“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I don’t know. You practically accused me of killing the witch, and I hadn’t, so I didn’t tell you I’d been at her cottage.”
“How did she seem? Was she ill? Was anyone else there? You may have been the last people to see her before I found her on the floor dying.”
She shook her head. “We weren’t the last. That man was.”
Chapter 15
I could cheerfully have slapped my cousin. “What man?”
“How should I know? A man. He was coming toward her cottage as we were leaving.”
“What did he look like?”
“A man. Middle-aged. Not remarkable in any way.”
“Tall? Short? Dark hair? Light?”
“Tall, I think. And I couldn’t see his hair. He wore a cap.” She tapped her foot. “And to answer your question, Karmen said she’d offer us tea but she wasn’t feeling well. She was going to lie down.”
“So you took your face cream and left.”
“Yeah.”
Before I could ask anything else, she said, “We can’t leave your mother in the shop alone.” And ran down the stairs.
While I was in my flat anyway, I fussed with my appearance. Okay, it was super vain of me, but I changed my top for a prettier one and did the best I could with my hair and brushed my teeth and refreshed my makeup. I was a bride-to-be about to spend time with her fiancé. I was allowed to fuss a little. No doubt the day would come when Rafe would find me slopping around in my old sweats, my hair unkempt and my socks unmatching. But that day had yet to dawn.
This also gave me a few minutes to calm down and sift what Violet had shared. Naturally, it would have been very helpful if she’d shared this information earlier. She’d passed a possible murderer. Had Tilda seen this person? Did the police know about his visit?
When I got back to the shop, Vi and my mother were giggling over something.
Even though I was annoyed with my cousin, I still thought it was cute that these two had bonded over my hen party. They were relatives, but, because of the falling out between Gran and my great aunt Lavinia, the two families had never spent much time together. I’d never even known I had a cousin. Violet avoided all conversation about witchcraft with my mother. I wasn’t entirely sure what they found to talk about, but they seemed to chat away like old friends. And they certainly enjoyed ganging up to tease me.
Violet clearly wanted to make nice, as she told me she’d finish packing the mail orders for me and would even take them to the post office and mail them.
“And don’t worry about leaving the shop, Lucy,” Mom said. “I’ll spend the afternoon here. I can help if any customers come in.”
This was so different from the mother I used to know. She’d suddenly become quite supportive of Cardinal Woolsey’s. It probably wouldn’t last, but it was a relief not to field her constant suggestions for better career choices. I said goodbye to them both when Rafe’s car pulled up in front and ran out to join him.
On the way to Wallingford, he told me about how William was driving him mad turning the manor house and gardens into a wedding venue. “He seems to have forgotten that it’s also my home.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud. Rafe had wanted to get married there as much as I had. I suspected pre-wedding jitters and was charmed.
And then I told him about Violet and Margaret Twigg visiting Karmen the day she’d died. He wasn’t as concerned as I was that the police didn’t know about this mysterious tall man in a cap who’d come to call, but then he’d seen a lot more of the world—and death—than I had.
Soon we were pulling up into the drive that led to the old pub and Karmen’s cottage. A cold shiver ran down my spine as we pulled up and the memory of her awful death came back to me, as sharp and clear as when I’d seen her transformed into an old woman, dying in front of me.
“And the police have no leads?” I asked him. He always knew. He had contacts everywhere.
He hesitated, looking worried. “She died of arsenic poisoning. I wasn’t going to tell you until after our wedding.”
“Arsenic poisoning,” I repeated, thinking back to the rune box and the “present” it contained. I didn’t want to think someone was out to kill Karmen and me. “Could she have made a bad batch of her elixir?”
“I don’t think so. There was too much arsenic to have been an error.”
Great. “Well, maybe if you look around today, you’ll see something the police have missed.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “Perhaps.”
We got out and headed to the pub. I knocked on the door and Tilda opened it. She looked as though she’d been recently crying. “I would have brought your things to you. You must have such a lot on your plate, getting married.”
But she held the door wide, and we both walked in. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Rafe. She must have been remembering the last time she’d seen him, that awful day when her employer died. All I said was, “You remember Rafe? He’s my fiancé. He drove me here.”
Oh, Lucy, how many more times can you fit the word “fiancé” in during one day?
She said, “Congratulations,” to him. Then to me, she said, “I have your bridesmaid gifts over here. I thought you might like to look at them before we package them up. Just to make sure everything’s perfect.”
“That’s a great idea,” I gushed, not because I thought she’d made any mistakes but so Rafe could wander around for a few minutes undisturbed. I doubted there was too much here in the pub where Wallingford Botanicals’ business was
