Murder Most Malicious

Book 1: Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery

by Alyssa Maxwell

Genres: Historical Fiction; World War I; Historical Mysteries; Traditional Mysteries; Female Sleuths

Synopsis

In post–World War I England, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, step outside of their social roles and put their lives at risk to apprehend a vicious killer…
December 1918: There is much to celebrate for nineteen-year-old Phoebe Renshaw and her three siblings at their beloved family estate of Foxwood Hall. The war is finally over; eldest daughter Julia's engagement to the Marquis of Allerton appears imminent; and all have gathered to enjoy peace on earth, good will toward men. But the peace is shattered on Boxing Day, when the Marquis goes missing and macabre evidence of foul play turns up in gift boxes given to lady's maid Eva Huntford and a handful of others. Having overheard her sister and the Marquis in a heated exchange the night before, Lady Phoebe takes a personal interest in solving the mystery. As the local constable suspects a footman at Foxwood Hall, Phoebe and Eva follow the clues to a different conclusion.

Release date: January 1, 2016

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 322

Sample

25 December, 1918

“Henry, don’t you dare ignore me!” The shout burst from behind the drawing-room doors, a command nearly drowned out by staccato notes pounded on the grand piano. “Henry, I’m speaking to you!”

Stravinsky’s discordant Firebird broke off with a resounding crescendo. Voices replaced them, one male, one female, both distinctly taut and decidedly angry. Phoebe Renshaw came to an uneasy halt. She had thought the rest of her family and the guests had all gone up to bed. Across the Grand Hall, light spilled from the dining room as the butler and footmen continued clearing away the remnants of Christmas dinner.

With an indrawn breath she moved closer to the thickly paneled, double pocket doors.

“I’m very sorry, Henry, but it isn’t going to happen,” came calmer, muffled words from inside, spoken by the feminine voice—a voice that sounded anything but sorry. Dismissive, disdainful, yes, but certainly not contrite. Phoebe sighed and rolled her eyes. As much as she had expected this, she shook her head that Julia had chosen Christmas night to break this news to her latest suitor. And this particular Christmas, too—the first peacetime holiday in nearly five years.

A paragon of tact and goodwill, that sister of hers.

“We are practically engaged, Julia. Why do you think your grandparents asked my family to spend Christmas here at Foxwood? Everyone is expecting us to wed. Our estates practically border each other.” Incredulity lent an almost shrill quality to Henry’s voice. “How could our union be any more perfect?”

“It isn’t perfect to me,” came the cool reply.

“No? How on earth do you think you’ll avoid a scandal if you break it off now?”

Phoebe could almost see her sister’s cavalier shrug. “A broken not-quite-engagement is hardly fodder for scandal. I’m sorry—how many times must I say it? This is my decision and you’ve no choice but to accept it.”

Would they exit the drawing room now? Phoebe stepped backward intending to flee, perhaps dart behind the Christmas tree that dominated the center of the hall. Henry’s voice, raised and freshly charged with ire, held her in place. “Do I? Do I really? You listen here, Julia Renshaw. Surely you don’t believe you’re the only one who knows a secret about someone.”

Phoebe glanced over her shoulder and sure enough, the two footmen, Douglas and Vernon, met her gaze through the dining-room doorway before hurrying on with their chores. Inside the drawing room, a burst of snide laughter from Henry raised the hair at her nape.

“What secret?” her sister asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“Your secret,” Henry Leighton, Marquess of Allerton, said with a mean hiss that carried through the door.

“What . . . do you believe you know?”

“Must I outline the sordid details of your little adventure last summer?”

“How on earth did you discover... ?” Julia’s voice faded.

It registered in Phoebe’s mind that her sister hadn’t bothered to deny whatever it was.

“Let’s just say I kept an eye on you while I was on furlough,” Henry said, “and you aren’t as clever as you think you are, not by half.”

“That was most ungentlemanly of you, Henry.”

“You had your chance to spend more time with me then, Julia, and you chose not to. I therefore chose to discover where you were spending your time.”

“Oh! How unworthy, even of you, Henry. Still, it would be your word against mine, and whom do you think Grampapa will believe? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”

“You are not walking away from this, Julia!” Henry’s voice next plunged to a murmur Phoebe could no longer make out, but like a mongrel’s growl it showered her arms with goose bumps.

The sound of shuffling feet was followed by a sharp “Oh!” from Julia. Phoebe’s hands shot instinctively toward the recessed finger pulls on the doors, but she froze at the marquess’s next words. “This is how it is going to be, my dear. You and I are going to announce our engagement to our families tomorrow morning, and shortly thereafter to the world. There will be parties and planning and yes, there will be a wedding. You will marry me, or you’ll marry no one. Ever. I’ll see to that.”

“You don’t even know whether or not anything untoward happened last summer,” Julia said with all the condescension of which Phoebe knew she was capable, yet with a brittle quality that threatened her tenuous composure. “You’re bluffing, Henry.”

“Am I? Are you willing to risk it? What would Grampapa think of his darling girl if he only knew the truth?”

Phoebe’s breath caught in her throat at the thud of something hitting the rug inside. She gripped the bronze finger pulls just as Julia cried out.

“Let go of me!”

Phoebe thrust both doors wide, perfectly framing the scene inside. Julia, in her pale rose Poiret gown with its silver-beaded trim, stood with her back bowed in an obvious attempt to pull free of Henry’s hold. A spiraling lock of blond hair had slipped from its pins on one side to stream past her shoulder. At her feet, a vase lay on its side, thankfully unbroken, the flowers and water it held now blending with the Persian weave. Four empty indentations in the rug testified to the side table having been rudely knocked askew. Meanwhile, Henry’s dark hair stood on end, no doubt from raking his fingers through it. His brown eyes smoldering and his cheeks ruddy with drink, he had his hands on her—on her! His fingers were wrapped so tightly around Julia’s upper arms they were sure to leave bruises.

For a moment no one moved. Phoebe stared. They stared back. Henry’s bowtie hung loose on either side of his neck, his tailcoat and waistcoat unbuttoned with all the familiarity of a husband in his own home, his garnet shirt studs gleaming like drops of blood upon snow. Anger twisted his features. Then recognition dawned—of Phoebe, of the impropriety of the scene she had walked in on—and a measure of the ire smoothed from his features. He released Julia as though she were made of hot coals, turned away, and put several feet between them.

Phoebe steeled herself with a breath and forced a smile. “Oh, hullo there, you two. Sorry to barge in like this. I thought everyone had gone to bed. Don’t mind me, I only came for a book, one I couldn’t find in the library. Julia, do you remember where Grampapa stashed that American novel he didn’t want Grams to know he was reading? You know, the one about the boy floating up that large river to help his African friend.”

“I don’t know. . . .” Julia looked from Phoebe to Henry and back again. She brushed the errant lock behind her ear before hugging her arms around her middle. “I’ll help you look. G-good night, Henry.”

“Were you just going up?” Without letting her smile slip, Phoebe glared at Henry and put emphasis on going up.

A muscle bounced in the hard line of his jaw. His eyes narrowed, but he bobbed his head. “Good night, ladies. Julia, we’ll talk more in the morning.”

He strode past Phoebe without a glance. Several long seconds later, his footfalls thudded on the carpeted stairs. Phoebe let go a breath of relief. She turned to slide the pocket doors closed, and as she did so two black-clad figures lingering in the dining-room doorway scurried out of sight.

There would be gossip below stairs come morning. Phoebe would worry about that later. She went to her sister and clasped her hands. “Are you all right?”

Julia whisked free and backed up a stride. “Of course I’m all right.”

“You didn’t look all right when I came in. You still don’t. What was that about?”

Julia twitched her eyebrows and turned slightly away, showing Phoebe her shoulder. Yes, the light pink weal visible against her pale upper arm confirmed tomorrow’s bruises. “What was what about?”

“Don’t play coy with me. What was Henry talking about? What secret—”

“Were you listening at the door?”

“I could hear you from the middle of the hall, and I think the servants in the dining room heard you as well. Lucky for you Grams and Grampapa retired half an hour ago. Or perhaps it isn’t lucky. Perhaps this is something they should know about.”

“They don’t need to know anything.”

“Why are you always so stubborn?”

“I’m done in, Phoebe. I’m going to bed.” Her perfectly sloping nose in the air, she started to move past Phoebe, but Phoebe reached out and caught her wrist. Julia stopped, still facing the paneled walnut doors, her gaze boring into them. “Release me at once.”

“Not until you tell me what you and Henry were arguing about. I mean, besides your breaking off your would-be engagement. That comes as no great surprise. But the rest . . . Are you in some sort of trouble?”

Julia snapped her head around to pin Phoebe with eyes so deeply blue as to appear black. “It’s none of your business and I’ll thank you to mind your own. Now let me go. I’m going to bed, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll do the same.”

Stunned, her throat stinging from the rebuke, Phoebe let her hand fall away. She watched Julia go, the beaded train of her gown whooshing over the floor like water over rocks.

“I care about you,” Phoebe said in a barely audible whisper, something neither Julia, nor the footmen, nor anyone else in the house could possibly hear. She wished she could say it louder, say it directly to her prideful sister’s beautiful face. And then what—be met with a repeat of the disdain Julia had just shown her? No. Phoebe had her pride, too.

Eva Huntford made her way past the main kitchen and into the servants’ dining hall with a gown slung over each arm. Lady Amelia had spilled a spoonful of trifle down the front of her green velvet at dinner last night, while Lady Julia’s mauve and silver beaded gown sported an odd rent near the left shoulder strap. It almost physically pained her to see such damage to the clothing she took such loving care of, and she briefly wondered what holiday activities could possibly result in such a tear. She dismissed the thought. Today was Boxing Day, but she had work to do before enjoying her own brief holiday later that afternoon.

“Mrs. Ellison, have you any bicarbonate of soda on hand? Lady Amelia spilled trifle—oh!” A man sat at the far end of the rectangular oak table, reading a newspaper. A cup of coffee sat steaming at his elbow. She draped the gowns over the back of a chair. “Good morning, Mr. Hensley. You’re up early.”

“Evie, won’t you call me Nick? How long have we known each other, after all?”

It was true, she and Nicolas Hensley had known each other as children, but they were adults now, she lady’s maid to the Earl of Wroxly’s three granddaughters, and he valet to their houseguest, the Marquess of Allerton. Propriety was, after all, of the utmost importance in a manor such as Foxwood Hall. Familiarity between herself and a manservant would hardly be considered proper. “A long time, yes,” she replied with a lift of her eyebrow, “but it’s also been a long time since we’ve seen each other.”

He smiled faintly. “I saw you yesterday. And the day before that.”

“You know what I mean. We’ve been surrounded by the others, or have passed each other in the corridors as we’ve gone about our tasks.” She turned to go. “In fact, I should—”

“Evie, do stay. I’ve craved a moment alone with you. Don’t look like that. I only wish to . . . to express my deepest condolences about Danny. My very deepest, Evie. A sad business, that.”

Her throat squeezed and the backs of her eyes stung. Danny, her brother . . . She swallowed. “Yes, thank you. A good many men did not come home from the war. They are heroes, all.”

“Indeed.”

Hang it all, this would never do, not on Boxing Day. In a couple of hours she would be free to trudge home through last night’s dusting of snow to spend the afternoon with her parents, and they must not glimpse her sadness. She gave a little sniff, a slight toss of her head. There, better now. She smiled at Mr. Hensley. “Tell me, what are you doing down here at this time of the morning? Won’t his lordship be abed for hours yet?”

“My employer is already up and out, actually.”

“On such a cold morning?” Shivering, she glanced up at the high windows, frosted over and sprinkled with last night’s flurries.

Mrs. Ellison turned the corner into the room, her plump hand extended. Eva’s requested soda fizzed away in the measuring cup she held. She handed Eva a clean rag as well. “Who’s up and out on this frigid morning?”

Eva moved a place setting aside and spread the velvet gown’s bodice open on the table. She dipped the rag in the soda. “Lord Allerton, apparently.” She looked quizzically over at Mr. Hensley.

He set down his newspaper. “At any rate, his lordship isn’t in his room. I inquired with the staff setting up in the morning room and no one’s yet seen him today.”

“One supposes he’s gone out for a walk despite the weather, then.” Eva dabbed the dampened cloth lightly at the stain on Lady Amelia’s bodice, careful of the embroidery and the tiny seed pearl buttons.

“Or perhaps a ride in that lovely motorcar of his?” Mrs. Ellison sighed longingly.

“No, I called down to the carriage house and his Silver Ghost is still there.” Mr. Hensley frowned in thought, a gesture that did not diminish his distinguished good looks. He was several years older than Eva and had briefly courted her sister before entering into service as an under footman here at Foxwood. The years had been more than kind to him, she couldn’t help admitting. The slightest touch of silver at his temples might be premature for a man of thirty, but on Nick Hensley the effect was both elegant and charming.

Perhaps more so than a valet needed, she added with a silent chuckle.

“Wouldn’t I relish a ride in that heavenly motorcar!” Mrs. Ellison took on a dreamy expression, but only for an instant. “Ah well, back to work.”

“I’m sure he’ll turn up.” Eva dabbed one last time at Amelia’s frock and gave a satisfied nod. Voices sounded in the corridor.

“That was some show last night.”

“You can say that again. They were like a couple of—”

“Good morning, Vernon, Douglas.” Eva injected an implied reprimand into the tone of her greeting. She didn’t know whom the head footman and under footman were discussing, but the gossipy nature of their observations didn’t escape her. The pair had the good grace to blush guiltily as they clamped their lips. Mr. Giles had strict rules about gossip-mongering, and had he overheard them they’d have suffered a hearty tongue-lashing, as would everyone else within hearing range.

Other staff members arrived for breakfast, having completed their morning chores of laying fires, sweeping floors, and setting up the breakfast buffet. Connie, the new housemaid, came barreling into the doorway and skidded to a halt with a visible effort to catch her breath. She regarded Eva with large, worried eyes. “Did Mrs. Sanders notice my late start this morning?”

“Were you late? Well, no matter,” Eva assured her. She hoped she was correct, and that Connie wouldn’t be facing a scolding later from the housekeeper. “It’s Boxing Day and I suppose we’re allowed a bit of leeway. Is everyone ready for their holiday later?”

Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, was a rare treat for the manor staff. Some visited their families if they lived locally, while others attended the cinema or shopped or simply spent private time in their rooms reading. Eva planned to spend the afternoon at her parents’ farm outside the village, but first she needed to set her ladyships’ gowns to rights. After a final inspection of the now nearly invisible stain, she moved Amelia’s velvet off the table to make way as more staff gathered round.

She was on her way to deliver the gown to Mable, the laundress, before settling in with needle and thread to mend the beaded strap on Lady Julia’s frock. Suddenly Lady Amelia bounded down the back staircase and launched herself from the bottom step. She landed with an unladylike thwack mere inches away from Eva.

“Good heavens, my lady!” Eva sidestepped in time to avoid being knocked off her feet and spilling her burdens to the floor. She hugged the gowns to her. “Is there a fire?”

“I’m terribly sorry, Eva. I didn’t mean to give you a fright.” Lady Amelia’s long curls danced loose down her back, and in her haste to dress herself she’d left the sleeves on her crepe de chine shirtwaist undone. “I was looking for you.”

“You know I would have been upstairs to help you and your sisters dress in what”—she glanced at the wall clock—“ten minutes?”

Amelia Renshaw’s sweet face banished any annoyance Eva might have felt. At fifteen, she was a budding beauty. Not Lady Julia’s glamorous, moving-picture star beauty, but a quieter, deeper sort one often finds in country villages like Little Barlow. Her hair was darker than either Julia’s or Phoebe’s but still golden, a color reflected in her eyes, which sometimes shone hazel and other times brown, but always with bright gold rims. If Phoebe took after their dear but somewhat plain mother and Julia took after their dashing father, Amelia had inherited a pleasing combination of both that would surely endure throughout her lifetime.

“If you’re worried about your frock, my lady, look.” Eva held out the gowns, using one hand to unfold the bodice of Amelia’s green velvet. “I’ve almost got the stain out and Mable will vanquish what’s left.”

“I don’t care about that,” Amelia said with a dismissive wave. “You keep the gown. I wanted a private moment to wish you happy Christmas.”

“Lady Amelia, wherever would I wear such a garment? And as for Christmas, you wished me happy yesterday.” Slinging both gowns over her shoulder, she reached to button the cuffs that traveled halfway up Amelia’s forearms. “Had you forgotten?”

“Yes, but yesterday was a work day for you and this afternoon you’ll be free to enjoy as you like.” She switched arms so Eva could button the other sleeve. “I may wish you happy from one carefree person to another. That’s quite different, don’t you think?”

Puzzled, Eva frowned at her young charge, but only for an instant. “I think it’s a lovely gesture and I thank you very much, my lady.”

“There’s more. I wanted you to know there’s a special surprise in your box from Phoebe and me. There’s something from Julia, too, something she purchased, very lovely and thoughtful, but Phoebe and I made our gift ourselves. But you’re not to open your box until you’re at home with your parents.” Amelia bounced on the balls of her feet with excitement. “We made one for your mother as well.”

“How terribly sweet of you. But you’re very mysterious, aren’t you?” Eva reached out and affectionately tucked a few stray hairs behind Amelia’s ear. In some ways she was blossoming into a gracious young lady, while in others she was still very much a little girl. Sadly, one with too few memories of her mother. Poor child, one parent lost to childbirth—along with the babe—and the other to war. Eva hoped she helped fill the gaps, on occasion at least, even if only in the smallest ways. “Whatever it is, Mum and I are sure to love and treasure it always. Happy Christmas to you, my lady.”

To her mingled chagrin and delight, Lady Amelia reached her arms around her and squeezed.

“With this deplorable weather keeping us inside, we’ll have to use our imaginations to keep ourselves occupied this afternoon.”

Maude Renshaw, Countess of Wroxly—Grams as Phoebe and her siblings called her—stood as tall as she had as a young woman, if the photographs were any indication. If anything she seemed even taller now, although Phoebe knew that to be an illusion created by the uninterrupted black she habitually wore, from the high-necked collars of her dresses to the narrow sweep of her skirts. With smooth hair the color of newly polished silver worn in a padded upsweep culminating in a topknot at her crown, Grams was a study in dignified elegance that caught the eye and held it whenever she entered a room.

Strengthening the illusion of Grams’s Amazonian height, Phoebe’s youngest sibling, Viscount Foxwood—Fox—walked at Grams’s side, holding her hand in the crook of his elbow. Fox had yet to enjoy a major growth spurt, much to his chagrin as this set him a good head shorter than many of his classmates at Eton. Together Fox and Grams led the small procession of family and guests into the Petite Salon, tucked into the turret of what had been the original portion of the house.

This room was one of Phoebe’s favorites. Crisp wainscoting offset by calming green walls and an airy cove ceiling made a welcome contrast to the dark oaks and mahoganies in other parts of the house. Best of all, the room was a partial oval, with a rotunda of windows overlooking the south corner of the gardens.

An enthusiastic blaze danced behind the fireplace screen, and Mr. Giles and the footmen, Vernon and Douglas, stood at attention, waiting to serve. The table had been laid with leftovers from last night’s dinner—roast goose and venison and medallions of beef, with Mrs. Ellison’s apple-chestnut stuffing, among other delicacies, and for dessert, the leftover Yorkshire pudding and cranberry trifle. Supplemented by a platter of sandwiches, the leftovers provided easy fare designed to allow the kitchen staff, along with the rest of the servants, to finish up early and set out on their afternoon holiday. The day promised adventures for everyone—for the servants as they pursued their personal interests, and, Phoebe thought wryly, for the family and guests as they endeavored to look after themselves for these next several hours.

“Where is my son? It’s not like Henry to be late to a meal.” Lucille, Marchioness of Allerton, regarded her son’s vacant seat at the table. Whereas Grams’s stoic self-discipline had sculpted her figure into lines of angular elegance, a longstanding habit of overindulgence had softened the marchioness’s figure, rounded her hips and shoulders and upper arms, and produced rather more chins than a body required.

“Come to think of it, he wasn’t down for breakfast either.” Grams spoke lightly, but shot a suspicious look at Julia. Julia didn’t appear to notice, but Phoebe winced, wondering if somehow Grams had gotten wind of the debacle in the drawing room last night.

“He and Lord Owen must have gone out.” Grampapa turned his broad face toward Mr. Giles for confirmation.

“I believe Lord Owen is still in his room, my lord. If Lord Allerton has gone out, he left no message that I know of.”

Lady Allerton’s frown deepened. “Hmm . . . That, too, is most unlike Henry. Did he take his motor car?”

“No, my lady. His Silver Ghost is still in the carriage house.”

“Hmm . . . How very odd, indeed.”

“Really, Mama, why all the fuss?” Lord Theodore Leighton—Theo—reached for a roll and his butter knife with a bored expression. “Henry’s a grown man.”

He fell silent without any further reassurance and buttered his bread with meticulous strokes as if creating a work of art. This proved no simple task, not for Theo, and Phoebe quelled the urge to reach over and offer assistance. The knife quivered in his grasp, bringing attention to the scarred flesh of his fingers and the backs of both hands. The rippled skin ended at his sleeves and reappeared in angry blotches above his collar to pull the left side of his face into a perpetual sneer. Phoebe wondered that he hadn’t grown whiskers to hide the scars. Like Henry, this second son of the Leighton family was handsome, or had been, before the war had left its mark on him.

Mustard gas, in the trenches of the Battle of Somme. Phoebe remembered the day a distraught Lady Allerton had telephoned to deliver the awful news. Theo’s injuries had taken him out of action for nearly six months—he’d very nearly died—but when everyone had expected him to return home, he returned to the trenches instead. He made it abundantly clear at every opportunity he wanted no one’s pity, no one’s help. He’d butter his own roll, thank you, if it took all morning.

Phoebe tried never to feel sorry for him, even tried to like him, but he made it a ticklish task, especially in moments like this. This might be Henry they were talking about, but he and Theo were, after all, brothers, and Theo exhibited not the slightest concern.

While the elder generation discussed where Henry might be, Phoebe glanced across the table at Julia. Had her argument with Henry driven him away? She noted that Julia’s arms were well-covered in deep blue chiffon, with a velvet shawl draped over that, to hide any evidence of last night. . . .