Anne Cox was holding forth with her sister, along with the Otway girls and Miss Bickerton. They were clearly gossiping like mad and havingtoomuch fun. Enough was enough.
When she marched over to their table, Miss Bickerton scrambled to her feet. The others looked rather shamefaced, except for the unrepentant Anne.
“Thank you for joining us this afternoon, ladies,” Emma said. “I’m sure Mr. Elton and Mr. Suckling are grateful that you came to pay your respects in their time ofprofound grief.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Knightley,” Susan rushed to say. “It was ever so kind of you to have us, and of course, we wished to pay our respects to poor Mr. Elton.”
The others bobbed their heads, looking rather like a bevy of quails, as they expressed a garbled mix of thanks and sympathies.
Anne interrupted them with an affected laugh. “La, girls. There’s no need to babble. I’m sure Mrs. Knightley can hardly make out a word.”
Miss Bickerton, a parlor boarder at Mrs. Goddard’s school, cast Emma a tentative smile. “I do apologize, Mrs. Knightley. We don’t mean to kick up a fuss.”
“You seemed to be having quite a lively conversation,” Emma replied. “May I enquire as to the topic?”
“It was nothing, Mrs. Knightley. Just a bit of silly gossip,” Miss Bickerton replied.
“Perhaps this is not the best occasion for silly gossip.”
They all looked decidedly uncomfortable—except for Anne, who was her usual smug self.
“It wasn’t totally silly gossip, Mrs. Knightley,” Anne said. “It’stremendouslyfrightening, in fact.”
Emma crossed her arms. “How so?”
Miss Bickerton cast a wary glance around and then leaned forward, as if not wishing to be overheard. “It’s just that some people are saying that Mrs. Elton was murdered by a vengeful spirit. It happened in a church, after all. Right on top of one of the burial vaults.”
Not this again.
“And why would a vengeful spirit wish to rise up and murder the vicar’s wife?” When Caroline Otway started to answer, Emma shot up a hand. “Never mind. I do not wish to hear it. Who is spreading this tale?”
Anne shrugged. “Just people.”
“Which people?”
“Lots of people, I suppose,” Anne replied in a chippy tone. “You know how everyone likes to gossip.”
“I don’t think anyone meant any harm, Mrs. Knightley,” Susan hastened to say. “It’s just so very odd that poor Mrs. Elton was killed in the church in the middle of the day, and yet no one saw or heard a thing. It does sound like something a ghost would do.”
“It’s very strange, you must admit,” added Caroline.
“I admit nothing of the sort. And let me assure you that Mrs. Elton wasnotkilled by a vengeful ghost,” Emma replied in a cool tone. “If I hear one more word of this ridiculous tale from any of you, I will be speaking to your mothers and to Mrs. Goddard. Do I make myself clear?”
That pronouncement caused widespread alarm.
“None of us will say another word, we promise!” exclaimed Miss Bickerton, flapping a hand.
“Thank you.”
Emma turned on her heel and marched off. Annoyed that she’d been drawn into the deranged discussion in the first place, she weighed the merits of quaffing a fortifying glass of wine versus escaping the reception altogether. But the latter would mean abandoning her poor husband, so the former it was to be.
As she was forging her way to the refreshment table, a hand gripped her arm. Emma jumped—her nerves were clearly on edge, as well—and turned to find Harriet, teary-eyed and mussed.
“Good God, Harriet, whatever is the matter?”
“Something dreadful,” her friend dramatically stated. “And I don’t know what to do.”
Repressing a sigh, Emma took her hand and led her from the hall. At this rate, she’d need to keep smelling salts in every room in the house.
