Read Online The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay - Free Book Online

it must be dull for me here, which is quite true, but there are many compensations, such as the advantage of living in refined surroundings in a gentleman’s household.
    Poor Sir Osmond was always kindness itself, and it seems dreadful to write now of that Christmas Day, which I little thought at the time would have such a shocking end. We were all so anxious that it should go well, and just when it seemed to have passed off happily this terrible thing occurred. It is difficult after such a shock and when my situation, which had seemed so settled and secure, has been thrown into uncertainty, to write down quite straightforwardly the events of Christmas Day, but that is what I will try to do.
    As well as being anxious about how Sir Osmond’s plans would go off—for this is a difficult family, I think, and things do not always run quite smoothly—I was also a little worried that the family might not like me taking part in everything like one of them. Miss Jennifer’s eldest sister, Mrs. Wynford, is a very considerate lady, and her daughter, Miss Carol, always behaves quite respectfully to me; more respectfully, I might say, than she sometimes does to her aunts. But those are the manners of young people nowadays. I find Sir Osmond’s other daughters rather stiff, but I dare say they feel a bit jealous of my position here, considering it used to be their own home, though I always do my best to have things the way they would like.
    It was a funny thing that Harry Bingham had asked me, a week or so earlier, if I could manage for us both to have the day off after he had brought the family back from morning church, and he’d take me to Bristol, he said, and we’d have a real Christmas dinner at one of the hotels and some dancing.
    He thought we might even be lent the car. Well, I did turn this over in my mind, but nothing was settled, me thinking I’d better wait and see how the arrangements for Christmas Day were turning out before I asked Sir Osmond about this plan of Harry’s. It was a bit of a temptation to have some Christmas jollification on my own, and yet I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go with Harry Bingham. He was a bit put out because I didn’t jump at the idea and agree at once. He went off in one of his moods, which I’ve noticed more often lately and which will do him no good in his career.
    Well, as it turned out, when Sir Osmond got this notion of his for a Santa Klaus I didn’t like the idea of not being at hand at the time. I was afraid something might go wrong and then Sir Osmond would be very put out. When he asked me to join the family party, I guessed that he’d be glad to have me there to help if need be, and I decided that I’d say nothing about Harry Bingham’s plan. I thought maybe we could have our outing on New Year’s Day instead, or some other time.
    I felt that Harry had already made up his mind that I wouldn’t go with him, but all the same I wasn’t looking forward to telling him that was so. However, it happened all right. On the Saturday before Christmas Harry suggested to me himself that we should put off our party. Sir Osmond had spoken to him about fitting up the Christmas-tree lights, and Cook, it seems, had said something to him about hoping he’d be there for Christmas dinner. Of course he always had his meals in the servants’ hall and seemed to enjoy their company all right, though he is really a cut above them.
    â€œI’ve an idea,” he said, “that Sir Osmond might not be best pleased if I turned up my nose, in a manner of speaking, at what he’s providing for us. I dare say it’d make a difference to things. And then there’s this Christmas-tree that I may have to see to, so maybe we can have our party some other time.”
    He seemed to have quite got over his disappointment and to be rather pleased with the way things had turned out. He talked about the Father Christmas