Deathly Ever After Read online

  Deathly Ever After

  A Poison Ink 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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Also By Beth Byers

  Also By Amanda A. Allen

  Preview of Philanderer Gone

  Summary

  Georgette Dorothy Aaron has found her dream home, her dream village, and her dream husband. She and Charles purchase their house, move, and then discover all isn’t as it seems.

  Have they found another village with dark secrets? Is their happily ever after going to fade so soon? Will they be able to uncover what is happening or have they made a terrible mistake?

  Chapter 1

  The goddess Atë, mistress of mischief, had been concerned when her favorite human had left behind the ridiculous town of Bard's Crook. The fools who had been too blind to see their chronicler in their midst? It had given Atë sheer, unfettered delight to watch Georgette Dorothy Marsh observe their idiocy and turn it into ‘fiction.’

  When Georgette had gone to Bath, Atë had found comfort in throwing Georgette and Harrison, the blind-to-her-cleverness former lover together. The joy had only increased as Atë witnessed Georgette and Edna Williams cross paths. Both were overlooked women with the wit to see the murders happening around them while the constables had blithely carried on in their assumptions. It had been pure viewing joy. Atë would have eaten butter-covered popcorn if she’d possessed it in her high abode.

  The town of Harper’s Hollow had concerned Atë in the extreme when she’d turned her gaze upon it. She’d noted the small river running through the town. The cobblestone streets and the pretty little walks. Georgette was imagining idyllic, innocent afternoons with Charles in a row boat or a long ramble with Marian through those unfenced orchards where one could walk through without anger or upset from the owner.

  Atë had seen the teashop, which had excellent tea—though not the quirky, delightful tea Georgette enjoyed—and Atë had known many an early morning ramble with the dogs would end with the girls lying outside the shop while Georgette enjoyed a scone with milky, sweet tea.

  Atë admitted to herself that if she were Georgette she’d want to live in such a pretty, normal place. Then, however, Atë noticed the whispers of Georgette’s neighbor, Miss Eckley, with her long-time friend, Miss Laurentis. They were whispering about the previous inhabitant of Georgette’s house. The simple Polly Siegel who had disappeared between one fraught afternoon, a stormy night, and one dark morning. When Atë turned her gaze to the world to find Polly Siegel, Atë gasped in sheer, wonder-filled, cruel excitement. Oh, she thought viciously, this is going to be fun.

  GEORGETTE DOROTHY AARON

  “I have missed the dogs,” Georgette told Charles, laying her head on his arm while he drove the auto. It was loaded with their baggage from the honeymoon and the things she’d bought while overseas. Tea. An excess of tea. Funny little fruit-flavored wines and cordials. An excess of chocolate along with an excess of tulip bulbs. It had been utterly delightful.

  It wasn’t the shopping, wandering in fields of flowers, or long mornings curled together in bed that had been so delightful. It was belonging to someone and having someone belong to her. If there was one thing that Georgette had learned to do all too well, it had been to be alone. Once she’d gotten past being with someone excessively, feeling smothered, and needing to press a kiss on his cheek and run from their hotel room alone, she’d gotten quite used to it. Having Charles was rather like having an attentive, comfortable coat.

  She grinned at the idea and squeezed his fingers where they were tangled with hers. She had little doubt that she’d been as suffocating to him at times. In fact, when she’d reached her limit, she’d just said, “Charles, darling, I love you. But you must get away from me and let me write for an afternoon.”

  He’d stared at in her in shock, jaw dropped open, and then kissed her soundly on the mouth. “Oh thank heavens. The sound of your breathing is driving me mad.”

  Georgette did not take that personally. After all, if he tapped his finger one more time against the back of his book, she was going to pull it from his hands and beat him about the head with it.

  “I do love you,” she told him seriously. Her gaze moved over his face, hoping she hadn’t offended him. His eyes were crinkled with humor and his smile was quirked to the side as though he were both relieved and just a little snubbed. She took in his dark hair, the grey at his temples, the strong set of his shoulders, and she smiled tenderly. She did love him. She was just sick of him.

  “I love you too.” His head cocked at her and he grinned fiercely. “I don’t want to see you for at least four hours.”

  “Perfect,” she told him. “I’m going to write, have a tea all by myself, and read a French novel or something.”

  He laughed, kissed her again, and said, “I’ll be at the pub smoking and having a pint.”

  Georgette didn’t even look up when he left. She was too happy to sit down to her typewriter and get the story that had been itching at the back of her head started. Really, she thought, it should start with tulips.

  Before, however, it started with tulips—she rang down to the front desk, ordered an excessive tea tray, opened the window to hear the sound of the passersby on the quaint Amsterdam road, and then took in a long, deep breath. Listen to that, she had thought with love, no tapping. No breathing. No shifting things about. No half-bored ideas of what they could do next. Georgette slowly let her breath out, sighed in joy, and then took her seat. She was gone to the world before the knock on the door with her tea and she stayed gone long past when Charles returned.

  She didn’t notice him, but he told her later he took note of her flying fingers and the publisher in him came out. He wrote her a note and disappeared until the husband in him returned, and then he pulled her from the typewriter and down to the restaurant. It was then they decided to head home.

  Certainly, their house wasn’t fully ready. They’d be living in a construction zone, but Georgette wanted nothing more than to feel at home again. After feeling outside of her skin in her cottage in Bard's Crook, then traveling to Bath where she’d been suffocated with too many Parkers, and then being on her honeymoon—Georgette desperately needed nothing more than her own space.

  “Darling Georgie,” Charles asked as he turned the auto onto the road that led into Harper’s Hollow, “what are you dreaming of?”

  “An office,” she admitted. “A space that will be mine for writing. Maybe puttering in the garden. The dogs.” She smiled when he lifted her hand to kiss it. “What are you dreaming of?”

  “I’m rather more eager than I’d thought to return to work. I’m not sure I know how to not work most of the time. Will you be terribly upset if I half-neglect you?”

  Georgette’s lips spread into a slow smile and she told him seriously, “There is no one I want to be around more than you, but I think I might be a solitary creature by nature. If you need to work, as long as you promise to love me still, I will entertain myself and love you still.”

  “I promise to love you, darling. I suspect before long we’ll rather be together than separate.”

  “It’s just…”

  “Yes…”

  They laughed and then snuggled down for t
he drive. They had only Eunice to help them, Georgette thought, and the house was much larger than Georgette’s little cottage and there was Charles too. Marian, Georgette suspected, would appear rather sooner than later.

  Their house looked better when they arrived. A gothic masterpiece in its heyday, the house was four stories of dark grey stone. It had monstrous oak trees that were interspersed with stretches of grass and an occasional weeping willow.

  When last Georgette had seen it the windows were dark and dirty. Now most of them shone with arched half circles above wide, tall rectangles. The broken window had been replaced and the rest had been cleaned. The grass had been cut and the bushes were trimmed and the good bones of the house reflected the care.

  “This is where I say I told you so,” she said as she climbed out of the auto. Georgette hadn’t waited for Charles to open the auto door. Her dogs were in the yard—along with Marian’s handsome fellow—and Georgette had kisses to receive. She was kneeling, getting her loves from the wriggling, low-whining dogs. She hadn’t been aware that dogs could guilt you with the low whining they did when you returned until she’d been separated from her girls for a few days before Bath.

  “This is where I say you were right,” Charles said, leaning down to rub Susan’s belly while Dorcas licked Georgette’s face frantically. “Especially as we got it for a song.”

  “I assumed it must be you,” Marian said from the steps up to the house. “I’ve just been exploring the updates without you. I’m not even a little bit sorry to have seen it first.”

  “You weren’t first,” Georgette told her, hugging her tightly. “The workers and Robert were.”

  Marian pursed her lips and scowled. “Even Joseph has seen it before me. He came down to help Robert with something while I had a dress fitting.”

  Georgette pulled away from Marian and said, “I missed you.”

  Georgette stepped inside and paused. She had known—simply known—this was the house. But her breath was caught as she stared. She didn’t see any of the work yet to be done. She saw only the perfection of her house.

  The hall had a parlor on either side. Just down the hall was a library on the left and an office on the right. It ended with a grand dining room, breakfast room, and the kitchens at the back of the house. They had been added later and were the first thing that Eunice had insisted on updating. The next floor had an office for the lady of the house. Eight bedrooms were found on the subsequent floors. The attics contained servants’ rooms, storage, and the nursey which had long since given over to storage as well. The outline of the nursey could be seen amidst the old furniture, random trunks and boxes.

  There was also a small bedroom off of the kitchens that Eunice had taken for her own. Over the stable-turned-garage was another set of servants’ bedrooms that were entirely unused.

  The house was old and had been well-loved until the last decade when it had stood empty and neglected, but it seemed her hopes that the neglect hadn’t done permanent damage were answered.

  “Robert said they just needed to clean and refinish the floors.” Marian was watching Georgette, as was Charles. Both Marian and Charles seemed more interested in Georgette’s reaction than the house itself.

  “They’re lovely.” She had no idea what kind of wood they were, but it was dark with lovely shine and personality. She stared up at the new chandelier which—Robert had written—had been wired with light and updated.

  “The whole house has been cleaned except for the cellars and attics,” Marian said. “They repaired everything that had to be done before you could move in. Then Robert turned to the kitchens and the bathrooms. Little things like the heating and the water.”

  Georgette laughed at the expression on Charles’s face. He’d moved from watching her to looking around. She guessed he was realizing that it was going to be a constant disturbance for quite some time.

  “What have we done?”

  “You’ll see,” she told him. “I love it already.” Georgette hooked her arm through his and tugged him through the house. It was the first time she was seeing the inside, but that didn’t matter. It had everything she had dreamed of when she’d dreamed of a house. If she’d made a list and asked God for it, the dreams couldn’t have been fulfilled more perfectly. The light-filled library with the heavy bookcases, the large windows begging for window seats, the rolling ladder for the floor-to-ceiling bookcases. They were, she saw, still mostly full from whomever had lived here before.

  Georgette merely glanced into the kitchens before leading Charles to his office. The list was going to be so fun to make, but she didn’t expect Charles would enjoy the process nearly so much as she did. Instead she ordered him to tell her how he wanted it and she’d make it a priority.

  She’d have to make her own office a priority, she thought. The only way they’d been able to buy this house was because the former owner had let it go for a song upon their low offer. Georgette grinned at Marian as she shut the door on poor, dazed Charles. Then she spun in a circle, feeling as though some god was looking down on her and grinning. This house—it was perfect. A dream. Everything she could have wanted, and if she had to write twice as fast to make the vision come alive, she would.

  Chapter 2

  GEORGETTE DOROTHY AARON

  “Tell me everything,” Georgette ordered. She had found Eunice in the back garden and squeezed her until shaken off. Once Eunice broke free, Georgette dragged her to the kitchens for some tea.

  Eunice wouldn’t just sit with them, but Georgette and Marian took a seat at the kitchen table while Eunice was happily making a plate of biscuits and tarts while she made the tea. It took mere minutes for Georgette to be sighing over her favorite tea with a raspberry tart in front of her and a lavender and sage butter biscuit waiting to be dunked in her tea.

  “Mr. Charles’s furniture was placed in a bedroom,” Eunice told her. “Your bed was too small for a married couple. I ended up putting my old bed in the attic and taking yours. Georgette, the master bedroom was a mess. It needs more work than we could get done in time. We ended up just removing the scraps of furniture and garbage.”

  Georgette didn’t care about that. Whatever room they started with would be fine until they finished fixing the master bedroom. In a house of this size, Georgette guessed the master was the huge bedroom that overlooked the back garden. It wasn’t as though they had a tribe of children to house and needed every bedroom functional immediately. Though, she thought, happily, it might not be too long before they had one.

  “No, no,” Georgette muttered, shaking her head and glancing at Marian as if to ask if she could believe this nonsense. “Tell me of the wedding plans. The neighbors. Who shall I watch out for, who am I going to love, what is there to do? Have you tried the teashop?”

  Eunice grunted. “You’d do better to focus on this house, Miss Georgie.”

  “Yes, Miss Georgie, turn your head to own roof.” Marian’s echo ended with a giggle.

  “Speaking of roofs,” Georgette said merrily, “tell me all about the hunt for yours.”

  “Joseph made an appointment to see one here,” Marian said. “It’s why I came down so early and am here, but he had to cancel.”

  “So you didn’t see it?”

  “He’s not here,” Marian sighed. “He had to call the local constable and request that they come by your house and tell me. They sent some boy. I only just found out that my plans for the day had come to another abrupt end.”

  “Well, let’s go ourselves.” Georgette had noted the ‘another’ and wondered if Marian was unhappy. Charles and Georgette had been gone for nearly a month, so it seemed all too possible that Marian’s feelings for Joseph had…adjusted? Oh, how Georgette hoped not.

  Marian stared at Georgette as if she had gone mad and then glanced at Eunice who lifted her brows. Eunice and Georgette had learned long ago to do for themselves without a man. It wasn’t as though they couldn’t nag Charles along with them. He wasn’t officially due at the office
until Monday, and it was only Friday morning.

  “Get our hats, darling. Eunice, do you want to come lend your wisdom?”

  “No,” she said flatly. “I’ve had quite enough of looking at new houses. Besides, Mr. Joseph isn’t a man who is going to give in to romantic ideas like Mr. Charles. If you like the place, tell him so. He’ll look to ensure the roof and pipes and such are in order.”

  Georgette laughed at the look on Marian’s face. With a quick draining of the tea and a popping of a biscuit into her mouth, Georgette smashed a crumby kiss on Eunice’s cheek. “Missed you, darling. Come, Marian.”

  The dogs followed Georgette to Charles’s office. She knocked and heard him call. He was standing on the ladder, pulling down the books from the previous occupant. “Look at this. These are ledgers for a business. I feel we should pack them up and send them on.”

  Georgette laughed at the deep frown. “They did know they were selling the house with the contents. Surely whoever sold this house knew what they were letting go of?”

  “We should at least see if the business is still running, darling. If it is, they might need these.”

  “I’ll take care of it. Stack them here.” She gestured to an empty corner. “Come, dearest, we’re going with Marian to see a possible house.”

  He blinked in question.

  “Joseph has a case and cannot get away,” Georgette explained. “We’re going to tell him whether it’s worth coming down for another look.”

  “We set our wedding date,” Marian announced.