Read Online The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry - Free Book Online Page B

the bed. “Now, Mrs. Plackett, dear,” she said, “do let me help you up. There’s a matter in the kitchen that I wish to discuss with you before Miss Barnes arrives for her day’s work.” Kitty pretended to assist Stout Alice up and out of bed, making sure that Miss Fringle, whose powers of vision were restored, had no opportunity to see her face.
    They made it out of the room, and Kitty closed the door. Stout Alice shook with suppressed laughter.
    “Lady Macbeth, am I?” she declared once out of hearing range. “I don’t care what Grandmother says. I will pursue a career on stage!”
    The other girls clustered round Alice in the downstairs kitchen to hear how she’d managed it. Alice told them how she and Miss Fringle had carried on a conversation for nearly an hour, ranging in subject from Mrs. Plackett’s dead husband, Captain Plackett, to her two brothers, Geoffrey and Aldous, and Geoffrey’s dear son Julius. Miss Fringle’d had no shortage of scorn for Aldous—he was known to gamble!—and Alice’s parody of the choir mistress’s diatribe on his vices was highly amusing.
    “She kept saying, ‘I know he’s your brother, but it’s my duty to warn you of his dissolute ways, and I don’t mind saying it to your own face!’ Yet all the while she never had a glimpse of my face. Smart old puss!” Stout Alice shook with laughter.
    “Oh, well done, Alice, well done!” Disgraceful Mary Jane cried. “Bravely executed.”
    Alice took a bow.
    “A gambler, was he?” Smooth Kitty mused. “How very interesting. You don’t suppose…”
    “Suppose what?” inquired Disgraceful Mary Jane.
    “Well, he was murdered, after all,” supplied Pocked Louise.
    “Sssh!” Kitty hissed. “She’ll hear us!”
    Louise ignored this. “He was murdered. Could there be a connection? Over gambling debts, perhaps?”
    “Only if Mrs. Plackett was a gambler, too,” snorted Mary Jane. “I can see her now, all dressed in silks and feathers, at the casinos on the Riviera…”
    Pocked Louise considered this most unlikely image. Mrs. Plackett, a gambler? Mary Jane, on the other hand, fit perfectly into the glittering splendor of the roulette table.
    “At any rate, now we know who Julius is,” Stout Alice observed. “That’s bound to come in useful.”
    “Hurry now, girls, we have no time,” Kitty said, catching sight of the kitchen clock. “Amanda Barnes will be here before we know it, and we need a plan. For right now, Roberta, dear, would you fix some bread and butter and preserves for Miss Fringle? And Martha, would you heat some water for tea in case there’s time before Henry returns? Alice, you run upstairs so there’s no chance Miss Fringle will see you, and change into your own clothes. Elinor, Louise, find some old sheets we can use to wrap up the bodies. We need to get them out of sight the minute Henry’s taken Miss Fringle home.”
    Each young lady ran to follow Kitty’s instructions. Dull Martha and Dear Roberta prepared breakfast for Miss Fringle, and Disgraceful Mary Jane, not quite trusting them fully, delivered it to the invalid. Alice changed quickly, glad to be rid of her headmistress’s nightgown, and was downstairs as her own person when Henry Butts arrived to collect Miss Fringle. He led the choir mistress on his own strong arm to the cart and seated her comfortably. Pocked Louise appeared and announced her intention of riding along as far as the village. She had some purchases to make at the chemist’s shop, she said.
    “Fine, fine,” Kitty pulled Louise aside and whispered into her ear. “Purchase a young cherry tree if you can.”
    “Where?” Louise asked. “What if they don’t sell them at this time of year?”
    “Try the nursery shop, and if that fails, think of something,” was Kitty’s unhelpful reply. “We’re stuck now. We’ve got to plant a tree this morning.”
    Louise climbed in the cart behind Miss Fringle, and the party set off for Ely. Disgraceful Mary Jane had