by Beth Byers
Georgette paused. “Have I stopped being the mistress?”
“In this case, yes,” Eunice said. “I won’t lose my girl out of obstinacy. You can be in charge again when your life isn’t at risk.”
“I don’t think anyone was supposed to die,” Georgette told them.
“Joseph says the same,” Charles said, “but someone did die and now the stakes have changed dramatically. The crime is serious, Georgie. The criminal has to be terrified.”
Georgette nodded. “Shall we go?”
Charles handed Georgette a canteen filled with cold water. “The doctor said you must drink a lot of fluids. This will see you through.”
Georgette looked down at the metal container and decided, once again, not to argue. She paused in the doorway and then returned to Eunice, hugging her tightly as Georgette whispered, “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Always,” Eunice said sharply, clearing her throat. “Keep my girl safe, Mr. Aaron.”
He nodded solemnly and Georgette paused in the doorway. “Keep the dogs close, Eunice. Just in case.”
Charles walked Georgette to his auto and started it up. She probably wasn’t up to a day of walking through the village. Charles already knew the way to Mrs. Parker’s house and motoring over took mere minutes. They arrived and Georgette approached the house with Charles at her side.
Marian was inside with her aunt at her side. Georgette took them both in and then Marian announced, “My aunt knows of someone else being blackmailed. You didn’t know this, Georgette, but Aunt Parker has also determined to leave Bard’s Crook. After the murder and hearing of her friend being blackmailed, Aunt Parker decided living closer to her children would be better.”
Georgette asked Mrs. Parker, “Can you tell us who is being blackmailed?”
“Why?”
“I might not be able to discover who is blackmailing me alone, but if we overlap all of our lives, we might find a common denominator.”
Mrs. Parker’s mouth twisted. “It’s Mrs. Thornton. I won’t tell you why, and I don’t believe you need to know.”
Georgette nodded. “Well, that removes her as a suspect.”
“Why would she be a suspect anyway? She’s a good woman despite what you wrote about her in that book of yours.” Naturally Mrs. Parker would have heard of that by now, Georgette realized.
“The fact of Mrs. Thornton once being a factory worker doesn’t mean that she isn’t a good woman,” Georgette said. “It only means that her circumstances changed very nicely. As for her being a suspect, well—we all are, aren’t we? We have to be. We were at the meeting. I have only heard of women being victims.”
Charles shifted. “Except for Jasper Thornton.”
“I hadn’t thought of him,” Georgette admitted. “I hadn’t thought of him at all, and I should have. He’s the one who is the difference, isn’t he? He might just be the reason for figuring out who the killer is.”
“You should stay out of it,” Mrs. Parker told Georgette. “No one is going to want to talk to you about anything. My dear, you did make a muck of things, didn’t you? Writing about your neighbors, triggering two murders, and generally making life miserable here in Bard’s Crook.”
“Aunt Parker!” Marian hissed.
“I think that’s quite enough,” Charles said.
Georgette shook her head. “I never intended to hurt anyone.”
“But you did, didn’t you?” Mrs. Parker shot back with a cold sniff.
“I did,” Georgette said. “I didn’t mean to, but I did.”
“You did indeed.” Mrs. Parker glanced at Marian as if to say, ‘See?’
Georgette held up her hand to Marian, who was leaping to Georgette’s defense. “I did not, however, kill Mr. Lawrence, poison Miss Schmitz, or give anyone the information to blackmail people.”
Mrs. Parker lifted a brow and then shifted.
“I know I’m an easy person to blame,” Georgette said quietly. “I am not, however, the person who actually killed anyone. Do you know of anyone else being blackmailed?”
Mrs. Parker started to shake her head but Marian said, “Aunt Parker, I know we’re leaving, but your friends aren’t. Joseph needs to know these things. He needs to know who’s being blackmailed.”
Mrs. Parker bit down on her lip. “I believe Juliette Hallowton might be being blackmailed. I saw her with a letter and she was weeping. I’m almost positive. She asked me why she had to work so hard for so little. She asked me why some were so lucky and others were so cursed and then she asked my why the world was so wicked.”
Georgette sighed, immediately regretting it when the coughing started again. Marian winced for Georgette and then said, “The honey works so well.”
Georgette coughed for far too long and finally accepted the spoonful of honey from Marian with a fresh cup of tea. Georgette rose to hug Marian, having to whisper as she explained that they were packing. Marian glanced at Charles and then whispered back, “You could skip the rooms that Robert found and just join Charles.”
Georgette blushed deeply, but she didn’t say no and Marian gasped. Her gasp made her cough and Georgette laughed and then created a duet of coughing. Georgette laughed as she met Marian’s gaze and then the coughing became more intense.
It took a long time for the coughing to stop and when they had calmed, Mrs. Parker said, “Marian needs to rest. The girls are packing our clothes, and then we’ll be leaving on the train in the morning.”
Georgette hugged again Marian tightly. “I’ll be seeing you at the sea.”
“Be careful,” Marian said.
Georgette started to leave and then turned back, “Would you take my girls? I am worried over them with all the terrible things happening.”
Marian’s gaze widened. “Yes. Of course.”
“No,” Mrs. Parker said. “No, four dogs is too much.”
“Yes,” Marian countered. “Harrison is going with us, and he’ll help with the dogs.”
“No,” Mrs. Parker argued, “it’s too much. Georgette adopted three dogs, she can manage them.”
“Of course we will,” Marian said, hugging Georgette again. “I’ll be by for them in the morning, and I will spoil them until you come for them.”
Georgette felt her eyes burning when she left Mrs. Parker’s house.
“You’ll see her again soon,” Charles told Georgette, handing over his handkerchief as if he’d been waiting to give it to her.
She pressed the handkerchief to her eyes and then admitted, “It’s more than that, I think. It’s that it all feels so final. These are goodbyes and even if this is not the right environment for me, it’s the only place I’ve ever known.”
Charles nodded and then he offered his hand as he slid behind the wheel. Georgette stared at his hand for too long, but it felt meaningful as she put her hand inside of his.
“I memorized your list of what you want in a home,” she told him, feeling he deserved it after looking at his hand so long.
“What do you think of it?”
“I think that it sounds like a good life. A wonderful life, even.”
“A life you want?” he asked, his voice low.
She looked at their combined hands. “I think I’d like that very much.”
He lifted their joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss on the back of her hand.
“Let’s end things here then.”
“I’d like to end them rightly,” Georgette told him, daring to look at his face and finding that gentle expression. It was only then that she realized it wasn’t gentleness alone. It was love. “I’d like to end them with things better than they are now. I want to say goodbye having done what I can to apologize for how my book affected them.”
She appreciated more than she could say that he didn’t tell her she didn’t have to do that. She knew he didn’t agree that she was responsible for anything. She herself didn’t feel fully responsible, but she wanted a clear conscience when she left Bard’s Crook.
She smiled at him. “I’m going to write a book about a woman who causes unintentional mischief and then has to somehow overcome what she’s done.”
He squeezed her hand once more and then asked, “Harriet Lawrence or Miss Hallowton first?”
Chapter 12
Georgette Dorothy Marsh
Juliette Hallowton was bone slender with sharp, angular features, and elbows that looked like they could do serious damage to an unwary rib. Mr. Hadley, who had revealed to Georgette that he loved the sharp, angular woman, was sitting in the library, making notes on a piece of paper. His gaze was fixated on the librarian while he only pretended to make notes.
Georgette smiled at him, and he nodded to her. His expression didn’t change in the least, and Georgette was sure he’d learned the news of who she was. How grateful she was to have someone continue to treat her the same.
Miss Hallowton slammed her stamp down in the library book and then glanced up, taking in Georgette and Charles. Miss Hallowton’s gaze narrowed with sour fury. “What are you doing here, Jones?”
Georgette winced and then took Charles’s hand. “Trying to find out who the blackmailer is.”
“Why?”
“Detective Aaron is going to focus on the murderer. He can’t bend all of his attention towards the blackmailer. We need to help ourselves. Surely we can work together to stop them? Already this person has led to the death of Miss Schmitz and now Mr. Brown.”
Miss Hallowton’s sour expression fixed on Georgette’s and then Miss Hallowton’s smile twisted nastily. “You know about that feeling, don’t you?”
Charles cleared his throat before he very evenly said, “Georgette did not kill Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Evans did. He was a man filled with jealousy and cruelty. He might have turned on anyone, and given that he tried to kill the supposed Joseph Jones without confirmation or caring that it could have been anyone, I think we can agree that anything could have pushed Mr. Evans to murder.”
“Why come to me?” Miss Hallowton asked, avoiding Georgette’s gaze by slamming her stamp down again on the next book.
“I understand that you were seen crying over a letter.”
Miss Hallowton shifted and then Mr. Hadley rose and crossed to her. He walked around the counter that Miss Hallowton would never allow anyone behind and put his arm around her shoulders. “Tell her, Julie. Miss Marsh is a good woman.”
Miss Hallowton’s mouth twisted. “I don’t trust her.”
“I can understand that,” Georgette replied evenly. “I have been disingenuous.”
“You have.” Miss Hallowton softened a little as Mr. Hadley took her hand.
“Miss Marsh was the one who gave me the courage to approach you, Julie. If anyone can understand working hard to save oneself from ruin, it is you, my dear.”
Miss Hallowton softened further.
“The gumption, the grit,” he continued. “I’ve never seen anyone who has even half as much as you, except for Miss Marsh. I’d like to see this person who has been tormenting you caught.”
“Whoever she is, she is a fiend. A poisonous snake we’ve taken into the bosom of our village. She needs to be caught. And punished.”
Georgette shivered as she heard the hatred in Miss Hallowton’s tone. “I won’t judge you for whatever your secret is, and I won’t reveal it. We need to discover who the blackmailer is, and we can’t do that if we don’t work together.”
“What does my secret have to do with that?”
“We need to find out what secrets were discovered so we can guess how they might have been discovered.”
“You need the trail through our secrets?” Mr. Hadley said. “Who might have realized Juliette’s secret? Who might have realized that you wrote those books? Who might have figured out the other secrets? You should tell her, Julie. You can trust her, I’m sure.”
Miss Hallowton bit down on her bottom lip. She glanced beyond Georgette before speaking. “I embezzled from the post office funds. I…I was losing my home, and I needed the money. So I borrowed money and have been paying it back. Due to a very generous gift, I have paid it back in full with interest. If they find out what I’ve done, however, I’ll not just lose my job, I could go to jail.”
Georgette’s sympathy increased. What might she have done if her only option was a crime? Everyone seemed to be struggling. There were so few who could help another. “What if you went to them, confessed, and asked for leniency?”
Mr. Hadley cleared his throat. “We’ll be hiring a solicitor. It will help that it was only for a short time, and she paid it back in full. She has years of good work behind her.”
“It would also help,” Georgette said seriously, “if you have Mr. Thornton on your side. He rules the village council. I believe if you had him speak for you, and he will, I think, you will be able to escape with a lesser punishment. Mr. Thornton is a good man, and he’s a man who can understand your struggles.”
Mr. Hadley’s gaze lit up as Georgette added, “Especially if your assistance helps find the blackmailer. I’m sure that he would rather have the blackmailer located than punish a woman who corrected her wrong.”
“What I’d like to know,” Mr. Hadley said, pushing his spectacles up on his nose, “is what this fire-starting fool thought was going to happen. Poor Mr. Brown dead and the blackmailer is still running around free. What did they think? The very fact that the fire was started in a way that caught the whole of the ladies auxiliary shows that the criminal didn’t know who the blackmailer was. This is all just…it’s just…well…it’s not right!”
No one would disagree with that. “We could try to find the poor fool who started the fire too,” Georgette said.
“Why are they a poor fool?” Miss Hallowton demanded.
“Because they started the fire to scare the blackmailer. It’s an idiotic plan certainly, but they were desperate. I can understand all of that. I just can’t understand the reason why. It’s the plan of a…of a…child or a fool.”
Miss Hallowton’s mouth twisted but Mr. Hadley was gentle as he said, “We can understand that, can’t we, Julie? I would be desperate too if we didn’t have our own plan for how to deal with your issue.”
Miss Hallowton took a deep, shuddering breath. “Is that it then?”
“Did anyone know what you did?”
“I’m not a complete fool,” Miss Hallowton hissed. “If I learned someone had known and then I got a blackmailer letter, I’d have said so.”
“Did you see anyone leave the envelopes without postage?”
Miss Hallowton’s mouth twisted again, and she shook her head. “Believe me, I tried to figure it out. I knew what they were when I saw them. They were always left when I was gone. I even tried staying a full day. The next one was delivered in the middle of the night. I was going to stage a spy mission, but I didn’t have a chance.”
Georgette realized Miss Hallowton had already begun her little spy mission by demanding that everyone receiving a letter without postage learn who sent it. Clever, that, though it didn’t seem to have helped.
“Who got the letters?” Georgette asked with her gaze bright. “Will you tell me that?”
Miss Hallowton hesitated and Mr. Hadley—bless him—cut in. “Julie, we need to find this fiend, and I’m certain that we can trust Miss Marsh to protect those who got letters.”
Miss Hallowton pulled a sheet of paper from one of her bins and wrote down several things. She handed it over, saying, “I don’t know anything else.”
“Did you see who shut the door after Marian and I entered yesterday?” Georgette sipped from her canteen, her voice feeling raw again, as Miss Hallowton closed her eyes.
“Hmm,” Miss Hallowton mused. She sniffed and then shook her head. “Perhaps I remember the sound of someone coming in, but I was pretty focused on you.”
Georgette winced. She should have expected just that really. She had been interfering and talking about a very dramatic subject. If people weren’t being blackmailed, Georgette’s sto
ry was a shock. If they were being blackmailed, it would have brought up their own worries.
She’d allowed the arsonist to get away with their crime by drawing the attention to herself. That was assuming, of course, that the blackmailer had not entered. Georgette reached out and shook Mr. Hadley’s hand and then Miss Hallowton’s.
“This may well be goodbye,” Georgette told them. “I feel that the people of Bard’s Crook have every right to their hard feelings towards me given the unintended consequences of my book. I don’t, however, plan on staying in the village and being shunned. I wish you both the best.”
Georgette and Charles left the library and crossed to a bench. Georgette leaned into his side and sipped from her canteen. Charles shifted and then said, “We already know about Mrs. Yancey, Harriet Lawrence, yourself, Miss Hallowton, and Mrs. Thornton. Is anyone else on the list?”
Georgette opened the folded piece of paper and lifted her brows as she read the names. “Jennifer Enoch.”
“Who is the Enoch woman?”
“A girl near Marian’s age. I don’t know her very well or her family either.”
“Do you want to confront another now?”
Georgette shook her head. Her lungs were protesting the amount of talking she had been doing, and she wanted to linger in the sunshine for a few minutes and enjoy the sight of the town. There was something so nostalgic about the day. Her mind skipped back to Eunice packing their cottage and the fact that she’d agreed to leave.
“How is your chest and throat?”
Georgette shrugged and then admitted, “They both hurt.”
“Do you want to go home and rest?”
Georgette shook her head. At his worried look, she suggested, “What if we find Harriet Lawrence, and then we can go back to the cottage for tea.”
“Tea and a nap for you,” Charles suggested and Georgette agreed without much fuss. It would take a few days for her things to be packed. Either way, she would leave with Marian the second the blackmailer was found.
Or, Georgette realized, she should probably discuss such a thing with Charles. She glanced at him. “I had thought to go to the sea with Marian.”