CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The next morning, at eight a.m., the family were gathered together at the breakfast table ready to be served. Samuel and Eloise were there. Edmund, Colin, and even Natasha were there. But then there’s Maude. ..
“Where is she?” Samuel asked.
“How should I know?” Edmund asked. “I was forbidden to so much as be around her last night.”
“Although you certainly tried,” said Eloise. “Hortense,” she said to the servant on duty.
The young lady hurried to her chair. “Yes ma’am?”
“Go upstairs and tell Miss Drayton we are awaiting her attendance for breakfast.”
“Yes ma’am,” the servant said and hurried out of the dining room.
“Now that your performance is over,” Edmund said to Natasha, “are you now ready to tell us what’s really going on?”
“Nothing’s going on. You murderer. You killed Hamp.”
“I did not kill anybody,” Edmund fired back. “And why should you care about him anyway? Just before he died, he was still pinning his wife’s murder on you.”
“He knows I didn’t do anything to that bitch.”
“That’s what you say. That’s not what he said.”
“And how would you know about what he said before he died?”
“I was there,” Edmund said, and they all looked at him.
“What do you mean you were there?” Natasha asked him.
“He called Maude and said he wanted to meet with her alone. But naturally, I went with him and took Donnell along too. He claimed he had nothing to do with his wife’s death, nor that attempt at your house, nor anything else. As soon as we walked out good, there was an explosion. We came so close,” Edmund said and then exhaled. “So close.”
Samuel and Eloise glanced at each other. They were horrified to hear that news. “Maude was with you?” Samuel asked him.
A look of regret crossed his eyes. “Yes. Unfortunately, I allowed her to meet with that crook.”
“Then shame on you,” said Samuel as if he was upset too. “It’s our job to protect our women, not put them in danger. You failed her. Almost fatally.”
Instead of pushing back, Edmund nodded his head. “Yes, I know.”
Natasha was sickened by it. “What’s so special about her?” she said.
“Everything,” Edmund said before he realized that word had left his tongue.
Everybody stared at him. Especially his parents. This was absolutelynotthe Edmund they knew.
“In any event,” Eloise said. She learned how to deflect whenever the topic was unpleasant. “I’m having a charitable ball in two weeks and I want all of you to not only contribute, but attend. I will absolutely not take no for an--” she started to say when they suddenly heard a loud screeching scream coming from upstairs.
Everybody jumped from the breakfast table and took off running toward the stairs. Everybody, that was, except for Natasha. She remained where she was.
But everybody else ran up those stairs, led by Edmund and Colin, and they hurried down the hall to where thescreaming could be heard. To Edmund’s horror, it was coming from Maude’s room.
When they arrived inside of the room, they saw Hortense still screaming, and an empty bed.
“What happened?” Edmund asked her anxiously.
“The door was locked and there was no response,” she said, “so I assumed Miss Drayton was asleep. So I took the back stairs, went to the servants’ quarters, and got the master key. But when I opened the door and didn’t see anybody, I pulled the sheet back thinking she was under it. But I saw that instead.”
