A Friendly Little Murder

by Beth Byers

  “Did you open the French doors off the balcony and the window?” she asked after allowing herself the pleasure of a moment’s perusal of him. “With the fan and the hour, it might actually cool off in here.”

  “Otherwise you won’t sleep,” Jack told her with a nod. “You look lovely. Even with those bags under your eyes.”

  In the hall, they found Denny, Lila, Ham, and Jovie. Violet grinned at Jovie and asked, “New room?”

  “I was across the hall from Gervais and next to Ricky. I threw a tantrum about the color of the carpets and demanded to be moved immediately. Then I apologized profusely to the staff the minute my friends weren’t around and bribed them nicely to move me closer to you.”

  “You’ll learn to regret that,” Denny told her. “Even if she did send my ice cream.”

  “Who me?” Violet asked. “Would I do such a thing?”

  “Yes,” Lila told Violet. “You’re evil.”

  “A devil really,” Violet agreed. “Let’s go find food, please. Now that I’ve cooled off, I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” Denny agreed.

  “Eat your greens, laddie,” Lila ordered.

  “What if we just dance the night away? I promise to be exuberant.”

  Lila considered and then nodded. “Approved.”

  He grinned at her. “This kind woman will be the mother of my children.”

  “She’s an angel,” Jovie said.

  “She’s a dangerous creature,” Violet and Denny said in unison and then they all looked up when they heard a woman’s shriek and the sound of glass crashing.

  “For the love of all that is holy,” Jovie muttered. “Pamela.”

  “Pamela?” Ham asked. “Does she need help?”

  “She’s a viper these days,” Jovie said. “It’s…I shouldn’t…” Jovie shook her head and snapped her mouth closed. “Anyway. The food here is wonderful if they have the same chef.”

  Jovie turned towards the stairs with her mouth precisely closed. Vi and friends glanced at each other, pressed their lips tightly, and followed.

  Denny waited until Jovie was far enough ahead to whisper without being overheard. “This is fun!”

  “You’re evil,” Violet told him.

  “You’re having fun too.”

  “I want them to throw something at each other in the dining room,” Violet told Denny as Hamilton groaned.

  “You seem unsurprised,” Ham told Jack.

  “The way that wife stomped off on the train? An affair at least,” Jack said.

  Violet glanced back at the two detectives and then pouted at Lila and Denny. “They ruin all our fun.”

  “You thought there was something brewing.” Lila placed her hand on her still flat stomach. “You were spying too.”

  “A blind monkey would have realized there was something wrong,” Denny said as he tucked Lila’s arm close. “Even I saw it.”

  They reached the dining hall and found that their group had been combined with Jovie’s. She gave them an apologetic look as they were seated among them.

  “Oh,” Lila said, “they must have realized we’ve adopted you, Jovie.”

  Jovie’s look was pure gratitude as Violet and Jack were seated next to Pamela and the oblivious Lyle. Violet glanced at Jack in delight, and his eyes glinted at her with just enough humor to know he was amused at what they would be overhearing.

  Ham was seated next to Jovie, but Violet noted that one of the male newcomers from Jovie’s group was on her other side and overheard his introduction to Ham.

  “Gervais Jenkins.” His tone was definitely dismissive of Ham. Not someone Violet would want to see Jovie end up with. She trusted Ham to watch over Jovie, however.

  “There are too many dead animals on these walls,” Violet announced after they were all seated.

  “You don’t eat meat?” The man next to Jovie scoffed.

  “I prefer not to look into their eyes,” Violet told him. “Lady Violet. This is my husband, Jack Wakefield.”

  Normally Violet wouldn’t bother with what was nothing more than an honorary title, but she did like to see the look of shock in someone like Gervais Jenkins’s face.

  “Those are glass,” Gervais said and then cleared his throat and added, “my lady. No need for you to lose sleep over them.”

  “If only that was what I lost sleep over,” Violet said, accepting the waiter’s offering of wine. “I think I’m going to drown my woes, Jack. Be warned. You might have to haul me to our bedroom.”

  “If he doesn’t, I’m sure someone will step in,” Gervais said.

  Violet blinked as she registered what he said, but Jack simply shifted his shoulders and leaned forward just enough to meet Gervais’s gaze. “You won’t need to be stepping in with any of the ladies.”

  Gervais drew back slightly as though he hadn’t realized that Jack was quite so large. The sound of Denny’s high-pitched giggle was accented by the pop of another wine bottle being opened and the clink of crystal.

  Gervais looked towards Denny, who lifted his glass in salute. Lila’s head tilted lazily toward the man. “So, what do you do, Gervais?”

  “Oh, a little of this, a little of that. I invest and manage the investments.”

  Violet glanced up and the devil in her made her ask, “Really? For what companies?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t understand.” Gervais sipped his wine before he added, “It’s all quite complicated. What do you do, Jack?”

  “When I’m not watching my wife manage and invest her fortune?” Jack paused. “I work for Scotland Yard.”

  “You’re a constable?”

  “Jack investigates murders and other crimes,” Denny announced. “For fun. Lila and I are quite lazy, but Lady Vi works enough for us all.”

  “Surely, you’re joking,” Gervais said with a laugh.

  “Haven’t you heard of Violet Carlyle and her twin, Victor? They’re the ones who inherited that huge fortune and caught all those killers and write those books?” Jovie looked as if she were having nearly as much fun as Denny. “Gervais, boyo, Lady Violet manages investments that make the rest of ours seem like mere wisps.”

  “You’re joining in on the joke, Jovie? I thought you were one of us.”

  “We’ve adopted Jovie,” Denny announced. “It’s settled. She’s ours now.”

  “Because this one thinks she’s pretty?” Gervais asked, jerking his thumb at Hamilton. “Are you another author or Yard man?”

  “Oh, I work for Scotland Yard too,” Ham replied.

  “Another hobby detective like the lady’s husband?”

  “No,” Ham said, smoothing his beard. “I’m quite fully a Yard man in earnest.”

  “I suppose you’re looking for a rich wife like Jovie to save you from Scotland Yard?”

  Ham’s eyes glinted and Vi winced. Denny giggled, but it had turned nervous. It was Jovie who saved the moment.

  “Gervais, darling,” she asked with her wicked grin, “how would that be any different than you? I assure you that no woman would object to an honorable man like Hamilton Barnes. Indeed, wealthy women would rather have an honorable working man like Ham here than a rich spoilt one who’s of their class.”

  Gervais looked alarmed as he said, “But…oy, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Then apologize,” Jovie ordered.

  Gervais tipped back his glass of wine and then scoffed. “To the working stiff? I suppose your rich friend is paying your way?”

  Vi cut in with a huge dash of Lady Eleanor. “The weather today was stifling, wasn’t it? I declare, I thought I was going to be baked alive on the train.”

  Jovie jumped in with far too much agreement, and then Lila, who deliberately turned the discussion to lady’s hats, which drew in the other two ladies, just to watch Gervais pout. As the dinner ended, they rose together and left the dining room for the gardens that had been lit with torches.

  “That’s why, Vi,” Hamilton told her, referring to their early conversation.
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  “You’re right,” Violet agreed. “You should definitely let fools like Gervais keep you and Rita from happiness rather than realizing that everyone who matters doesn’t care about the size of your bank account to hers.”

  “Vi—”

  “Rita wants children, Ham,” Violet told him flatly. “She wants a family and somewhere to feel safe. She could marry someone like Gervais and have a family, but it would take a rare man who let her sleep easy.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” he demanded. “How am I supposed to align the idea that I was raised to love and support my wife with the fact that she’d be supporting me?”

  Violet paused, looking up at Ham. He was shorter than Jack, with a close-cut beard, stress lines across his forehead and around his eyes. He had the steady confidence of a man who had earned his mettle, and he was the type of man that any woman of taste would see as a catch.

  “I don’t know,” Violet finally admitted. “I wish I could make it easy for you. You can examine the financial implications forever and the two of you can be apart and unhappy. Jack doesn’t need my money, you know? But if you were to compare him and I—it wouldn’t be so very different than you and Rita. Jack didn’t leave me in love with him and alone.”

  “I—”

  Vi cupped Hamilton’s cheek and told him, “I love you like a brother. You’re essential to Jack’s happiness and therefore mine. Does it help to realize that you and Jack aren’t so very different? Does it help to realize how broken I would be without him? Ham…I can’t sleep without Jack. Even with him, I struggle and nothing makes me feel safer than Jack. Do you think it’s different for Rita? Because it isn’t. She might be an adventuress, but she’s running too. She has nightmares and worries as well. Right now, wherever she is, I promise you, she’s haunted.”

  “You can’t know that,” he said.

  “Of course I can,” Violet said. “She’s one of my best friends. Do you think we haven’t talked about how to handle nightmares? Do you think we haven’t talked about how to find peace after someone we love was killed? By someone we loved?”

  “She’s strong,” Ham told Violet. “She doesn’t need—”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Violet snapped. “Rita Russell is strong and capable and brilliant and adventurous and funny and clever and human. You can’t give her a fortune which she doesn’t want, but you can give her safe harbor. The money means nothing. Safe harbor? Being loved for herself? A family? You’re stealing all of those things from her with your pride.”

  “You’re being dramatic,” Ham said through gritted teeth.

  “I swear to you on my mother’s grave and on the grave of Aunt Agatha, Rita has nightmares too.”

  “That doesn’t mean I can help.”

  “Fine,” Violet snapped, just as angrily. “Fine. Eventually she’ll get over you. Maybe she’ll marry someone else. Maybe she’ll continue to travel alone. But what she wants? It’s you. Speaking as a rich woman myself? An honorable man that you know isn’t marrying you for your money, who sees you for you, who loves you despite your failings? That’s without price. But rob Rita all the same.”

  Violet didn’t stay to listen to whatever else Ham had to say. She was done with banging her head against that wall. She crossed to the hotel, made her way to the bar, and ordered a bottle of ginger wine and lemon ice to their rooms. The chill of the evening had settled in, and Violet was more than willing to curl herself onto the bed before she boxed Ham’s ears.

  Chapter 5

  Violet dressed for the next day in her coolest dress and sturdiest shoes. Jack had a look to him as they prepared to go for a ramble that said he’d been drinking rather heavily the night before. Vi blamed herself since she’d wound Ham up. Jack squinted a little too hard against the sun coming in from the window, and he was a bit slower to take her arm as they walked down the stairs to the large dining room.

  “Will Ham forgive me?” she asked over her plate of fruit, handing him two aspirin. “You should wear a big hat to protect your eyes from the sun. Especially since you’ve overindulged.”

  Jack ignored her nagging, which she deserved. “He knows you love him, Vi. He also knows you want him to be happy. He just doesn’t think it’s as easy as you do.”

  She frowned out the window, noting a couple disappearing into the trees. Who else was up so early? She sighed and popped a melon into her mouth, allowing herself to savor the cool fruit. “I feel bad. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “He listened to what you had to say and didn’t storm off. The decision is up to him from here.”

  “I keep thinking of Rita as if she were me. I realized I loved you before I had any idea of your feelings. It was torture. But, to think of not having you now? It’s too painful to imagine. What if you’d let my stepmother drive you away? Or the stupid comments people made about money?”

  Jack nudged Violet’s cup of Turkish coffee towards her. “That didn’t happen.”

  “But it is happening to Rita, and I adore her.”

  Jack shook his head, not clarifying what Ham had told him as the two friends drank too much. Perhaps they didn’t speak at all. Perhaps they were only stoically smoking their cigars between sips of hard liquor. It seemed like something men would do. She and Lila would have picked apart their worries to pieces.

  Vi yawned and then glanced guiltily at Jack.

  “You were restless.”

  It wasn’t a question, and she had been.

  “I—” She pressed her hand to her mouth and yawned fiercely.

  Jack examined her. “I don’t believe napping in beds is for old men. What do you say? Shall we put our sleeping clothes back on, curl into our pillows, and count sheep?”

  Violet was utterly sure that Jack had little desire to nap. If she said yes, she’d probably slip into sleep and find him reading a book when she woke, him never having napped at all.

  “How about this afternoon? When it gets stifling hot?”

  Jack considered and nodded. While Violet retrieved her sun hat, Jack discussed possible walking routes with the staff and she returned to find him ready to go. He was even holding two walking staffs, a basket with lunch, and binoculars around his neck.

  Vi’s lips twitched, but her voice was dry as she asked, “Are we ready for our safari?”

  “It’s an expedition, not a safari.”

  “You’re right, of course. Safaris require lions.”

  Jack offered Violet a walking stick and his arm, and they left the lodge. The ramble into the woods was slow since they were looking for birds and wildlife and stopped several times to observe. Violet wasn’t sure how much time had passed by the time they’d stopped for lunch. She’d refused to bring her watch.

  She spread the blanket while Jack pulled pasties, egg and watercress sandwiches, champagne, and grapes from the basket. Violet leaned back and watched the clouds roll by before she straightened to eat. By the time they’d finished their meal, Jack had leaned back against a tree and Violet was using his lap for a pillow. Sleep beckoned to her, and a part of her wondered if any chance to reset her schedule would be ruined if she succumbed.

  Before she could decide, she was out. The sleep was of a barely-aware kind that happened when you couldn’t quite find true oblivion. She was somewhat aware of time passing, of the feel of Jack playing with her hair, of the crinkle of pages, and the shift of the changing air, but she didn’t gain full control until she heard shouting.

  She sat up suddenly and was hauled back against Jack’s chest. “It’s okay.”

  Vi blinked and rubbed her eyes. “I…who—”

  “I think it’s Gervais and one of the other fellows. Maybe two—”

  Violet relaxed against Jack. The angry voices reached them.

  “Who do you think you are? You think you can just…just…”

  The shouting changed to a long streak of cursing, and Violet pulled her legs closer to her chest.

  “You’ll ruin all of us!”

  Jack’s han
d pressed against her stomach as if he knew she was feeling sick to hear friends turn to enemies. She glanced up at him through her lashes and whispered, “Have you and Ham ever fought like this?”

  Jack shook his head and pressed a kiss onto her forehead.

  “It’s like they’re not even friends. They’re just accustomed to being together.” Violet jumped again when she heard the crack of a fist against flesh. She stiffened again. “Should we stop them?”

  “They’re fully grown men,” Jack said. She was only a little taken aback that he wasn’t intervening. They’d both faced too much harshness and violence and they were looking for a little peace, not to involve themselves in others’ arguments.

  Jack stood and started returning their lunch things to the basket. Violet rose to help, finishing with folding the blanket. Jack lifted the basket, and Violet took his hand. As they went to make their way back to the lodge, Jack asked, “Did you sleep well?”

  Violet shook her head. “I was never quite unaware.”

  “It’s like you don’t remember how to sleep properly,” Jack said.

  “My brain won’t stop.”

  Violet paused as she saw movement in the trees ahead of them. It was Gervais rushing through the wood. He seemed well and truly furious. Beyond furious. The kind of angry where you did something mad. However that argument had ended between the friends, there was no sign that Gervais was the one who had received the hit. Would she have heard it if it had been a punch to the stomach or the arm?

  Jack slowed to let Gervais get ahead and then glanced at Violet. “I think that at least Lyle and Michael were involved as well.”

  “Which is which?”

  “Michael is Jovie’s cousin,” Jack said and Violet nodded.

  “The other one is married to the pregnant Pamela. The one that has some sort of weird history Jovie won’t tell us about.”

  “Mmm,” Jack agreed.

  “What about Ham? Are you going to tell me what he said?”