English Trifle (6 page)

Sadie’s first thought was why hadn’t he told her about Austin before now. Liam had avoided talking about his father most of the trip, and Sadie had chalked it up to the fact that it was difficult for him, due to his father’s condition. Now she wished she’d asked more questions.

When Liam finished the introduction, Austin lifted one eyebrow as if triumphant in having Sadie put in her place. What place that was, Sadie didn’t know because she wasn’t all that impressed with Austin.

“I’d still like to know how he knows so much about what happened to John Henry,” Sadie said. Saying John Henry’s name seemed to cast a further pall over the room. Mrs. Land closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. Grant, on the other hand, stood even straighter next to the door—he’d refused to sit when Liam had brought the rest of the staff in. No one met Sadie’s eye as she scanned the room. None of them could ignore that though this room was supposed to have every staff member in it, John Henry was absent.

“Grant called me. I was in Exeter and came right out,” Austin explained.

“How did Grant know?” she challenged. “Fifteen minutes ago Liam had only just arrived at the sitting room—Grant was nowhere in sight.”

Liam took a few steps to the side as if relinquishing the floor to Austin and not wanting to be involved in their exchange. Sadie was not impressed with his backing down and refused to move even though Austin was only a foot or so away from her. She could smell the woodsy scent of his cologne, but noticed that he had sweat rings under his arms. Ewww. It wasn’t overly warm, which made Sadie wonder if, despite his dominating manner, he was nervous about something.

“Where were you, Grant?” Austin asked, looking at the butler.

“I was speaking with Kevin, sir.”

“You are to be on hand at all times, especially when we have guests, are you not?”

“Yes, sir,” Grant said. “I was waiting outside to assist the ladies into the car once they finished their tea. I’m very sorry, sir.”

Austin accepted this explanation with a nod.

Sadie didn’t. “You didn’t hear us scream for help?” she asked.

“No, madam,” he said.

Sadie watched him carefully. She’d yelled for help when they first came out of the room, and then again when they’d come up from the kitchen. There had been almost ten minutes between the two occurrences. And Grant had been outside the whole time?

He cleared his throat. “I enjoy a cigarette once or twice a day.” He glanced at Austin, who scowled even deeper—which was a feat. “I moved away from the house so as not to disturb anyone. It was a poor choice to make at that time and I apologize.” Though Sadie didn’t fully accept his explanation, he sounded quite sincere in his regret.

Austin continued. “Mrs. Hoffmiller would like to know how you found out what had happened and when you called me.”

Grant nodded. “Master Liam came outside to tell me what had happened. He said the Hoffmillers had gone to their room and he needed my help in gathering up the staff. I called you from the kitchen. You knew within seconds of my own awareness, my lord.”

Sadie scowled at the title. Though she knew it was common in England, it just rubbed her wrong. In her Christian mind there was only one person fit to be called Lord, and it certainly wasn’t Austin Melcalfe.

“Is this true, Liam? Did you find Grant outside?”

“Yes,” Liam said. Sadie half-expected him to tack “sir” on the end of his answer.

“Mrs. Land,” Austin said, waiting until she looked up and met his eyes. “When you came upstairs did you see anyone else?”

She paused for a good three seconds, making her answer that much more unbelievable. “No, sir,” she finally said. “I didn’t.”

Austin nodded as if satisfied with her response—something Sadie certainly wasn’t—before scanning the rest of the staff. “And who was the last person to see John Henry today?”

No one answered and Sadie shifted her weight. How could they answer such an impossible question? None of them knew if they were the last person to see John Henry. Well, except whoever murdered him, but she didn’t think Austin was being clever.

“What he means,” Sadie interrupted, unable to hold back, “is who saw John Henry today.” She looked up at Austin who was scowling at her. She scowled right back. He reminded her of Detective Madsen, one of the detectives on her neighbor’s murder case who had rubbed Sadie wrong from the very beginning. In hindsight she wished she’d stood up to Madsen a little more in the beginning and she did not want to repeat the mistake. Giving in to Austin would only feed his already inflated ego.

Still no one spoke, but Sadie caught Mrs. Land glancing up at Liam nervously. Sadie didn’t understand how the woman could be intimidated by Liam, who looked pale and rigid despite his position of authority. After another moment, Mrs. Land looked back into her lap.

“He rang for breakfast this morning,” Grant finally said. “Around seven. I had Charlotte take it up to him. He then called for lunch around eleven—earlier than usual. Charlotte took it up as well.” He looked at Liam once he stopped speaking. Liam was looking intently at nothing and no one—seemingly content to turn over the entire situation to Austin while he lost himself in his own thoughts.

“So you didn’t actually see John Henry at all today?” Austin clarified.

Grant shook his head. “Charlotte retrieved the lunch tray around two o’clock.”

Austin turned toward a redheaded maid—Charlotte, Sadie assumed—who seemed to both shrink and straighten under his gaze. “Did you see John Henry when you picked up the tray?” Austin asked.

“No, sir,” Charlotte said, glancing up slightly, then looking back down at her knees again. “The tray was in the hall.”

Austin nodded, and Charlotte relaxed. “Did anyone else see John Henry today?” Austin asked, scanning the faces once again.

Everyone shook their heads.

“John Henry kept mostly to the earl’s room—even took his meals there,” Grant said. “We saw very little of him about the house. I took a tea tray up to Master Liam in the earl’s room after serving Mrs. Hoffmiller and her daughter this afternoon—John Henry wasn’t there.”

“When you were with your father,” Austin said, turning to Liam, “was John Henry there as well?”

“Yes,” Liam said. “He was there when I arrived in my father’s room this morning. I asked to be alone with my father until it was time to leave.”

“Did John Henry indicate where he was going while you stayed with the earl?”

Liam shook his head, pushing his hands into his pockets as if he were being reprimanded. “No.” Everyone looked at him, and Sadie expected him to expound on his answer, but he didn’t.

“But he had to have come down from the earl’s room at some point,” Sadie said, realizing as she said it that John Henry must have also been in the sitting room when he was attacked . . . in fact, his shoes had been flush to the floor as though he’d been standing. She thought about the expression on his face—shock. For an instant she pictured what it could have looked like for John Henry standing behind the curtains, in the dark, waiting for . . . something, and then the curtain was whipped back. Before John Henry could even process what was happening, the poker was shoved through his heart. Sadie shivered at the visualization and though she hoped she was wrong, it was an incredibly clear image and all the details fit—except why he would be hiding behind the curtain in the first place? Wouldn’t he have screamed? Would the poker have killed him instantly, or would his death have taken a few minutes? Sixteen sets of eyes staring at her brought her back to the present.

“No one saw him come down?” She looked specifically at Grant who was supposed to be “on hand at all times” according to Austin. But he hadn’t seen John Henry come down and he hadn’t been there when Sadie and Breanna found the body and he hadn’t heard their screams for help.

The staff either shook their heads or made no expression at all—except for Mrs. Land who continued fidgeting with her smock and staring at the floor. Why wasn’t she telling the truth? Could she have moved the body? Mrs. Land’s thin arms and sloped shoulders made that thought ludicrous. The woman might be able to lift a turkey in and out of the oven—if it was a small one. No way could she drag a grown man, let alone pull him off the wall he’d been pinned to. But she knew something, and gauging from her behavior so far, it likely wouldn’t be an easy thing to get out of her. Someone had cleaned up the bloodstain on the wall—where were the cleaning products kept? Were they accessible for anyone who needed them, or would someone need keys to a janitorial closet?

“I assume the police said they’re on their way?” Austin asked, turning toward Liam, who looked at Breanna for the answer.

“Yes,” Breanna offered from where she stood at the back of the room. She looked at her chunky watch. “They should be here any minute.”

“Then let’s do a thorough search of the house before they get here,” Austin said.

“I think we should wait for Scotland Yard,” Sadie said. “This is a crime scene.”

Austin looked at her as if he’d love nothing more than to duct tape her mouth shut. “Scotland Yard operates out of London. We deal with the Police Authority here.” He turned back to the staff. “We’ll search the estate. The police don’t need this kind of nonsense filling up their afternoon.”

Sadie tried not to glare at the man, but it was very hard. Austin called each of the staff members by name, assigning them portions of the house and grounds to search. Sadie realized that Austin must manage the estate in addition to the earl’s holdings. He was certainly comfortable with being in charge. Liam continued to hang back, hands in his pockets.

“We’ll meet back in twenty minutes,” he said as the staff began to mill about. “I’m sure John Henry is taking a break somewhere, so let’s find him.”

Sadie watched the staff leave the room. Austin had sent most of them out in pairs, but Sadie found that a far from optimal arrangement. “They aren’t going to find a man taking a smoke break,” she said to Austin as the last two staff members passed through the door. “They’re going to find a corpse. Don’t you think they ought to have been prepared for that?”

Austin shrugged, and turned to look at Sadie. “I mustn’t believe they are going to find a corpse then, must I?” His hazel eyes were hard, relentless as they stared her down, telling her in no uncertain terms that he was not a man used to being questioned about anything.

“Do you really think we would make this up?” Sadie asked him, feeling a bit more bold than she had when the staff had been there. “Why would we do that?”

“Why would someone kill the earl’s nurse in the first place?” Austin questioned, crossing his arms. “If someone did kill him, why use a fireplace poker in the sitting room? And if someone did kill the earl’s nurse with a fireplace poker in the sitting room, why move the body? Do you really think those questions have an easier answer than why two American women, one of whom will become a countess if things work out just right, wouldn’t make up a story that ensures they miss their plane so as to stay at the earl’s estate a few more days? Every minute helps build a bridge, right, Mrs. Hoffmiller?”

High Tea Lemon Cookies

* Shawn will eat half the cookies—hide some of them!

Cookies

2 cups butter (room temperature)

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups cornstarch (this is not a typo )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter until creamy. Add powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and vanilla. Beat well. Add flour and cornstarch and beat until well combined. Do NOT refrigerate.

Roll by hand into 1-inch balls or use a well-packed scoop, placing cookies about an inch apart as they do not spread much while baking.

Bake 15 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets until bottom edges are light brown. Cool on wire racks before frosting with lemon glaze (below).

Makes about 5 dozen small, delicate cookies.

Lemon Glaze

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest (get zest from lemon before juicing)

1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice*

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl combine butter, zest, juice, and sugar. Stir until well mixed. Place a piece of wax paper beneath the wire racks where the cookies have been cooling and drizzle glaze over cookies.

* For best results when using lemons, choose the largest lemon you can find and roll it on the counter for about a minute before juicing in order to get as much juice as possible. Zest only the yellow part of the lemon peel; the white portion leaves a bitter taste.

~ ~ ~

Sadie was absolutely stunned by Austin’s accusation that they would lie about a dead body as part of some gold-digging scheme. Her head and chest prickled with shocked rage and indignation. “I—I can’t believe you just said that! You think we’d make this up for a . . . a title?” It was so completely ridiculous that she could barely say it out loud. She looked at Breanna who looked as shocked as Sadie felt, and then at Liam, who was also stunned into silence.

“Oh, don’t take it so personally,” Austin said, every word dripping with patronizing arrogance. “It happens all the time. My point was simply that there are a lot of questions in the world, woman, and what we need now are answers—which no one seems to have.”

Woman?

Sadie counted to ten very slowly in her head to keep from exploding. She looked to Liam to step in, to defend Breanna, but he was looking at the floor as if deep in thought, his hands still in his pockets. Breanna’s face had turned red as she too looked at Liam for rescue.

Sadie was just opening her mouth to say something to defend Breanna’s motives when Liam finally spoke.

“You’re wrong, Austin,” he said, his voice surprisingly calm. “Breanna doesn’t want my title.”

Sadie felt his defense was a bit deflated. Austin seemed to think the same thing. He shook his head. “You’ve been gone too long, cousin. You’ve forgotten how it works.”

Liam let his eyes rest on Breanna before meeting those of his cousin. “Trust me on this, Austin. I know how it works, but not everyone plays the same game. Breanna isn’t after my title, and neither of them would make this up. If they said they saw him, they saw him.”