Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil (Aunt Dimity Mystery) by Nancy Atherton Read Free Book Online

pieces were here when we arrived,” Nicole pointed out. “Great-grandfather left virtually everything in place when he closed the hall. Uncle Dickie simply removed the dustcovers.”
    “My wife’s uncle has been very helpful, in his way,” Jared admitted, with a sour smile. “Though I dare say that my own collection has added polish to what was a somewhat mundaneassortment of period furnishings. By the time I’ve finished,” he added smugly, “people will pay to see Wyrdhurst.”
    “You won’t have to pay, Lori.” Nicole looked up from her plate with a bright, brittle smile. “But I’m afraid my husband won’t be able to give you a tour. He’s leaving in an hour. Going to be gone all week. Isn’t it rotten of him, to abandon us while he goes off gallivanting in Newcastle?”
    “It’s hardly gallivanting.” Jared scowled at his wife, then turned to me. “I’m needed in Newcastle, Mrs. Willis, to interview a new housekeeping service and attend several important auctions.”
    “We’ve been through three cleaning crews already,” Nicole said, the smile tightening on her face. “Three crews in three months. It must be some sort of a record.”
    “It’s too quiet up here for them,” Jared commented.
    “Don’t they go down to the village?” I asked.
    Nicole opened her mouth to reply, but Jared cut her off.
    “Blackhope is an uncivilized backwater,” he declared. “What amusements it provides cannot compare to those offered in Newcastle.” He pulled a hefty gold hunter from his watch pocket and consulted it. “If you’ll excuse me, I must throw a few things together before I leave.” He leaned over to touch my wrist. “I do hope you’ll forgive me for deserting you, Mrs. Willis.”
    I’d forgive him without a second thought, but I wasn’t so sure his wife could. She watched with wide, anxious eyes as he left the room, and didn’t touch her food after he’d gone.
    I went back for seconds. “When I’ve finished breakfast,” I said, piling on the smoked kippers, “would you show me the library?”
    “The library?” Nicole’s eyes took a moment to focus on me. “Of course. The library. That’s why Uncle Dickie sent you.”
    As I watched my hostess slip back into a preoccupied silence, I began to suspect that the library wasn’t the only reason Uncle Dickie had sent me.

CHAPTER

    D ickie Byrd was a down-to-earth, no-nonsense kind of guy. It wasn’t hard to imagine what he thought of his new nephew-in-law. Nicole might put up with Jared’s high-handedness—love could be incredibly stupid as well as blind—but it wouldn’t go down well with her adoring uncle.
    Was Dickie worried about his niece? Had I been sent all the way to Northumberland to be a playmate for little Nicole?
    Or was I an unwitting spy?
    I turned the thought over in my mind as Nicole maintained her silence. The Serenissima prayer book was, as I’d told Stan Finderman, an awfully big payoff for a rough-and-ready library survey, but there might be more at stake here than the value of Wyrdhurst’s books. Perhaps Uncle Dickie wanted an impartial observer to report back on the state of his niece’s marriage.
    I knew what I’d tell him, if asked. Bill frequently accused me of jumping to conclusions, but even he would have to agree that I was staring at an open-and-shut case: Nicole Byrd had married a pompous, pigheaded prig, and the sooner someone put him in his place, the better.
    “Is it the kippers,” Nicole asked, “or my husband?”
    I looked up from my neglected plate. “Sorry?”
    “To judge by the stormy look on your face, you’ve either swallowed a bone or choked on my husband’s bad manners.” Nicole had regained her composure. She sat with her chin in her hands, smiling wistfully. “Jared rubs people the wrong way, sometimes, but you mustn’t think ill of him. He can be terribly sweet.”
    Marriage counseling wasn’t part of my job description, so I kept my thoughts about Jared to myself.
    “I