Murder on Waverly Place Read Online Free PDF Page A

small flicker of alarm pass over her mother’s face, and she quickly stepped in. “Are you well acquainted with my father?” she asked.
    “Just enough to admire his success, I’m afraid,” he said, easing her mind.
    Footsteps in the hallway alerted them to another arrival, and a woman entered the room. She wore a hat and gloves, but she had obviously come from somewhere else inside the house, since they would have seen her coming in the front door.
    “Mrs. Gittings,” Mrs. Burke said with renewed alarm, which she covered with a bright smile. “Mrs. Decker has come, and she’s brought her daughter, Mrs. Brandt.”
    Mrs. Gittings took them in with a swift, measuring glance. “So I see.” She was a small woman with an ordinary face. Although her dress was the height of fashion and her hat very stylish, Sarah could see she wasn’t quite comfortable in her finery, as if she’d only recently acquired the means to own such expensive things.
    “Do you think it will be all right?” Mrs. Burke asked. “With Madame Serafina, I mean?”
    “She must tell us that herself,” Mrs. Gittings said and turned to Mrs. Decker expectantly.
    Mrs. Burke took the hint and quickly introduced her to Sarah and her mother.
    “Pleased to meet you, I’m sure,” Mrs. Gittings said, although her expression betrayed no pleasure at all.
    Sarah was beginning to think her coming was not just an uncomfortable situation for her but a genuine problem. Should she offer to leave? Or simply to wait in another room during the séance?
    “We might as well sit down,” Mrs. Gittings said before she could decide. “Mr. Cunningham hasn’t arrived yet, and we can’t start without him.”
    “He’s always late,” Mr. Sharpe observed with disapproval. “The young have no manners.”
    “He’s an orphan, Mr. Sharpe,” Mrs. Burke reminded him too brightly.
    “He’s only fatherless and his father died when he was twenty-two, Mrs. Burke,” he reminded her right back. “That was plenty of time to learn propriety.”
    Sarah wondered if the missing Mr. Cunningham wanted to contact his late father, but she didn’t ask. She wasn’t quite sure what the rules of etiquette were for séances. Was it rude to ask whom one wished to contact? Would Madame Serafina ask them outright or would she just know?
    Mr. Sharpe turned back to the window, and the ladies took seats around the center table with the tea things on it.
    “Would you like some tea while we’re waiting?” Mrs. Gittings asked them, almost as if she were their hostess.
    “Nothing for me,” Mrs. Decker said. Sarah figured her mother’s stomach was tied in knots, just as hers was. Sarah also declined. She didn’t think she could swallow a thing.
    “In any case, it’s nice to see some new faces,” Mrs. Gittings remarked in an attempt at small talk.
    “Yes, it is,” Mrs. Burke said with forced enthusiasm.
    Sarah could stand it no longer. “Is there something we should know before . . . before it starts?”
    “Oh, my, no,” Mrs. Burke assured her. “Madame will explain everything. There’s nothing to worry about. The spirits want to help us, don’t they, Mrs. Gittings?”
    “I’m sure they do,” Mrs. Gittings replied with studied neutrality.
    “Yellow Feather does, in any case,” Mr. Sharpe offered from his station by the window.
    “Yellow Feather?” Sarah repeated in surprise. “Who’s that?”
    “That’s Madame Serafina’s spirit guide,” Mrs. Burke explained eagerly. “He’s an Indian warrior who passed away over a hundred years ago. He—”
    The sound of the front doorbell ringing surprised them all, and every head turned toward the doorway to see if Mr. Cunningham had arrived at last. They saw the Professor pass by on his way to answer it, and then heard a young man’s voice making apologies for being late. In another moment, he appeared in the doorway.
    He couldn’t have been much older than twenty-two now, so Sarah judged he couldn’t have been