Read Online Peril at Somner House by Joanna Challis - Free Book Online

“Jackson’s a good man. I can’t believe it of him.”
    â€œBut he is prone to violence,” Kate persisted, sharing a quick glance with Josh, who, in turn, bowed his head and inspected the contents of his cup.
    Sir Marcus asked who Jackson was.
    â€œThe gardener,” Kate said in a small voice. “The man with the silver beard.”
    I remembered the gardener from my walk around his domain. He seemed to treat the house and gardens as his own and probably had been working on the estate his whole life. If this Jackson fellow had respected Roderick and Max’s father, could his feelings for the reckless son inspire him to murder? No…there had to be more motivation for Kate to mention the gardener than mere dislike. I wondered what it was.
    â€œWell, whoever it is,” Arabella vowed, “he’ll be brought to justice and punished.” She dipped her head, the corner of her right eye drifting toward Josh Lissot while I met Angela’s gaze across the room. She, too, deciphered the “he” on Bella’s sharp tongue and likewise cast a judicious brow in Josh’s direction.
    Etiquette thus dispensed, Roderick Trevalyan vacated his chair, acknowledged each of us with a curt nod, and left the room.
    Kate followed soon afterward, Josh Lissot careful not to shadow her exit.
    â€œCurious fellow,” Sir Marcus murmured, hunting for a divan to sprawl out upon. Snapping out a cigar from the inside of his coat, he freed his feet of his restrictive but highly polished shoes. “You don’t mind, do you, ladies? I’ve no wish to go to sleep yet.”
    Arabella cast one longing glance in the direction of her disappearing cousin before running after him. I remarked upon her hasty departure and Angela and Sir Marcus swooped upon it like two crows on a stone fence.
    â€œDid you see her face? Same as when she arrived. She positively hankers after him like a dog,” Angela remarked.
    â€œPerhaps you’re missing something.” Sir Marcus struck hismatch with the edge of his boot. “Perhaps it was Max she was in love with, and not Rod. Or perhaps she was in love with them both. Girl like her can’t have had too many offers about. Lives inside a cottage with an old woman, you know. Not much chance for a social life, is it?”
    â€œNo,” agreed Angela.
    Keeping my ear open to their musings, I went to peruse the paintings. So many scenes, mostly of the war time. What happened here at home, in the streets of London, the bombings, the nights of terror, what transpired over on the continent, our valiant men and women going off to fight in foreign lands…
    I paused before the painting above the mantelpiece. A wintry tree opened the window to the canvas, snow-caked leaves mixed with blood trailing the dirty path to two fallen soldiers hiding beneath a hedge in the distance, one cradling the other’s head.
    I asked Sir Marcus about the painting.
    â€œKnow nothing about it. Bit dark, if you ask me. Should be paintings of flowers and animals, to go with the theme. I’ve told Katie, but you see it was her war time endeavors that launched her, so to speak. Difficult for an artist to break the mold of what’s required of ’em.”
    Indeed, but perhaps she’d done so having begun to work on a new project. Was it a project inspired by Josh Lissot, by any chance?
    Sir Marcus had made the connection, too. “Poor pair. It’s going to be tough for the both of them, for Fernald’s got his hooks in there.”
    â€œNot on Kate, I hope,” Angela said. “ She is innocent, I swear.”
    â€œI tend to agree with you.” Sir Marcus puffed away on thedivan. “For if she’d wanted Max out, she’d have done it blizzards ago.”
    â€œBlizzards, Sir Marcus?” My lips curled in amusement. “You paint words so eloquently, yet you’ve failed to say why you’re here at