Murder By Chocolate Read online

  Violet took his arm as he opened the door.

  “It was just so stupid. Spending the rest of my life working on something that didn’t matter to me when I could do something more with my life. I’d just think of those I lost, and I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”

  “Jack,” Violet told him gently as Denny and Lila stepped into the hall to join them, “I am proud of you being true to who you are. We are safer because of what you chose to do after coming home. Killers have been put away, families have found answers to why they’ve lost their loved ones, you’ve been the shield between folks like us”—Vi gestured to herself and her friends—"and folks that would hurt us. You made the right choice. If your family can’t see how great you are, well…”

  “They’re fools,” Denny inserted, clapping Jack on the shoulder. “I always feel like I’m in short pants when I go home. It doesn’t seem to matter what you’ve accomplished—not that I’ve accomplished anything—they always see the grubby little kid they knew once.”

  Violet squeezed Denny’s arm, loving him more at that minute than she ever had before. Jack grinned at Denny, and whatever was making Jack feel so blue faded.

  “It’s like what you said, Denny. I suppose that returning to being a child in their eyes leaves me in a bit of a mood.”

  They reached the great hall and Jack’s father rose from the parlor and crossed to them. “The auto is ready.”

  “Wonderful,” Violet lied. She had started the evening with two aspirin in the bath when Jack was occupied with getting dressed so he wouldn’t see and worry.

  “A bit of a warning,” James said. “The family has been fighting rather a lot more about the will and the inheritance lately. My father is declining.”

  Violet shook her head. “Why don’t people just make the will, tell the others what is in it, and then hold firm? I don’t understand why families must turn on each other like rabid animals over the scraps of the previous generations. There’s nothing fair about a dynastic will, but at least you’re raised knowing what to expect.”

  “It does rather bring out the worst in mankind.”

  “So who is the heir? Do you really not know?” Denny asked. He blushed when all gazes turned to him. “When it was Violet’s family wondering who the heir was, we had a betting book. Do you have a betting book?”

  “I remember that betting book,” James said. “I was rather appalled by it.”

  “So you should have been. It was in poor taste,” Violet said. “I suppose it seemed funny before she died. Now though—” Violet looked away. Her eyes misted with tears. “Now I just miss her and wish that she was back. I’d give it all away to have her back.”

  James pressed a kiss to Violet’s temple and said, “She loved you. When she asked me to bring Jack to help with the attempts on her life, she refused to remove you as a suspect, but she told me that if it were you or Victor, she would spend the rest of her life second guessing her every opinion.”

  Violet sniffed again but then said brightly, “Aren’t we supposed to be rushing to this family dinner?”

  “We are indeed, my dear. It’ll take a while to get there, and they won’t hold dinner.”

  Violet felt certain that they should have rescheduled another dinner. There was plenty of time since Jack and Vi didn’t have a date when they were returning to London. Kate was having the baby nearby, and Violet would have to be pried away from Vi Junior. Jack might take cases while they were in the country, but their base would be here rather than London for the foreseeable future.

  “It seems ridiculous, I know,” James said as if reading her mind. “My father has a quarterly dinner for anyone who can reasonably attend. He never reschedules. He says if you bend on it, suddenly everyone has an opinion and you’re fending off the excuses of a dozen people whose inanities are thrown at his feet.”

  Violet blinked rapidly, taking in the idea. Grandfather Wakefield had seemed a bit of a hard man, but she’d never have expected that. She glanced at Jack, but his face was enclosed in shadows. They were motoring to a village an hour away when the meal time had already started.

  “Father will give an update on the different family interests. It’s when he introduces new family members or acknowledges family accomplishments he finds noteworthy.”

  “He must have talked about you rather often,” Lila told Jack. “All those killers you found.”

  “Ah,” Jack said, “no. Grandfather Wakefield expected me to join the family business when I got back from the war. All the things I’ve done since then have been a long spiting of him.”

  Violet felt a rush of rage. She hadn’t realized how much her stepmother’s reaction to Jack’s work must have been maddening after his own family’s opinion.

  “How did we not know this?” Denny asked in that way of his. “How is it that you don’t work for your father, Papa James?”

  Violet’s gaze jerked to Denny and then to James. He grinned at Denny. “Papa James?”

  “Violet told us you weren’t the head of your family. I said you were the head of ours. I was just trying it on for size.”

  James’s expression was filled with humor. “My father would hate that name.”

  Vi groaned as James looked at her with a question in his face. “It’s cemented now,” she warned him. “Denny delights in tormenting those who don’t appreciate our…ah…ways.”

  Denny grinned affably and admitted, “It’s all true.”

  “Would you like to be Papa James?” Violet asked.

  “I suppose there is a part of me that is spiteful enough to not object. I had, perhaps, imagined something different.”

  Denny giggled and rubbed his hands together. “Jack, I should have known your father wouldn’t blink at us. Papa James it is. So…how did you avoid the family noose?”

  “I married far better than I deserved,” James said. “Jack’s mother was the end of a line of those who’d been well off. They had properties, investments, and such to manage, and they were so happy to have my help. In my father’s business, I’d never have been anything other than another minion. My brothers were happy there. I had another way open before me. I took that road. The house we have, all of that, it’s from her family who accepted me as a son they’d always wanted. We were quite happy. Happier, I think, than my siblings working with my father. He’s not a bad man, you know. Just very business focused. Business before all else, really. It was how he showed his love, putting all of his focus into something that would support us all. He worked for us, but in doing so, he alienated us as well.”

  Violet frowned at that and then glanced at Jack. What would he be like as a father? Would he show his love? Violet hadn’t had much love from her own father as a child. It was only looking back that she realized he’d cared at all. Vi wanted something more for her children.

  “If the business is an expression of the love he has for his children, surely he’ll leave it fairly among them? Not this dynastic thing where one child wins and the rest continue on in want?”

  James shook his head and Violet realized she couldn’t quite do it. Papa James…it wasn’t respectful enough. Perhaps Father James would do better. “I have no idea. My father saw me rejecting his business as a personal rejection. It was, I suppose, in a way.”

  How strange it was to see this man who was old enough to be a grandfather himself worried about his relationship with his father. The things that family associations did to each other. The love, the hate, the memories; all of it was so messy so often.

  The house the auto arrived at was the personification of new money and Violet hated herself a little for thinking it. While it had large iron gates and a curving drive with hedges sculpted into animals like many of the ancient houses, it was glossy in its newness. Just how wealthy was Jack’s family? A house like this wasn’t something most could build in a generation. The earl’s residence had been built over several generations.

  “What a lovely house,” Violet said, taking in the way every window was lit.r />
  Jack’s lips twitched enough to let her know he wasn’t fooled, but James didn’t seem bothered, which was what concerned Vi.

  “It’s so big,” Lila said as they stepped out. It was huge. It made castles look small.

  Violet took Jack’s hand as they walked up the steps to the house. The door was opened by a uniformed Indian man. He nodded once and said nothing as they entered and then he clicked his heels together and led them to the dining room.

  The door opened to the sound of shouting, and Violet pressed her lips tightly together to keep from saying something.

  “—it! What have you done to—” The shouter snapped his mouth closed as James stepped into the room followed by the rest of them.

  “Ah, James, how good of you to appear.” Grandfather Wakefield seemed unperturbed. “I would have rescinded the invitation if not for Lady Violet arriving for the first time.”

  ‘Lady’ was said with enough emphasis to make her uncertain whether it was mockery or respect. She didn’t think she desired either, so Violet replied merrily, “I prefer Mrs. Wakefield, but Vi will do for family.”

  It was the right thing to say as far as James and Jack were concerned. Their matching dark gazes lit with appreciation as they were led to their seats. As they sat, Violet saw that dinner had already been cleared away. Port had been poured and the air was clouded with those indulging in their particular tobacco vices.

  Vi was famished, but she took the offered glass of wine and sipped it without concern while no one one else spoke a word.

  “Perhaps it’s time to clear this up and go into the drawing room,” Grandfather Wakefield said. “We’ll have coffee and tea brought in, Lady Violet, along with some nibbles for those of you stuck on the train.”

  “Lovely,” Violet said happily.

  This whole affair was utterly ridiculous. As they left the dining room, she whispered to Jack, “Who was shouting?”

  “One of my cousins, I think,” Jack whispered back. “The ones who work for Grandfather feel they have a right to the company.”

  Vi lifted her brows and didn’t comment. She was a twice-over inheritor and didn’t have room to comment. Her mother had inherited money and left it to Violet and Victor. Then, when they’d lost Great Aunt Agatha, Violet had been financially blessed again. She managed Aunt Agatha’s investments these days, but Vi hadn’t done anything to earn them, and how well she knew it.

  Chapter 6

  “Who are you now?” Grandfather Wakefield asked of Denny.

  “Denny Lancaster,” Denny said happily, entirely unbothered by the daggered glances being thrown his way. “A longtime friend of Violet and Victor. A newer friend of Jack. This is my wife, Lila.”

  “Don’t you have a house?” Grandfather Wakefield asked.

  “Two actually,” Denny agreed. “Lila and I tend to stick close to either Violet or Victor. We’re here for the baby.”

  “The baby?” Aunt Hyacinth asked.

  “My brother’s,” Violet answered. “He or she will be here any day.”

  “This is the baby that made your brother have to marry so quickly?”

  Violet blinked and Denny didn’t bother to hide his evil chuckle. Lila simply leaned back and crossed her legs while Jack shot his aunt a quelling look.

  “Hyacinth,” James cut in, “you’re looking well.” Before she could answer, James continued, “Father, I believe you prefer to make your updates.”

  “Of course,” Grandfather Wakefield said. “Does anyone have anything to report? Other than Jack marrying, of course.”

  “To an earl’s daughter,” one of the younger crew said. They weren’t impressed. Violet realized in that moment that Jack’s family was—perhaps—as horrified as her own at their connection.

  “And an author,” another one said. This was a young man who nodded at Violet. “Supported yourself for a while by your writing, I think.”

  “It certainly helped.”

  “Until you inherited a business you didn’t work in. The money should have gone to Davies’s nephew.”

  “Leave Violet be,” Jack snapped.

  “Tell us about your latest murder,” Aunt Hyacinth said scathingly. “Showing up for a piece of the pie after abandoning the business and the family work and then thinking you can slide in at the last minute with your hands out. I suppose the earldom or whatever you call the coffers is bankrupt.”

  “Let’s leave us out of this battle you have going,” Violet said idly, channeling Lila’s most bored voice. “I am an earl’s daughter, Jack is a very good detective. We aren’t here to squabble over your business or what you’ve built, Grandfather Wakefield.”

  “Are you saying you absolve yourself of any right to the fortune?”

  Violet glanced at Jack, letting him answer. “Aunt Hyacinth,” Jack said, trying for patience, but Violet could see the fury on his face.

  “Hyacinth,” James cut in. “Neither of us have worked in Father’s business.”

  “I am a daughter,” Hyacinth retorted.

  “Enough.” Jack scowled. “We don’t want your money, Grandfather Wakefield. We had the poor idea that we might simply spend time with family. I can see it will have to continue to be with Violet’s family.”

  “Oh, so the earl welcomes you with a happy heart? Tell me another whopper.” Hyacinth’s gaze was narrow, her lips were pursed, and her cheeks were flushed.

  Violet gazed up at the ceiling and took in a deep breath. Her head had started to hurt with the hunger and now they were at this ridiculous family dinner. This was, however, Jack’s family.

  “Jack old man,” Denny said happily, “they don’t appreciate you, do they? You really should have set lower expectations. My father’s just glad I’m not touching him for a quid every time I see him.”

  Jack met Denny’s gaze and then, to Vi’s shock, he laughed. He crossed to Violet, took a seat at her side, and leaned back. “I’ll make this up to you.”

  “Cypress, I think,” she told him, winding their fingers together.

  Both of them turned to Grandfather Wakefield, who was silently frowning at the group. “Are you quite finished?”

  No one replied.

  “As I have said before and as I will say again, the will has been made for years, and it won’t be changed.”

  “But Liam works so hard for you!” Hyacinth cried.

  “He gets paid quite well, Hyacinth,” Anderson Wakefield, James’s older brother said. “Better than his peers at the company to be honest. He does good work, and he’s appreciated.”

  Violet had to see the men together—Jack and all his cousins and uncles—to realize how much they looked alike. Frank and Anderson seemed to have the very same eyes as Jack while Liam and Herbert both had Jack’s great bulk.

  Hyacinth seemed to growl. “You don’t understand the worries of a parent. You aren’t connected in the same way.”

  Violet watched as Anderson rolled his eyes and sighed. He popped a white pill into his mouth and glanced at his father and then at James. “Perhaps I don’t.”

  “Let alone the worries of a widowed mother.”

  Anderson closed his eyes and pressed his finger against his eyeball. The way the sister was playing on the feelings of her siblings was masterful, Violet thought. And mean.

  She glanced at Jack whose jaw was clenching and unclenching. He had the look of a man who wanted to strangle everyone present. Lila was leaning into Denny’s side and she’d closed her eyes. Violet bit down on her bottom lip to hide her reaction to Lila being too bored by Jack’s family antics to bother staying awake.

  Denny glanced down a moment later, and his face softened as the sight of his sleeping wife. Usually he’d have nudged her awake, but he left her be.

  “Oh my heavens,” Vi breathed. Both Jack and James looked at Violet and then Jack followed Violet’s gaze to Lila.

  “Realized, did you?” he asked evenly.

  “You knew?”

  His aunt and uncle were snapping at each other agai
n, but Violet was entirely encompassed by the sight of her friends.

  “Guessed.”

  “But you didn’t say anything?” Her gaze narrowed on him.

  “I realized on the train and then I was distracted.”

  “How?”

  “She made too many trips to the ladies, and Denny looked concerned every time.”

  “She has the look,” James said, and Violet’s jaw dropped. He grinned at Violet, who slowly closed her mouth and shook her head.

  “Did you have something you wanted to add, James?” Grandfather Wakefield interrupted.

  “Father,” James said with a sigh, “I believe we’re pushing the children to their limit.”

  “I am retiring,” Grandfather Wakefield announced. “Stepping entirely away from the company. Anderson will carry on in my stead. As he’s been doing for quite some time.”

  The room fell silent except for a soft snuffle from Lila.

  “Anderson doesn’t have any children,” Hyacinth said. “Herbert hasn’t worked for some time. Surely my Liam is a better choice. Anderson, don’t you want to retire before your heart gives out?”

  Anderson glanced at Hyacinth. “You propose that Liam take over the business and both Father and I retire?”

  “Why not?” Hyacinth asked stubbornly. “Only Liam and Frank have worked in the company. My girls can’t, obviously. My boys didn’t turn away from what Father made like the rest of them.”

  “If Liam wishes to run the company someday,” Grandfather Wakefield said, “he’ll need to work his way into position. There are many men with more experience and know-how than your boy.”

  “He could do it,” Hyacinth said, “and he has the blood.”

  “As does Neville if we’re using that argument,” Uncle Herbert said. His wife glanced at him, shook her head, and sipped her tea.

  Jack rose suddenly. “I’m taking my wife and our friends home. I apologize for abandoning this, but I find that the usual family argument has grown tiresome.” Jack crossed to his grandfather and shook his hand. “I hope you enjoy your retirement, Grandfather. I fear our family isn’t well-inclined towards not working. Violet is planning a dinner at our house with a whole array of chocolate puddings. Why don’t you come and talk with her friends about ways to spend your new free time. They know rather a lot about enjoying life, I’ve discovered. It’s a bit of a distance between this house and Father’s house. Stay with us, why don’t you? Maybe we can learn to get along.”