The Moonlit Murders: A historical mystery page-turner (A Fen Churche Mystery Book 3) Fliss Chester (most read book in the world txt) 📖

‘Best entertainment on board ship.’ James smiled at her as he rose from the table and fetched his jacket from the nearby coat stand. ‘After you…’

They found Mrs Archer sitting in an upholstered chair at a table by one of the porthole windows. She was gazing out to sea and it was Eloise who waved to them, mouthing ‘sorry’ at the same time.

‘Ah, Miss Churche, Lord Selham.’ Mrs Archer turned to greet them. ‘Eloise, summon the waiter for some more tea. I’m sure Miss Churche will be joining us, to spend some time with you, as she promised to do when I paid for her voyage.’

‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Archer,’ Fen felt as small as a mouse in the glare she was held in, and dutifully took the seat next to Eloise. A cup and saucer appeared in front of her and the waiter poured out tea. When he’d finished, Fen battled on. ‘You are absolutely right, it’s terribly impolite of me to not spend more time with Eloise today.’

Fen could see her new friend rolling her eyes and knew that this dressing-down hadn’t come at her instigation. This gave Fen the touch more courage needed to stand up to Mrs Archer.

‘But I can’t see that it was my fault that a dead body was found and that, quite rightly, the captain is now concentrating efforts on finding out who killed him.’

‘Not your fault, young lady? By all accounts, and, believe you me, I have eyes and ears everywhere, you were the one who found him!’ A knobbly finger wavered in front of Fen’s face and she almost went cross-eyed trying to focus on it. She had to blink a couple of times to bring herself back to the conversation.

‘Well, yes… but only because I was looking jolly hard for your tiara.’ Fen carefully took a sip from her teacup, aware of the effort it was costing James, who had sat himself down next to Mrs Archer, to maintain a straight face. ‘Let me have a word with Captain Lagrande and we’ll make sure we get the investigation back on track.’

‘I should think so, young lady. Lord Selham here promised me he’d have them back in my hands by the time we glimpsed land, and all I can see that’s happening is you two gallivanting around this ship, finding dead Germans and Lord knows what else.’ She huffed and placed her hands in her lap, hands which Fen noticed looked very old and plain without their usual gloss of rings and bracelets. ‘Perhaps,’ she continued, ‘there’s a reason why you drew everyone’s attention away from the search.’

‘Aunt M,’ Eloise said, leaning forward and touching her aunt’s crossed hands with one of hers, ‘you said you were going to keep that thought to yourself.’

Mrs Archer looked as if she were chewing a wasp, obviously trying incredibly hard to stop herself from saying out loud what must have been ricocheting through her mind.

Eloise sat back, keeping an eye on her aunt the whole time.

Mrs Archer picked up her teacup again and took a sip. Then all of a sudden blurted out: ‘You haven’t even checked people’s alibis. Or presented me with your own!’

‘Aunt!’ Eloise looked embarrassed enough for the both of them. ‘Miss Churche and Lord… Fen and James aren’t suspects.’

‘Aren’t they?’ the older lady retorted. ‘We all know how many crumbling English estates are held together with American money.’

James spluttered his tea but managed to place the cup back on the saucer without spilling too much. ‘As a matter of fact, I was looking after one of your fellow Americans, Lieutenant Johnstone. He was… unwell and I helped him to his cabin.’

‘Don’t think that parading an American name in front of me will impress. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is: you stole the jewels, Lord Selham, to feather your own decrepit nest!’

‘Aunt Mariella… James can’t have stolen the jewels if he was with Frank…’

‘James? Frank?’ Mrs Archer suddenly turned on her niece. ‘Manners, young lady! Surely it’s Lord Selham and Lieutenant Johnstone to you, Eloise, or are you in cahoots with the whole affair?’

‘Aunt Mariella, really!’ Eloise blushed and Fen was relieved that Mrs Archer had seemed to have puffed all her puff and had returned to glaring out of the porthole. Eloise looked from her to James and Fen and apologised. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s been a trying time for us.’

‘We understand completely.’ Fen had no problem with soothing troubled waters, though she could see that James had been wounded by the accusation.

‘How is Genie?’ Eloise asked, clearly trying to change the subject. ‘I heard she was with you when you, you know…’

‘Yes, and to be honest, I don’t know. That nice steward, Mr Dodman, took her back to her cabin soon after we called it in. I should imagine, like me, she had a hot wash and has possibly retired for the afternoon.’

‘The guilty actions of a thief!’ Mrs Archer piped up again, and was met with withering looks from the others.

‘Aunt, you can’t accuse poor Lord Selham one minute and then Genie the next,’ Eloise implored.

‘I only mean that she is most likely now in her cabin finding hiding places for the lot of them,’ Mrs Archer retaliated.

‘Aunt M, her cabin will be searched like all the others,’ Eloise soothed, and then shook her head. ‘Let’s get you back to ours. It’s been a long day already and it’s barely halfway through.’

Mrs Archer, apparently exhausted and upset by the trial of losing her family jewels, agreed to her niece’s suggestion.

‘Before you go,’ Fen said, catching their attention. ‘Let’s get the investigation properly started. I tend to approach these things like crossword puzzles, so I need my parameters, so to speak. You know, is an answer five letters long or ten. So could you tell me what timings we’re looking for so when we ask for alibis we can say “it’s between ten and eleven, or eleven and midnight”, or suchlike.’

‘What are you blithering on about, girl?’ Mrs