Lady Marmalade Cozy Murder Mysteries: Box Set (Books 1 - 3) Read online

  Meredith came up and shook hands with Lady Marmalade. Her hands, though well manicured, were somewhat masculine.

  “Happy to meet you, Frances,” she said.

  “Likewise. I’m sorry about your husband.”

  Meredith smiled. It was a brave smile. She wore a bright floral patterned dress. She had long brown hair that dropped in curls just past her shoulder. She wore makeup with red lipstick. Her chin was weak but other than that she was pleasant to look at.

  After everyone had been introduced to Lady Marmalade, Jack made the same introductions with Florence to those whom she didn’t know, which were Meredith and Dr. Garnet.

  “Now what can I get the two of you to drink?” asked Jack.

  “A gin and tonic,” said Frances.

  “Make that two,” said Florence.

  “I thought you might say that,” said Frances.

  “Old habits die hard, Fran,” said Florence.

  The two of them went and sat down together on a two-seater couch that was vacant. Meredith looked over at Frances.

  “I’ve heard that you’re a detective,” she said.

  Jack came back with the two gin and tonics and handed one each to Frances and Florence.

  “Not a real detective,” said Frances.

  “She’s too modest,” said Florence, “we were just talking about that on our walk up here.”

  “Oh, do tell,” said Meredith, leaning in from her armchair.

  “Well, I’ve earned a bit of a reputation for being quite good at solving crimes, so I’m often asked to help out in some cases.”

  “So it’s the police that ask you to help out?” asked Meredith.

  Frances smiled and shook her head after sipping on her gin and tonic.

  “Not usually, though sometimes they have. No, usually I’m asked to help out by one of the relatives or I’m called in because they’ve heard about me and ask for my help.”

  “Fascinating. And you don’t mind all the gore and dead bodies?”

  “Funny you should ask, I was just talking with Florence about that on our way here. I sort of fell into sleuthing by accident, and indeed the first few dead bodies I saw were quite upsetting. Not because of all the gore as you say, there wasn’t much of that, no, what really upset me was the senselessness of it all. To be honest, that’s what upsets me the most about crimes and especially murder, the senselessness of it all.”

  “So intriguing, Frances, you’re a veritable Sherlock Holmes,” said Meredith.

  Frances waved it off and took a sip of her gin and tonic.

  “But enough about me, I want to hear about you. Are you still involved in the family business?”

  Meredith sat back into her chair a bit more comfortably.

  “Yes, unfortunately I am still involved. Ever since Roger died three years ago I’ve had to feign interest in it. But I leave it mostly in Jack’s hands. I believe he’s doing a good job.”

  “And what sort of business is it that you are all involved with? Florence hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

  “We’re a small parts manufacturer for cars mostly. We ship engine parts of a variety of sorts all over Europe to most of the car manufacturers. I bet that Garrett’s Alfa Romeo has a part or two in it from Forsyth Motor Manufacturing. That’s the name of the company.”

  Garrett’s ears pricked up when he heard his name.

  “I dare say it does. We manufacture primarily carburetors, water pumps and ignition systems. My Romeo has a Forsyth carburetor in it. We make one of the best in the business, if I don’t mind saying so myself.”

  “But you aren’t really involved in the business are you, Garrett?” said Meredith.

  Garrett’s eyes burned hot.

  “Well, I will be soon enough.”

  And he turned to join the conversation going on between Ginnie and her brother, Luther.

  The butler came back into the living room and announced to Ginnie and Jack that dinner was ready. Ginnie stood up and corralled the guests into the dining room where the eight of them sat down at a large elegant wooden table with white linen napkins and genuine silverware.

  James Gromson came around with some white wine. He held out a bottle of Chenin Blanc to Jack, at the head of the table, and poured him a small sip. He swirled it, sniffed it before swallowing it. He nodded at James and James took the wine over to Lady Marmalade and filled her glass. Then he went to Florence and on down, serving the women according to their age. His best guess, which was also accurate. Ginnie, the lady of the house was served last before James served the men in the same order.

  James left an almost empty bottle on the table and went back into the kitchen where he came out with the housekeeper, Agnus Van Buren, and served the main course in the same order he had served the wine. Frances watched Agnus put the tray on a dumbwaiter off to the side with hands that were large for a woman and spoke intimately with the voice of hard labor.

  In front of Frances on her plate was pan fried flounder with lemon and dill. Accompanying it were parsley-encrusted fingerling potatoes. It smelled heavenly and Frances hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the aroma of the food teased her nostrils and made her mouth water.

  “Looks absolutely wonderful, Ginnie, thank you so much for this delightful dinner,” said Frances.

  “Yes, smells delicious,” echoed Florence.

  James and Agnus reappeared from the kitchen one more time, and served up the remaining guests.

  “Please, dig in,” said Ginnie. “Let’s enjoy the meal.”

  “You don’t have to ask me a second time,” said Meredith.

  Jack lifted up his glass and looked his wife in the eye across the table from him. Frances was seated to Ginnie’s right, across from Garrett. Dr. Garnet was to Frances’ right, opposite Meredith and Florence was at the other end, to Jack’s left and across from Gerald.

  “To the coming war, and may it make us all rich, especially Forsyth Motors,” said Jack.

  Lady Marmalade raised her glass tentatively as did the others. She tried to pinch a smile but it was awkward.

  “Jack, that’s inappropriate,” said Ginnie.

  “Well, war is often good for manufacturers like us.”

  “Only when you don’t know how to run a business during peaceful times,” said Dr. Garnet.

  Jack looked at him and furrowed his brow.

  “Not now, Luther, if you don’t mind. I don’t wish to speak of business matters during dinner.”

  “That’s your problem,” said Dr. Garnet, “never wanting to speak of business matters.”

  “Gentleman, please,” said Ginnie. “May I propose a toast? To freedom, friends and good food.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” said Meredith.

  “You’ll drink to anything,” mumbled Ginnie under her breath.

  They all clinked glasses with those closest to them and began to eat their dinner. The food was delicious. Exceptionally well cooked, but Frances feared that the company might have been overdone.

  “Did you all hear about the Nationalists taking over Spain?” asked Garrett. “How incredible and exciting.”

  Gerald looked up from his plate, a forkful of flounder hovering above it.

  “You mean, Garrett, how incredibly depressing.”

  “Well, no, I meant how exciting. Now the reds are going to have a hard time stretching their stain across Europe.”

  “How come everyone seems so scared of the communists and not the real threat, right across the channel in Germany?” asked Gerald.

  “Probably because we don’t want to believe it is why,” offered Jack.

  “Eric was saying the exact same thing this morning at breakfast,” said Frances. “But I wonder though, if Spain’s outcome is really going to have any effect on the looming war one way or another.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Meredith, “I think men just like to go to war and beat their chests, so we’ll have a war one way or another.”

  Meredith swallowed the last of her wine
and reached for James who came over and refilled her. He looked around, but the others at best were only half finished their first glass.

  “I think Frances is probably right, at the end of the day it won’t make much of a difference to the impending war. And Neville should have stopped appeasing this Hitler chap, months ago. Anyone with such a perfect and orderly toothbrush mustache is not someone to be trusted.”

  That last comment got a round of laughs and eased the tensions.

  “What concerns me, is another big war when we’ve barely escaped the clutches of the first one,” said Florence.

  “I agree,” said Ginnie, “I find this whole idea of war quite distasteful.”

  “Well, it looks like it’ll be put upon us by Germany. We’ll have Hitler and the Nazis to blame for this one. Just like we did the last one, except for the Nazis, they weren’t around then,” said Jack.

  “I think it’s a bit of a reach to blame the Germans for everything,” said Dr. Garnet. “I’d argue that it was the Serbs and Austro-Hungarians who really started the last one.”

  “Well, whoever starts it, it’s going to be good for business,” said Jack.

  “If you’ll keep the money in the business, Jack,” said Gerald.

  Jack looked at Gerald with fiery eyes and took a long drink from his wine.

  “I said not now. We can deal with the business later.”

  “Well, businesses have their ups and downs,” said Florence, trying to smooth over the ruffled emotions.

  “Yes, but they have more downs when you have incompetent management playing loose and fast with the company’s funds,” said Ginnie.

  “Not you too,” said Jack. “You have no idea of the pressures that the business is under.”

  Meredith put her hand up for James who came by and emptied the bottle of wine into her wine glass. He opened another and went round to refill the others. Lady Marmalade put her hand over hers. She had had enough.

  “The dinner was wonderful,” said Frances, trying to steer the conversation in another direction.

  After James had topped up the wine glasses of those who wanted them topped up, which wasn’t very many, he went into the kitchen and came back out with Agnus and they started to clear the plates off the table.

  “You should let mother be more involved in the business, I’m sure she could help out with the books,” said Garrett.

  “Your mother can barely keep the household budget from bleeding red, I doubt very much she could help me with the business.”

  “I could if you’d stop spending it on everyone but the business,” said Ginnie.

  “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” asked Jack.

  “You know exactly what it means,” said Ginnie, looking over at Meredith and then at Jack.

  Meredith took a long drink from her glass and looked at Jack.

  “I’m sure Jack will have things sorted out in no time, won’t you, darling?” she said.

  Garrett looked at his father and then at Meredith, then he looked at his mother.

  “Do you mean to say...”

  “Not now, we can talk about this later,” said Jack.

  Garrett was about to protest when his mother put her hand on his forearm and he stopped himself and stared into the middle of the table.

  “I think dessert will help us all feel better,” said Ginnie.

  James needed no further encouragement. He left the dining room again and came out with Agnus, each of them carrying a tray containing four Liverpool tarts on each. They served them around.

  The tarts were small, single servings with pastry hearts in the center of each and a dollop of whipped cream on the side. The tangy lemon flavor was cut by the sweet sugar. Not exceedingly sweet, but very pleasant and cleansing on the palate.

  “This is wonderful, Ginnie, really it is,” said Florence.

  “Thank you, I thought something light and citrusy after the fish was probably a good bet.”

  “More than a good bet, I’d say it perfectly hit the spot.”

  Everyone ate in silence for a while, the mood somewhat somber after the recent outbursts. Finally, Florence cut the silence.

  “Frances and I will be making marmalade tomorrow. Did you know that her husband's great grandfather was the one for whom marmalade was coined? Before that we called it the same as the French marmelade with the e in the middle.”

  “Fascinating,” said Ginnie, trying her best to feign interest.

  “The reason being, was because Lord Marmalade loved his marmalade and developed several recipes, one of his best kept secrets being a chunky version we’ll be making tomorrow.”

  “Well, if I can be a bother, I would certainly love a jar if there’ll be any to spare,” said Meredith.

  “Oh, there will be plenty,” said Frances, “we can bring a couple of jars over tomorrow afternoon for whoever would like some.”

  “I’d love one too,” said Ginnie.

  “Super, we should be finished with it by tea time tomorrow, should we not?” asked Florence.

  “I’d hope so, at the very latest,” said Frances.

  “Would four in the afternoon be convenient then?” asked Florence.

  “That would be lovely, then we can have some of France’s marmalade with our afternoon tea,” said Ginnie. “It will be lovely to enjoy your company again tomorrow.”

  The rest of the dessert was eaten quietly, very little conversation going on, other than some idle chit chat about the weather and the local sporting news amongst the men. Most of that concerned the upcoming Australian matches against the English teams towards the end of spring and summer.

  Frances and Florence delicately excused themselves from the rest of the group shortly after dessert, staying only for a small cup of tea while the rest enjoyed coffee. They had to get a good night’s rest, said Florence, for they needed an early start for the marmalade making the next morning. It was just after eight thirty when they left.

  Ginnie came to the door to send them on their way.

  “Are you sure you don’t want Jack to drive you home?” she asked.

  “Absolutely not, it’s only a few minutes walk and we could used the exercise. The dinner was absolutely super. Thank you ever so much,” said Florence kissing Ginnie on the cheek.

  “Yes it was marvelous,” said France. “So good of you to invite me.”

  They hugged and kissed cheeks and then the two of them headed out into the night air which was cool and crisp.

  “I think I’ll have to turn up the heat when we get home,” said Florence.

  “I wouldn’t mind, it is a bit chill this evening isn’t it?”

  They walked to the end of the driveway in silence, and then Florence turned around and looked back at the estate and then at Frances.

  “And that, my dear, is why I never got married. I’m sorry to have put you through that.”

  “Not at all, it wasn’t all that bad. Seems to me though, that they have financial troubles and that will always cause some difficulty.”

  “They have a lot of problems from what I’ve heard. I believe that Jack is a bit of a philanderer. Did you hear Meredith calling him ‘darling’, how ghastly to think his mistress might be the wife of his late brother.”

  “Quite shocking, I feel for poor Ginnie, that can’t be easy to cope with.”

  “I think she should divorce the bastard and be done with it.”

  “Not that easy, Flo.”

  “Couldn’t be easier, Fran, since they passed that act last year which made it easier to divorce than ever before.”

  “Yes, I know, but I didn’t mean the actual getting a divorce, I meant the financial aspects of it. It will still be terribly difficult for her to get any money from him. You know the courts aren’t as sympathetic to the plight of divorced women as they should be.”

  “True, I suppose. And there again is another good reason not to get married in the first place.”

  Frances laughed.

  “You’re incorrigib
le,” she said. “You just have to find the right man. Look at Eric, he’s not like that at all.”

  “Are you sure?” said Florence, and she laughed heartily.

  “Flo!”

  “I’m just teasing you, I know Eric is a good man.”

  And they walked the rest of the way to Florence’s home in silence. They turned up her driveway and headed towards the front door.

  “Thank heavens for decent men and chaste women,” said Flo.

  “And for order and responsibility. I do hope they come to terms with their difficulties,” said Frances.

  “I’m not sure that’ll happen. There doesn’t seem to be any more love to be lost between those two. They’ve grown so far apart I fear they can barely see each other from across the chasm.”

  FOUR

  Chapter 4

  LADY Marmalade woke to the sun bleeding out of the corners of the curtain in her room. The curtains were yellow, but they were a warmer yellow than they should have been for a misty morning. She got out of her bed and put a dressing gown over her nightgown. The mornings and evenings in Puddle’s End were still cool.

  She went over to the curtains and opened them up wide in one quick pull. The sun was indeed awake and looking over the earth. Frances had to put her hand up to her face to shade her eyes from the blinding sun. It was a wondrous sight, to have the sun beginning to carve its arc in the sky.

  The frost on the grass was melting into wet dripping jewels twinkling like fairies. In the corners and shadows the frost was not thick, but it was white on top of the blanket of green grass.

  Frances looked at her bedside table and her travel clock was pointing just after eight. She had slept in and she felt wonderful about it too. Usually an early riser, Frances took an early start to her day, getting up between six and six thirty.

  But she was practically on holiday and a little indulgence never hurt anyone. Frances pulled her blue satin dressing gown tighter and tied it off at the waist. It had white dots all over but they were not as closely nestled to call it polka dotted. She put on her blue slippers and exited her room.

  Florence was in the kitchen working at the counter buttering toast. The kettle just started whistling when Frances got in and she took it off the stove.