“God will judge them, Sam, and that will be that,” said Mrs Taylor. “And they cannot harm another poor soul now, thank the Lord.” She gave a shudder and turned away from the grave, and began to make her way back through the snow, with Taylor following after.
The snow came on again more thickly, and Felix and Major Vernon too made haste to get to the shelter of the carriage. As they passed through the Lych Gate, they were surprised to find Mrs Herne standing in the corner, wearing a bright red cloak.
“My boy was right about them being devils,” she said.
“He certainly was,” said Major Vernon. “Is that cloak not –?”
“Your lady’s fine cloak, yes, sir,” said Mrs Herne. “She gave it to me before she set off to Oxford with her lad. A great kindness, after so many others.”
“Not my lady, alas,” said Major Vernon.
“Hold your faith, sir,” she said, laying her hand on his arm. “It’s marked in the stars that you and she will be man and wife. Trust me.”
“No cheerful prophecies for me,” said Felix, when they were in the carriage again.
“I’m inclined to be sceptical about that one,” said Major Vernon, reaching into his pocket and taking out a sheaf of papers.
“What are those?”
“Intelligence reports – mutinous navvies.” Giles handed Felix some of the papers. “I’d appreciate your thoughts.”
It was a matter about which he knew nothing, but he welcomed the chance to push aside gloomy thoughts. As the carriage made its tentative progress, the pure light reflected by the snow sharpened the words on the page. They sat in silence, absorbed in their reading. What the future might hold was as hidden as the features of the snow-covered landscape, and Felix resigned himself to the necessity of uncertainty. There was comfort, at least, in work and friendship.
Also by Harriet Smart
I hope you enjoyed this book. If so, please consider writing a review. You may also enjoy my other books, including:
The Butchered Man: Northminster Mystery 1
Northminster, 1840: a once-picturesque cathedral city, where dirty smoke stacks now rival ancient spires. When workmen make the shocking discovery of a mutilated corpse in a ditch outside the ancient walls, Giles Vernon and Felix Carswell are charged with solving the case.
Intelligent and practical, Chief Constable Major Vernon has transformed the old city watch into a modern police force, and he throws himself into the investigation with the same energy. But as he probes a murky world of professional gamblers and jilted lovers, he is drawn into a dangerous emotional game that threatens to undermine his authority.
Newly-qualified police surgeon Felix Carswell is determined to make his way in the world on his own terms despite being the bastard son of prominent local grandee Lord Rothborough. Called to treat a girl in an asylum for reformed prostitutes, what he uncovers there brings him into conflict with his new employer, Vernon, and throws the case into disarray.
Together they must overcome their differences and find the brutal truth behind the mystery of The Butchered Man.
The Butchered Man is the first Northminster Mystery featuring intrepid early Victorian detectives Vernon and Carswell.
The Dead Songbird: Northminster Mystery 2
Celebrated singer Anna Morgan has come to Northminster to escape a troubled past and sing at the city’s Handel Festival. But when she continues to receive the poisonous letters that have been plaguing her, she turns to Chief Constable Major Giles Vernon and Police Surgeon Felix Carswell to find her persecutor, drawing the two men into her charismatic orbit. At the same time, a talented young tenor is found dead in curious circumstances in a locked chapel, and the hunt for a murderer is on.
The Dead Songbird is the second Northminster Mystery featuring early Victorian detectives Vernon and Carswell.
The Shadowcutter: Northminster Mystery 3
Police surgeon Felix Carswell has joined Major Giles Vernon and his convalescent wife, Laura, for a few days in the elegant spa town of Stanegate – it’s a welcome holiday from the summer stench of Northminster. But no sooner has he arrived than a Spanish colonial gentleman, dying of consumption, requires his urgent care, while Major Vernon is called away to Lord Rothborough’s country house, where a lady’s maid has been found drowned in a secluded pool.
Major Vernon investigates above and below stairs in the great house, assisted by Lord Rothborough’s eldest daughter, Lady Charlotte. When a quantity of valuable jewellery is found missing, the cause of the dead maid’s death only becomes more mysterious.
Meanwhile, when his patient dies in his arms after confiding a secret, Carswell is drawn into baffling intrigues involving the government-in-exile of the dead man’s homeland, the Caribbean island of Santa Magdalena. And strangest of all, Dona Blanca, the widow of the president, seems to know exactly who Felix is.
Over the course of the summer, Vernon and Carswell together doggedly search for the truth behind these troubling events, but their determination leads to a shocking personal tragedy for both of them, one which that will force them to reassess their lives and their careers, and leave them changed forever.
From the grand hotels of a fashionable spa town to a sordid illegal dog fight; from back-stair intrigues in a great country house to political conspiracies and fencing matches, The Shadowcutter sees the welcome return of early Victorian detectives, Major Giles Vernon and Felix Carswell.
The Daughters of Blane
Three young ladies with more beauty and charm than Isobel, Leonora and Vivien Buchanan, daughters of the laird of Blane, would be hard to find; their marriage prospects are exceptional. Indeed, in the summer of 1890, Isobel is already engaged to a duke. But Isobel is secretly uncertain about the man she is to marry. When another, utterly unsuitable candidate presents himself, she is stunned by the strength of her feelings. Suddenly she must make a decision that could have devastating consequences. Younger and more independent, Vivien has always resisted the destiny allotted to women of her class. Marriage to a radical politician seems to offer her the deep and close relationship she seeks; but time and changing ideals can temper the deepest passion. Only Leonora, spoiled and extravagant, is ready to settle for a conventional marriage. But a rich and titled husband is no guarantee of happiness, especially against the pull of true but illicit love.
Set against the turbulent events of the 1890s and moving from the Western Isles of Scotland to London society, from slum life in Edinburgh to a palazzo in Venice, and finally to the battlefields of the Boer war, The Daughters of Blane is the passionate and ultimately triumphant story of three women who refuse to fit the mould society has made for them.
Green Grow the Rushes
In the summer of 1900, a group of young people are brought together in the decaying splendour of the Quarro, a Scottish country house owned by the down-at-heel Lennox family. As their lives touch, new alliances are formed – some doomed to failure and bitter despair, others that will endure against the odds to bring lasting happiness.
A sweeping, panoramic survey of turn-of-the-century Scottish society – from country house to industrial slums, bohemian free-thinking to High Tory Politics – Green Grow the Rushes is peopled with a cast of memorable and vividly realised characters.
“Smart’s characters have a feel of authentic life and move in and out of a backdrop which cunningly incorporates political change, trade union rebellion, suffragette noise and good food” – The Sunday Times
The Wild Garden
Kate Mackenzie is on the brink of success as an artist when she meets Gabriel Erskine, twenty-two years her senior. She’s not looking for a relationship, but Gabriel’s understanding of paintings and his outlook, so different from that of her friends, captivate her. Six months later, she moves into Allansfield, the beautiful house in rambling gardens on Gabriel’s estate in Fife. She doesn’t know him well, but what better way to change that than by living with him?
Touching, involving and honest, The Wild Garden is an utterly contempo
rary novel about life’s choices, love’s different aspects, and second chances.
The Lark Ascending
When Chris Adam receives a proposal from wealthy, young Guy Lindsay, her family are delighted – this would be a fine match indeed for a daughter of the Manse. Chris is tempted, for she is attracted to Guy, but her vocation is to be a composer, and instead of marriage she chooses to study music in Edinburgh.
There Chris meets Angus Bretton, who has been sent down from medical school in disgrace. Though he seems strangely restrained after the passionate Guy, Chris falls deeply in love with him, and it is Angus who comes to her rescue when events conspire against her and all her dreams are in ruins. But Angus is not all that Chris imagines him to be and their happiness is shortlived. A chance meeting with Guy gives Chris a glimpse of the fulfilling life she might have had – but now Guy is married to one of Chris’s friends.
As war breaks out across Europe in 1914, tragedy, betrayal and scandal lie ahead before Chris can fulfil her musical destiny and stand by the side of the man she loves.
Reckless Griselda
On an impetuous journey to stop her father making an unsuitable marriage, Griselda Farqharson meets dashing Tom Thorpe. They fall instantly in love and into trouble. After she indulges in a sensual clandestine encounter with him, Griselda is forced to face the consequences of her reckless disregard for the rules of society. For this is England in 1816 and Tom is a wealthy baronet, caught up in a net of emotional entanglements and family conflicts. Determined to do the right thing and preserve Griselda’s reputation, he must face the ruin of his own. As a whirlwind of scandal engulfs them, will Griselda and Tom be able to transform their passionate attraction into a true and lasting happiness or will their love be destroyed by it?
Moving from the Norfolk countryside to the fashionable drawing rooms of London, Reckless Griselda is a hot-blooded regency romantic comedy that asks the question: should you let your heart rule your head?
A Tempting Proposal
Adela Ross is reduced to singing in Macreadies’ sordid supper club in Edinburgh to keep bread on the table and a roof over her head.
Sir William Urquhart must marry within a month or forfeit the estates and fortune left to him by his uncle.
When Adela falters on stage in front of a rough crowd, Will intervenes and rescues her. Impressed by her determination and spirit in the face of adversity, Will decides that she may be the solution to his awkward problem. He asks her to marry him: purely for convenience. It is to be a business arrangement so that they can both save their families from misery and poverty.
Adela says yes, although her sisters chide her for it, fearing for her happiness. But how can she refuse such a tempting proposal? She will be an independent woman of means, while Will goes away to Rome, a husband in name only.
But after their hasty marriage they go to Balnagowan, Will’s enchanting Highland estate, and the trouble begins. Obliged by circumstances to pretend it is a love match, Adela finds her resolve to stay aloof from Will crumbling fast. The game of playing happy husband and wife is seductive enough and Will is dangerously attractive. But there are a hundred question marks about his past and no satisfactory answers. Can Adela resist a man who looks likely to break her heart? Is it such a tempting proposal after all?
About the Author
Harriet Smart was born and brought up in Birmingham. She attended the University of St Andrews, where she read History of Art, and then married a fellow student. She now lives with her family in Edinburgh.
Harriet has published nine novels as well as co-designing the innovative creative writing software Writer’s Café.
She is presently working on The Northminster Mysteries, a series of crime novels set in early Victorian England. Her research for the books included wearing stays and hand-sewing a man’s shirt.
Harriet blogs at www.harrietsmart.com and can be found on Twitter @fictionwitch.
The Hanging Cage (The Northminster Mysteries Book 4) Page 38