AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I thought that was sweet.
Daniel came next to claim Portia. She and I hugged for a long time before I let go, and Daniel stunned me by taking me in his arms and holding me tight for a moment before he too released me, and they went to bed.
As they left, Stevenson came in to announce that Ian was finishing up with “the local constabulary” (his words) and would be joining me shortly.
I accepted this news with a nod, and he turned to leave, but I called out to him, and he stopped.
“Thank you, Stevenson,” I said quietly.
To my surprise, he executed a very formal bow, and when he straightened, looked me right in the eye and said, “It was my pleasure, my lady.”
And after delivering that, leaving me breathless and tingling, the butler of Duncroft vanished into the greenery.
It wasn’t long after when Ian joined me, the sun kissing the horizon as a herald to dawn.
I waited until he’d collapsed beside me and lit his smoke before I asked, “Is it done?”
He nodded. “They’ve arrested Clifton. Taken all the statements. Dad and Daniel and I walked them around the house and showed them the evidence. They’ve taken pictures, their own fingerprints, collected samples of the liquor and the mannequin, and Kathleen is meeting them at the station to lay out what we found.”
He took a drag, blew the smoke away from me, then turned back to me.
“The cleaning girl, her name is Trudy, was taken in for questioning. She’s talking. Admitting everything. Apparently, she was getting cold feet. As such, she returned the flute but hadn’t had time to collect the other things, some of which she didn’t know Clifton had positioned.”
Another mystery solved.
“Did something else happen to you in the Rose Room?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied.
“They told me Trudy said something about your tablet. Clifton told her to download his book or something?”
And another mystery solved.
“Yes. I thought it was me. But someone opened it to that picture.”
Ian nodded, took another drag from his cigarette, and blew it out.
“Alas, my darling, although things don’t look good for Mr. Clifton,” he carried on, “it’s unlikely he’ll be drawn and quartered for his shenanigans. He’ll probably spend some time in jail, but not much of it. And when this hits the media, it’s a sure bet he’ll get what he wanted, and his book sales will skyrocket.”
I knew that was the sad truth.
But we’d endure it, we’d already endured worse.
And now, mercifully, that last was all over.
He took another drag from his cigarette, blew out the smoke, and turned more fully to me.
“Daniel took me aside,” he announced.
“Oh boy,” I mumbled.
After seeing the protective gestures Daniel treated my sister to while Ian was laying out the case, I was expecting him to tell me Daniel had shared he was going to ask for Portia’s hand.
“He wanted to come clean.”
That was a surprise.
“About what?” I asked warily.
