A Zestful Little Murder Read online

  A Zestful 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

  Summary

  Violet and Jack have gone to the country with their friends. They’ve decided to dive into the joys of a country life for the summer. Swimming and fishing with a large dose of napping.

  While they’re enjoying the spring, Vi gets pulled into helping to plan a May Day celebration. She anticipates organizing games and possibly judging scones or flower bouquets. What she doesn’t envision is to stumble over a body and be pulled into the most unexpected of murder investigations.

  The number of people who calmed me down and helped me with this one is almost

  innumerable, but numbered or not, they’re beloved.

  Chapter 1

  “Who invited her?” Denny demanded.

  He had bags under his eyes and a look of agony on his face. Rubbing the back of his neck, he flinched at the next high-pitched round of laughter. The joy was erupting from across the library, near the doors out to the garden, and Denny was curled into a chair in the far corner.

  “Why are we suffering?” he hissed low when no one answered the first question. “We drink and nap and possibly play a touch of billiards while drinking and after napping.”

  “Vi and I have a little more variety to our lives than that,” Jack told Denny. Both of their gazes were fixed on the two young girls. First was the beloved ward of Vi, her twin, and their spouses. Next to Ginny was their current house guest, the vibrant and loud beauty, Isobel Forman. Their laughter was sending Denny, who had crossed from zozzled to stumbling drunk the night before, to wince with every burst of laughter.

  “You had,” Denny said meanly, drawing the word out.

  Vi shot Jack a look, but neither of them responded to the jab.

  Denny groaned and muttered an apology before clutching his head between his hands. “Hargreaves’s cure didn’t work, aspirin and water didn’t work, the sheer thought of eggs and kippers had me channeling Kate in the early days of expecting a baby. I felt a round of empathy for which I never thought I was capable.”

  Vi hadn’t quite forgiven Denny his jab at Jack, and her lack of sympathy had Denny blushing even as he glanced at Jack, winced, and then looked back at Vi with a complexion that was somehow pale, flushed, and green.

  “I don’t know,” Jack said, “but whoever invited Miss Forman is in danger of having their neck wrung.”

  Vi examined her husband and noticed the flexing jaw, but it wasn’t so much directed at anyone as unconscious. She felt a flash of worry and wished that they hadn’t been manipulated into hosting the village fête after the village green had been trampled by a rather unruly herd of goats. It would recover quickly enough, but it was more mud pit than idyllic green at the moment.

  If they weren’t hosting the fête, she and Jack could slip away to the seaside and Vi could see if she could compel Jack to share his thoughts with her. At the moment, however, he was letting Denny distract him with the—admittedly—irritating Izzy Forman.

  Surprisingly, the girl had been semi-invited by Rita. Rather Rita’s father had begged, Rita had passed the supplication onto Violet, who had extended the invite to the girl, her mother, and Rita’s father. The real shock, however, was the news that the girl’s mother and Rita’s father were a couple. At the way Rita’s gaze had tightened at the request for her father and his new love to stay at the house as well, Vi had immediately acquiesced, but now that Jack was upset, she wished she hadn’t.

  Rita had a spurious smile on her face while she stood nearby Izzy and Ginny. Technically, Izzy was a woman, having finished both traditional school and finishing school while never once considering college. In behavior, however, Izzy was little more than a child and remarkably less trustworthy than Violet’s ward, Ginny.

  “Oh,” Violet scowled at them. “Leave it be. Leave poor Izzy be, Ginny likes her.”

  “That’s a problem,” Jack said. “Ginny is perfection and this girl—well, she’s…”

  “Not,” Denny finished, his mean tone back.

  “Do you need to go back to bed?” Vi snapped. “By Jove man, I feel like channeling my old schoolmarm. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. That poor girl could overhear you and be devastated.”

  Denny’s face seemed to not care for a moment and then his gaze softened as it settled on Ginny. “Apologies.”

  Unlike Denny, Jack refrained from detailing how he disliked Izzy. Vi knew why. It sounded so petty and just mean when you voiced it aloud. Neither Rita nor Violet had realized at that time just what they were getting into and on the surface, the favor didn’t seem so bad. Sure, Izzy Forman was zippy. She talked incessantly. But, she wasn’t so bad, was she? Who could dislike someone who had a song in her heart? Who gazed out at the gardens and proclaimed them delightful? Who gasped with joy almost every time she turned around?

  Violet hid her scowl. Who? Violet, that was who. Violet, Denny, and even the nearly unflappable Jack. Izzy Forman operated at a level that proclaimed she had just indulged in several cups of Vi’s Turkish coffee without ever having enjoyed it before. She didn’t sit still, talk slowly, walk reasonably, or even dance without flailing.

  The girl was curvaceous with curly hair, big sparkling eyes, and full lips that were spread in a wide, engaging grin. From her looks, she seemed likable enough. That grin was, in fact, charming. Yet, Violet didn’t disagree with Jack and Denny’s assessment. Izzy created a whole new flavor of being a terrible guest. She tried hard to be delightful and crossed the line into, as Denny said, not.

  “The wireless!” Izzy declared far too loudly. It seemed that in all things Izzy wanted to be overheard. She turned to Ginny, who jumped to obey. In moments, the two younger girls were spinning to the jazz music coming from the wireless. Laughter rang out across the library and it seemed to be a personal assault on Denny’s ears.

  “Ah,” Denny groaned. “I hate her. I do. She’s a bloody nuisance.”

  “She’s been like that since 6:00 a.m.” Jack glanced at his watch, Vi, and then sighed. “She woke up singing. It’s the singing before sunrise that I can’t forgive.”

  Denny shuddered. “An aria before noon should be illegal. It wasn’t like she was housed just next to us. She’s up a bloody floor next to Ginny. And Ginny! Always the best of girls, but now…I don’t know—she seems to like that creature.”

  “Careful,” Violet warned, her gaze fixed on the laughing Ginny.

  It was delightful to see Ginny being young and unworried. Vi could forgive a lot of a woman who got Ginny to set aside all of her burdens and simply enjoy her youth. Vi wasn’t sure she even wanted Izzy to leave while Ginny was on break from school.

  Violet flashed an evil smirk, and Jack’s gaze narrowed on Vi. She had to bite down on her bottom lip to contain the burst of laughter. She had slept through the aria. To be fair, however, she was catching up on rest. She had been pursued rather relentlessly by a fellow in London. Being hunted had left her on edge and sleepless. Returning to the country, where their large property only contained those who worked for or were invited by her and Jack? It was as though she’d collapsed into a cloud and slid into the best sleep of her life.

  Jack hadn’t recovered quite as nicely as she had. He did, howeve
r, snort sarcastically, reading her hidden smile without a problem. Those penetrating eyes of his rarely missed anything, especially when it came to her. He glanced towards the bar area and lifted a questioning brow.

  “I’ll take ginger wine.”

  “See!” Denny’s triumphant laugh rang out, but the laughing girls in the corner didn’t notice. “I knew you didn’t like her any more than we did. Otherwise you’d want a cocktail. Ginger wine is for when Vi is agonizing.”

  “I like things about her,” Vi tried.

  Denny’s snort and the glint in Jack’s eye said they knew she was hedging.

  “I like how happy Ginny seems,” she clarified. “She was so upset when she came home while the wart went to Father’s. True love and the agony of separation and the like. It was all very harrowing.”

  “I mean,” Denny said wickedly, “if it were Lila and I, we all know I’d suffer, groan, moan, and sink into a woebegone puddle. To be honest, and despite how I hate to encourage young love, I loved Lila as much then as I do now. Maybe more since she wasn’t trying to restrict my chocolate and smoking.”

  Vi rolled her eyes but her gaze landed on Ginny, who looked as carefree as she could be. Was she just distracted from her missing love or was Ginny really having fun?

  Jack rose and crossed to the bar. They’d just added it to their library soon after they’d returned to the country. Vi had dropped her coat in the hall, wandered into the library, and turned to Jack.

  “Darling,” she had said, “any room with floor to ceiling bookshelves, window seats, and painted ceilings needs a bar. I need a drink, and I want one here.”

  He’d made it happen in mere days, and they’d turned from lingering in the parlor to lingering in the library. Especially on hot days, opening the French doors into the garden and letting in the breeze.

  “When is she leaving?” Denny asked.

  Vi shook her head. She’d really had no idea. Rita hadn’t either. Her father had asked Rita to take the girl under her wing for a while and Rita hadn’t thought to ask for how long.

  “I don’t know,” Vi admitted, rising to follow Jack to the bar with Denny at her side. They all winced at the loud squeal from the side of the room where Izzy and Ginny were giggling into each other’s necks. They’d gone from dancing together to being unable to stand for the laughter. “We’ve become crotchety, Den. You more so than me.”

  “It’s the baby. My Lily-love has made me see the world anew and I am finding most of it wanting.”

  Vi didn’t even try to hold back her laughter.

  The next day, Violet looked down from her bedroom window to the garden below. Izzy and Ginny were walking arm-in-arm. Their heads leaned towards each other and they seemed to be exchanging all of their secrets.

  “Why do you have her?” Vi asked Rita, who had thrown herself over the end of her bed. “Why you?”

  “Father had a slew of friends up in Scotland. They’re all coming down, Father said, for this fête of yours. However, Ham says Father just wants to help with the wedding events. Regardless, he asked would I get Izzy from school, so she didn’t have to come up just to come down again? Be a good example for her and give her someone to look up to?”

  Rita’s expression was weighted as Vi turned and lifted a querying brow. “Darling Rita.” Vi snorted. “There is very little in you that most people would want their girls to follow.”

  Rita gasped, but it was a joke, and she didn’t follow the gasp with a proclamation of innocence. Instead she added, “Father asked…would I be a sister to her?”

  It was Vi who gasped next. “No!”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s going to marry again?”

  “He’s thinking of it,” Rita admitted.

  “Do you like her?” Vi asked, without thinking.

  “I don’t know.” Rita shook her head

  Vi turned from the window then and asked, “And what do you think about your father remarrying?”

  Rita paused. “I don’t know. I feel…replaced. Father and I were so distant when he remarried the first time, but then after Melody died things changed. We’d been closer than ever. Now—” Rita shook her head and then softly admitted, “I hate it, and I hate that I hate it. Ham says I need to let Father have his life, and I want to. I just don’t want to be an afterthought.”

  “Did Ham suggest that you might have some tenderness about not being loved enough after your whole fiasco with him?” Violet’s words were said gently, but she knew they were painful. “It’s not like Ham didn’t leave you. Your mother left.” Vi held up her hand when Rita started to protest. “I know she died. But she’s gone. And your aunt ended up being worthless and she also left you.”

  “She went to prison.”

  “She’s still gone,” Violet shot back.

  Rita’s eyes shone with unshed tears and she hissed, “I hate you.”

  “That’s how I would feel,” Vi told Rita flatly. “It is how I feel sometimes. I feel like my mother, Aunt Agatha, they abandoned me, and I need them, and they aren’t here, and sometimes it’s scary to love someone else and not know if they will stay. I know this is another stepmother, and you’re starting your life with Ham, and it’s not the same thing. But it is, isn’t it? Both of us still want our fathers to love us even if Jack loves me and Ham loves you. But—”

  Rita’s big blue eyes had filled with tears and she dashed them away angrily as she muttered low, “I do hate you sometimes.”

  “At least your father adores you. I feel like mine only loves me the way he loves a good whiskey. Maybe not even that much.”

  Rita’s tears faded at that and she turned onto her side and pushed up to prop her head on her hand. “Oh, poor you.”

  “Poor you,” Vi shot back. “Poor both of us. Surrounded by love and worried about one person in our lives not being what we want him to be.”

  Rita’s watery snort was enough to send Vi into a round of giggles, and she crossed to her friend and wrapped her up in a tight hug.

  “Your father loves you. The right woman in his life is an addition to your life not a negative, and he won’t forget he loves you. Not even if he loves Izzy and another wife. I think at this point, we can be assured that if he’s fallen in love again, he might have an inexhaustible supply of love.”

  “He has lost two wives,” Rita said. “I suppose if he’s really in love again, he might have enough love for both his wife and me and even Izzy.”

  “How did your father take you asking him to come get Izzy?”

  Rita’s laugh was low as she admitted, “He wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, he told me he was surprised they got as long of a break as they had.”

  “Oh,” Vi winced, looking behind her at the two girls, arm-in-arm, “that is sad for Izzy. I didn’t think I’d flinch quite so hard for her.”

  Chapter 2

  A few days later, Vi turned to Jack and asked, “Why are we having the fête here again?”

  Jack avoided her gaze as he tried to placate her. “We’re hosting this because of the damage to the green. This year and this year only,” he added in reassurance.

  Her gaze met his and he smiled as though nothing were on his mind. She knew differently. The truth of the matter was that something was very much on his mind, the reason that Rita was here, just before her wedding, and Ham was not. Ham had decided to leave Scotland Yard.

  Jack’s odd working relationship with the Yard was through Ham. If Ham left, would Jack be able to work? And would he want to if Ham wasn’t there? Vi bit down on her lip. She both wanted Jack to leave the Yard and was pained for him. He was good at investigating, and she well knew that working fed his self-worth. He liked being busy. He liked being needed. He liked that he was good at something, and he especially liked that the something he was good at helped other people.

  “What do you want?” Vi asked gently.

  Jack took his favorite seat near the fire and tugged her after him. She curled onto his lap, but turned so she could see his fa
ce.

  “I don’t know,” he lied, avoiding her gaze.

  “Yes you do,” she shot back. Her tone was fierce, and she cupped his cheeks between her hands. “What do you want?”

  “I want Ham to stay working for the Yard,” Jack admitted. “I like my situation there, and I have very little doubt that it will stop once he is gone. His superiors barely tolerated everything being out of order. Whoever replaces Ham isn’t going to fight for me contributing as Ham did.”

  Vi threaded her fingers through Jack’s. “What can I do to help? Do you want to go back to London and work for Scotland Yard full-time?”

  She thought he both did and didn’t want that, but she was sure what he didn’t want was the slew of cases that could be solved by any fellow. He didn’t want cases at random hours, to work through every holiday, he didn’t want the day-to-day of Scotland Yard, and Vi didn’t want that for them either.

  She saw the flash of irritation cross his face as he pondered what she’d asked. It was replaced by the most interesting of expressions. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but he seemed almost bashful at mentioning whatever was on his mind.

  “What if—” He trailed off and glanced away.

  There was, if her eyes did not deceive her, the slightest of blushes on his cheekbones. Vi had to bite down hard on the inside of her mouth to avoid a reaction. She knew it was there because he was wrapped up in whatever was on his mind, like a tangled knot.

  “What if?” she prompted gently. She ran her thumb over the back of his hand and wished desperately for him to share with her, to let her carry his worries as often as he carried hers.