Read Online A Proposal to Die For by Vivian Conroy - Free Book Online Page B

Steinbeck always wanted to run from one party to the next. Maybe he was just not in a mood to go.’
    â€˜Hmmm.’ She looked down on the blackmail letter in her hand. ‘Help me deduce something from this charming little letter. The writer is obviously working with another or even a whole gang, for they are using a plural pronoun. They must have been watching me for some time now to find some sort of indiscretion that I’d be eager to cover up. They claim I am going about with some convict. I can’t vouch for every single person in my acquaintance that they are pitch perfect. Some like liquor or spend too much money at their clubs or the hat shop. But convicts? I don’t think I know any. Must have been my adventure in Tar Street the other day.’
    She glanced at Dubois. ‘I guess that drunkard could have been to prison. Or the old man who repairs the watches? He looks kind and approachable enough, but I have no idea what he did when he was younger. Maybe he was in prison in another country? Been a sailor, got accused of something? Perhaps really knifed a man in a fight? Never meaning to, but those things can happen.’
    She wanted Dubois to know she had not lived away from the world for all of her life, that she did understand people and situations and how violent death came about, even if you had not been looking for it.
    Dubois shook his head slowly. Holding her gaze, he said, ‘The convict referred to in that note is me.’

Chapter Seven
    â€˜What?’ Alkmene couldn’t help the disbelief in her own voice. ‘You have been to prison?’
    Dubois shrugged. ‘You have come to the wrong person to help you out. At least, I suppose you are here because you want help from me?’
    â€˜I just figured that…’ Alkmene straightened a crinkled edge of the envelope. The sudden revelation left her reeling. Had Dubois knifed a man in a fight abroad?
    Something inside of her refused to accept he could take a life. But perhaps the circumstances had been such that he had been forced to, in self-defence?
    But because the other one had been local, nobody had believed him and he had ended up behind bars anyway?
    She realized he was waiting for her to work herself out of this faux pas and said lamely, ‘I just wanted to know what I should do about the letter.’
    Dubois laughed hollowly. ‘You are asking me what to do?’
    â€˜All right, so far I haven’t asked or listened when you’ve said something but that is just because I don’t understand you. Your life, your choices, your connections. How can you leave that little boy with that old man and the drunk father and never think…’
    â€˜I do think.’ His tone was impatient, like he was about to pound the table with a fist. ‘But I can’t change anything about it. Can I take him away from there? Where to? Here?’
    He gestured around him. ‘He would have no better life here. I am away for my work all day long. He would be bored and go out into the street, run into trouble. My landlady is not going to look after him. And if he took an apple at the shop down the street or caused trouble breaking something at the tobacconist’s, people would soon force us to move away from here.’
    She held his gaze. ‘At least you would not beat him.’
    Dubois took a deep breath. ‘No. But that is poor consolation.’
    He tilted his chin up as if to defy her. ‘There are countless children like him in the back alleys, Lady Alkmene. What do you want to do about it, start a little Saturday afternoon tea party?’
    Alkmene pressed her lips together. ‘It might not be a bad idea for those children to just have fun for a while. Even if it seems superficial to you.’
    Dubois made a gesture in the air. ‘Oh, forget about it. I am just bushed from last night.’
    He began to pace the room. ‘You want to know what to do about the blackmail note.