Midsummer's Night Murder

7

Racing downstairs, I thought how peculiar it was to see Daisy move so freely at home - her Mother was usually there to disapprove of unladylike things. I checked the grandfather clock as we skidded down the hallway: it read 7 o'clock. Goodness! 7 o'clock? It felt as though we had only been here 10 minutes!

We entered the dining room, and laid eyes upon a delicious spread of food, and Francis and Nancy, sitting next to each other, helping themselves. Daisy was fuming, and I could tell she was about to tell them to leave, but I dug my nails into her arm and gave her a look. She sighed, remembering we had to find out about Nancy. Putting on her best false smile, she took a seat at the head of the tables. I sat down next to her, with Alexander on my other side, and George next to Daisy.

An awkward silence hung in the air, as I picked up a salmon paste sandwich and dropped it on my plate. I passed George the sausage rolls and he passed them to Daisy, Alexander passed me the ham sandwiches and Francis passed me the salad, which I already had on my plate. But we needed to get closer to him in terms of him trusting us, so I took some lettuce anyway, hoping I didn't seem greedy.

"So.. what have you lot been up to this afternoon?" Asked Francis gingerly.

The boys and I could all tell that Daisy was being overwhelmed by the urge to snap something like: 'None of your business!'; so Alexander stepped in quickly.

"Oh, nothing much really." He told them vaguely. "How about you?" George added.

"Well, we went for a lovely walk in the garden as usual. We try to go at the same time almost everyday."

Daisy was itching to scream at him that 'walking in her garden (thank you very much) was a Detective Society thing to do.' And to be perfectly honest, so was I.

I forced myself to smile.

"That's nice. What time was that? I know the garden looks simply glorious in the afternoon sun!" George asked slyly.

"Oh, I don't know, half past 5 maybe?"

"Hmm" said Daisy emotionlessly.

I made a mental note of that.

Dinner passed with little more information found. Pudding was fruit trifle, which I tried not to eat too much of. When we were all finished, Nancy and Francis remained sat down with us while some servants cleared the table.

"Francis! Help clear the table please." Snapped Daisy.

"What?"

"Clear the table. Servants do not sit around while their fellow staff do all the work. And nor do they dine with us, but I will let that off for I am an awfully kind and generous young lady."

I couldn't be bothered to try and stop her. She'd tried very hard trying not to sack him during dinner, and besides: maybe it would be useful if he knew his place.

"Oh, but Aunt-, I mean, Mrs Doherty-"

"Is not your mistress. Clear the table."

Finally, he sat up, scowling, and began to vigorously stack up plates and bowls.

"Good lord, not like that! You'll break them, and then you'll have to pay for new ones, and I hate to tell you but this crockery isn't cheap. Stack them gently. But faster than that!"

She let out an exhausted sigh.

"Let's go up to bed now, everyone."

We all nodded, and made our way upstairs again.

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OH MY GOSH THIS STORY IS #1 ON #MurderMostUnladylike!!!!!!!!!!!!
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