Silent Night Read Free Page A

yet he could take a healthy interest in domestic
dramas.
    “They say the place is haunted!” Father’s expression was
disgusted.
    “It has always been haunted,” I protested. “Everyone knows
that.”
    “That is precisely the point,” he returned. “We have always had
our share of ghosts and they’ve always worked here in spite of it.”
    “What has changed?” Brisbane asked, his black gaze thoughtful
as it rested on the contents of his glass.
    “There has been a fresh sighting inside the Abbey,” Aunt Hermia
replied. “When the staff fell ill, I brought in a few new maids from the
village. One of them saw a ghost on the servants’ stair and ran screaming home
in the middle of the night. She has the busiest tongue in the village. They
cannot help they are superstitious, Hector,” she added. “They haven’t the
benefit of our education.”
    He snorted by way of reply. Brisbane said nothing, and I knew
we were both thinking of our previous investigation at the Abbey. A ghost had
figured prominently in that adventure.
    Father turned abruptly to Brisbane. “I suppose you are still
capering about in the private enquiry business?”
    Before Brisbane could reply, Aunt Hermia jumped up and took a
crystal dish from the mantel. “Brisbane, you must try these sweetmeats. The
stillroom maid and I concocted them, and I would know if I had too heavy a hand
with the rosewater.”
    Brisbane, ever courteous where ladies were concerned, took one
while I breathed out a small sigh that the moment had been got past. Father and
Brisbane had quarrelled dreadfully during our last investigation, largely over
my safety, and hard words had been spoken. I had hoped they had been forgot, but
Father apparently still nursed a grudge, as evidenced by his pointed remarks
towards my husband. I could not entirely blame him. I had suffered considerable
injuries at the conclusion of the case—through my own rash actions, to be
sure—and Father and Brisbane had almost taken each other apart in their worry
and despair. I smiled brightly from one to the other, but Father had lapsed into
his chair, glowering, while Brisbane merely sat, graceful and lethal as a
panther as he regarded Father with his inscrutable, witch-black eyes. I sighed.
It was going to be a very long holiday indeed.
    “I think I should do something to cheer Father up,” I told
Brisbane later that evening as we prepared for bed.
    Brisbane said nothing, but I heard the thud as a boot hit the
floor.
    “Aunt Hermia believes he is feeling a trifle downcast that so
many of the family shan’t be here. Most of the children are keeping Christmas at
home and only coming for the revels. It will be Plum and Portia and us for
Christmas,” I said. “Benedick will come up from the Home Farm with his family,
but that still makes only half of us.” The other boot hit the floor and I went
on. “I thought of asking a special guest, someone Father would really enjoy
seeing.”
    Brisbane gave a drawn-out sigh. “Julia, don’t meddle.”
    “It is not meddling! It is putting something right,” I said
stubbornly. “Father is devoted to Hortense. He is just too daft to do anything
about it.”
    “The situation is rather complicated,” Brisbane pointed out. He
rose and began to strip off his clothing whilst I mused on the subject of the
lovely and fragrant Hortense de Bellefleur, known to her friends and intimates
as Fleur.
    “I suppose it does make things rather awkward that you have
enjoyed the lady’s favours,” I admitted. “Still, that was twenty years ago! And
I know you think of her rather as a devoted aunt than anything more—” He quirked
up his brow in enquiry. “Than anything more fervent,” I finished, my cheeks
uncommonly warm. “If I have no quarrel with her on that score, Father
oughtn’t.”
    “You are not a man,” Brisbane reminded me. He unwound his
neckcloth and set to work on his collar.
    “Does that make a difference?” I bent my head to unpin