Page 24 of Murder at the Dinner Party
Betty pressed a hand to her stomach and glanced anxiously up the staircase.
One of the service bells rang and Davey grumbled under his breath.
“Buck up,” Mrs. Turner said crisply. “Remember, they’re not angry with you.” She watched him go then invited me into her office. “Please sit, Miss Fox.”
I declined the offer. “I only need to ask you one thing. I really do need to see Mr. Hardy’s references. There’s a possibility he used to work for the Whitchurches during a difficult time in their household, twenty-two years ago.”
“Is that when the current Lord Whitchurch’s brother died?”
“Their maid died. The brother went missing.”
Her eyes widened. “I see.”
“You told me Lady Campbell keeps employee records in her writing desk. You refused last time to get Mr. Hardy’s for me, but will you reconsider now?”
She’d remained standing, too, and now clutched the back of the chair. “You want me to steal it?”
“Borrow. You can put it back after I’ve looked at it.”
She regarded me levelly. “No, Miss Fox. I draw the line there. I won’t break her ladyship’s trust in such a way. If I’m caught…” She shook her head vigorously. “And don’t ask Davey or any of the other staff, either. I won’t place them in such a position. You’ll have to find another way.”
Another way was already forming in my head, so I didn’t persist. I removed Mr. Hardy’s bottle of seltzer salts from my bag. “There are no traces of poison in this.”
She frowned as she accepted the bottle. “Then how was it administered?”
“If it was, it was some other way.”
She tucked the bottle into her skirt pocket. “I still can’t believe he died of natural causes. I just can’t.”
I gave her a sympathetic look but didn’t tell her she may have to come to terms with it. “Does anyone else in the household take a medicinal tonic or powder, something that’s ingested, not rubbed onto the skin?”
“No. Fit as a fiddle, all of us.”
As I walked back to the hotel, I couldn’t help wondering why the Campbells had become so cross over my request. Were they trying to protect themselves or the Whitchurches?
I dearly wanted to discuss it with Harry.
Instead, I headed home.
* * *
The hotel’sstaff parlor became a makeshift meeting room when I needed to discuss my investigations with the staff members who occasionally helped me. My presence was accepted by most, although there was always a flurry of movement when I entered of an afternoon. The cooks who’d put their feet up on tables or spare chairs would lower them to the floor, the maids pretended they hadn’t been gossiping, and the footmen and waiters sometimes sprang up and stood to attention until I told them not to mind me.
My own group of friends no longer bothered to make a fuss. My arrival in the parlor didn’t even warrant a greeting from Frank. He was too busy grumbling about a guest who’d moaned about the sun being too hot as she left the hotel.
“What did she expect me to do about it?” he whined.
“She probably wasn’t expecting you to do anything,” Harmony told him. “She may have simply wanted to complain, and you happened to be there.”
Goliath stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Of all people, you should understand the need to complain, Frank.”
Frank nudged Goliath’s foot. “Move those big clown feet before someone trips over them.”
Peter had just poured a cup of tea for himself, but handed it to me instead. “Welcome to Bedlam, Miss Fox.”
I gratefully accepted the cup. “There’s never a dull moment when you’re all together. I’m glad everyone is here, actually. I want to discuss my latest case.” Although I encompassed them all, it was to Victor that my gaze drifted.
His chef’s uniform was unstained, meaning he hadn’t started his shift yet. When he worked the dinner shift, he usually finished about eleven. That was perfect timing. Sensing my interest, he lazily arched his brows in question. Seated close beside him, Harmony sat up a little straighter. An observant onlooker would know by now they were in a relationship, even though they hadn’t declared it. I wasn’t sure when they would. My attempt to find out more from Harmony was always met with a wall of silence.
