The inimitable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher and her husband Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher seem to get a reprieve from their sleuthing duties when they are invited to the wedding of their friend, Lucy Fotheringay.
Lucy's grandfather is hosting the ceremony at his beautiful estate and so it promises to be a typical affair with hordes of gossipy aunts and other colorful but not necessarily pleasant relatives. Daisy meets all these characters and observes the ensuing familial fraternization with a certain kind of amusing nonchalance. That is, until Lucy's great aunt is found strangled to death in her bed. Lucy, in the meantime, has arranged to meet her betrothed in the conservatory, but when she arrives she finds him trying to revive her uncle, who has died-or has he been murdered? And just like that a normally celebratory occasion turns suspicious. Now Daisy must sift through a throng of relatives-aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents- once wedding guests and now murder suspects. And she must find the killer quickly before another family member becomes a corpse.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Carola Dunn is the author of many previous mysteries featuring Daisy Dalrymple as well as numerous historical novels. Born and raised in England, she lives in Eugene, Oregon.
A Mourning Wedding
1"Darling, I wish you hadn't planned a morning wedding. I'm getting the most frightful morning sickness these days. I'm more likely to need support than to be able to support you." Daisy reached for another buttery toasted teacake."Bosh!" Blood red nail varnish gleamed as Lucy deftly slid the willow-pattern plate on its lace doily across the dark oak table, away from Daisy. "You're as healthy as a horse.""I'm eating for two," Daisy protested. "And making up for lost time, too. You haven't seen me between seven and eleven in the morning. I can barely manage to down a cup of tea for breakfast.""Too sickening, darling!" Lucy said sardonically, her clear soprano turning heads as it rang through the small tea-shop.It was all very well for her. She never had the least difficulty keeping the straight-up-and-down figure--still fashionable in 1924, alas--which Daisy would never attain. But Lucy moved the plate back within Daisy's reach before pouring herself a second cup of Earl Grey.Daisy didn't care for Earl Grey at the best of times. Now the musky scent gave her a twinge of incipient nausea. She hastily took another teacake, the smells of cinnamon and nutmeg bringing comfort to her queasy stomach. The Cosy Corner didn't put in as much spice as the Bluebell Tea Rooms used to, she thought regretfully, but after what happened at the Bluebell she'd never been quite brave enough to go back.She turned her attention back to her friend. As always, Lucy was the epitome of the stylish young woman, from the feathered cloche perched on her dark, sleek bob to the fashionable knee-length hemline, flesh-coloured silk stockings, and strapped shoes below.Usually cool, calm and collected, she was now fidgeting with her teaspoon, although she didn't take sugar in her tea. She regarded Daisy with uncharacteristic anxiety and lowered her voice to say, "For a moment there you looked quite green. Darling, will it really be too much for you to come to Haverhill a few days early?""Everyone says morning sickness only lasts a month, or six weeks at most. The trouble is, they say it in that frightfully hearty, encouraging way that makes one sure they're concealing the bad news.""The wedding's not for another month. I don't know how I'll cope without you to rely on for a breath of sanity, Daisy. All the family will be gathering, and besides the general fuss, some of my relations are utterly poisonous.""Her brothers and her cousins, whom she reckons up by dozens, her brothers and her cousins and her aunts!" Daisy misquoted HMS Pinafore. "I suppose you're getting married at Haverhill rather than in town because Lord Haverhill's getting a bit creaky about the joints?""Actually, Grandfather may be eighty but he's as frisky as a spring lamb, and Grandmama too.""I can't imagine Lady Haverhill frisking!""No, much too Victorian, but she's healthy as a horse. They both adore any excuse to gather the whole family at Haverhill. It's Uncle Aubrey who has a dicky heart, though I don't believe it's quite as bad as Aunt Maud likes to think.""I seem to remember Lady Fotheringay being a bit of a worrier." "Fussbox, more like," said Lucy with an unladylike snort. "Cosseting him makes her feel important.""It must be difficult playing second fiddle for decades," Daisy said charitably. "She'd like to be the Countess of Haverhill before your uncle pops off, I expect. It's only natural. I suppose Lady Eva will be there. She rather terrifies me. I'm always sure she's reading my mind.""Oh, Aunt Eva doesn't need supernatural means to collect her information. She's a bit of a bore but really quite a decent old trout.""I bet there are a lot of people who feel threatened by her curiosity. People who have something they desperately want to hide.""It's not as if she ever does anything with what she finds out. She just likes to know what everyone's up to. Our sort of people, I mean. She couldn't care less about Mr. Bones the Butcher.""It wouldn't surprise me if she found out I was pregnant before I did! Or did she lose interest in me when I married a policeman?""It was touch and go," Lucy said frankly, "but your mother is still the Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple, and your sister's Lady John. In spite of which you might have been relegated to hoi polloi if Alec was an ordinary bobby, not a Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard. His title may not be noble but it has a certain lustre."Daisy laughed. "That's all that reconciled Mother to my marriage, insofar as she's ever reconciled to anything once she's decided to disapprove. At least your relatives, however poisonous, can't possibly disapprove of Binkie.""No," Lucy agreed complacently, leaning back in the high-backed Windsor chair. "The son of a marquis, even a younger son, is a creditable match.""Lucy, you do love him, don't you?""I ... I think so. I'm pretty certain, actually. I'm not likely to find anyone else who's willing to let me keep up the photography business after we're married.""You can wind him around your little finger." Disturbed by her friend's attitude, Daisy sighed."One can't ever be absolutely certain, can one?" Lucy pleaded."I am. Most of the time, anyway. Right-oh, darling, I'll come to Haverhill to hold your hand and cheer you on. Maybe I can get an article out of it for my American editor: 'A Fashionable English Wedding,' perhaps.""Thanks, darling." Lucy took out her compact to powder her nose and refresh her crimson lip-salve. "I've got to run. Lady Moresby wants yet another portrait, though I can't think why, considering her face. But she says I'm the only photographer who brings out her 'inner being.' By the way, not a word about the photography. The parents assume I'm going to give up the studio once I'm Lady Gerald Bincombe.""I'll be silent as the grave," Daisy promised."About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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