Read Online Murder in Abbot's Folly by Amy Myers - Free Book Online

to mention the scene-suited SOCOs.
    â€˜I’ll get everyone some cake as well,’ she suggested. ‘Eating can take one’s mind off things – if that’s possible today.’
    â€˜Depends on the cake,’ Luke observed. ‘It will need to be a good one.’
    The tea tent was acting as a refuge for all those not yet given permission to leave. Luke had told her that Mark and Jill had been allowed to go because of the baby, but there were still a few children running around in their restricting Regency clothes. Luke and Georgia’s presence was immediately spotted by Dora, however, who came anxiously over as they joined the queue.
    â€˜How’s Elena?’ she asked, although it was barely ten minutes since she’d asked the same question of Elena herself. ‘I’ve been so busy helping the police – what a terrible ordeal for the poor darling. I’ll look after her, Georgia, you can count on me.’
    Georgia knew she could. There was one field in which the Dora Clackingtons of this world excelled – they knew how to fuss and cosset, and thank heavens for them. And yet she remembered that Elena had chosen to sit with Peter and herself on the terrace, not join the Clackingtons. Was that significant? Georgia pushed the thought wearily away. She could not cope with everything at once, and her mother’s future was too emotional a question to deal with at present. Instead she tried to concentrate on Dora, who still seemed to be in shock.
    â€˜If there were something I could do,’ Dora mourned. ‘But Roy is with Jennifer, and of course I cannot intrude. The police asked me all about seeing Laura. I was the last person, it seems, except the person who . . .’ Her voice trailed off, and tears followed. ‘Laura said she was feeling a little better when I saw her. How can she suddenly have been murdered in that garden less than an hour or so later?’
    â€˜Perhaps her murderer timed it for when Roy would be speaking,’ Luke commented. ‘And if she was feeling stronger that would explain what she was doing outside the house.’
    â€˜But why Abbot’s Retreat?’ Dora wailed. ‘As she was downstairs I thought she was going to make the speech after all, but she said she wasn’t. She was too ill. So why go out? And the family was so upset.’
    â€˜Perhaps something had happened that morning?’ Georgia ventured. ‘Jennifer looked very worried when she took us to Abbot’s Folly.’ She longed to ask whether Dora could talk about what the intended announcement was about in case that had relevance to Laura’s murder, but with Dora in her present state that would be a step too far.
    Dora broke down. ‘Oh, I can’t bear it. I really can’t . . .’
    Seeing her tear-blotched face and heaving shoulders, Georgia immediately felt remorseful for questioning her, but Luke was made of sterner stuff.
    â€˜How long were you with her?’ he asked.
    â€˜Only five or ten minutes,’ Dora sobbed. ‘I could see she wasn’t well. She was in the Yellow Room at the front of the house, huddled in an upright armchair, not even lying down. “Go back to bed,” I told her. “Perhaps I will,” she said.’
    â€˜Did anyone else know where she was, or did you tell anyone?’ Georgia asked, more sharply than she meant to.
    Dora looked up, and for a moment it occurred to Georgia that Dora might not be as innocent and childlike as she had assumed. ‘I’m not sure. I might have mentioned it to one or two people.’
    Which meant she had, Georgia thought ruefully, and couldn’t remember who. To be fair, with four o’clock fast approaching it would have been natural enough to chat to all and sundry about how Laura was. Luke was at the head of the catering queue now, and Georgia had to turn her attention to the matter of orange versus almond and