The Devious Duchess by Joan Smith

on.”
    “Especially when the luggage includes a Bath chair,” Belami said, rubbing his chin. “But what does he gain by coming here first? He might have thought there would be police there and wanted to learn first what was known and suspected. If that was his aim, he certainly succeeded. He now knows as much as we do.”
    “Oh, I hope this is all a dreadful mistake, that there was no poison in anything, and we can just bury Uncle Dudley and have done with it. It’s so horrid, living like this, suspecting everyone. I suppose you’re having a marvelous time,” she said to Belami.
    “No, I won’t have a marvelous time till we’re out of here and on our way to Italy,” Belami replied, grasping her fingers. “We must begin planting the notion in Charney’s head that a few weeks are long enough to wait for the wedding. It must be a quiet do now, for propriety’s sake. Would it be too utterly uncivilized to discuss the wedding with the minister while we’re making the funeral arrangements? Yes, I can see that it would.”
    Deirdre shook her head at such an outrageous idea, but she wasn’t totally displeased by his eagerness. “I’d prefer not to have the remains of the funeral feast served at my wedding breakfast.”
    “Speaking of food, do you suppose Charney plans to feed us at all? I haven’t had a bite all day.”
    They were soon called to the table, where Dick was delighted to see that the food was of a sort that didn’t require sauce. It was impossible to destroy cold mutton and cheese, and the apple tart was more than edible. He felt much better after eating. It was three-thirty when they sat down to lunch, and four on the dot when they arose. At five after four, there was another knock on the front door, and Constable Straus was admitted.
    Even if they hadn’t recognized the man’s loud voice and country accent, the trepidation of the floor might have identified the caller. Straus had the ponderous step of an elephant. He looked decidedly out of place in the duchess’s genteel saloon. His waistcoat appeared even more gaudy against the fading elegance of threadbare carpets and listless draperies. He managed to get a step ahead of the butler and announced himself. It wasn’t lack of knowing better that caused this, but a desire to see the duchess’s face before she had been warned of his arrival.
    His coming had all the effect he had hoped for. She looked stricken when he made his dramatic pause in the doorway and said in dolorous accents, “I have a spot of bad news for you, folks. The old gent was done in. Murder in the first degree.”
     

Chapter 5
     
    It would be hard to say which of Mr. Straus’s auditors was the most upset to hear his verdict, but his attention was trained on the duchess, and certainly her expression alone was enough to convict her. He was half afraid she was going to drop dead of fright and have to be interred alongside of her brother. Deirdre went to her aunt’s side and put an arm around her shoulder. She had never done such a thing in her life before, but the eyes that turned to her, gleaming out of that white, strained face, held a mute appeal. They called up some emotion she hadn’t known she felt for her aunt. It might have been loyalty or even love. Whatever it was, it took a fierce hold on her. The duchess’s reaction to the motion was also strange. She put out her hand and held Deirdre’s fingers in a crippling grip. Nothing was said. They didn’t even look at each other again, but an understanding was born that whatever befell, they were in it together.
    Belami was the first to find his voice. “What exactly did you discover, Mr. Straus?” he asked.
    Straus strode across the floor and took up a seat. He looked all around the room before speaking. “Arsenic, as we both suggested, milord. The old gentleman’s insides held enough of it to kill an army."
    “What contained it, the brandy or—or the food?” Belami asked, darting a glance at the duchess.