Thirty-five

“Hello, hello, hello!” Laura crowed as she entered my house at five sharp with a garment bag.

I had just beaten her to my house after overseeing the caterers set up for the food for the ball. It would be a spectacular event if I could shake the melancholy feeling I’d had ever since Detective Brandon told me Wesley had been poisoned by lily of the valley.

I placed a hand on the side of my head, and Frankie jumped off my lap.

“Oh, sorry,” my best friend said. “Do you still have a headache?”

“Just a little one.” I didn’t tell her, but my headache was more from guilt about Wesley’s death than from being walloped over the back of the head the night before.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go to the ball tonight.”

I jumped off of the couch. “Are you crazy? This is what I’ve worked for all year. I’m going.”

She beamed. “Okay. Then we have to make you look the part.” She dropped the garment bag on the couch. “I have your dress. I can hardly wait for you to see it.”

“Okay,” I whimpered.

She unzipped the garment page. “Ta-da!”

The dress was a satin royal blue with lace at the collar and bodice. “It’s very pretty.”

“Pretty?” She sniffed. “It’s gorgeous. You’ll be the belle of the ball, as you should be.” She rubbed her hands together. “Let’s do your hair first.” She set out her makeover arsenal on the kitchen table. Makeup, hairspray, brushes, combs, tweezers—I didn’t want to know what those were for—and pulled out a dining chair.

“Can’t I just wear a braid? They braided their hair back then.”

She shook her finger at me. “Little girls did, not ladies. And we’re going to make you a lady. Sit.”

Resigned to my fate, I sat on the chair.

She ran the brush through my hair. “The reenactment has gone beautifully today. You’d be so proud, Kelsey, not a dead body on the place.”

“That’s something to strive for. But I think you’re being a little too generous. Chase did get into a fistfight with another reenactor.”

She shivered. “I’m sorry I missed it. How are you feeling? I’ve watched you fly all over the grounds today, which you probably shouldn’t have been doing with your head injury.”

“My head injury is a bump, and Ashland helped out a lot with the ball.”

“There was a lot of chatter in the camps today about Chase carrying you through the encampment late last night. Some thought they were watching a scene out of Gone with the Wind.”

I groaned. I felt my cheeks grow hot. I must have looked so pathetic cradled in Chase’s arms like a damsel in distress, which I most certainly was not. “He wouldn’t let me walk,” I said in my own defense.

She teased my hair. “I’m not knocking it. If a fine man like that wanted to carry me around, he’s welcome to. Of course, I don’t weigh a hundred pounds like you do, so I don’t know if he could pick me up.”

“Please, I don’t weigh anywhere close to a hundred pounds, and he could pick you up no problem,” I said. I hated it when Laura commented on her weight. She was beautiful just the way she was.

“Maybe he would sling me over his shoulder, pirate style,” she chuckled.

“Ow,” I cried.

“Sorry, I must have gotten a little carried away with my teasing. Your dramatic rescue is all anyone has talked about today.”

“I bet. That’s so embarrassing.”

She selected a round brush from the table. “A normal woman would be thrilled with having a handsome man rescue her.”

“I’m not accustomed to being rescued and can’t say that I like it.” I winced as she tugged on my hair. What was she doing back there?

“You should be glad that Chase came along. Who knew how long you might have been down there, or if whoever put you there was on his way back to finish the job?”

I shivered. I knew I was lucky, but I had someone to thank more than Chase: Jason. I hoped he wouldn’t leave now that he knew I knew he was living on the Farm. That’s not what I wanted. “Have you seen Jason today?”

“No, but I hardly see him on a normal day, and this is not a normal day.”

“Far from it,” I agreed.

“Why do you think you were hit on the head?”

“Whoever killed Maxwell must think I’m too close to discovering who he or she is. The truth is, they’re wrong. I couldn’t be further from knowing who the killer is.”

“I think you should pay attention to the warning. The reenactors will be leaving tomorrow. Let it be.”

“I can’t,” I said.

She sighed. “I can see from the look on your face that you’re determined to ignore me.”

“Maybe we can run through the suspects?”

She sighed again. “Fine.”

“There is Jamie the business partner.”

“What’s his problem?”

“He and Maxwell were the main investors in that failed construction project. They lost a huge amount of money in the mall on Kale Road, but the police chief gave him an unbreakable alibi. He’s out.”

She waved her brush in the air. “Besides, if Maxwell was going to be given power over millions of dollars from Cynthia, why would Jamie knock him off? Now he has no money and a lot of useless land.”

“Good point. There’s Shepley.”

“Shepley?”

“He is in charge of the beautification project for New Hartford. Cynthia was planning to support it, but Maxwell promised not to.”

She grimaced. “I’m glad I wasn’t there when Shepley was told. Did his head start to spin?”

“And it was his bees that were used for the murder. Plus, I learned today that Wesley died from eating lily of the valley.” At her silence, I added. “Lily of the valley is a toxic plant, and Shepley has a crop of it in his medicinal garden.”

“That garden is built like a high-security prison.”

I nodded.

“Wouldn’t that be kind of dumb for him to use his own bees and his own flowers? And I can’t see Shepley plotting such a methodical murder. I mean, it’s never any secret what the guy is thinking or feeling. He screams in your face on a regular basis, and you’re his boss. I would think it would be much more likely if he grabbed one of the soldiers’ rifles and shot Maxwell in the heart in front of the entire Farm.”

I had to agree that Laura had given a pretty good assessment of Shepley’s character. “There’s the fiancée, Portia.”

“If she was marrying him for his money, she won’t get any now. If I were her, I would have waited a few years after the wedding and then poisoned him.”

“Should I be concerned that you’ve thought out the best way to kill people?”

She grinned. “Not at all.”

“She’s also Wesley’s ex-girlfriend. She dumped Wesley so she could marry Maxwell for money.”

“See, there you go. She’d have no reason to kill her sugar daddy until he put a wedding band on her finger.” She selected another brush. I was beginning to wonder how many brushes were necessary in a normal woman’s daily routine. I was more of a wash and braid girl. Laura waved the paddle brush back and forth over my head as she spoke. “Wesley is the young man the police believe is behind it.”

“Right.”

“The confession letter that the chief found sounded pretty convincing.”

“Did you see it?”

“Heard about it. You know how everyone talks around here.”

“I’m not convinced…” I trailed off. “Then there’s Chase.”

She yanked on my hair. “The Union hero? No way.”

“Ow!” I cried. “Be careful. I did just get knocked on the back of the head with a brick.”

“I’m sorry.” She pulled the brush through much more slowly this time. “If you didn’t braid your hair so tightly, you wouldn’t have these kinks.” She clicked her tongue. “How can you even think it was Chase after he saved you?”

“Saving has nothing to do with it. He has an alibi,” I said. I told her about Chase’s sleeping at the firehouse the night of Maxwell’s murder.

“I knew he couldn’t have done it.” She pushed four bobby pins into my head. “Wanna know what I think?”

“Not really,” I said as another bobby pin jabbed into my scalp.

“Too bad. You’re going to hear it anyway.” She removed the last bobby pin from her mouth. “I think you’re afraid of him.”

“What?” I jerked forward in my seat.

She pulled me back me by the shoulder. “Don’t move, you’ll ruin my masterpiece. And I’m right; you’re afraid of Chase.”

“That the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You’re afraid of him because you’re attracted to him and don’t know what to do about it. You’ve been in love with Eddie since you were fourteen years old. It must be odd to have romantic feelings for someone else.”

I stared at my hands clenched together on my lap. How was Laura able to nail me so well? It wasn’t until she said this that I knew it was true. I had only ever loved Eddie. I’d never looked at another man in that way, even since the divorce. Hayden, the Farm, and even my father were distractions from finding someone else. Little did I know I would stumble over someone playing dead on my pastureland. But even if Laura was right, that didn’t mean I had to admit it to her.

“I might find him attractive.”

She laughed. “If that’s as far as you are willing to confess, I will take it.” She patted my hair. “My masterpiece is done. Now get upstairs into your dress.”

In my bedroom, I stepped in the hoop skirt and slipped on the corset. Laura stood behind me. “This is going to hurt.”

I held up my hand to stop her. “Don’t pull too tight.”

“I just pull tight enough to get the dress on you. It’s tiny. There wasn’t a whole lot of selection in the costume closets. Most of the women’s clothing was everyday dresses and aprons.” She pulled on the corset strings. “Suck it in.”

I took a deep breath as she pulled the string. I felt like my ribs were about to crack. “Okay, okay! That’s tight enough.”

“Are you sure? With another tug, I can take your waist down another inch.”

“No. This is fine. Breathing is really important to me.”

She tied the strings. “Okay, it’s my turn. Pull as tight as you can. I’m willing to sacrifice breathing.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped behind her. I yanked on her corset strings with all I had.

“Ow!” she cried.

I froze. “Am I hurting you?”

“Nope,” she winced. “That was just right. Tie it off.”

I did as I was told and she admired herself in the mirror. “I have to say I’m looking pretty good. I would wear this every day if it didn’t threaten to break one of my ribs or cause internal bleeding.”

I lifted her heavy dress over her head and helped her into it. I did the buttons up her back. “You’re beautiful.”

“I’m not bad, but I can’t wait to see you in your dress.” She picked the blue gown off of the bed and slipped it over my head. With practiced fingers she fastened the dozens of cloth buttons up the back.

Side by side we stared in the mirror. “Don’t we look like a couple of fine ladies?” she asked. “I feel like Robert E. Lee or someone equally grand should escort us to the ball.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Not Grant?”

“That guy was a drunk.”

I twirled in front of the mirror, a move I wouldn’t have done in front of any person other than Laura. I had to admit, I didn’t look half bad, but Laura—with her peaches and cream skin and sparkling green eyes—was gorgeous. Her dress was off the shoulder, like mine. The cut made me look smaller, but it enhanced all Laura’s curves. She would have a full dance card tonight.

“Well, we’ll have to be satisfied with my father as an escort.” I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. “He should be home soon from his matinee performance of Hamlet.”

“Works for me.” She examined my dress. “I did a wonderful job making you up. This might be some of my best work. You look like Scarlett O’Hara come to life.”

I snorted. “Right.”

“No really, Kelsey, you are beautiful. Chase Wyatt doesn’t stand a chance.”

I peered into the full-length mirror. Laura was wrong. It was I who didn’t stand a chance.

“Hello, hello,” my father called from the bottom of the stairs. “I’m home and changed from my fifteen-century attire to my nineteenth-century. Are you ladies ready for the ball?”

Dad waited for us at the bottom of the stairs. He wore his Union dress uniform—all of it for the occasion of the ball. He grinned. “My. Aren’t I lucky man to escort you two beauties to the ball?”

“Thank you, Mr. Renard.” Laura looped her arm through his.

Tiffin placed his head on his pillow. He didn’t like the idea of being left at home during the ball, but I couldn’t have him barking at everyone or trying to herd the guests during dances.