The Prince's Secret (The Royal Biography Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

sleeping and set a fire. The bodies of Darnley and his servant were found in the fields near the house in which they had been residing. Examination of the bodies proved they were either smothered or strangled before the explosion. Now, why would someone kill them first and then blow up the residence? It would appear that blowing up the house where Darnley lived was a ruse to cover the murderers’ tracks.
    Three months after Darnley was murdered, Bothwell obtained a divorce for his wife on grounds that he had been seducing the servants. Subsequently, Mary and Bothwell entered into the holy union of matrimony. The Scots were scandalized. The whole affair led to Mary’s undoing. She became immensely unpopular as Queen, and Scotland soon descended into civil war. Mary’s half-brother, James Moray, headed up a rebellion and sent her fleeing to England, to beg Queen Elizabeth I for mercy.
    All of this drama is what I love about history. Modern detectives solve modern mysteries, but we historians glue together pieces of the puzzle to solve old intrigues --and the mystery of who really killed Darnley is huge. Historians still haven’t definitively answered whether or not Mary, Queen of Scots was involved.
    <> Schnipps messages.
    <>
    <> Is it just me, or does this message sound especially gleeful for the extremely dry Mr. Schnipps?
    I finish reading the last of the 15 pages, which are mostly an endless description about the color of Bothwell’s eyes. If anything will put me to sleep, it’s some enamored woman ruminating about a man’s eye color. I shut down my computer, turn out my desk lamp, and head upstairs to bed. Outside there is a soft wind blowing, and a gentle rain begins to fall, pit pat, pit pat, on my cottage roof.

Chapter 6

    The following day, I am working on the first three chapters of the Prince’s biography when I take a small break and turn on the television.
    There’s the Prince in Indonesia, or somewhere, wearing a basket for a hat. Inside the basket is a snake. Some spry old man, wearing a basket with a snake on his own head, is teaching the Prince how to do a fancy dance, yet neither the Prince nor the snakes look very happy about any of it.
    Then, the British press goes on to talk about the aging population of Britain, and how nobody seems to be dying anymore, so everyone is outliving their pensions. This piece sounds very dire --plague-of-locust-dire-- and the reporter drones on saying that if all the merry older folk who no longer contribute to the economy don’t die soon, they will eat Britain out of house and home.
    She doesn’t exactly put it in those words, but that’s the gist.
    What an awful report to run on the BBC, which, let’s face it, is mostly watched by people of a certain age. And by the number of people driving around London in their BMW’s and their M-Class Mercedes, people in Britain aren’t dying of hunger. Most of the country appears extremely well-off, in my opinion.
    I reach up to turn off the television when the broadcast switches to a shot of graveyards. By now, I think every person over the age of 55 must have turned off the television. What are they suggesting? Going from discussing the elderly to shots of graveyards?
    “BBC1 has uncovered a rash of grave robberies in the last few weeks, especially in the Cotswolds area, but also on the outskirts of York. Grave robberies are also prominent throughout Scotland.”
    Grave robbers? That sounds