Free Manor House 03 - For Whom Death Tolls by Kate Kingsbury Page B

alarm. "Is something the matter with Violet?"
    Martin looked surprised. "Violet? No, madam. The last time I saw her, she was her usual rambunctious self."
    Elizabeth relaxed.
    "Polly is somewhat distressed, though."
    "Polly?"
    "Yes, madam."
    "What's the matter with Polly?"
    "That I couldn't say, madam."
    Elizabeth turned to head for the stairs.
    "Some disaster with the Americans, I believe."
    With a cold chill of apprehension Elizabeth ran lightly down the steps and along the hall to the kitchen.
    She heard Polly wailing well before she threw open the door. The girl sat on a chair by the fireplace, weeping into a large handkerchief, while Violet stood at the stove, pouring boiling water into a large china teapot.
    She looked up as Elizabeth burst into the room. "Oh, there you are, Lizzie," she said, apparently forgetting she wasn't supposed to be using the childhood name in front of Polly. "Thank goodness you're back. Maybe you can do something with her." She nodded at Polly, who sat hugging herself and rocking back and forth.
    "Whatever is the matter?" Elizabeth patted Polly's shoulder and studiously avoided the first question that came to mind. She asked the next obvious one instead. "Has something happened to your father?" Polly's father was somewhere overseas in the army. There had been far too many of the dreaded telegrams arriving lately.
    Polly shook her head, and uttered a shuddering sob.
    "It's that young man she's so barmy about," Violet said, carrying a steaming mug over to the shivering girl.
    "Sam Cutter?" The growing feeling of dread swelled to a tide of terror. She was terrified to ask, but she had to know. "Was he shot down? Do they have any news? Do you know who was with him?"
    Polly put the mug down on the hearth, swallowed hard, and stammered, "No, m'm, he's not shot down or nothing. He was here a little while ago." She struggled to contain another sob, but her words came out on a wail, anyway. "He's been
arrested
!" A burst of fresh weeping followed her startling remark.
    Still shaking from the fright of thinking Earl might have gone down with Sam Cutter in his plane, it took a moment or two for Elizabeth to understand what Polly had said.
    Violet's tongue clicked with indignation as she poured another cup of tea. "I knew it was a mistake to take in those Americans. Harboring a murderer in the Manor House, indeed. Your parents would turn in their grave, not to mention having my guts for garters for letting you get yourself into this kind of trouble."
    Ignoring Violet for the moment, Elizabeth cleared her mind. "Sam Cutter has been arrested? Why? On what charge?"
    Polly choked and spluttered, and finally found her voice again. "They think he killed Kenny Morris."
    Elizabeth looked at Violet, who shrugged. "I saw Major Monroe in the hall, and asked him why they'd takenthe young man away. He told me Sam Cutter was being held on the base on suspicion of murder."
    "I don't believe it. Did Earl say why they think the squadron leader killed Kenny Morris?"
    "Ask Polly. She knows why."
    Polly stopped crying and dashed away her wet tears. "He didn't do it, m'm, I just know he didn't. He was gambling that night with Kenny and some other blokes . . . and they all lost a lot of money and Kenny started a fight 'cos he said the dealer was cheating and Kenny and Sam got into it 'cos Sam was mad at Kenny and then Kenny broke a beer bottle and Sam cut his hand. He had it all bandaged up the next day and I asked him about it and that's when he told me what happened." She stared up at Elizabeth with puffy, red-rimmed eyes. "It's the truth, m'm, I know it. My Sam wouldn't hurt no one. Honest he wouldn't."
    Elizabeth took a moment to sort through Polly's disjointed sentences. Finally she said slowly, "The police think Sam cut his hand with the knife that was dropped when Kenny was killed, is that it?"
    Polly uttered yet another shuddering sigh. "I s'pose so, m'm." She started wailing again. "Oh, what am I going to do? I can't