Read Malice in Miniature Online
Authors: Jeanne M. Dams
Malice in Miniature
Table of Contents
The Dorothy Martin Mysteries
THE BODY IN THE TRANSEPT
TROUBLE IN THE TOWN HALL
HOLY TERROR IN THE HEBRIDES
MALICE IN MINIATURE
THE VICTIM IN THE VICTORIA STATION
KILLING CASSIDY
TO PERISH IN PENZANCE
SINS OUT OF SCHOOL
WINTER OF DISCONTENT
A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
THE CORPSE OF ST JAMES'S
MURDER AT THE CASTLE
A Dorothy Martin Mystery
Jeanne M. Dams
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First published in the United States of America in 1998
by Walker Publishing Company, Inc.
eBook edition first published in 2013 by Severn House Digital
an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited
Copyright © 1998 by Jeanne M. Dams
The right of Jeanne M. Dams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-0075-4 (ePub)
Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.
This eBook produced by
Palimpsest Book Production Limited,
Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.
This book is dedicated
to the people of
St. Paul's, whose
friendship and
encouragement over the
years have been very
precious to me.
If you want to see Brocklesby Hall in all its fantastic glory, visit Harlaxton Manor near the village of Grantham in Lincolnshire. This amazing Victorian edifice is now used as a foreign extension campus by the University of Evansville, my mother's alma mater, and when we visited there many years ago I swore somebody had to write a book about it. So now I have. At least I've used its architectural details freely, though I've made no attempt to reproduce the elaborate floor plan, and I've run up rooms of my own as it suited my purposes. I hope it's not necessary to add that there is no museum of miniatures at Harlaxton, nor anyone who resembles any of my characters in any particular. Most of the miniature houses and rooms Dorothy has explored are also fictional, alas! As a dollhouse enthusiast myself, I would love to see a Louis XIV house like the one housing Marie Antoinette's tea set, but no French miniature houses of that period are now known to exist.
I have, throughout the book, let my English characters refer to dolls' houses and the Americans to dollhouses, not to confuse you, the reader, but to preserve the customary usage of each country.
I owe a debt to so many people who provided information for
Malice in Miniature
that it would be impossible to name them all, but I would particularly like to thank the owners of dollhouse shops all over both America and England, who allowed me to browse their stock, ask innumerable questions, and now and then buy some tiny thing I couldn't resist.
I
t was a wet, blustery Monday afternoon in early November, the gray sky full of scudding clouds, leaves rushing through the air and sticking to the windows as the chill wind flung them there. I sat snugly in front of my fire, drinking tea in the cozy comfort of central heating and close-fitting windows and doors.
“They've made a good job of the house, Dorothy,” said Alan, echoing my thoughts, as he so often does. It isn't unusual, after years of marriage, for a couple to communicate without wordsâbut Alan and I, for all our gray hair and creaky joints, had been married for only a little over a month.
To each other, that is. I thought about my dear Frank, who had always known exactly what I was about to say, and smiled. I could remember him without pain, now. Our many wonderful years together would always be a part of me, a part, even, of my relationship with Alan. Like Tolstoy, I hold to the theory that all happy marriages are alike. Because Alan and I had each been happily married, we had been able to settle into the new bond with scarcely a ripple. Even the renovations to my seventeenth-century house, now (mercifully) nearly finished, had scarcely disturbed our bliss.
Secretly, foolishly, I tapped the wooden leg of my chair, just in case it was tempting fate to be so happy, and grinned at my new husband. “They've done a good job
so far.
At least the weather stays outside now. No floods in the upstairs hall, no gales through the parlor. Now if we can come up with a true miracle, an English plumber who understands something about showers . . .”
“Ah, yes, the standard American complaint about our plumbing. What's wrong with a proper English bath, I'd like toâWhat was that?”
Both cats woke from their sound sleep on the hearth, four ears swiveling in unison, four eyes wide with alarm as the pounding continued.
“Sit still; I'll go. Probably Jane, as it's the backdoor, though what she'd be doing out in this weather I can't imagine.” I struggled out of the embrace of my favorite chair and hurried through the kitchen. The loud knocking sounded frantic. “All right, all right, I'm coming!”
I opened the door on the wettest, most bedraggled-looking human being I've ever seen. “For heaven's sake, Ada Finch! Come in, come in, and we'll get you dry. What brought you outâ”
“Oh, madam!” she said, interrupting me. She leaned against the door frame, panting to catch her breath, one hand pressed to her ample bosom. “Oh, madam, 'ee never done it! You've got to find out 'oo did, so as they'll let 'im go, which they'd never a took 'im in if they'd 'ad so much sense as they were born with, but them p'liceâsavin' yer presence, sirâ”
The last remark was addressed to AlanâAlan Nesbitt, chief constable for the county of Belleshire and hence the city of Sherebury, who had joined me in the kitchen, looking mildly astonished. He now came to the door and ushered in the dripping Mrs. Finch, who allowed us to take her coat and then dropped into a chair at the kitchen table, still talking.
“âand if 'ee did 'ave it in 'is pocket, 'ee never put it there, did 'ee, which 'ee told 'im, over and over again, but 'ee wouldn't listen, not a nob like 'im, all 'igh and mighty, I'll 'igh and mighty
'im,
I willâ”
I opened my mouth, but Alan shook his head slightly. “Better let her get it out of her system, whatever it is,” he murmured under Ada's unceasing flow of words. “She'll run down eventually, and then perhaps we can get some sense out of her. Meanwhile . . .”
His head tilted toward the Aga, the vast kitchen range I was learning to use, and I obediently moved the kettle to the hottest burner. Alan was quite right. Whatever ailed my voluble friend, a cup of tea would help.
“âand wot I want to know is, wot are you goin' to do about it?” Ada stopped talking at last, skewered me with a fierce glare, and then dissolved into sobs, her head on her arms. I patted her shoulder, uttered meaningless, soothing noises, and, when she began to quiet, put a cup of strong, sweet tea in front of her as Alan pushed one of his man-sized handkerchiefs into her hand.
She raised her head and sniffled. “Ta,” she said to both of us impartially, blew her nose, and took a large gulp of tea.
“All right, now, Ada, I'm afraid we didn't get quite all of that; you're a little upset. Could you start over again from the beginning and tell us everything? It's Bob in trouble, isn't it?”
It was a reasonable guess. Not only is her grown-up son, Bob, the only important “'ee” in Ada's life, but he and trouble are not always strangers. Bob's an honest man, but his drinking, which cost him his marriage and brought him home to Mum, still leads him into difficulties from time to time. This one must be a doozy; I'd known Ada to break down in tears only once before, when she discovered a dead body in the Town Hallâwhich circumstance, it must be admitted, might shake even the most stoic of us.
She put down her teacup and glared at me again. “It's not 'is fault this time!”
“Of course not. Now tell us, slowly, with all the details.”
She hesitated, looking from me to Alan. Well, he can be tactful when required.
“So glad you're feeling better, Mrs. Finch. Will you excuse me? I haveâerâsome letters to write.” He winked at me and disappeared.
“Which it's not,” said Ada with a hint of her usual manner, “that I don't trust 'im, but once a p'liceman always a p'liceman is wot I say, and wot 'ee don't know won't 'urt 'im. Nor yet it won't 'urt me nor Bob.”
I shook my head at that. “I tell my husband most things, Ada. If there's something you don't want him to know . . .”
She shook her head. “No matter. Wot
you
tells 'im, as from 'is wife, is different to wot
I
tells 'im. I'm the public, and 'ee'd 'ave to take notice, official-like. Wiv you it's”âshe eyed me coylyâ”only pillow talk.”
I couldn't help laughing at that piece of Jesuitical reasoning, and we both relaxed a little. “Okay. Just as long as you don't expect me to keep things from him. Now, to be perfectly honest, I didn't follow a single word of what you said before, so you'll have to start all over.”
She was collected now, and paused for thought before she began. “The short of it is, Bob's been 'ad up for stealin'.”
I stared at her, genuinely shocked. “But he'd never do such a thing! Even if he wasâummâ”
“'Ee could be drunk as a lord, and 'ee'd never take nuffink as didn't belong to 'im,” said Ada flatly. “You know it; the 'ole town knows it. But they found it on 'im, y'see, and then that oldâ” She stopped abruptly, seeking a euphemism for whatever scathing epithet she considered unfit for my ears. “'Im wot runs the place,” she finally amended, “'ee said as 'ow 'ee'd 'ad 'is eye on Bob, an' 'ee thought 'ee'd been pinchin' this and that for weeks.”
I waved a hand in the air, confused. “Wait a minute, Ada. I'm still not sure I know what you're talking about. Was it someone Bob works for who made the complaint?”
Bob is a jobbing gardener who works for a number of households in town, mine included. He's a hard worker with true genius for his job; it took him only a few months to transform the weed patch in back of my house into the beginnings of a dream garden. But when he goes off on a toot he often comes back, sober and repentant, to find that some of his employers have lost patience and hired someone else.
I hired him when I lived alone, and I still need him badly. No matter how hard I try, I can't make anything grow except couch grass and dandelions, and Alan is too busy for dedicated gardening.
