Page 11 of The Tart's Final Noel
“You’re in no condition for riding anywhere, and I’m thinking Rafe will not approve of any witness to murder leaving town.”Brydie slapped eggs in front of him to go with the bread.“They have stationery at the inn and the mercantile.”
The stranger squinted at Brydie.“He can’t keep me here.I have business to tend to.I only brought two changes of linen.”
“Tell that to Rafe, and he’ll lock you up.The inn has wash women,” Minerva said callously, wrapping up the last bread loaf Brydie had baked.She could make it last a week, possibly.Could she learn to bake in a week?“If Willa is your cousin, it’s your duty to stay and help us find her killer.”
He rubbed his forehead and ate his eggs, obviously working his way through their demands.“All right, I’ll need stationery and a pen.Since I missed her funeral, I suppose I need to write my other cousin’s solicitor anyway.”
Minerva frowned.“Two cousins died?Willa had a sister?”
He started to shake his head, grasped the wisdom of holding still, and wrinkled his nose.“No.Uncle Bartlett, from my maternal grandfather’s side, is the one who owned the bakery.After his only daughter married well, and business here grew bad, he left for the Americas.Meg’s only my second cousin or whatever.She’s the one who died recently.Willa was a distant relation to my Aunt Bartlett, not actually any relation to me except by marriage.She was orphaned young, my aunt took her in, and the girls grew up together.Willa was probably ten years older, and I assume my uncle left the bakery in her hands because his daughter wasn’t interested.I doubt there is any connection in their deaths.I was told Meg has been ill and her death is no surprise.I’ve been sailing and am only recently home.”
He didn’t look like a sailor, but Minerva supposed now that his pain was lessening, he wasn’t as pale.
“Does Willa have any other family?You should probably also write your Uncle Bartlett to tell him of her death and warn that the house is empty.It’s a shame to let a nice place like this go to ruin.Although a letter to the Americas and a reply could take weeks.”Leaving the town without bread, but Minerva tried to think beyond her own needs.
Mr.Cooper sighed.“I don’t even know if he’s still alive.Let me write my mother first.She has little better to do than harass the family for information and tell them what to do.”
“Is she nearby?”Minerva asked hopefully.“Perhaps she might take over the cottage?”
He almost snorted up the tea he’d just sipped.Patting his mouth with a napkin, he winced.“She’s in Edinburgh, married to some fine scholar these days.I apparently have a gaggle of younger siblings and step-siblings who must be reined in and trained to leap and obey her wishes.I admit, I only stopped in once or twice in summer breaks at school and haven’t been there in years.”
“I don’t suppose you know how to bake bread?”Minerva asked, more wistfully than hopefully.
“I know how to stoke a fire and shovel loaves in and out.That was the extent of my lesson the summer I stayed here, many years ago.”
“What can you do, then?”Brydie asked in her usual blunt manner, setting another bowl of dough to rest.
“Drink and gamble,” he said flatly.“I’m very good at both and not much good at anything else.”
Paul walked in at that point, heard this last, and raised his eyebrows.“Well, you’ll not find much gambling around here, so I hope you have enough coin to buy food.”He turned to Minerva.“Henri is coming with his cart to collect Willa, and Verity has found children hiding in the stable.She wants to keep them.”
Causing the injured Cooper to flinch, Minerva and Brydie both dropped everything and rushed for the door.
Six
Brydie
Bypassingthe men gathered around a hooded buggy, Brydie and Minerva raced into the inn.
Damien met them in the lobby.He caught Brydie and hugged her, while holding up a hand to halt the curate’s wife.“The children are fine.Verity has them in hand.She thinks they’re orphans being transported to the parish of their birth, when some unfortunate accident occurred.She wants to keep them, but we need to verify facts first.”
Brydie had been raised to believe hugs and kisses belonged behind closed doors, but the manor folk were more forthcoming, and so she resolved to be.Not minding changing her ways for this, she kissed her betrothed’s freshly shaven jaw, loving the right to do so, then pushed away his restraining hold.“Kate’s children?Are they with Verity too?I really need to meet these new ones.If they’re street ruffians?—”
Damien shook his head emphatically.“They’re very well raised, claim to have come from Beanblossom.There is no such village of which I’m aware, but it may be the name of a cottage.”
Brydie only wanted to rush to the children she’d helped raise from infancy.
Minerva, however, was a librarian and a curate’s wife first and foremost and caught Damien’s concern.“If this is their parish, we have no records for the last fifteen years.They cannot prove the children came from here if they are younger than that.”
“As far as we can ascertain, the girl is about five and the boy is eight.No parish records?”Damien asked in dismay.
Minerva shook her head.“Paul’s stepfather sent the records to the rector fifteen years ago and abandoned Gravesyde after the viscountess’s death.If they were born here...they may have been baptized elsewhere.We’ll have to ask the rector or check with the clerk in Stratford.If they were being transported to Gravesyde, someone must believe their families are from here.Should we write the manor’s solicitors in Stratford, as well?They may have been informed of deaths or estates...”
Brydie hesitated but had to add, “We should ask Mr.Cooper if the cousin who died had children.”
Damien dragged the stationery and inkpot from the lobby counter to begin dashing off correspondence.“He didn’t mention any but we can ask.Minerva, if you’ll inquire about birth records, I’ll write the solicitors and bank.We might have time to make the morning post.I cannot imagine that buggy traveled far.I’m amazed it made it down that rutted lane at all.”
“Mr.Cooper needs to write his family about Willa and the bakery.We will have a collection for the post this morning.”Minerva took some of the stationery and ink and carried it away, presumably to Mr.Cooper.
