Time of Fog and Fire: A Molly Murphy Mystery (Molly Murphy Mysteries) by Rhys Bowen Read Free Book Online Page A

table. It went against everything I knew of Daniel. He was not cruel or insulting. Neither did he ever pretend to be what he was not. He would not have written such a letter to impress a society hostess, and he could easily have written to me in the privacy of his own room so that nobody saw what he was writing—unless … unless he feared that his correspondence would be seen by other eyes.
    I paced again, more warily now. What possible reason could he have had for writing such a letter? To make me laugh? In which case he had not succeeded. To tell me something? And most puzzling of all—why had he signed it Danny? He had always been Daniel to me, ever since we met. Never the shortened Dan or Danny. None of it made any sense.

 
    Six
    I couldn’t wait for Sid and Gus to arrive home that afternoon. I needed to show the letter to someone because I was growing more and more uneasy as the day wore on. Daniel never did anything flippantly or without consideration. That letter had to have been written for a reason.
    I fed Liam. Put him down for his nap. Bridie returned home from school and still I went into the front parlor, pulling back the lace curtains to see if my friends had returned.
    “They said they’d be back by midday,” Bridie said, coming up behind me. “Perhaps something is wrong. Perhaps there was a sudden snowstorm in the mountains and they are snowed in. Perhaps Tig or Emmy hurt themselves skiing. Or they took them back to Long Island and were invited to stay for dinner.”
    I felt a knot of worry in my stomach. What if my friends were forced to stay at the cabin in the mountains and didn’t come back for days? In the end I was forced to start cooking our supper and was startled when there came a knock on our front door. I went to it to see Gus standing there.
    “We have returned, as you can see,” she said, “but I could use a little help, if you don’t mind.”
    “Of course,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
    “The cab driver wouldn’t come any further up the street, saying he couldn’t turn his horse around in such close quarters. He abandoned us here, horrible man. But he got no tip, I can assure you.”
    I followed Gus’s glance down Patchin Place and saw a pile of baggage and propped against it was Sid, her leg encased in white plaster.
    “She attempted the most difficult slope,” Gus said, giving me a look of pure exasperation. “I told her she needed more practice first but she never listens to me. Now she’s laid up with a broken leg and who knows how long it will be before we can resume our normal activities.”
    “I’m so sorry,” I said. I hurried down to Sid. “Here, put your arm around my neck and we’ll half carry you to the house.” I looked back at our front door. “Bridie,” I called. “Come and help with Miss Goldfarb’s bags.”
    Between us, Gus and I managed to carry Sid into the house and settled her on the sofa, propped up with pillows.
    “Tomorrow morning I’ll go out and find you crutches,” Gus said. “Knowing you, you will not be content to lounge on a sofa until you are healed.”
    “I feel so stupid,” Sid said. “The hill didn’t look that steep to begin with and when a young man came and asked me if I was sure I was up to such a challenging run, I wasn’t about to give up. And then lo and behold the hill suddenly started plunging straight downward and I tumbled head over heels.”
    “I was watching from the cabin window and saw the whole thing,” Gus said. “She bounced down it like a pebble. Quite alarming, I can tell you.”
    Bridie stood in the doorway, her arms laden with bags. “Where should I put these?” she asked.
    “Oh, just leave them in the hall,” Gus said. “Thank you so much, Bridie dear.”
    “I’d better go back,” I said. “I’ve dinner cooking and Liam in there alone. But when you’re settled I have something I have to show you.” Then I added, “I’m making a big hot pot. I’ll bring some over when it’s