That Silent Night by TASHA ALEXANDER Read Free Book Online

however, hang back a moment and say something to Mr. Leighton, who nodded in reply.
    I did not speak until we had reached our own house. “We should have at least—“
    â€œGot one of the necklaces?” he finished for me. “Leighton gave the one you found to me. I have it in my pocket.”
    Davis opened the door before I could respond. “Port and whisky are already waiting in the library.”
    â€œThank you, Davis,” I said. “Cigars as well?”
    â€œI have warned you before, madam, that you ought not push your luck. Should Mr. Hargreaves wish to enable your further corruption, he may give you a cigar, but I shall not be used as an instrument of destruction.”
    â€œYou are a good man, Davis,” Colin said, grinning and clapping him on the back. “I admire your strict adherence to your principles.”
    Back in the library, Colin and I recounted for each other our search efforts. “Good thinking to try the abbey,” he said, “although it would be best if she never learns that you read her correspondence.”
    â€œWhat choice did I have?” I asked. “It is so cold out, and we had no way of knowing what condition she was in. She might have fled without even a coat. I felt the situation to be urgent and, hence, it called for the employment of any method that might lead to finding her as quickly as possible.”
    Colin nodded. “A wise decision, my dear. Leighton is devoted to her, but he found himself at a loss when it came to trying to find her. They have been married just two months. He can only know her so well, particularly given her affliction.”
    I examined the necklace. “Mrs. Leighton said her aunt had the mourning necklaces made for the girls, but I cannot understand why she did not take in both of them. Was not losing their mother a cruel enough twist of fate? To separate them, at the height of their grief…”
    â€œAre you certain she didn’t give a home to both of them?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “Mrs. Leighton told me that after the day she went to live with her aunt, she never saw her sister—Adelaide—again.”
    Colin shrugged. “It is dreadful, but not entirely unusual. People cannot always afford to take in all their orphaned relatives. What became of Adelaide? Was she sent to some other relative?”
    â€œYes, an uncle. Evidently he did not feel a need to keep the girl’s necklace after her death,” I said. “He was her father’s brother and may not have been well acquainted with his sister-in-law.”
    â€œExtended families are not often close, particularly when the members do not live near one another,” Colin said. “I understand from Leighton that her father’s family did not have much money.”
    â€œI should like to know where this uncle lives,” I said. “Would Mr. Leighton know, do you think?”
    â€œYou may inquire tomorrow,” Colin said. “Knowing you would not leave this business alone, I have invited him to breakfast so that we may speak to him without his wife.”
    â€œNeed I tell you that I adore you?” I asked, and squeezed his hand.
    â€œI never object to hearing it, my dear.”
    *   *   *
    When he arrived for breakfast, Mr. Leighton looked a shadow of the cheerful man we had seen before. His puffy, shadowed eyes showed evidence of the sleepless night he must have spent, and his manner was agitated and abrupt.
    â€œI ought not stay long,” he said, warming his hands on his teacup. “I do not like to leave her alone. Dr. Holton came last night and is most concerned.”
    â€œDo you know what happened to her sister?” I asked.
    â€œPenelope’s aunt was only able to take in one of the girls. Adelaide, I am afraid, wound up in the care of a bachelor uncle who died a few years later.”
    â€œThe poor child,” I said.
    â€œYes. Even more