Mrs. Jeffries Speaks Her Mind Read Online Free PDF Page B

servants due back from the funeral?”
    “I’m not sure. Cook’s funeral was in Kent and I gave my maid the day off. Her family lives in that region so I said she needn’t come back until tomorrow. But I should think Olive’s staff would be back soon. The train service is quite good, and even if they stayed for the reception, I’m sure Olive expected them back by the early afternoon. She wasn’t one to take care of herself for long periods of time. Truth to tell, I was surprised that Olive—Miss Kettering—gave all of them the morning off at the same time.”
    “Surely she didn’t begrudge them paying their respects to their colleague,” Witherspoon exclaimed. “She doesn’t sound as if she treated her staff very well at all.”
    “By her standards she treated them very well.” Mrs. Fox smiled. “By theirs, I’m sure they felt very hard done by. I’m sure she complained bitterly about being left on her own, but in the end, she did let them go.”
    “Then exactly why were you surprised, ma’am?” Barnes gazed at her curiously.
    “She didn’t like being alone in the house,” Mrs. Fox replied. “For some reason, it made her nervous. Recently, there had also been some friction between Miss Kettering and her servants.”
    Witherspoon sat up straighter. “What kind of friction?”
    Mrs. Fox looked down at her hands and then lifted her eyes to meet the inspector’s. “They blamed her for Elsa Grant’s death. I overheard the downstairs maid telling the gardener that all of them blamed her and that most of them were going to start looking for new positions.”
    The inspector’s heart sank. Ye gods, surely there wasn’t going to be another murder. “Exactly how did the cook die?”
    “From natural causes, I assure you.” Mrs. Fox waved her hand dismissively. “Mrs. Grant died from a stomach ailment. She’d had it for months.”
    “Then why did the servants think Miss Kettering was to blame for the woman’s death?” Barnes asked reasonably.
    Mrs. Fox shrugged. “None of them like Miss Kettering, she has very exacting standards.”
    “Lots of servants don’t like their masters, but they rarely accuse them of murder,” the constable pointed out.
    “As I said, Miss Kettering has very exacting standards; she works her servants quite hard,” she replied. “The staff seemed to think that the cook took a turn for the worse a few days ago. Miss Kettering insisted the cook finish preparing dinner instead of going to the doctor. They seem to believe that if Mrs. Grant had seen the physician, she’d still be alive today.”
    “Even for a woman with exacting standards, not allowing a sick woman to see her doctor is fairly harsh,” Witherspoon muttered.
    “But she’d no idea that cook was as ill as she turned out to be. The woman was always complaining about her health,” Mrs. Fox said defensively. “How was she to know that this time, Mrs. Grant was genuinely ill? Olive had an important dinner party planned for that night and, frankly, if I’d been in her place, I’d have done the very same thing. Her actions were totally blameless and she certainly wasn’t responsible for anyone dying.”
    “An important dinner party,” Witherspoon echoed. He’d found that if he repeated words back to people, they frequently said more.
    “She was hosting a dinner for Reverend Richards and she’d invited a number of influential people. Of course she needed a superb meal that evening.” She sniffed and dabbed at her eyes again.
    “Did Miss Kettering have any enemies?” Barnes asked. “Had she had any trouble with anyone lately?”
    Mrs. Fox thought for a moment before answering. “I wouldn’t say that she had enemies, but there were a good number of people who weren’t fond of her.”
    “Other than her servants,” Witherspoon clarified.
    “Yes. To begin with, there’s her cousin, Dorian Kettering. There’s been no love lost between the two of them lately. Pity, really. They used to be quite