Midsummer's Night Murder

4

"Oh! Miss Daisy! Its so wonderful to have you home again!" cried Chapman, the old butler.

Millie and Toast Dog ran up to us, and Daisy greeted them lovingly.

"Hello, Daisy!" beamed Hetty. "And hello, Hazel, Alexander and George!"

The servants had been informed that Daisy's 'death' was indeed a fake, and there were tears in their eyes as they greeted their beloved mistress. They also remembered George and Alexander from Christmas, and Mrs Doherty was very fond of Alexander, as he had helped find her missing brooch.

We made our way upstairs to our rooms. Daisy and I shared her old room, and the boys were across the landing. Our bags were already there, and we chatted as we unpacked. Presently, there was a knock on our bedroom door, and Alexander and George walked in. George thumped down on Daisy's bed, and Alexander sat down next to me. I hoped no one could see me blush.

"Finally! Summer holidays!" sighed George contently, lying down on Daisy's bed.

Daisy pushed him off and took his place.

"Indeed" smirked Daisy.

George sat down at the end of Daisy's bed.

"So. What are we going to do these next 6 weeks?" he asked.

Before anyone could answer, there was another knock at the door.

"Come in!" called Daisy.

A young man of about 20 walked in, carrying a red tray. He had smooth copper hair, olive green eyes, and a freckled face; and was closely followed by a girl of the same age. She was fairly pretty: a small dainty woman, with deep chestnut eyes, and shoulder length, fawn-coloured hair. She smiled sweetly, and the boy grinned.

"Who are you?" Asked Daisy suspiciously with a sickly sweet smile.

I frowned at her. Why must she be so rude to everybody?!

"Oh of course! How rude of me! I'm Francis, Mrs Doherty's nephew. And this is Nancy, my girlfriend. You must be The Honourable Daisy Wells. How do you do?" he smiled, holding out his hand.

"Mmm." said Daisy, clearly unimpressed, eyeing his hand with scepticism. "This is my best frien-"

"Hazel, yes." he said. He held out his hand and I shook it, taken aback that he knew my name.

"Yes." said Daisy, crossly. "And I suppose you already know who these two are then."

"Yes! Alexander and George!"

"And, um, what exactly are you doing in my house?" asked Daisy.

"I'm, well, a servant I suppose."

"And what about the girl?" she nodded towards Nancy most rudely.

"Nancy, is coming to stay with me."

"How funny! For I do not remember the servants being allowed to bring their own guests to their Mistress's house, especially not when she is present. You may leave."

Francis frowned and Nancy pursed her lips crossly. They left, clearly offended, and closed the door behind them.

"Daisy!" I chided. "How dare you be so rude to them? They did nothing wrong! They were just trying to be nice!"

"Nothing wrong?! Like I said, servants are not allowed to have their own guests!"

"Well, as he's Mrs Doherty's nephew-"

"That's still no excuse! They knew I was coming- how dare they more like! And they interrupted their mistress! That Francis is such a know-it-all: knowing who we all are before we've met him!"

"Your just embarrassed that you didn't know anything about them!"

"No. I agree with Daisy, I don't like them either. I mean, who do they think they are?!" Alexander butted in.

"What?! Alexander! How could yo-" I spluttered.

"He doesn't always have to be on your side you know, Hazel!" Daisy snapped.

"I never said he did!"

"This is totally irrelevant to this conversation!" George exclaimed.

"You don't need to get involved, George. This isn't your fight!" Daisy retaliated.

"You're not the boss of me, Daisy Wells! You're not the boss of anyone!"

"STOP! EVERYONE, JUST STOP!!" I yelled suddenly.

Everyone went silent.

"Why are we all arguing?! We're supposed to be having a nice Summer Holiday and then we're all just ruining it with fighting! What is wrong with all of us?! I just want to spend time with my best friends with no stupid cases, but it's all going wrong!"

My eyes stung with tears as I stared around at the 3 guilty faces looking at me.

"Hazel, we're sorry, we just-" began Alexander.

"No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted."

"It's alright" said George. "Alex, let's go back to our room and unpack."

He left, and Alexander squeezed my hand before following him out of the door.

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