Gone West
Page 29
“And I shall be sick of it long before the season’s over. I’ll have a prawn salad, thank you.”
Daisy decided on the pheasant, a rare treat for her.
“Have you found some good inn names?” she asked Lucy.
“A few. But who cares, darling. That can wait. This morning’s post brought an invitation to Sybil Sutherby’s wedding. I’m sure there must be some connection with the murder you got involved in when you went to stay with her. Tell all.”
“I’ve already told you most of it. And the papers reported the arrest of Walter Ilkton.”
“Of course. The younger sons of peers don’t often get arrested for murdering popular authors.”
“We—at the farm—weren’t aware that he was Lord Harrington’s son. You know I don’t keep up with that sort of thing. Not that it would have made any difference to Alec’s arresting him.”
“Darling, I wouldn’t dream of suggesting it might have. You didn’t tell me about the doctor waiting in the wings to come to Sybil’s rescue.”
“I’m pretty sure she’d have married him anyway. ‘Eli Hawke’s’ death just precipitated matters. Keep this under your hat—which is absolutely stunning, by the way—” Daisy paused to study the creation, a sort of shako with a ribbon round the non-existent brim, tied in a small bow in front, and a small plume of feathers drooping gracefully on one side at the top. Stunning was the word. If she turned up in something like it, her friends would faint, but if it caught on, every shop-girl would be wearing cheap versions in a month or two. “Paris?”
“Naturally. The latest. What is it you want me to keep under it?”
“Dr. Knox, Sybil’s fiancé, was actually suspected of the murder for practically the same reason Ilkton committed it. By the way, did you manage to find out exactly what Myra Olney’s up to, living it up with the nobs?”
“It wasn’t difficult. So far, she’s running with a perfectly respectable crowd, mostly the families of her school friends, as you said. But of course that leads to invitations from friends of friends, and some of them are somewhat less respectable, though she hasn’t reached the level of the raffish set yet.”
“‘Yet’?”
“Yet,” Lucy said firmly. “She has no family capable of protecting her, nor even aware of the sort of people she’s meeting. She’s far too young and unsophisticated to cope for herself. And no, I am not going to take her under my wing.”
Daisy sighed. “I’m going to have to introduce her to Melanie—my friend Mrs. Germond, the banker’s wife. I don’t think you’ve met her. She’s been very good with the girls from the Tower—you remember that business.”
“How could I forget, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes? I’m glad you didn’t get me mixed up in that one.”
“I never get you mixed up in any of them on purpose, darling. In fact, I don’t get mixed up myself on purpose. Mel was very good about weaning Fay and Brenda from their addiction to uniforms and the unsuitable officers wearing them.”
“Preferable to Irish adventurers! What happened to Carey?”
“He dropped Myra at her lodgings and faded away. I haven’t heard anything of him since.”
“Not surprising, as Myra has no money.”
“No, but nor did I.”
“A middle-class policeman,” Lucy grumbled.
“Don’t talk rubbish, darling. You’re long reconciled to my marrying Alec. At least Myra has looks. With any luck Melanie will manage to persuade her to be satisfied with middle-class jollifications, tennis club parties and genteel, chaperoned flirtations, till she finds herself a husband. It’s far more her level of sophistication.”
“Not to mention her family background,” Lucy said dryly.
“Yes, but she really is a thoroughly nice girl, however scatty, or I shouldn’t bother. She already came to call, in Hampstead, and she’s dotty about the twins.”
“Ah, the passport to a mother’s heart.”
“You wait! Speaking of family, I had a letter from Ruby Birtwhistle. The author’s widow,” Daisy explained as Lucy looked blank. “Myra’s aunt by marriage. Or cousin or something. She’s taken a house in Matlock Bank and she says Myra will always have a home there if she wants it. So that’s a relief.”
“Isn’t there a son?”
“Simon. Apparently, he’s decided to take articles with the family solicitor. A bit of a change from wanting to be an avant-garde writer! He was impressed by his wicked aunt’s trial, it seems.”
“Sybil’s not going to give up her writing career, is she?” asked Lucy, suddenly militantly feminist. “Just because she’s getting married?”
“No. Calm down. She’s not sure what she’s going to write, though. She doesn’t want to try to continue the Westerns without Humphrey.”
“I don’t blame her. Good for her. Perhaps I’ll go to the wedding after all.”
“Lucy, you must! It will be a very small do. She has no family at all except her little girl. Ruby and Simon and Myra will be there, but she needs our support.”
“All right, all right. We Old Scholars must stick together, and I’ll haul Gerald along. As long as you promise there won’t be another murder.”
“Darling,” said Daisy, “you know very well, that’s a promise I can’t possibly make!”
NOTES
The Smedley’s Hydropathic Establishment visitors’ illustrated handbook for c. 1924 can be seen at http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/HYDRO.htm.
Card Games played at Eyrie Farm
Racing Demon is a game of speed, and breaks all the rules of turn-taking and patience! Any number can join in: the more the merrier. Each player starts with a complete pack of cards (it’s important that each pack has a different design or colour on the back) and deals a pile of thirteen facedown except for the top card which is turned faceup. This is called the “Pile.” Four more cards are then dealt out in a line faceup next to the Pile. The rest are kept in the hand.
At the word “Go” the game starts: any player who has turned up an ace moves it into the middle and immediately replaces it from the top of their Pile, turning the next card in the Pile face up. Each player always has five cards faceup: The top of the pile, and a line of four. There is no turn taking: each player goes through their remaining cards as quickly as possible, one, two, or three at a time (one at a time is easier and quicker) building up the suits in the middle that have started with aces and all the time watching for opportunities to move a card from their face-up line onto one of the suits that are being built in the middle. Cards from the face-up line are always replaced with the top card of the Pile, and the next card in the Pile is turned up. The player who puts the final King onto a suit in the middle takes that pile and puts it to one side.
The winner is the first player to get rid of all their Pile—not the four face-up cards as well: when they play their final card, putting it onto one of the suits in the middle, they say “Out” and play stops immediately.
Scoring is as follows: the winning player gets ten bonus points. Any player who has claimed a suit with a King gets two bonus points for each suit. All the suits claimed are now put back in the middle, facedown, and the cards remaining in the middle are also turned over. Each player now collects all their own cards from the middle and counts them up, then subtracts, as penalty points, the number of cards they have remaining in their Pile (not the four face-up cards as well). A winning score is usually in the thirties; we usually play up to a hundred, which is probably four or five games and gives everyone a chance to go out.
[Thanks to Gillian, of http://www.grandparentscafe.com.]
* * *
Happy Families is similar to the well-known game, Fish, except that instead of ordinary playing cards, a special pack is used. Picture cards include Mr. Bun the Baker, Mrs. Bun the Baker’s Wife, Master Bun the Baker’s Son, Miss Bun the Baker’s Daughter, and the families of Mr. Soot the Sweep, Mr. Bone the Butcher, etc. Instead of collecting all four Kings, for instance, players try to collect complete families.
ALSO BY CAROLA DUNN
THE DAISY DALRYMPLE MYSTERIES
Death at Wentwater Court
The Winter Garden Mystery
Requiem for a Mezzo
Murder on the Flying Scotsman
Damsel in Distress
Dead in the Water
Styx and Stones
Rattle His Bones
To Davy Jones Below
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker
Mistletoe and Murder
Die Laughing
A Mourning Wedding
Fall of a Philanderer
Gunpowder Plot
The Bloody Tower
Black Ship
Sheer Folly
Anthem for Doomed Youth
CORNISH MYSTERIES
Manna from Hades
A Colourful Death
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CAROLA DUNN is the author of numerous novels, including the mysteries featuring Daisy Dalrymple. Born and raised in England, she lives in Eugene, Oregon.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.A0;
GONE WEST. Copyright © 2011 by Carola Dunn. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.A0;
www.stmartins.comA0;
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:A0;
Dunn, Carola.A0;
Gone West : a Daisy Dalrymple mystery / Carola Dunn. — 1st ed.A0;
p. cm.A0;
ISBN 978-0-312-67548-6 (hardcover)A0;
ISBN 978-1-4299-4224-9 (e-book)A0;
1. Dalrymple, Daisy (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women journalists—Fiction. 3. Male authors—Death—Fiction. 4. Suspicion—Fiction. 5. England—Fiction. I. Title.A0;
PR6054.U537G66 2012A0;
823'.914—dc22A0;
2011032830A0;
e-ISBN 9781429942249A0;
First Edition: January 2012A0;