A Gilded Grave by Shelley Freydont Read Free Book Online Page A

only one wearing, the yellow satin was marked with grass and dew.
    She immediately felt contrite.
    How could she be worried about shoes at a time like this? A young woman was dead. No older than Deanna or Elspeth. Maybe younger. What had she been doing by the cliff? She wouldn’t have been given time off on a night such as this.
    Deanna kicked off her shoes. The stains appeared dark in the gaslight.
    Elspeth returned and knelt down to pick up the shoes.
    “Don’t worry about any of this tonight. Come talk to me.”
    Elspeth looked toward the door to the hallway.
    “We’ll talk while you brush my hair.” They wouldn’t be reading any stories tonight. Especially not the one they hadjust started this past week, with Kate Goelet being chased by a madman—no, they wouldn’t be reading that one for a long time.
    Deanna turned around to face the filigreed mirror. Elspeth began to pull out the pins that held the pearls in place, then released the elaborate coiffure until Deanna’s hair fell past her shoulders and she slumped with relief.
    She watched in the mirror as Elspeth began to brush her hair in long, slow, regular strokes, concentrating on her work as if she didn’t do this every morning and every night of her life and sometimes during the day, too. Occasionally, Elspeth’s face would crumple, then, with a gasp of breath, the rhythm of the brush began again.
    She always took good care of Deanna, and Deanna took it for granted, she realized.
    “Do you want me to ask Papa if you can go to your parents’ tonight? One of the men can send for a cab to take you.”
    “No, but might I go after the morning work? Just to see how Orrin is doing. Mr. Joseph will have told him.”
    Did Joe even know about Daisy?
Deanna hadn’t seen him since before supper. She certainly hadn’t seen him out on the cliff.
    “Oh, miss, why did she go out there?”
    “I don’t know, Elspeth. I would’ve thought she’d be working.”
    “She was. I saw her earlier. She seemed fine. She didn’t say anything about going out.” Elspeth sniffed. “I teased her into taking me up to that window, the round one that overlooks the ballroom. I just wanted to catch a glimpse of you in your beautiful dress.”
    “The oriel,” Deanna said. “Cassie and I always looked down at the dancing from there.”
    “We saw you dancing with that Lord David. You were sobeautiful and he was so handsome, and I said to Daisy, ‘There’s a gentleman worthy of my mistress.’”
    Deanna blushed.
    “And Daisy leaned closer to the window to see. So close I was afraid someone might see her, and I started to pull her back, but she pushed away and said she had something she had to do. She ran off, and I really was afraid Mrs. Woodruff had seen her and would scold her, so I followed after her.”
    The brush had stopped, and Elspeth caught Deanna’s eye in the mirror.
    “When I came down the back stairs, I couldn’t find her. I never saw her again.”
    “But why was she out by the cliff, Elspeth? What reason could she possibly have to go there?”
    Elspeth shrugged. “Someone must have sent her.”
    “For what purpose?”
    “I don’t know. They say she done it to herself, but she would never. Poor Orrin. He had his heart set on marrying Daisy. Now what will he do?”
    Deanna didn’t want to think about what Madeline had suggested, that Daisy had found herself
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and had jumped to her death. She certainly didn’t want to suggest such a notion to Elspeth. And as for Orrin—well, it was preposterous.
    “Joe will help him through this.” He’d always been a compassionate and caring friend, though lately Deanna had begun to feel she didn’t know him at all.
    Impulsively, she turned in her seat and put her arms around Elspeth’s waist. “The police will find whoever did it and punish him.”
    The door opened.
    “Deanna, just what is going on here?”
    The two girls broke apart.
    Mrs. Randolph stepped into the room and flicked a dismissive look at