Free Laura Lee Guhrke by Not So Innocent Page B

running over anything in her path. She strongly disapproved of Auntie’s little society and would insist on an immediate halt to the séances, readings, and discussions that were Violet’s greatest pleasure.
    She would take every opportunity to change Sophie’s state of spinsterhood to one of matrimonial bliss, smothering her with Jubilee cotillions, balls, and card parties. If Sophie failed to become engaged within the next two months to a gentleman her mother deemed suitable, Agatha would spend another year expressing her deep disappointment with her unsatisfactory younger daughter, and laud her elder daughters’s matrimonial success to the skies.
    There was also the matter of Inspector Dunbar to be considered. Agatha would be horrified to have the police nosing about. She would be sure to place the blame on poor Auntie, and might even be scandalized enough by the whole business to insist on Sophie’s return to Yorkshire. That would be a fate worse than death.
    “When does she arrive?” Violet asked, breaking into Sophie’s thoughts.
    “Tomorrow, at three o’clock. She says Charlotte has already planned a dinner party for that evening, so we will simply go on to their house from the train station and return here to Mayfair afterward. You see? She isn’t even here yet, and she is trying to run my life.”
    “Tomorrow?” Violet cried. “Heavens, what can we do about this on such short notice?”
    “I have the feeling Mother’s short notice was deliberate.” Sophie set the letter aside, thinking hard. If only there was a way to force her mother to stay with Charlotte. “Auntie, we have only one unused bedroom at present, is that right?”
    “I don’t know, dear. I rely on you to handle these things.”
    Sophie hadn’t expected an answer; she was merely thinking out loud. “If that room were let immediately to a lodger, there would be nowhere for Mother to sleep. Then she would have to stay with Charlotte and Harold in Hampstead. We simply have to find a tenant to take that room before Mother arrives tomorrow.”
    “Excellent suggestion,” her aunt said with approval. “I’m sure the spirits will guide us in finding someone suitable. I’ll send a letter to Charlotte by runner to let her know the circumstances, which should make her happy. She probably wasn’t pleased to learn Agatha was staying with us in any case.”
    “Charlotte is never happy,” Sophie said dryly. Her elder sister had made her childhood a torture, calling her a freak and ridiculing her at every opportunity. Charlotte was now married, and Harold was a wealthy lawyer and eminently respectable, even if he was a criminal. Charlotte had children, possessed a lovely ten-bedroom house, and was the reigning queen of Hampstead’s social circle, all of which gave her little time these days to torment her younger sister.
    Sophie was quite glad for Charlotte’s good fortune.
    “Miss Sophie?”
    Grimstock’s voice interrupted, and both womenlooked up to find the butler standing in the doorway.
    “That police inspector is here,” he said, his voice heavy with disapproval. Sophie opened her mouth to tell him to inform Inspector Dunbar that both she and her aunt were out, but Violet forestalled her.
    “Oh, how lovely!” Violet exclaimed. “I will be able to meet him. Show him into the conservatory. It’s such a lovely morning, and it will be delightful to receive him there.”
    “Auntie, why did you say we would see him?” Sophie asked after Grimstock left the dining room. “What possessed you?”
    “Why shouldn’t we see him?” Violet looked at her in bewilderment. “We have a humanitarian interest in his welfare.”
    Sophie said nothing.
    “If you are not feeling up to callers today, I’ll tell him you’re indisposed,” Violet said as she rose from the table. “I’ll see him alone.”
    “No!” Sophie jumped to her feet, knowing she couldn’t let her aunt visit with that man alone. God only knew what secrets he’d