Murder at the Breakers Read Online Free PDF

Great Hall I stopped, halted by the insanely normal scene that greeted me. The music had ceased and the guests stood several deep in a circle spanning the entire room. I began threading my way through with entreaties of please, and step aside, and let me pass.
    Then I drew up short. At the center of a circle, Uncle Cornelius stood with a beaming Aunt Alice beside him. At his other side stood Gertrude, hunching slightly in her frilly white dress, looking awkward at finding herself the recipient of all that attention. Reggie and Alfred were there as well, hovering behind their sister. As the room blurred slightly around me, glasses of champagne were held high and Uncle Cornelius spoke words my mind could not then decipher. A resounding chorus filled the hall and thundered in my ears, drowning out my racing thoughts.
    I needed to find help, but I also needed to avoid panicking the guests. There were so many of them, nearly three hundred . . . fear could cause a stampede. Who would help me—help Mr. Goddard? Though in truth my instincts told me the man was beyond earthly aid.
    Another uncertainty pounded through me. Where was Brady? Did he have anything to do with Mr. Goddard’s fall?
    Oh, God, what had Brady done?
    The crowd broke apart. With Uncle Cornelius and Aunt Alice leading them, the party streamed past me toward the dining room. I found myself engulfed in a milling kaleidoscope of color and echoing voices. Dizziness threatened to overtake me, but I staggered forward, searching for a face I could trust. Neily . . . Adelaide . . . my father’s old friend, Jack Parsons . . . I saw none of them.
    “Emmaline? Are you all right?”
    From behind me, fingertips touched lightly on my shoulder. I turned around, relief sweeping through me. “Neily . . .”
    “Good God, Emmaline! What happened to you?”
    Only then did I realize how I must have looked, with my hair straggling from its pins, my gown soaked at the knees and hems, and the wild, desperate look in my eyes. I swayed, and my cousin’s arm swept around my shoulders. As fast as my legs would allow, he walked me into the nearby music room and on into the library. He sat me down on a sofa, moved away, and shortly returned to press a snifter to my lips.
    I dutifully drank, then coughed and sputtered as the brandy lit my throat on fire. Neily crouched in front of me and took my hand.
    “Em . . . tell me what happened.”
    “I . . . outside . . . a man . . . Mr. Goddard . . .”
    Ruddy color suffused his face and his hand tightened around mine. “That fiend! Why, when I get my hands on him, I’ll—”
    “No, Neily,” I said quickly. “Mr. Goddard didn’t hurt me. He . . . oh, God.” I shook my head to clear it, to stop the roaring in my ears. “There’s been a . . . a horrible accident. I think . . . oh, Neily, I think there’s been a death at The Breakers.”

    “Wait here,” Neily said after I hastily explained what I’d witnessed.
    I jumped up from the settee. “No, I’m coming with you.”
    He didn’t like it, but I refused to stay put. Quietly we stole out the piazza doors so none of the guests now supping in the dining room would see us and take it into their heads to follow. Outside, Neily held an oil lantern beside Mr. Goddard’s face.
    “It’s Goddard, all right,” he confirmed, though there hadn’t been a doubt in my mind. He pressed his fingertips to the man’s neck where the pulse should be, then held his hand in front of Mr. Goddard’s nose, feeling for a breath. With another sigh, Neily sat back on his heels, the tails of his evening coat hanging in the wet grass. “He’s a goner, I’m afraid. I think his neck broke in the fall. God . . . poor Alvin . . .” He glanced up at the balcony. “It may only be the second floor, but the ceilings in this house are so high the distance is certainly great enough to kill a person. But how the hell did he fall?”
    I shook my head. My thumping pulse rapped out a possibility, but I wasn’t