by P. B. Ryan
“And you let yourself be arrested in his place?” Nell asked incredulously.
“That wasn’t quite what I’d initially intended—although I probably wasn’t thinking straight, what with all the gong. I do remember telling Jack to get out of there. No matter what transpired, he was to tell no one that he’d been there, and certainly not with me.”
“And then you tried to save Tulley’s life by applying pressure between the wound and the heart.”
“If one’s victim doesn’t die, one can’t very well be charged with murder. And I still wanted Tulley to have to make that long climb up to the gallows. Clever you, figuring that out.”
“It didn’t make sense that you would want to choke him while he was spewing blood from a severed carotid, no matter how intoxicated you were.”
He let out a little huff of laughter as he tossed down his cigarette and ground it out. “How dead can one man get? In fact, I had to be careful not to press on his windpipe while I was compressing the artery. And I didn’t want to take the bistoury out in case—”
“—it worsened the bleeding,” she finished. “When in doubt, leave knives in.”
“Dr. Greaves was thorough.”
“I didn’t learn that one from him.” Before Will could pursue that, she said, “Why didn’t you just tell that patrolman what you were doing, when you realized he thought you were the killer?”
“Oh, I doubt anything I’d said at that point would have been very convincing. He’d caught me in the act! And, too, I wanted Jack to get away. If they even suspected it had been someone other than me, they would have gone looking for him.”
“So you let yourself be arrested and charged with murder.” Just as he’d let himself be captured and sent to Andersonville. “Pretty self-sacrificing of you.”
Wearily he said, “Not if you don’t have that much to lose in the first place. Jack did have something to lose—a career, a fiancée, a family that could not only stand the sight of him, but actually wanted him closer. Why not trade an empty life for a full one? I’d hesitated about that once—I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.”
Nell got it: Will hadn’t been able to save Robbie; he wasn’t about to lose Jack.
“Why didn’t you just plead guilty, then?” she asked.
“I was trying to do a friend a favor, not martyr myself. Oh, I was willing to see the sentence through if it came to it—I do believe in playing out one’s losing hand—but why just present it to them on a silver platter? Make them work for it, by God.”
“Fine, then,” she said. “Why didn’t you plead not guilty?”
“Because they would have investigated in earnest then, and it wouldn’t have taken much for them to home in on Jack. It’s not as if he’d been particularly careful about the whole thing. And the reason I didn’t want a lawyer,” he continued, anticipating her next question, “was because he might very well have investigated, stumbled on Jack, and used him to get me off whether I liked it or not. Are you done? Can we flirt now?”
“Not quite. That’s why you didn’t want me snooping around, either, because I might find out it was Jack all along.”
“Ah, you’re finally catching on,” he said with a smile, “now that it doesn’t matter anymore. You were a damnable nuisance, but you have a certain prickly way about you that I find diverting, and those galloping assumptions of yours helped to keep you from doing too much damage.”
“Why did Jack let you take the blame this way,” she asked, “especially considering what was at stake for you?”
“He didn’t realize I was doing it until you recruited him for legal services. And then he convinced himself he could get me off and we’d both walk free. We had a couple of long, fairly passionate arguments, he and I, about what would happen if I was sentenced to hang—he advocating for a last-minute confession on his part, I for the manly playing out of the hand, and all that. So, you’re saying we can flirt, once—”
“He never wanted me to pursue that other man in the back parlor,” Nell murmured. “The one you were talking to, the one Pearl...” She looked away, her cheeks warming. “Because it was him. It was Jack. It was all right to frame Noonan, though, because Noonan—”
“—was a blackguard. There’s something about a beautiful young woman in mourning attire...”
“He probably would have done it,” she said thoughtfully. “He would have admitted his guilt. He would have snatched away the sword you were trying to throw yourself on and shoved it into his own chest.”
“Yes,” Will said, suddenly sobered. “He would have. Which was why I had to...’leave for Shanghai.’”
She looked at him. The sun must have been burning through the mist while they were talking, because a ray had penetrated the foliage overhead to infuse his face with a golden radiance. A glance through the trees into the cemetery revealed the truth of this; it was awash with sunlight.
“I’m glad you were worried about me.” He replaced his hat on his head, nudging it to precisely the correct infinitesimal slant, something Brahmin males learned to do in the nursery.
Nell wanted to ask what he would be doing now, where he would be living, what his plans were, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to hear him say “cards,” or “Shanghai,” or “morphine.” And God knew she didn’t want to hear the name of some fictional hotel based on his “current actress’s” play.
“You’ll never learn.” He reached out to take hold of her green woolen scarf. She didn’t resist him, but instead let him take both ends and pull them even. “It may be April, but it’s nippy.”
He tucked it in, first one end, which he snugged beneath her right coat lapel, taking his time to make it smooth, and then the other, overlapping the first. For the briefest of moments—a second perhaps—he let his hand linger there, pressing it to her upper chest as if to gauge the thudding of her heart.
“You should listen when a physician gives you advice about your health,” he said, allowing his fingertips just the barest graze along her bare throat before withdrawing them. “I’ll be seeing you, Nell.”
He turned and walked away, into the morning sunshine.
-o0o-
About the Author
Patricia Ryan, aka P.B. Ryan, is the author of 28 mysteries and romances, which have been critically praised and published in over twenty countries. The first book of her Nell Sweeney historical mystery series, Still Life With Murder, has been the #1 bestselling ebook storewide at Barnes & Noble, and Book 2, Murder in a Mill Town, was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Silken Threads, a novel of medieval romantic suspense inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window, won Romance Writers of America's RITA® Award for Best Long Historical Romance.
Pat’s work in progress is a spin-off of the Nell Sweeney series featuring many of the same characters, including Nell and Will. For news about upcoming releases, subscribe to Pat’s newsletter at http://pb-ryan.com and keep in touch through Facebook and Twitter.
If you enjoyed Still Life With Murder, check out Book 2 of the Nell Sweeney series:
Murder in a Mill Town
When their daughter goes missing, the anguished Fallons come to Viola Hewitt for help, since the young woman was last seen at the Hewitt family’s textile mill, where she worked. Viola enlists her trusted governess, Nell Sweeney, to locate the wayward Bridget, who may have run off with her ex-con boyfriend, or met a bad end, or both. Nell’s investigation is both complicated and aided by the reappearance of Viola’s black sheep son, the damaged, deadly handsome, dangerously charming Will. As they piece together Bridget’s sordid relationships and shocking secrets, Nell comes to realize that her own checkered past intersects that of Bridget in a way that just might be the death of her. “Nell is one of the strongest, most honorable, and dearest heroines to grace the pages of an amateur sleuth novel.... P.B. Ryan knows how to write a tale that will grip and keep readers’ interest throughout the novel.” Midwest Book Reviews on Murder in a Mill Town
The Nell Sweeney
Historical Mysteries
by P.B. Ryan
Still Life with Murder
Murder in a Mill Town
Death on Beacon Hill
Murder on Black Friday
Murder in the North End
A Bucket of Ashes
The Nell Sweeney Historical Mysteries, a six-book “boxed set”
Medieval Romantic Suspense
by Patricia Ryan
Falcon’s Fire
Heaven’s Fire
Secret Thunder
Wild Wind
Silken Threads
The Sun and the Moon
Medieval Romances by Patricia Ryan, a six-book “boxed set“
Contemporary Women’s Fiction and Romance
by Patricia Ryan
Pure and Simple
Hale’s Point
A Burning Touch
About Cystic Fibrosis
A note from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:
-clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and
-obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.
In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, advances in research and medical treatments have further enhanced and extended life for children and adults with CF. Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond.
Statistics
-About 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year.
-More than 70% of patients are diagnosed by age two.
-More than 45% of the CF patient population is age 18 or older.
-The predicted median age of survival for a person with CF is in the late 30s.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation - Adding Tomorrows Every Day
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis. We fund more CF research than any other organization, and nearly every CF drug available today was made possible because of Foundation support. We are a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to attacking cystic fibrosis from every angle. Our focus is to support the development of new drugs to fight the disease, improve the quality of life for those with CF, and ultimately to find a cure.
Based in Bethesda, Md., the Foundation funds and accredits a national care center network that has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a model of care for a chronic disease. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is one of the most efficient organizations of its kind and is an accredited charity of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance.
Until we end this disease, our team will work tirelessly to extend and enhance life for those with cystic fibrosis by functioning as:
-Research pioneers, blazing new trails in drug development;
-Fund-raisers, securing the money needed to support the fight against CF;
-Advocates, keeping CF a top priority in government, industry and research;
-Stewards, using your donations to help fuel the creation of new drugs;
-Caregivers, linking patients and families to specialized CF care; and
-Helping hands, offering support, information and resources.
Since 1955, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has been the driving force behind the pursuit of a cure. Thanks to the dedication and financial backing of our supporters — patients, families and friends, clinicians, researchers, volunteers, individual donors, corporations and staff, we are making a difference.
We are proud of our achievements. But, we still have much to do. Learn more about what the Foundation does to fight cystic fibrosis and how you can get involved by visiting our website at http://www.cff.org.
Thank you for purchasing this book and supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Table of Contents
Murder Passes The Buck
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
Crack of Dawn Recipes
About The Author
Murder Grins and Bears It
Gertie Johnson Murder Mysteries
Murder On The Mind
Dedication
Acknowledgments
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
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About The Author
Books by L.L. Bartlett
Writing as Lorraine Bartlett
Writing as Lorna Barrett
Loose Screw
Prologue
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
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
About The Author
Contact Rae
Still Life With Murder
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
About the Author
Murder in a Mill Town
About Cystic Fibrosis
