Page 10 of Deadly Murder (Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe Murder Mystery #14)
Catherine was now babbling in her own language, crawling all over the place, and asserting that bold, independent red-headed spirit to the point that Linnie had declared that she might be an only child. For his part, my brother-in-law James had announced that he would like a half dozen.
“Of course. I would be happy to assist,” Linnie replied now over the telephone when I put through a call to her.
“And Lily? Marvelous!”
I thought I heard the distinctive sound of something crashing to the floor in the background.
“Oh dear, Cappy…” her father’s nickname for young Catherine.
It seemed that she had just dragged down a vase of flowers and was squealing with delight among the ruins of vase and scattered blossoms.
“I will be expecting you,” Linnie said in a rush and the conversation abruptly ended as she was then off to chase down her daughter.
As Lily and I prepared to set off for Kensington Place, where Linnie and James lived, Brodie penned a message to be delivered to HRH at Marlborough House. He was then hoping to meet with Mr. Dooley regarding the events of the previous evening.
“I will see ye after,” he said in parting. “It will be interesting to see what yer sister is able to come up with from Lily’s description.”
Kensington Place, where my sister lived with her husband and daughter, was not the ostentatious manor where she had once lived as Lady Litton, during her first marriage that had ended so badly.
She refused to live in it after her divorce, with unpleasant memories, and had returned to Sussex Square to live with our great aunt for a time after that horrible experience.
The house at Kensington Place became available through a connection of our great aunt’s and Linnie had purchased it.
It was quaint by comparison to her first residence, merely a half dozen private bedrooms, more than enough for six children. It included a library, garden room, parlor, and servants’ quarters for her housekeeper and the nanny, in a red-brick blend of Georgian and Edwardian designs.
It was surrounded by trees with a garden behind a wrought iron fence. In summer, it was filled with hydrangea blossoms. There was a pony shed at the back of the property that I suspected had more to do with her decision to purchase the house, as we once had ponies as children.
James had moved from his townhouse after they married and they had spent the following months settling into their new home and preparing for Catherine’s arrival.
She had furnished the nursery and had carpet installed over the planked wood floors, in case Catherine fell, along with several pieces of furniture and the installation of electric lighting.
She had converted the garden room into her artist’s gallery where she had set up an easel with her current work in progress. A cabinet filled one entire wall that contained her art supplies, including canvas already stretched over wood frames for additional projects.
Her housekeeper, Mrs. Finch, met us at the door.
“Lady Lenore has just put Miss Catherine down for her afternoon nap,” she greeted us. “She will meet you in the garden room.”
The change in my sister, since her marriage and now motherhood, was remarkable. She arrived dressed in a morning gown with a full apron over, wisps of her blonde hair that favored our mother in disarray, her cheeks flushed, and announced that Catherine now had two more teeth.
“She is growing so fast…I finally persuaded her that she should take nap. Of course, it didn’t hurt that she has a new favorite stuffed toy that James bought for her.
“Now you must tell me what this visit is about,” she continued.
I had explained earlier that it was regarding an inquiry case and that Lily had seen someone who might be important to the case.
I left out a few other details, such as the reason Brodie and I were there after first meeting with the Prince of Wales regarding that incident outside the gentlemen’s club.
Linnie proceeded to take a large tablet of drawing paper from a drawer in the cabinet, along with charcoal pencils that I had seen her use before when sketching out ideas for a portrait or landscape.
She sat in the chair she usually occupied when painting, that sheet of paper clipped to the easel as Lily stood just behind her, and they began.
Lily repeated what she had told Brodie and me about the man she saw, with Linnie making sketches, then changes as Lily decided that something was not quite right. My sister was patient, working with the changes, until Lily nodded with approval.
“That’s the man I saw,” she announced.
Catherine had wakened some time earlier, and I had taken over nanny duties at the risk of being anointed with drool or some other substance that came with infants.
I had made a game of rolling a ball across the nursery floor for her. She’d crawled after, chattering away, telling me all about it, I was certain. She then grinned when she captured the ball and provided a full view of her new teeth.
Now, I juggled her on my hip as Linnie turned the drawing for me to see. It was amazingly life-like, complete with a mark on his cheek where Lily mentioned the man might have been struck by young Mr. Huntingdon.
“You’re certain?” I asked Lily as I handed a squirming Catherine back to my sister.
She nodded. “That is the man I saw.”