A Masked Murderer: A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery Page 2

  When she was finished with her clothes, she heard everyone chatting and learned they had completed packing before her. They were ready to go, but she wasn’t ready to go back to London. Even with the storm here, there would be buckets of rain there. It would be cold into your bones, and the greyness would permeate everything.

  Vi wasn’t struggling with her darker days as much lately, but they seemed to arrive and linger in the autumn and winter more than the spring and summer. Violet frowned as she arranged her books into the final trunk and knew that she should finish and join the others. Instead, she found herself fiddling with her books and then the room. She returned it to the state of neatness she found it in when they first arrived, even though they could have left it disassembled and the caretakers would have cleaned it.

  She did still hate messes, she thought. She hated letting herself linger in the grey days and now that she found brighter days, she feared the dark times. There had to be a way, she prayed, to keep them to a minimum. She needed to move her body. That always helped. She needed to not to let the rain and the cold keep her from moving. She should return to her jiu jitsu lessons she thought, and then promised herself she would.

  She needed to sleep regular hours, she knew too. She’d noticed that when they were in the country and more likely to go to bed earlier and get up earlier, she generally felt better. Violet pulled out her journal and made a list:

  Exercise (contact jiu jitsu tutor right away)

  Sleep

  Journal

  Read Novels

  Do Good Things

  Violet closed the trunk and put her journal into her university bag with her manuscript. And then she rose and went down the stairs to join the others. Victor had made her favorite chocolate cocktails and she took one with glee.

  The ship arrived at the London docks too early for Vi’s pleasure, especially when she realized that the chill had reached her already. She got dressed with a fierce frown even while she scolded herself to be happy. She wrapped a determined scarf around her neck and slid her wool coat over her dress, then stepped up to Jack’s side. Their other trunks had been taken already, and they tucked the last of their things into the small bag they’d kept behind. It held Jack’s book, their night things, their brushes and shaving tools, and Vi’s jewelry.

  Jack took the bag up and Vi gathered her own small bag with the things she didn’t like to travel without, and they left their cabin to find the others ready.

  “Hargreaves has arranged for black cabs. He’s going to stay by and arrange for our trunks,” Victor said.

  Vi smiled, her arm linked through Jack’s as she yawned into her gloved hand.

  “Why the blue face, ma cheri?” Denny demanded gleefully. He grinned and then said, “Costume party tomorrow? Isn’t there? And an odd little dinner on All Hallows. Wasn’t it a masquerade?”

  “Just masks,” Rita said with a yawn that echoed Vi’s. “No costumes. It said something about a chocolate buffet and Denny got giddy with joy.”

  “Oh yes,” Jack said and laughed. “Let’s get home, shall we?”

  When they arrived at the house, Vi was surprised to see that it wasn’t lit. She knew Hargreaves had arranged for the staff to be there and have things ready for their comfort. Instead, they walked in and found that their servants had yet to return.

  “How odd,” Vi muttered. It was just her and Jack since they’d all split off from each other at the docks. She turned on the lights and realized the furniture hadn’t been cleaned. It had been left clean, so it was merely dusty and the house was very chilly.

  “I’ll start the heat,” Jack said as Violet went to the kitchens. She was dying for coffee. Their chef hadn’t returned and Vi frowned. They had returned the staff who’d wanted to go to a seaside hotel through the day before yesterday to give them time to return home and to get settled before they had to truly be back to work. She couldn’t imagine that they’d decided as a lot to abandon their work.

  Violet groaned when she realized that there was no milk or butter. She was quite hungry, as they’d skipped breakfast on the ship to sleep in, all of them wanting a full breakfast at home. She could almost taste the crispy bacon and buttery mushrooms in her mouth. She wanted fresh bread, toasted and lathered with butter and marmalade and several cups of her Turkish coffee.

  Vi started water on the stove for coffee and then crossed to the back door. To her shock, it was unsecured. A chill went down her spine and she felt her heart racing. The regular servants had left before they and Hargreaves had. There was simply no possible way that Hargreaves had left the house unsecured.

  “Dear heaven,” she breathed, hurrying down the hallway. A part of her wanted to scream for Jack and a part of her felt as though she were being hunted with each step. She rushed towards where he was fiddling with their heating system and grabbed his arm. “Someone has been in the house.”

  He didn’t ask a single question. He didn’t need her to explain and agree; he trusted her, which was why of course she adored him. He simply raised his brows and took her arm, pulling her behind him. Should they flee? Vi wondered. Should they head out and find the local bobby and have him search the house? Should they hurry through the back garden to Victor’s house and find refuge there until they were sure that their house was safe?

  Vi watched as Jack slowly opened the door. He looked both ways, listened and then took her with him to the parlor. He took hold of a fireplace poker and started to search the house. After a moment, he shook his head. “There’s too many ways through the house.”

  “If someone is here, they could lead us on a merry chase,” Vi agreed. “Perhaps we should go to Victor? What if this happened there, and they don’t know? I don’t like the idea of the babies getting settled in the nursery.”

  Jack nodded and they slipped out the back of the house and through the private walk to Victor’s house only two doors down. The moment they reached the back of his house, it was evident that Victor hadn’t experienced the same nonsense as Vi and Jack. They hurried through the back door and found Victor in moments.

  It took Victor and Jack only moments to put on their protective personas and shove Kate, the twins, and Vi into a parlor with one of the trusted footmen while Victor sent another footman for the local bobby. They would search Vi’s house, secure it, and then the ladies would be allowed to return.

  The moment the gents disappeared, Vi said, “I need food and coffee. Did you see how energized they were? Ready to save the day.”

  “It’s what they do,” Kate said with a laugh. “Breakfast will be served in about fifteen minutes. Are you especially hungry? I find I shall expire without something wholesomely English, even if it is rather greasy.”

  Vi nodded fervently. “I believe I shall die for want of buttery mushrooms and rather an excess of marmalade.”

  “How funny,” Kate laughed, “Victor was just saying he needed a mushroom breakfast before all else.”

  “Then surely all will be well. Mushroom, marmalade, bacon, coffee, and despite the horror of having intruders in my house again, I think I shall survive.”

  Chapter 3

  Violet leaned back, hand on her stomach and groaned. The men had yet to return, and Vi had eaten Victor’s mushroom omelet along with her own. The fact that she’d also had a slice of toast and an excess of bacon was enough to make her stomach bulge to an excess.

  Kate laughed at the look on Vi’s face and then she got up and led the way to the parlor where she curled up on the Chesterfield. “I should have liked to curl up in my own bed after quite a long bath.”

  “They won’t be much longer,” Kate promised.

  Vi smiled at her sister-in-law. “You really don’t have to linger with me. I shall be all right.”

  “Will you?” Kate asked, seriously. She glanced towards the hall, and Vi was sure that Kate had a whole list of things to do that day that didn’t include lingering with Vi.

  “Of course,” Vi said, “I’ll either nap or stew over who is d
oing this to us. I might even write to my stepmother and find out where that brat is who pranked us before. I suppose…if nothing is missing it might have been a prank?”

  Kate’s expression didn’t believe it and Vi’s didn’t either. Instead, she curled up in the chair and let herself seem to nod off, so Kate felt free to leave. Once she had, Vi rose and paced in the parlor. Where were the servants? She had seen too many people be murdered and had talked to too many killers to think that anyone was truly safe. Her great aunt had been one of the richest people in England, and she’d died in her home where she should have been safe. The stories were near-endless.

  Poor wives. The young and vital. The sick. The old. Anyone could be a target of a killer. However, Vi told herself, who would kill a slew of servants? Between the chef, the two maids, and the two footmen—well, it was a lot of murder to get their house empty. What she wanted to know before anything else was that they were all right.

  “They must be,” Vi muttered and then looked up as the door to the parlor opened.

  Victor was who entered. “Hargreaves returned and telephoned the inn. They’re all safe.”

  “How did you know that was my main worry?”

  The exasperated look Victor cast her was well-deserved.

  “What happened then?” Vi demanded, continuing to pace. She wasn’t surprised that Jack hadn’t returned. She had little doubt that he would when he knew she’d be all right with Victor, and Jack was a man who wanted to ensure his home was secure before those who trusted themselves to be safe in it returned.

  “They received a telegram that said we were staying longer and that they could as well.”

  Vi sighed in relief and then asked, “Did whoever send the telegram pay for the hotel extension?”

  Victor shook his head and muttered, “Only promised to.”

  “Lovely.” Vi paused and then took the pile of books next to Kate’s favorite chair and smoothed them out so the spines were perfectly aligned. “Did Jack tell Hargreaves to take care of it?”

  “He did,” Victor agreed.

  “And the house?”

  “The local constables did see people in the house and assumed it was a servant as they came and went quite openly. Jack’s face was a sight when he heard that.”

  “Am I safe to return?”

  “We, along with the bobbies and Hargreaves, have cleared the house. Jack is concerned that someone has a key, so Jack has called the locksmith. They’ll be along presently, but you’re allowed to return if I swear to walk you there.”

  Vi rolled her eyes.

  “Then I shall be off to gather up the dogs from dear cousin Algie.”

  Violet lifted another brow and then took her brother’s arm. “On with you. I should like to write a story about this. Shall we write a detective story?”

  “After the werewolf one, Vi, I think anything would be welcome.”

  Vi snorted and they walked back to the house. “Was anything missing?”

  “On first glance?” Victor shook his head. “In reality, maybe? Jack said anything truly valuable had been locked up with everyone gone. He called the boys he’s hired to keep an eye on things and discovered that they were also let go. Whoever did that used the security word Jack set up with them.”

  Now that was disturbing. Before Vi could even start to think it out, Victor said, “It seems your illustrious husband had written it down in his file for that company.”

  Vi winced and then added, “He must have cursed a storm.”

  “Small birds would have collapsed if nearby,” Victor agreed.

  Vi laughed and then stepped into the house. They were almost stopped by a policeman, but the fellow must have seen Victor previously. “Sir. Ma’am.”

  “My sister,” Victor announced. “Now that things seem to be secured, she’ll head up to the master rooms.”

  Violet lifted a brow and Victor laughed. “You know that you want to be there. You have probably been moaning over your desire to take a long bath and nap in your bedroom. I believe Hargreaves has been panicked in getting your rooms refreshed.”

  “Oh!” Vi frowned. “I wish he wouldn’t panic.”

  “He absconded with a housemaid and a footman from my house.”

  “Well, all right then.”

  “Victor offered dinner at his house, but Hargreaves has gone to get food from the local fish and chips spot. I thought you might rather stay home.” Jack came into the room with their dogs at his heels and Vi gasped in joy at seeing them. Before she could even kneel down, they leapt into her lap. Holmes was whining loudly while Rouge showed her fury at their absence by barking at Violet in between frantically licking her face and wagging her tail.

  Given Vi was wearing her pajamas and her new velvet robe, she was fervently on the stay home side of things. She had curled into the large chair in front of the fire. It was too chilly after Italy, and she had no desire to walk the two doors down or—far more importantly—have to put on a dress and stockings.

  “What did you find out?”

  Jack shook his head. “Things were certainly riffled. I went through the safe, but they didn’t get it open. I put your jewelry in it. Hargreaves checked all the locks. Someone broke the window lock in the back room.”

  “Why? The back door was open, and they were using a key.”

  “I don’t know,” Jack sighed. “We’re cursed. I was going to take an appointment tomorrow, but now—”

  “Jack,” Vi cut in. “Isn’t a locksmith coming today?”

  He nodded.

  “Then take your appointment. We’ll go to that costume party tomorrow and the masked dinner on Sunday, and by Monday, we’ll have an idea if anything else is going to happen. Are the guards coming back?”

  “I don’t think we’ll ever leave the house unguarded again, Vi. We can afford to hire someone, and we’ve made too many enemies. Or so it seems.”

  Vi didn’t argue, but she made a mental note to find out where that brat was who had played little pranks on them the previous year. Instead, she looked up when Hargreaves knocked.

  He arrived with one of the borrowed housemaids, who carried coffee and ginger wine while he carried fish and chips that had been placed elegantly onto plates and covered with silver domes. Vi grinned at Hargreaves who had probably even heated the food further, so it could be as close to piping hot as possible.

  She winked at him and took her beer battered cod, chips, and smashed peas with joy. It had been too long since she’d had good fish and chips, and she wanted to eat her dinner in peace. The hours since her oversized breakfast had passed with a bath, a nap, and several chapters of her new book that flew from her fingertips. It seemed that the writing muse was easily enticed by fearing for one’s safety. Jack was the one who paced while Vi was inexplicably unbothered.

  “I am becoming inured to the crimes that happen around us,” Violet told him when she’d finished her first piece of fish.

  “Are you? I find that I feel quite differently. I would describe my state of mind as enraged with a dash of murderous.”

  “Why not a dash of vinegar on your food instead?”

  Vi swirled her chip through the little container of vinegar and popped it into her mouth, grinning at him. How was it that ginger wine was what he’d brought? They needed a good dark ale. She supposed it was her comfort drink, and he assumed she needed one. Considerate, she thought, and then smiled at him.

  He wasn’t nearly as amused as she. “I wasn’t working on anything that would require our house being searched.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” she announced innocently and then thought about it after. Had she been up to something that would require them being searched by anyone? “I’d say it was Smith except he doesn’t leave any evidence that he was reading your diary.”

  “Do you think he reads your diary?”

  “I think one would never know and must, therefore, assume that he is.”

  Jack had paused in his pacing and stared at her for a long moment.
Slowly, he laughed and then said, “Vi darling, you are a devil.”

  “If you have been out of trouble and I haven’t been meddling, perhaps we were searched for something about our work or businesses? Did you look through Beatrice’s office?”

  “She locks up the paperwork that is confidential, along with her office. Both seemed undisturbed.”

  Vi’s mouth twisted. “I would assume whoever was behind this would have had plenty of time to break into our safes if it was a thievery thing. Nothing was taken? I didn’t see anything. Hargreaves said the silver remained where it always does.”

  Jack shook his head. “I’d feel better, to be honest, to have found the silver gone and the window broken. Someone has been coming and going and making at least the attempt of hiding what they were doing. They didn’t want anyone to know that they’d been here.”

  Violet sighed around her second piece of fish. She really had just wanted to curl up with a new novel. There was that Georgette Heyer one Vi had picked up along with a new Agatha Christie. Violet frowned fiercely. Her evening home before she had to go and be fitted for her costume, visit her father, take the train to Ginny’s school and check on her ward were being ruined. She needed to telephone her jiu jitsu instructor and set lessons back up and invite the other girls to join her. Vi frowned deeply, upset now that she was realizing that this would weigh on her mind until the mystery was solved.

  “Anything of true value was put away, locked up, or in the safe deposit box,” Vi said. “There’s rather a lot of money in the safe along with a fortune in jewels. There are things we don’t lock up, Jack. We have valuable books. There is art on the walls that’s worth rather a lot. There’s information in Beatrice’s office that would be almost invaluable in the right hands.”