke with the seamstress.
“The designer is working on a dress that is garnet. It would require much daring to wear. I’ll have her pin it for your measurements and bring it when I come. You’ll want it,” the girl said.
Vi grinned at the woman and asked, “What is your name?”
“Liu Rushi.”
“I sense a partnership?”
“Indubitably,” Rushi replied with a wink, and Violet requested their purchases to be delivered.
Violet meandered her way to the hat shop several doors down.
Had Victor been able to sort things out with Jack without making Vi seem like some sort of obsessive female who’d been destroyed by a simple missed date? If so, how had he done it?
The door over the shop jangled and Vi stepped in, glancing around.
“What can I help you with? Perhaps a new hat to match that lovely coat?”
“I…” Vi slowly turned. The hat shop wasn’t large and Isolde should be there. “I was supposed to be meeting my sister in here, only…”
“No one has come in for the last half hour,” the man said.
Violet frowned. “Excuse me.”