Jack’s expression was long-suffering as he nodded and then Vi said, “If you stab my husband, I’ll poison you with chocolate.”
“That’s been done already,” Denny told her cheerily. “Get some originality.”
“It’s just the most effective method to murder you, my lad,” Lila told him. “She wouldn’t even need to give it to you. She could just poison a box and leave it out, and you’d be the only victim.”
Denny gasped as though he were wounded and then gave them all a wide grin and rushed towards his bedroom.
“It’ll be like having a rude puppy along with you,” Lila said, little caring if Denny heard her.
“Wife!” he gasped accusatorially from inside the bedroom.
“He’s probably digging for a weapon and coming up with old chocolate boxes and a wine screw.” Vi grinned at her friends. “Where’s Beatrice? She’s got a knife.”
“I’ve got a knife,” Jack and Victor said in unison, and then Vi’s cackle let them know she’d been teasing them as well.
“Oh my,” Lila muttered. “Pathetic. I can’t believe they fell for that.”
Vi snorted and even the much kinder Kate choked on a laugh. Vi finally declared, “I need coffee. Let’s leave the gents to it, shall we? We can indulge in chocolates and coffees and naps and they can hunt killers and deal with the mad woman who left her grandson’s body to rot while she embroidered.”
Kate shivered. “My daughters can’t even reproduce yet and I love my grandchildren already. I could never…would never…I—” Kate shuddered. “I would love to linger together in the library, with a book and nibbles.”
Vi grinned and then glanced behind her. Denny had reappeared and his grin was wicked. “As long as you don’t want whiskey.” His chuckle made Vi roll her eyes.
When she went back into her bedroom, she stared around, helpless. It had been incredibly fun to break glasses with Rita. Freeing and sickening at the same time. The emotions had been so intense, the pain and the empathy and the mourning—it was overwhelming. Vi was honored to be entrusted with those feelings, but she was also exhausted.
She took a large breath in. It was going to be all right, she told herself. She made herself remember the sound of Rita’s laugh as they sacrificed the crystal glasses. Day by day. It was just that, selfishly, the grief for the baby brought back the memory of mourning for Aunt Agatha and Vi’s brothers, who died during the Great War. Her throat tightened, trying to bury the pain, but it wouldn’t quite go away.
Why was it that losing someone you loved, even a baby that hadn’t been born yet, regurgitated all of the pain and mourning that had gone before? All the way back to those early memories when Vi and Victor had realized their mother was gone.
Vi shivered as those thoughts crossed her mind. She had been so very young when her mother died that she wasn’t even sure what was memory and what was imagining. She frowned, wondering if she should take a moment to discuss it with her brother and then decided against it. Just because Vi was reliving those memories didn’t mean that Victor needed to as well.
Vi picked up her journal and considered if she wanted to play with the manuscript she and Victor were working on and then shook her head. She had streaks of writing and even escaping through her writing, but her mind wasn’t ready to go there yet.
Violet glanced down, absently noting that her dogs were readily at her feet. She reached down to snuggle each of them and then looked over her shoulder. It was time, past time, to just curl up in the library, drink some cocoa, spend time with friends, and indulge in the drizzle in the air. She glanced around her bedroom and then left it behind, hoping she could find her own happiness to help Rita discover hers.
Chapter 14
When Vi reached the library, she only wished she were surprised by the slew of chalkboards. The biggest surprise, however, was Rita sitting in a comfortable chair, wearing a fresh dress, her hair wrapped in a turban. The curls were still wet, and Vi’s eyes burned with tears at her presence.
“There’s coffee, cocoa, and tea,” Lila told Vi. “Strawberry jam, scones, biscuits, and cucumber sandwiches if you insist.”
Violet poured herself the chocolate and the coffee. She took a sip of one and then the other and grinned with a teacup in each hand. She then crossed to a chair with a small table nearby, set the cups down, and crossed back to load a plate with an excess of food.
“Is today a day of indulgences?” Lila asked.
Vi glanced at her scone, thickly slathered with clotted cream and an excess of strawberry jam, and nodded.
“Then I want a cocktail.”
“It’s not even midday,” Kate protested.
“Indeed,” Lila agreed. She crossed to the bar they’d added to the library, pouring herself a G&T and then looked up. “Who else?”
The rest of them paused, eyeing each other, and then they all raised their hands. Lila sounded almost exactly like Denny when she giggled and poured a round of cocktails. As she handed them around, she gave Rita the last one.
“Before Denny and I got married, I realized I was expecting…” Lila blinked rapidly and then hoarsely added. “Denny wasn’t there when I found out, and I wanted to talk to him before we decided anything, but one day I just stood up and there was blood.”
Rita could have been a statue, but Vi gasped. She had no idea. Lila glanced at Vi. They had been nearly sisters since their earliest days at school.
Lila swallowed thickly, her bottom lip shaking. “I’ve never told Denny. I knew he’d mourn and he was already so upset because Father was so determined to keep us apart, so I just…cleaned up and never spoke of it.”
“Lila—” Kate breathed, so softly, with so much empathy that all of them wept.
“I just never spoke
