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The Angel of Hever Castle A City of Mystery Novella By Kim Wright
Chapter One “This business of bringing trees inside of houses is, without question, the most bizarre holiday custom I have ever encountered,” Trevor Welles said, as he watched the others resolutely wedging candles into an enormous spruce. The tree was standing not in the sensible location of a forest or field, but rather in the drawing room of his friend Geraldine Bainbridge’s London home. She persisted in calling it a “Christmas tree,” a term Trevor could only assume was synonymous with “imminent disaster.” “Hush yourself,” Geraldine said, standing back to survey her handiwork. “It’s a German tradition that the Queen has brought to Windsor, and that makes it quite good enough for me.” “Yes, Trevor,” said Emma Kelly, calling down from a ladder which was being held by Geraldine’s butler Gage. Judging by his glum expression, Gage was in full agreement with Trevor about the advisability of this particular project. “Surely you don’t question the judgment of Victoria herself.” “The Queen has squadrons of servants standing watch all night to make sure Windsor doesn’t go up in flames,” Trevor muttered, but experience had taught him it was an utter waste of time to argue with either Geraldine or Emma. Geraldine was elderly, rich, and quite accustomed to getting her way in all matters both great and small and, although younger by decades and no stranger to grief or poverty, her employed companion Emma shared many of the same personality traits as her mistress. Stubbornness was the most prominent among them. “The ladies are quite right, Welles,” said a muffled voice coming through the branches, for Trevor’s fellow detective Rayley Abrams had taken on the task of affixing candles to the back of the tree and was nearly trapped between the greenery and the wall. “If you allowed yourself to relax and get a bit more into the holiday spirit, you’d see that it’s perfectly lovely.” “Your participation in this lunacy is the strangest note of all, Abrams.” “What’s your point?” Rayley asked, emerging from his green cocoon with a grin and knocking stray spruce needles from his clothing. “That a Jew can’t enjoy a good bonfire?” Trevor chuckled and settled back on the settee. They were a smaller-than-usual group on this particular evening. The Thursday Night Murder Games Club, an informal amusement of the recentlyformed forensics unit of Scotland Yard, met regularly in Geraldine’s elegant home – although perhaps not so regularly as their title suggested. Trevor and Rayley, who were both full detectives within the Yard, were the official members of the Club, along with Davy Mabrey, a bobby who had been assigned to the unit on a permanent basis. Geraldine’s nephew Tom, a medical student serving as the group’s coroner, and Emma, who filled the role of translator and linguist, were the unofficial members, while Geraldine stepped in as the group’s hostess, guardian angel, and chief financier. It was an arrangement that suited them all admirably well. But in this week approaching Christmas, Davy was taking a few well-earned days of personal leave
Page 4 and 5: and Tom had decamped to his family
Page 6 and 7: and her long-deceased father was no
Page 8 and 9: “I agree with you that costumes a
Page 10 and 11: Chapter Two The countryside of Kent
Page 12 and 13: “Some women are like that,” Ray
Page 14 and 15: Chapter Three The porridge was wret
Page 16 and 17: joke. “But I take care to mix bes
Page 18 and 19: against the stone wall and swallowe
Page 20 and 21: place a jar of red-orange huge on t
Page 22 and 23: had added a woman to her scene, a w
Page 24 and 25: “And do you think Anne was right
Page 26 and 27: Chapter Five LaRusse Franklin Chapm
Page 28 and 29: that Hever is full of secret activi
Page 30 and 31: half-naked girl, just as expected f
Page 32 and 33: Chapter Six Even before she got Tre
Page 34 and 35: the telegram had said. It sounded l
Page 36 and 37: had at last firmly closed, leaving
Page 38 and 39: Melly lifted her chin. “He says h
Page 40 and 41: you have come like all the others -
Page 42 and 43: and she never has.” “I can see
Page 44 and 45: Chapter Nine “So let us suppose t
Page 46 and 47: At the name “Mary,” Emma’s he
Page 48 and 49: in danger. A woman you showed inter
Page 50 and 51: Chapter Ten Despite Rayley’s trep
Page 52 and 53:
devised to lift water….I recogniz
Page 54 and 55:
Chapter Eleven “Let me make sure
Page 56 and 57:
“It would appear my leisure is to
Page 58:
course I did. Was there ever any do
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