Murder Under the Mistletoe, page 2
Redvers set his champagne on a small table and moved forward, and I quickly followed suit. He hugged the taller woman with curly hair. “This is Carolyn Hennessy. My mother’s sister,” Redvers told me. Then he turned to the woman with rosy cheeks, her straight salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a low bun, and bent down to hug her also. “And this is her sister-in-law, Marie Schwalbach. Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Marie, this is my fiancée, Jane Wunderly.” It took no more than that introduction for the women to bustle in and try to elbow each other out of the way in order to hug me first.
“It’s about time you got married, young man,” Aunt Carolyn said. “Enough of this gallivanting about the world.”
“Oh, I think the gallivanting is romantic,” said Aunt Marie. “And what if Jane wants to gallivant as well?” They both turned and looked at me expectantly, Redvers’ father and his own fiancée completely forgotten for the moment. “Well?”
“I do enjoy traveling,” I said. “It’s how we met.”
“See? There you have it,” Aunt Marie said. “That sounds very romantic.”
I suspected the two would have happily continued their argument well into the night if Redvers’ father hadn’t finally stepped forward to interrupt them. “I’m glad you could stop by. I hope you will join us for supper.”
“How kind of you,” Marie said.
“Perhaps. What are you having?” Carolyn asked.
I picked my drink back up and hid my smile behind it. Christmas might be more complicated than we’d expected, but it was also going to be much more entertaining than I’d dared hope.
After a brief discussion, Redvers’ aunts decided to stay for supper. I found that I was pleased that our party was larger than just the four of us. It was obvious from his body language that Redvers was much more comfortable with his two aunts than with his father, and I was delighted for the chance to get to know them better. The women were also a font of information. Or gossip, rather.
“You know this will be Evelyn’s third marriage,” Aunt Carolyn said to me in a low voice on our way in to dinner. Humphrey had already escorted his fiancée ahead of us.
“Her last two husbands died suddenly,” Aunt Marie whispered. “Perhaps too suddenly.”
“You’re not suggesting . . .” I whispered back. They both gave elegant little shrugs before passing into the dining room and taking their seats at the long, very formal wooden table. I was rooted to the spot for a moment before Redvers tugged me forward. He hadn’t said anything, but I could see a little furrow between his brows. Put there, I imagined, by his aunts’ comments.
The housekeeper served our meal, roast duck with root vegetables and sautéed potatoes. Evelyn cut into her vegetables, stabbing a carrot and looking at it critically. “I’ll need to speak with the cook once you and I are married, Humphrey. These are a bit undercooked.”
Aunt Carolyn barely paused what she was doing to spear Evelyn with a look. “Mary never had a problem with the cook. Mrs. Bosworth does a lovely job—my carrots are just fine.”
Evelyn pursed her lips. “I prefer if we don’t bring up the subject of Mary.”
Now Carolyn put her fork down. “And why is that, Evelyn?”
“It makes Humphrey upset.”
Carolyn looked at her brother-in-law who was busy cutting his meat. “He looks fine to me. I don’t think the mention of my late sister’s name is going to give him the vapors.”
Evelyn’s gaze met Carolyn’s in an obvious war of wills before Evelyn finally reached for her glass of wine and broke eye contact between the two. Both women had dark eyes, but it occurred to me that while Carolyn’s were a warm brown, Evelyn’s eyes were nearly black.
The tension stretched until Aunt Marie finally cleared her throat. “Jane, have you and Redvers set a date for your wedding?”
It was my turn to feel uncomfortable. I was hoping for a long engagement so I could adjust to the idea of being married again. Redvers was fine with this, but it was difficult to explain to others because I had no desire to reveal my personal reasons for wanting to wait. “We have not.”
“You modern women,” Marie said with a shake of her head, but there was no venom in her words. Just mild admonishment.
Carolyn finally dragged her attention away from Evelyn to look at me. “You should get Mother’s ring.” She turned to Humphrey who’d gone a bit pink. “Where is Mother’s ring now? I’m assuming you didn’t bury Mary with it.”
Humphrey coughed behind his fist. “No, no, of course not. But Evelyn will be wearing the ring.” Evelyn beamed down the long table at her fiancé and it took her a moment to realize that everyone at the table was now staring at the ring finger of her left hand.
Evelyn sniffed at the attention being given her. “It’s being fitted for me. I have delicate hands.” Her hands were indeed quite doll-like.
Carolyn looked fit to be tied, but she continued in a reasonable voice. “That ring belonged to my family, Humphrey. Not yours.”
Humphrey’s face had darkened. “We can discuss this later, Carolyn.”
She nodded once. “You can be certain that we will.”
Across from me I could see Redvers’ face was thunderous as well, and I was curious how similar the two men’s temperaments would prove to be. Because it looked to me like Redvers was just as displeased about Evelyn receiving his grandmother’s ring as his aunt was. I’d suspected for some time that the reason Redvers had agreed to return for the holiday was to ask his father for something, and since I didn’t yet have an engagement ring . . . well, I’d rather assumed Redvers wanted to procure a family ring for our engagement. Based on the look on his face, I would wager a large sum of money it was the very same ring he’d intended to ask his father for.
Evelyn had been pushing her food around her plate rather than eating it, and now she reached for her wineglass, taking a healthy sip. “Tomorrow afternoon we will take the sledge out and choose a tree to put in the sitting room. Redvers, I expect you and Jane will join us, of course.”
“If you like,” Redvers replied.
“What is a sledge?” I whispered to my fiancé from behind my own wineglass.
“It’s a sleigh,” he whispered back.
I could see Carolyn and Marie exchange a look across the table, but it had nothing to do with our whispered conversation. “It’s early to be putting up the tree, isn’t it, Evelyn? Normally it doesn’t go up until Christmas Eve,” Aunt Marie said.
“We’re putting it up a day early because we plan to be wed on Christmas Day. I will have other preparations that will be keeping me too busy to put up the tree then.” Evelyn punctuated her statement with a nod.
“In that case, there’s not nearly enough room for all of you plus a tree in that old sledge of yours, Humphrey. We’ll bring ours as well. Say around one?” Marie said.
Evelyn’s lips flattened, but there was no way she could refuse to let this pair join the fun without being incredibly rude. “Certainly,” she ground out. “Should we send Carlisle to help you hitch up your horses?”
Carolyn snorted. “I’ve spent my entire life around horses. Not to mention we have our own help, Evelyn. I have things well in hand.”
“It’s a bit of a risk, isn’t it?” Evelyn asked. “Handling large animals.”
“More of a risk to be married to you,” Carolyn said under her breath. I was the only one who could hear her since she was seated next to me, and I nearly choked on a sip of my own wine, quickly turning it into a cough.
“What was that?” Evelyn was indignant.
“I said the exercise is healthy. I’m sorry you couldn’t hear me.”
The two women were back to glaring at each other while the rest of us ignored their silent battle and turned our attention to the chocolate soufflé that had just been served for dessert.
I had so many questions for Redvers by now, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to remember them all.
CHAPTER THREE
It wasn’t long after our desserts were consumed that Redvers’ aunts left for the evening with a promise to see us the following afternoon. Evelyn readied herself to leave for the evening as well, instructing Carlisle to fetch the car and take her home. She and Humphrey were engaged, but it was still considered improper for her to stay the night at his home before they were married, so she returned to her own home close to the center of town every evening. Although I could see she had no trouble ordering Humphrey’s staff around as though she was already mistress of the household.
Once it was just the three of us, the conversation became even more stilted. It didn’t take long for Redvers and I to claim exhaustion from travel and request to turn in for the evening. Humphrey looked relieved, and we bid each other good night. The housekeeper, a quiet woman named Mrs. Potter, showed me to my room. It was a mid-size bedroom with a heavy four-poster bed and thick wool rug but otherwise spare furnishings. My things had already been put away, and I set about getting ready for bed when I heard a knock on my door.
Redvers. I’d rather been expecting him after he’d been shown to his own room down the hall. He looked delicious in a thick dressing gown of dark red silk.
I opened the door to him, quickly ushering him inside with a quick glance up and down the hallway, before shutting the door and leaning back against it and giving him a wink. “Scandalous. Visiting me in my boudoir this time of night.”
He leaned forward to give me a quick kiss before rolling his eyes. “Ridiculous that we’ve been given separate rooms. As though I’m some green boy instead of an engaged man.”
“Well, Evelyn goes home at the end of every evening. We should feel fortunate I’m not staying at the local inn, I suppose.”
At the mention of Evelyn’s name, Redvers’ brows pulled together. He moved deeper into my room, finding only one stiff armchair near the fireplace with its banked fire. With a sigh he looked around, then dragged the wooden chair from the small desk over next to it, before sitting down on the tiny chair. I shook my head and shooed him into the armchair. “I have so many questions, you’re going to need to be more comfortable. Besides, you look as though you’ll break that wooden chair. And then where will we be?”
Redvers shook his head but did as I asked and moved to the larger chair. I sat down and faced him. “I don’t even know where to start, really.”
“How about with Evelyn?” Redvers suggested.
“Excellent point. What do we know about her?”
“She is widowed, just as my aunts told you, although I think it’s already been two years or more. But they’re correct that her husband’s death was pretty sudden.” Redvers shook his head. “I didn’t realize that Evelyn had been married before that. It must have been before she came to the area.”
“Do you think your aunts are correct? About the deaths being suspicious?” I didn’t want to suggest that they were making things up, but perhaps it was just rumors they’d heard.
Redvers shrugged. “It could just be rumors. In fact, I wouldn’t give it a second thought except that she showed up here. I hadn’t even heard that my father was courting her, let alone that they were engaged.”
“Would he have told you that? It doesn’t seem as though you and your father . . . share a lot of information with one another.”
One of Redvers’ eyebrows lifted. “Yes, I suppose one could say that we’re not exactly close. I guess that’s not difficult to see.”
“Mmm,” I said.
He sighed. “I wouldn’t have even come here but I wanted . . .” He trailed off, then seemed to make a decision. “I wanted to get my grandmother’s ring to give to you.”
“I suspected as much.”
He snorted. “There’s no keeping secrets from you, is there? How can I surprise you if you insist on figuring everything out ahead of time?”
I shrugged. “Are you upset about the ring going to Evelyn?”
Redvers thought about that for a moment. “I am, actually. Even if I didn’t want you to wear it, I wouldn’t want Evelyn to have it. Aunt Carolyn is correct. The ring was from her family. If anything, it should have gone back to her.”
“Do your aunts have children?” It was a little off topic, but I was curious about the women.
“Aunt Carolyn has one son. He lives in London and comes home once or twice a year to visit. Aunt Marie has two children, and at least one of them is still in the area. Last I heard anyway.” His face softened. “I was intimidated by them as a child—they’ve always been thick as thieves—sitting in the back of every gathering and spearing everyone who came too close with their wit. Although they were always really quite kind to me, despite that. They would slip me books that my father deemed ‘frivolous.’ Basically, anything fictional.” I let out a sigh—the library downstairs would have little to interest me then.
Redvers continued. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gained an even greater appreciation for them. They seem to enjoy thumbing their noses at conventional society.”
“They’re both widows?”
He nodded. “They live together on the other side of town. Their husbands died several years apart, but of wholly natural causes.”
Which brought us back to Evelyn. “Which we’re thinking might not be the case with Evelyn’s last two husbands.” It was a statement more than a question. “But how do we learn more about that?”
“I think we should speak with the doctor in the morning. He attended the last death and perhaps he’ll know something about the husband before that. Hopefully he will be able to clear it up quickly. It’s entirely possible that it’s just a rumor and there’s nothing suspicious about it at all.”
Perhaps. And I was hopeful for the sake of his father that that was the case. But it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t want Redvers’ father meeting an unexpectedly sudden end, even if the two men weren’t close. Besides his two aunts, Humphrey was the only immediate family Redvers had left.
“Will your father be upset if he learns we’re looking into this?”
Redvers gave that a moment’s thought. “I think if we’re careful it shouldn’t get back to him.”
A yawn nearly split my face in two and Redvers chuckled. “I think the rest of your questions—and I know you have many—will have to wait, my dear.”
It was true. I was quite tired from both the travel and the excitement of the day. “But you’ll help me warm my bed first?” I’d had reservations about men and intimacy in the past, but since our trip across the Atlantic, I found I was once again looking forward to such things.
“Scandalous,” Redvers gasped before giving me a wink. “Of course, I will.”
* * *
An hour or so later Redvers disappeared back down the hall to his own room for propriety’s sake, and I lay down to sleep. It took a while for sleep to actually come—even though my body was tired, my mind was still wound up. I’d met Redvers’ father, and even after spending only a very short period of time with the man, I believed that I understood Redvers better. His childhood had not been warm, and he’d been intimidated by the family members who had been kind to him. No wonder he was closed off and private.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Evelyn Hesse either. She was a complicated woman. She’d been kind to Youngblood, uncommonly kind, really, but then proved herself to be unpleasant to Redvers’ aunts as well. Yet it seemed highly unlikely that she was a killer. It was easy to want her to be responsible for her previous two husbands’ deaths, but if you’d killed one husband and gotten away with it—why risk it a second time? Or even a third, with Humphrey? My guess was that her unpleasant personality had sparked the rumors, and we would hear from the doctor in the morning that her deceased husbands had simply passed from natural causes.
Although, I could very much understand why Redvers might not want Humphrey to marry the woman. It was likely that future family gatherings would prove equally as uncomfortable as this one had started out to be.
* * *
The only sounds at breakfast, besides quietly murmured “good mornings,” were the clinking of silverware against plates. Breakfast was set up on the sideboard for everyone to help themselves, and I’d filled a plate with eggs, fried vegetables, and some toast. I still wasn’t prepared to try everything involved in a full English breakfast—anything with the word black in the name was suspect to me, especially since I’d learned it often meant blood. There were two pots of tea for the table, but Redvers had had the cook make a pot of coffee especially for me. It had earned a pointed look from Evelyn, but I was not bothered in the slightest. No one was going to stand between me and my coffee.
Evelyn had been at the breakfast table before either I or Redvers, making me wonder what the point of her going home at night was if she was going to be back again before the sun rose. She wore a becoming forest-green day dress of thick wool, ready for our afternoon in the woods. But we had other matters to attend to first.
“We thought we would head into town this morning,” Redvers said into the silence. His father had been reading the morning newspaper and jumped slightly at the sound of his son’s voice.
“Whatever for?” Evelyn asked.
Redvers answered but addressed it to his father. “Jane would like to stop in a few of the shops downtown.”
I gave his foot a little kick under the table for blaming the outing entirely on me.
“You make such a lovely scapegoat,” he whispered to me.
I wrinkled my nose at him.
His father and Evelyn ignored all this. “Very well. Ask Carlisle for the keys to the car, unless you’d rather he drove you.” Humphrey paused, thinking. “Could you stop by Berman Jewelers while you’re in town? The ring should be ready.”
I felt Redvers stiffen next to me—he obviously hadn’t spoken to his father about the ring, and I wondered if he would even bother. It had already been adjusted for Evelyn; it seemed a lost cause at this point. And I truly didn’t care what I wore—if I wore a ring at all.
“Certainly,” Redvers answered evenly.
“Are you certain that’s wise, Humphrey?” Evelyn asked.
