by Beth Byers
A Friendly Little Murder
A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery
Beth Byers
Contents
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
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Summary
August 1925
After a slew of cases for Jack, a new book, and a series of business meetings for Vi, and an excess of Violet’s stepmother for them both, Vi and Jack determine to flee to a lodge in the woods. A little fresh air, a ramble or two, afternoon naps, lingering mornings over a cup of Turkish coffee and perhaps all will be aright again.
Only one morning walk ends with a body and yet again, Violet, Jack, and their friends find themselves involved in a mysterious death. The main suspects for the killer are none other than the victim’s long-time friends. Just why do you turn on an old friend? And if you've done it once, will you do it again?
Chapter 1
The train was lumbering along as though the engine was too hot to continue. It sputtered and moaned. With the heat of the day, the press of the bodies, and the general closeness of the carriage, Violet felt certain she might die a slow and terrible death on this very train journey.
“Was this a good idea?” Lila moaned. Her eyes were closed and she was waving a fan in front of her face. “None of us even hunt. Why are we doing what the earl does and going to a hunting lodge? Does he seem like a happy man to you? Violet and Jack should have bought a yacht, and we should be somewhere in the sea with an ocean breeze.”
“Don’t say such things,” Violet said, waving her own fan more fervently. “My goodness, we do need a yacht.”
“The earl seems to enjoy going away on his trips,” Jack said calmly. Despite the sweat at the edge of his face and the fact that he’d abandoned his coat and rolled up his sleeves, he seemed impervious to the heat.
“He doesn’t enjoy going on trips,” Denny groaned, mopping his face and grumbling. “He enjoys leaving his wife for an extended period.”
Vi would have laughed but it was too hot to laugh. She took in a deep breath and then blew out the air to fan over her face, but her own warm breath wasn’t helping with the heat.
“If this train weren’t going so very slow,” Ham said, “we’d have the cross-breeze to blow that woman’s perfume the other way. I feel like I’ve been poisoned.”
“You have been,” Violet whispered, glancing towards the woman sitting with her companions. Her gaze was followed by the entirety of their group.
“Anyone else feel like they’re looking in a mirror?” Denny asked casually. Both groups contained two couples and an extraneous friend. The other group, however, had an extra female rather than an extra male.
Regardless, both had a man in a tan jacket—Denny on their side—and a man in a dark blue jacket with pin-gray stripes—this was Jack, though his jacket was laid over the back of the seat behind them. Violet and a blonde across the way were both wearing nude pink dresses, gray cloches, and sensible brown shoes for traveling. Given the heat, every female had a fan in her hand. Lila and the second woman both wore loose pink dresses and to Violet’s surprise, the other woman was clearly expecting. You’d have to know Lila to know she’d be a mother in a few short months.
That woman was the one wearing too much perfume. She was also wearing a rather heavy layer of makeup.
Violet wasn’t one to judge the use of makeup, but in this circumstance, it wasn’t the use of it that was bothering Violet but having an extra layer of anything with this heat. If they had been home instead of on this train that had clearly been diverted to the fires of Hades, she’d have stripped down to her underthings or taken an ice bath.
Vi glanced again at the others in the group and noted the fifth member—a woman with round spectacles and a wicked expression. She was glistening from the heat, but it didn’t seem to stop her willingness to hellishly tease her friends. Violet recognized the expression. It was a classic Vi maneuver; therefore, Vi liked her instantly.
The woman had elfin features with dark hair that curled in spirals. Rather than fighting it, she seemed to embrace the curls, or perhaps she’d given up the fight. Her eyes were slanted just enough to make them particularly intriguing. She had a dimple in her chin and another in her cheek. She was, simply put, adorable.
Among Violet’s friends, Hamilton was the fifth, and oldest, member. To Violet’s shocked delight, both the extraneous woman and the extraneous Hamilton were wearing brown. Hamilton was wearing a brown jacket and pants with a rather nice mustard shirt that few could pull off well. The woman with the expression that declared she’d just said something naughty was wearing a pinstriped brown dress with a mustard sash about the waist.
“Poor Ham,” Lila said. “You’ll have to be our excess of female so we match properly.”
Ham ran his hand over his close cropped beard. “I rather think that your Denny fills that role better than I.”
Vi grinned and leaned into Jack’s side. “You are the one in brown and yellow, my darling Hamilton.”
He winked before he said dryly to Lila, “But yon Denny is the most feminine of this group, your sweet self and Violet included.”
“Lila isn’t sweet,” Violet and Denny said in unison, with Denny adding, “She’s a dangerous creature who took away my chocolate. She’s mean and vicious, really. You should watch her. You never know when she’ll turn on you.”
“You’re fat again,” Lila told him without sympathy. “Of the two of us, the only one who gets to be too round to run is me and that has an end date, laddie. You might as well accept it that you’ll have to move, sweat, and go without chocolate until you can fit into that grey suit I bought you.”
“It was too small from the start,” Denny whined.
“Have faith, my friend,” Violet said. “You’ll slim down just sitting on this train.”
Violet let her head rest on Jack’s shoulder and used the fan dramatically, including Jack in the wind. She and Jack were in full, unashamed retreat. Hunting lodge or no, they weren’t rushing to the country to do anything more than escape Lady Eleanor’s appearance at their door.
Retreat. Full retreat and nothing less. No other description would be accurate. They’d returned the young wart, Violet’s brother Geoffrey, to Lady Eleanor and the earl. Geoffrey hadn’t been changed so much as revealed himself as occasionally human. Even still, Lady Eleanor had turned on Violet—yet again—and she and Jack decided to pull a page from the earl’s book and flee to a hunting lodge.
“Do you intend to hunt?” Denny asked Jack. Denny pulled on his collar again as if yanking at it could lower the heat.
“I plan to walk about a bit with binoculars rather than a rifle. Not much of a man for shooting things down since the war.” Jack’s wide shoulders shifted and Violet wound her fingers through his. She didn’t like to think of him in the war. Even if he wasn’t in the trenches, he’d been recruited into the military police, and he suffered along with the other soldiers. He had been lucky in comparison, and he was quick to say it.
Jack was a large man. Not so much handsome in the traditional sense as solid and reliable. He made her feel delicate and beloved. There was som
ething about his dark hair, dark eyes, and penetrating gaze that said he missed nothing of what was happening around them, but in particular, that he missed nothing about Violet.
“What about you, Ham?” Denny asked.
“I’ve been on case after case since—” He didn’t finish the statement, but they could all finish it. He’d been on case after case since their friend, Rita, had left England for another foreign adventure. He cleared his throat. “I want nothing more than to smoke some cigars, drink a few Old Fashioneds and nap in an overstuffed chair. Napping in a bed is for old men. Real men put up their feet and pretend to be having deep thoughts.”
Lila groaned, fanning herself, and Denny nodded in agreement with Hamilton. Lila was very pale while Denny was golden. She was lush and lovely and stylish, and Denny was a blond, dapper fellow, although Violet felt certain that Denny’s dapperness came from Lila’s shopping. He was currently at the plumper end of his range before Lila had stepped in. His theory that Lila had bought him a smaller-than-usual suit had been, in fact, Violet’s idea. “I could get behind all that. But napping in a bed is also for married couples and children.”
“I’d nap in a bed. It’s my preferred spot,” Violet said with a grin. “And I’ll walk in the woods with you,” Violet told Jack when she realized that neither of his friends wanted to go along.
“Ah,” Denny teased, “young love.”
“Not lazy love,” Lila countered, poking him with her elbow. “Unlike you. You’re a chubby duckling.”
“Bright young healthy types,” Denny added, shaking his head. “They’ll learn.”
Violet closed her eyes against their smirks and if Jack was amused, he didn’t show it. Hamilton stretched as he said, “I could be persuaded for a swim. It’s too hot to ramble unless it’s very early, and I have every intention of sleeping in.”
“Did you decide to add a swimming pool to the country house?” Denny asked idly. “We should be there, swimming. Since apparently you weren’t excited about the idea of a yacht.”
Violet shook her head and Jack answered, “We were distracted by break-ins, babies, and murders. Perhaps you recall?” He paused. “Did you get the letter from Gwen and John? They had a baby boy. There are small baskets with squalling creatures all about that people are thrilled have arrived.”
“Ah,” Denny said, “the mighty heir. We’re having a girl.” Denny grinned confidently. “Any boy of mine will be a complete waste of time and energy. Girls, however, especially ones like Lila, they might have a chance. If the girl is like me, God help her.” Denny looked as though he’d been struck by a brilliant thought and then shook it off. “How hard is it to choose a place for the swimming pool and tell your servants to arrange it?”
“Harder than you’d think,” Jack replied dryly. “I don’t believe we discussed it once or even thought about it.”
“Please,” Denny shot back. “Violet bought into a new chocolate business, she moved the woman and her family to Bath to set up shop in a bigger town and have a great chance of success, she persuaded your cousins to help us find a killer, she saved Victor’s babies from burglars, and she finished writing that book.”
“We all know Vi is super human and cannot be compared to us lesser mortals.” Jack shifted a little and she felt his arm wrap around her. It really was too hot for snuggling, even before adding in the close quarters of the train, but she didn’t mind. It had been hard to relax for too long.
She glanced towards their counterparts across the aisle and saw the woman with the mischievous expression eyeing them rather interestedly. She was, Violet was reminded again, rather like herself. They both had sharp features and slim figures. Each of them carried a leather satchel and both had a book in their lap. Was the girl reading the new Edgar Rice Burroughs book as well, or could she be like Violet’s sister-in-law and perusing some treatise or series of essays? As much as Violet loved her twin’s wife, she hoped the girl across the aisle was reading the Princess of Mars.
Lila rolled her eyes and lazily fanned herself. “I’d demand something with ice, but anything they brought onto the train holding the ice surely just has water now.”
“It does seem likely,” Ham agreed. “This weather feels ridiculously unseasonable.”
“It is August,” Violet told him.
“I’m a detective, you know,” Ham said with an amused look. “I’ve figured that out.”
“They’ll get more ice at the next stop.”
“As a detective,” Ham interjected with a grin that only reached the corners of his mouth and was nearly as hard to see as one of Jack’s, “all clues do point to us needing to go to the sea. Lila is right. You should have bought a yacht.”
“I always am,” Lila said without opening her eyes. She curled onto her side and tucked her head onto Denny’s shoulder. She was right, Violet thought, and felt sleep beckoning to her as well. She was being smothered into it by the heat and by the sleeplessness of her last few weeks. She took a deep breath in as Jack trailed his finger down her arm. It was all she needed to finish her own journey to sleep.
Chapter 2
The train chugged to a stop and Violet woke confused at the change of movement. She felt Jack’s arm around her, but the usual comfort of it was different, and it took her far too long to realize she was leaning against him, sitting up. It was only then that she took in the murmur of voices. The smell of coal that reminded her of the train and where she was came back to her in a flood.
She kept herself still. It was so hot, if she pretended to be asleep, perhaps she’d be able to slip back into unconsciousness and miss the heat of the rest of this journey.
It took her long moments of half-asleep cooking on the train to realize she was hearing more than just her friends. It took her so long to realize the group of look-a-likes had turned in their seats and were telling tales with Ham and Denny that Violet was worried about her reasoning.
Violet watched through her lashes for a few minutes. Denny was telling one of his tall, gossipy tales around a cigarette hanging from his mouth. As she snuck her extended peek, she noticed the other group’s pregnant woman stand and cast a nasty glance at her husband that went unseen by the others.
The woman placed a hand on her stomach. “I do need to stretch my legs.” There was such a telling command in her statement, but no one paid her any attention except the single woman among her friends, and the look she gave was pitying.
Violet would have expected one of the pregnant woman’s party to go with her, and it seemed the other woman expected the same, but the only reply she got was a, “Enjoy yourself, Pamela m’dear.” Her husband turned back to the other couple traveling with them and laughed at something the other married woman said. The three of them did look awfully chummy, the poor little kitten.
“Lyle!” Pregnant Pamela hissed, but he merely gave her a wink and turned back to the others. The look Pamela gave her husband was nothing short of a killing blow. Nearly as vicious was the look Pamela sent towards the others, but again, only the curly-haired woman who matched Ham noticed with the same pitying wince.
As the pregnant woman walked away in a cloud of perfume, Violet glanced towards Lila and saw her eyes were cracked as well. Their gazes met, and they smiled just enough to admit to the other that they were both spying. Lila’s narrowly opened gaze dropped just on the left side as she had a shadow of a giggle that caused Denny to glance her way, but he didn’t react.
There was, however, little doubt in Violet’s mind that both Denny and Jack were aware that they’d woken up. Violet suspected that the pregnant woman was even angrier that her husband was oblivious to her scathing looks.
Violet decided that the time for feigning sleep was over.
“Here she is,” Denny said as Violet sat up, blinking blearily, gaze following the pregnant woman who was stalking off. “The lady of the hour.”
“What am I?” Lila asked as she put off her own act of sleeping. “Tinned sardines?”
Violet laughed
and then faced the people who had joined her party. “Excuse me. I think I lost the battle against the heat.”
The married woman from the other side of the aisle said, “You won it, I think. Sleeping against a lovely set of shoulders like your husband’s and being unaware of this journey isn’t losing, it’s winning, darling.”
Violet smiled automatically, but she felt as though the other woman had just sized up Jack and found him desirable. In fact, Violet realized, that was what just happened. What an odd feeling, Violet thought. Her gaze flicked to Ham and saw that he had seen what she had, and he was amused in the extreme. The curly-haired woman with the wicked expression noted it as well and smirked nearly as broadly.
Violet hid her annoyance. The woman was sitting right next to her husband. One would think she’d at least wait until her husband wasn’t watching.
Violet stretched to allow herself to unobtrusively see Jack’s face. It was entirely impassive, which told Violet he’d felt weighed and noticed. She winked at him and then turned back to the others. “I believe I slept through introductions.”
“You were snoring quite delightfully,” the young woman said, her expression devilish but with an air of friendliness about it.
“Vi is generally delightful, even snoring,” Ham told the woman. “Jovie, meet Violet Wakefield. Vi, this is Miss Jovie Webb.”
The bespectacled woman in brown and mustard waved lightly.
Ham gestured to the oblivious husband. “This is Lyle Craft. His wife, Pamela, just went for a walk.”
