A Friendly Little Murder

by Beth Byers

  “You seem to think that Ham and I discuss our feelings.”

  Violet grinned up at Jack. “Why not?”

  “We just drink and smoke, Vi. It’s what men do.”

  “Victor will sometimes tell me.”

  “Victor is far more willing to discuss feelings since he’s had you wrapped around his life. Men who don’t have a twin sister never discuss such things.”

  Violet smirked at him. “Boys.”

  “Girls,” he countered.

  “I suppose we’re all foolish in our own way. I wonder what could have gotten those men to turn on each other. Jovie said they were friends like Victor, Denny, Tomas, Lila and I. Almost more family than our own families. I can’t imagine Victor punching Denny like that.”

  “I can,” Jack said. “You’d have to be involved. Or Kate.”

  Violet’s mouth twisted. “Did you get the picture that the blokes in Jovie’s group were gallant?”

  “No,” Jack said, “but that doesn’t mean they aren’t.”

  Violet lifted a doubting brow and she could see that Jack wasn’t quite convinced, but he shrugged off the idea. They weren’t there to delve into the dramas of another group of friends. They were there to hide from Lady Eleanor and maybe see if a change of scenery could help Vi sleep again.

  “How do you think my babies are?”

  “I think that Kate considers the girls hers.”

  Violet grinned. She was their aunt and the best aunt ever. “I wonder how much longer for Isolde. Tomas is still hiding from Father and Lady Eleanor.”

  “Every time your sister and Tomas come back, they disappear quickly, don’t they?”

  “It’s your fault,” Violet told him. “Being the one who obeyed Father’s order about not needing his daughter to swiftly wed before a grandchild appeared.”

  “I’d say it’s Tomas’s fault for not obeying,” he said with amusement. Jack tangled their fingers together, hooking the basket over his arm, so he had a free hand to wind them together. “It’s worked out for all concerned, however.”

  Violet examined the lodge as they stepped out of the trees. It was post luncheon and the windows were open to let a breeze through. It wasn’t so stifling hot as the day before, but she would be happy to enjoy a bath again.

  “There’s a swimming pool behind the lodge,” Jack told her. “We could go for a swim.”

  “Can we go at night? Doesn’t that sound magical?”

  “We can go whenever you’d like,” Jack said, but he stopped pulling her close when they noticed yet another one of Jovie’s friends arguing. On the huge porch, a hissed fight was taking place between Pamela and Lyle Craft.

  “Jovie needs new friends,” Violet muttered. “The rest of these folks aren’t worth the breath to tell them to be quiet.”

  Violet laughed when Denny’s head appeared from the other side of the window where Lyle and Pamela were arguing. The window was open for the heat, and Denny was skulking near the curtains. Vi was surprised the couple hadn’t noticed him, but they were pretty intensely in each other’s faces.

  Vi shook her head at Denny, but his wide grin had her shaking off the grimness that had tried to take hold since she’d woken from her nap.

  “Our friends are the best,” Violet told Jack.

  He squeezed her fingers. “At least they’re straightforward. You’ll never be surprised if he stabs you.”

  Violet considered the sheer idea of Denny stabbing her or anyone and laughed at the idea of it. “We need to find a way to avoid that group tonight. Jovie—”

  “I already took care of it,” Jack said. “She’s been moved to our table, which is decidedly not the same as theirs.”

  “You’re a king among men. I’m leaving you here and finding Lila,” she added.

  Vi hurried up the stairs of the large porch, bypassing the arguing couple. As she went through the doors, she found an older, sporting-type couple standing just inside the main doors.

  “They’ve been at it for a while,” the woman complained.

  “We should just go out,” her husband replied. “Why are we waiting for them to move or finish up?”

  “I agree,” Violet told him with a merry grin. “I’m positive they didn’t notice me walk by or my friend listening at the window. Surely, if they saw that, they’d move. They’re oblivious.”

  “Those two and their friends are ruining this trip,” the man muttered. “I woke to them screaming at each other and the hotel staff had to come and ask them to quiet down.”

  “I know what you mean,” Violet told them, thinking of her nap. “If you follow the trail near the willow tree it ends in a lovely meadow where my husband and I enjoyed a delightful lingering. We saw rabbits and song birds, and the bushy tail of a fox.”

  “Sounds better than here.”

  “You mean where we hear the wild cries of the suburban housewife and her wrathful mate?”

  The woman laughed and then glanced at her husband. “Just so.”

  Chapter 6

  Violet found Lila with Jovie. The two had taken refuge in a parlor on the second floor near their bedrooms. Lila appeared to be napping, though Violet had her doubts, while Jovie was reading a book. It took Violet a moment to see it was a V.V. Twinnings book.

  “What great taste you have in your fiction,” Violet exclaimed from the doorway, making them both look up. “You must be particularly clever.”

  “Mmm,” Jovie said doubtfully, shoving back a cloud of curls, “and here I’ve been thinking I’m particularly stupid.”

  Violet’s brows lifted. “Whyever for?”

  “Well, I have been manipulated and nagged into spending time with Michael and friends. Over the last few days, I’ve come to a realization. I don’t like any of them. Maybe Fanny. Michael’s all right, I guess. He’s my cousin, you know, so I’m stuck with him.”

  “But you’re not stuck with the rest of them,” Lila said, as if she’d said it a few times already.

  “Exactly. You’re so right. I’m done. This is it.”

  Violet glanced at Lila, who had seemed to have been an unwilling advisor. The look on Lila’s face was enough to make Vi fight a snide comment and explained the feigned nap.

  “Jack rearranged dinner seating,” Violet told them. “You’re with us.”

  Jovie paused, and Vi could see the flash of hesitation.

  Lila’s lazy, more unfeeling voice popped in. “You’re going to have reactions to leaving your friends behind, Jovie. It’s unavoidable.”

  Jovie’s face twisted. “It’s such a mess.”

  “Perhaps speaking of it would help,” Vi suggested.

  “Tell us all the terrible details, emphasis on the sordid,” Lila ordered.

  Jovie glanced between the two of them. “I’ll need tea for this.”

  Vi rose and crossed to the telephone, calling down for a hefty afternoon tea to be delivered to the parlor. While they waited, Jovie asked Violet about the day. She started backwards with the argument on the patio, the rumors of the argument that morning, and then the argument in the wood.

  “Who was in the woods?”

  “I don’t know,” Violet said. “Gervais most certainly, as we saw him leaving. Jack thought Michael was involved, too. Lyle was on the large porch, so he could have come from the woods. Or maybe he had been fighting with Pamela instead.”

  “Who can tell?” Jovie answered exhaustedly. “They have always been fated to trouble.”

  “Why?” Lila demanded. “The sordid details, please.”

  “Oh, it is sordid,” Jovie replied. She started to expand, but the tea had arrived, so they waited until the servant had left.

  Violet had made herself a milky tea with extra sugar and then loaded her plate with sweets. She’d added a solitary cucumber sandwich to pretend to be doing anything other than overindulging.

  “Tell me the dirty details,” Lila said before biting into a macaron.

  “Well,” Jovie said, glancing over her shoulder even though the
y’d closed the door to the small, private parlor. “When we were in school, before college, Lyle and Fanny were quite close. It seemed certain that they would be married the day after Lyle graduated from college.”

  Lila’s slow, evil smile made Vi bite back a laugh, but Jovie didn’t seem to notice.

  “Fanny and Lyle had a huge ruckus. She’d discovered that he had been writing to another girl. He swears it wasn’t serious. It was a pen pal from primary school, but she was furious.”

  “Well he must have lied about it or never told her,” Lila said reasonably. “I’d have skinned Denny for that.”

  “She did. She’d been invited to spend the summer hols with his family in the south of Spain. Instead, she rang me up and asked me to save her, so I invited her to join my family in the country.”

  “Uh-oh,” Lila said, “thus enters Michael.”

  “I was busy that summer,” Jovie said. “I’d taken a position as a temporary secretary for a woman and was working until tea time every day. Michael stepped in and took Fanny on the lake, for rambles, horseback riding, all the fun things, and they fell in love. Four weeks into the summer they were engaged, and the next summer, after Michael finished college, they were married.”

  “And Pamela?”

  “She always wanted Lyle. He’s the most charming of our friends when he wants to be, the best connected, the prize of the lads, you know? Michael is quieter. Everyone was surprised when Fanny picked Michael over Lyle.”

  “Michael probably doesn’t have a secret female friend he writes to—” Vi raised her brows and Jovie answered the question.

  “Weekly. And you’re right. Michael may not have taken the firsts that Lyle took at college nor does he have quite the same career, but you can be assured of your place in his affections.”

  That was invaluable. And the lesson she was trying to share with Ham. Being assured you were loved for who and what you were? That was worth more than could be explained.

  “So how did Lyle take it?”

  Jovie paused. “Well. Fine.”

  “Except?” Lila demanded leaning in.

  “He’s always looking at her or talking to her. It’s uncomfortable. For everyone. As far as I know, however, he’s never done anything else.”

  Jack would not be all right with some former lover of Violet’s lingering endlessly. Perhaps this Michael didn’t have strong opinions about it. And how did Fanny feel? The object of both men’s affections—one the man she’d spurned who was now the spouse of one of her oldest friends. Was she unaware?

  “How,” Lila asked imperiously, “did Pamela end up married to Lyle?”

  Jovie bit her bottom lip and winced. “There was this party…” She trailed off as though embarrassed. Lila didn’t let it stand.

  “How long have they been married?”

  “They married all of the sudden about three months ago.”

  “She has to be at least five months gone,” Lila said, referring to Pamela’s obvious pregnancy.

  “Party,” Violet announced. “Alcohol?”

  Jovie nodded. “Drunk to an extent I hadn’t seen before.”

  “Surprise a few weeks later,” Violet concluded.

  “Mmmm. I’m afraid so.”

  “How did Lyle take it?”

  Jovie rose and crossed to the window to look out. “He didn’t want her. Anyone with half a wit would see he’s still in love with Fanny. He married Pamela because she was pregnant and Fanny was taken.”

  “Ah,” Violet mused, “a dash of honor in there.”

  “Since then? It’s been endless fighting. I think Pamela stupidly thought that Lyle would turn his heart to her if they were wed, but haven’t we seen scores of couples who are married and can barely tolerate each other? He isn’t even mean about it. He just doesn’t want her. It’s the same as before they were wed but now she expects attention from him, so she picks at him and whines.”

  “Pathetic,” Lila said. “No man is going to suddenly think, ‘Oh look, my whining wife. How did I miss her?’ It’s possible for her to get what she wants, but she’s doing the wrong thing in every way.”

  “It’s a sad story,” Violet said to Jovie, who hesitated just long enough for Violet to ask, “What?”

  “I’ve always thought that Pamela wasn’t as drunk as she pretended.”

  “She’s clearly as pregnant as she intended then,” Lila laughed.

  Again Jovie hesitated and Vi breathed, “No!”

  “She’s awfully big for how far along she is,” Jovie said. “I always thought that Ricky and Gervais had been dabbling with the goods, if you know what I mean.”

  “We do,” Lila said, rolling her eyes. “This Pamela is a shady minx. Does Lyle know?”

  “If he suspected? I think that Pamela would get beat within an inch of her life.”

  Vi winced. “That poor baby. Eventually he’ll figure it out and then the child…it will be too easily ugly.”

  “You know,” Lila said conversationally, “this would never happen among our friends. Are you sure you all are friends?”

  Jovie looked away from the window and then returned to her seat. “I think that we were once. But it’s all fallen apart. Too many wants, too much jealousy and competition.”

  Violet crossed to Lila and leaned down to put a kiss on her forehead. “Rita knows that we’re working on Ham for her. Isolde knew that if we sent Tomas her way, it was because he was a safe bet for loving. Denny adores the ground you walk on, but even if he didn’t, he’d never, not once, turn to one of your friends.”

  Lila nodded. “Jack would slay giants for you. He’d slay them for me. Well, Jovie, if you’ve done anything, you’ve made us grateful for our friends.”

  Jovie smiled, but she seemed a little sad as she did. “You have each other. You’ve had each other. I know you’re being nice to me, and I’m grateful for it, but they’re the ones who’ve known me forever. It’ll never be the same if I abandon them for you.”

  “Jack, Ham, and Rita are new to our group of friends,” Violet told her. “So is my sister Isolde for that matter, and my brother’s wife, Kate. Even though we’ve known him since our earliest days, our cousin Algernon isn’t among the group in the same way. It’s not just about how long we’ve known one another. It’s about choices, actions, and affections. We love Algie, but he chooses to spend most of his time with other people and doesn’t quite click among us. Do what you need to do, Jovie, but don’t think that we won’t accept you simply because you’re new.”

  “Really?” Jovie sighed. “While I’m baring all my terrible secrets, I don’t get along with my family. I don’t have anyone but my friends. If—”

  “I’m afraid that as far as we’re concerned,” Violet interrupted Jovie, “it’s an either-or situation. We can be as much of friends as you need, but we aren’t going to be your buffer for that pack of lunatics you’re traveling with.”

  Jovie sighed and then announced rather dramatically, “I didn’t realize what a coward I am. I think it’s time to accept that I am not what I imagined myself to be.”

  “You’re right,” Violet told her. “You should definitely accept being afraid and marry Gervais when he bothers to ask for you even though he might have parented Pamela’s baby, and then spend the next several decades despising every moment with him.”

  Jovie shuddered. “You paint a terrible picture.”

  “Rise up, my friend. Create your own fate.”

  Violet didn’t have time to listen to Jovie waffle. Vi liked Jovie, but the endless exhaustion was riding Violet and she was growing irritable, to say the least.

  Chapter 7

  Jovie knocked on the door of Jack and Vi’s suite early the next day. Jack had left with Ham, who was acting as though she hadn’t tried to persuade him to set aside his pride and chase Rita down, wrap her up in his arms, and kiss her senseless.

  “Jovie,” Violet greeted as she opened the door. She had been making notes on an idea for a new book, and Jovie’s arrival sn
apped Violet out of another world.

  “I—” Jovie’s head tilted. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t sleep these days. So no. But also, yes. I’m fine. I was just thinking about my next book.”

  Jovie seemed confused again, but she shook it off. “What an odd thing. Are the characters in your head like your friends?”

  Vi considered and then shook her head. “When I know them well, it’s like I can slip into their skin as I write them. But no, they’re not fully real to me. I wish they were sometimes.”

  “Fascinating. I was able to schedule massages for you, Lila, and me—if you’d like to go.”

  Violet nodded and followed Jovie to gather Lila, who had been reading in her room.

  “You’re expecting a baby?” Jovie asked as they took the lift down to the baths section of the lodge. There was a swimming pool in the cellars along with several hot baths, saunas, and private rooms for massages.

  “So it seems. Our friend was quite ill when she was expecting, so I keep waiting to be miserable, but so far I just want to nap more.”

  “A fate that she loves,” Violet told Jovie. “Lila loves napping like Denny loves chocolate.”

  “Like Violet loves clothes.”

  “I do love clothes. I need a new dress, I think.”

  “Of course you think that,” Lila said. “How many dresses do you have that you haven’t worn yet?”

  “Only four or five,” Vi said with a laugh.

  The baths were tiled in black and white from floor to ceiling with occasional bursts of color in mosaics of sunbursts and flowers. Violet followed Jovie, who greeted several of the staff by name as they reached partitioned areas with tables for massages, separated by heavy curtains. Violet took the one she was directed to and dressed in the robe that had been provided. She left her underthings on but was otherwise unclothed, which was why the whispered conversation the next curtain over with a man and a woman left her concerned.

  Surely this was a woman’s area? Vi hadn’t asked before she’d disrobed, but she thought back. Yes, of course, it was. There had been the main swimming pool in the basement, and they’d bypassed that area and stepped through the double doors with the desk and the uniformed woman sitting behind it.