Free Arsenic For Tea: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery (A Wells and Wong Mystery) by Robin Stevens

Kitty and Beanie.’
    When are you ever?
I wanted to say – but I didn’t. ‘So?’ I asked.
    ‘So? Hazel, haven’t we been saying all day that something odd is going on? Mr Curtis is obviously here for nefarious purposes, we have established that – this could just be a trick to stop Daddy forcing him out of the house this evening. If he’s ill, he can stay on at Fallingford.’
    ‘But I don’t think he was pretending!’ I objected.
    ‘Neither do I, really. But if he isn’t pretending – well, that is even
more
interesting. There are all sorts of possibilities, and it is up to us as members of the Detective Society to investigate them further, before we draw any conclusions. What do we know so far? Quick, while we’re alone.’
    ‘Mr Curtis has been behaving oddly,’ I said. ‘And now he’s been taken ill – it looked like he was going to be sick.’
    ‘But none of the rest of us are showing symptoms of sickness, although we all ate the same things at lunch,’ Daisy pointed out. ‘And we all ate the same food at tea just now.’
    ‘But Mr Curtis didn’t eat anything!’ I said. ‘He only drank that cup of tea.’
    ‘Excellent observation, Watson!’ said Daisy. ‘Good. Now, that tea came from the same pot that we all had our tea from, and the milk from the same jug. So why is Mr Curtis ill, when none of the rest of us are?’
    Just then Uncle Felix rushed past, pulling on his rain mack and galoshes.
    ‘Are you going out?’ asked Daisy.
    ‘Going to find O’Brian and fetch the doctor,’ said Uncle Felix briefly. ‘Things look bad upstairs, and the storm’s playing havoc with the phone lines. Best not to go alone.’
    I did not envy him or O’Brian at all. Things sounded awful outside. I could hear thunder kettle-drumming away, and the rain hammering against the windowpanes – and every so often the outside of the windows was lit up fiercely white by lightning.
    ‘If we’re not back in half an hour, send out a boat, there’s a good niece.’
    Daisy grinned and waved him out, but as soon as the door slammed behind him her face grew serious. We stared at each other, listening to the rain and the horrid noises filtering down from upstairs. It was pitch black outside now; it felt as though the house was a little wooden box that we were all stuck in together, alone on a deep dark sea.
    ‘What we must do now,’ said Daisy, above the noise of the storm, ‘is get closer, and see what we can discover.’

7
    Up the twisting stairs we went, and along the first-floor landing, to lurk outside Mr Curtis’s door. We could hear Lady Hastings and Mrs Doherty fussing about inside. I knew we shouldn’t be there – and I knew I didn’t want to be. Mr Curtis kept making those horrid wails and groans – they nearly drowned out the storm outside. Flashes of lightning kept on striking the hallway full of shadows – they made me jump every time.
    ‘Honestly, Hazel,’ Daisy said, but she did not say it with feeling. I think she was beginning to feel as nervous as I was.
    Then Uncle Felix came back with the doctor from Fallingford village. Unlike Felix, who looked smooth even with rain dripping from his hair and his trousers soaked and muddy, the doctor was fat and bald and flustered, and very out of breath. He rushed past us, saying, ‘Out of my way, young ladies, out of my way!’
    Uncle Felix paused beside us; we both tensed, but he only frowned and wiped his wet monocle on his wet pocket-square.
    ‘We left O’Brian in the village,’ he told us. ‘Awful weather – he’s better off at home. But at least Dr Cooper’s here now.’
    ‘What’s wrong with Mr Curtis, Uncle Felix?’ asked Daisy, seeing an opportunity. ‘Will he be all right?’
    ‘Stop angling, Daisy,’ said Uncle Felix. ‘I’m not going to tell you anything.’
    Daisy looked shocked. ‘But – Uncle Felix!’
    ‘Daisy, this isn’t a game. This is serious. Now I want you both to go up to the nursery and stay there until