A Crimson Warning Read Online Free PDF Page A

poor Davis. You didn’t even allow him to announce you. You know I value him above everyone else in the household. I can’t have you scaring him off.”
    “I know, madam, that should I ever leave your service, you would no doubt replace me with a man of lesser character,” my butler said. “One who might not keep you from your husband’s cigars. You can’t possibly think I would stand by and allow such a thing to happen.”
    With that, he exited the room, leaving my mother sputtering in disbelief. “Emily! You are conversing with your servants. Have you lost all of your breeding?” She lowered herself into the chair across from me, keeping her own posture pointedly erect. “Stop slouching. It’s unbecoming.”
    I straightened my spine, pulled back my shoulders, and sighed. “To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure, Mother?”
    “I have heard the most scandalous rumor. Talk in the park is that you attended a meeting of the Women’s Liberal Federation this morning. Surely it must be a falsehood.”
    “Not at all,” I said. “I did attend, and enjoyed it greatly.”
    “I will not have it, Emily. I will not be embarrassed by you. Not after the lengths I’ve gone to in what will undoubtedly prove to be a vain attempt to preserve the tattered shreds of your reputation, given all your eccentricities.”
    It would be difficult to discern which of my so-called eccentricities most vexed my mother. She objected to my study of Greek (I adored reading Homer in the original), was appalled when I set to cataloging the works of ancient art housed in England’s great estates (it was mortifying for her to see her daughter apply for admission to her friends’ houses for such a purpose), and despaired at my involvement in criminal investigations. That I was good at it held no sway with her, and no one could suspect my enjoyment of the work might soften her views on the subject.
    Colin cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I owe you an apology, Lady Bromley. It was my own mother who invited Emily to the meeting. I had no idea allowing her to accept the invitation would upset you.” He met my eyes and grinned while my mother sputtered for the briefest of moments before pulling herself taller and composing herself.
    “Mrs. Hargreaves is involved in such groups?” she asked, her mouth very nearly hanging open.
    “Oh, yes. A founding member, in fact,” Colin said. “Perfectly respectable, I assure you.”
    “I don’t like it, Mr. Hargreaves, I don’t.” She shook her head, her expression grim. “I know the difficulties you face in trying to control my daughter, and allowing her to associate with those people—your mother excluded, of course—will not help your cause.”
    “My cause, Lady Bromley, is to see to it your daughter has the happiest of lives. If she requires the Women’s Liberal Federation, she shall have it.”
    “She’s corrupting you,” she said. “I feared as much.”
    “I’m afraid there’s nothing more to be said on the subject,” Colin said.
    They stared at each other, neither wanting to be the first to back down, but no one could best my husband when it came to matters of will. My mother, defeated, rose from her seat. “I shall leave you to your unruly wife, Mr. Hargreaves. Heaven help you both.”
    I sighed and sank back deeper into my chair before the door had closed behind her. “She’s exhausting.”
    “Always,” Colin said. “But in a most entertaining way.”
    “You say that only because her energy is not focused on you,” I said, pleased to find that my mother’s interventions no longer sent me spiraling the way they used to. Instead of feeling vaguely ill and something like a disappointment as I used to following similar encounters, I was ready to return to the subject at hand without giving her any further thought. “We were discussing Mr. Dillman. If his friends and employees reveal no clues, where shall you turn next?”
    “I’ll continue to sift through his business