Silent Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Rather nice of you not to see it that way.”
    “Not at all, darling sister. Of course, I do hope the experience has cured you of your curiosity regarding gunpowder. I mean, the explosion itself was not the primary cause of my injury, but it certainly did not aid matters. I honestly cannot imagine a more stupid, ninny-headed—” The moment of fraternal camaraderie had clearly passed.
    “Yes, thank you, Plum. That will do.”
    “I say, there’s no need to get testy. ”
    “I am not being testy, you great pillock—”
    “If the two of you are going to quarrel, you could at least fetch me a whisky first,” Brisbane put in before sinking another shot.
    I rose and poured a glass for him and another for myself. Plum could shift for himself. He looked rather longingly at my glass as I settled back into my chair.
    “So, what does it all mean? Father’s in a state, ghosts walking abroad in the night...seems rather familiar, doesn’t it?” Brisbane flicked me a look across the green baize of the table, his eyes warm in the lamplight. We were both thinking of his first visit to the Abbey. We had unmasked a murderer and had one or two rather breathlessly interesting interludes that led directly to my following him to Yorkshire the followingspring. 5 That was where our relationship had found its proper footing, but I would always remember the snowbound days at the Abbey as among the most infuriating and exciting of my life.
    “I think the new sighting of a ghost is a curious thing,” I began.
    Plum waved an airy hand. “Some daft maidservant got at the cooking sherry and is seeing things that do not exist,” Plum said decidedly. “There is no mystery here save the source of Father’s foul mood.”
    “He is a March,” Brisbane returned as lined up his last shot. “You may as well ask why the sun rises in the west.”
    “The sun rises in the east,” I corrected.
    “Precisely.” He drew back his arm and punched the end of his stick into the ball, driving it home. He did not look up as he sighted his next shot. “I can feel you thinking, Julia. What is it?”
    “Aunt Hermia’s favourite trinket is missing—the little coral ring she wears most days.”
    “And what besides?”
    “There is a new stillroom maid, Rose, arrived from Aunt Hermia’s refuge in London.”
    Brisbane straightened and chalked his cue. “And what besides?”
    “Is that not enough?”
    “Not to formulate a theory. You know better than that.”
    “I do,” I said, nibbling at my lip. “I just wonder.”
    Plum snorted. “Men have been hanged on the strength of someone wondering.”
    I sighed. “You must admit, it makes a neat pattern. And do not tell me the similarities have not struck you as well.”
    “Similarities?” Brisbane’s voice was deliberately neutral.
    “You know what I mean. It is too similar to events that transpired the last time we were here. Ghosts prowling the Abbey, missing jewels, new faces.”
    He put aside the cue and leaned against the table, crossing one muscular leg over the other. “And you want to investigate.”
    “I want us to investigate,” I corrected. “For my own peace of mind.”
    Plum rose. “I am to bed. You are clearly working up to something, and I mean to have a proper rest over the holiday, not create mysteries where there are none.”
    He took himself off to his rooms with a salute while Brisbane regarded me thoughtfully.
    He ruffled his hair with one broad hand. “Occam would count you a poor pupil,” he said, his eyes bright.
    “’The simplest explanation is the likeliest,’” I parroted. “And the simplest explanation in this case is that a jewel thief has undertaken to employ the same methods as our previous villain.”
    Brisbane rolled his eyes. “First, the culprit would have to ensure that the household was at sixes and sevens due to an ailment, which they could not possibly have introduced by nefarious means, in order to gain entrée to the household. That means that