Read Murder Goes Mumming for Free Online

British hands during the Battle of the Restigouche. About seventeen-sixty, that would be. Anyway, I’m glad we were able to give you the treat.”
    “Do you see it often, Squire?”
    May answered Janet’s question for her father. “No, thank God. The ship is no treat to me, I can tell you. The first time I ever saw it, I fell off my horse the very next morning and broke my leg. The second was the night of the big gale that wrecked my boat and knocked down a big hackmatack that came right through my bedroom window and scared me half to death.”
    “And the third time you married Herbert,” said Clara not quite so playfully as she might have. “Remember? I came down with measles and crashed the reception with spots all over me and gave them to Herbert and put a crimp in your honeymoon.”
    “Clara always had an original sense of humor,” Squire laughed indulgently. “Come along, everybody, drink up. Ludovic, isn’t it almost time we went into the dining room?”
    “Yes, sir. I was about to announce dinner when the fire ship arrived.”
    “Well, let’s hope if the ship portends another disaster, it isn’t to the dinner,” said Lawrence. “I’m starved.”
    “When are you not?” His playful wife gave the lawyer a poke in the paunch. “All hands round and do-si-do. Last one in’s a rotten egg.”
    In fact, they formed up decorously enough. Squire gave his arm to Janet, which was an honor she hadn’t anticipated and could have done nicely without, although her status as a bride-to-be entitled her to it, she supposed. Madoc offered his to Aunt Adelaide as the eldest of the ladies, somewhat to the chagrin of Valerie, who had been eyeing Dafydd’s younger brother with a certain amount of interest despite Roy’s toothsome presence. The rest paired off one way and another, all but Cyril. He made a last detour past the wassail bowl before winding up the procession with May’s sons Edwin and Francis, whom their elders thought it fun to call Winny and Franny though Ed and Frank would no doubt have pleased the boys better.
    Babs had not exaggerated about the tons of lovely food. Janet would have been willing to call it quits after the oyster soup, but there was still the roast goose and a good deal more to come. The Condryckes ate as lustily as they drank. Janet and Madoc couldn’t possibly begin to keep up, though they both had healthy enough appetites for smallish people. They made jokes about not being able to get into their wedding clothes if they overstuffed and managed to avoid surfeit without giving offense, or so they hoped.
    “What a pity about your grandmother’s teeth,” Janet remarked to Donald, who was sitting on her other side. “You must be sorry she had to miss dinner.”
    “Oh, Granny never eats with the family,” he replied. “She has a sort of high tea at five o’clock or thereabout, and a snack at bedtime if she feels like it. She’s quite old, you know. Though come to think of it, how could you know? Perhaps Babs or May will take you and Madoc up to meet her after we finish, if she’s not asleep and has managed to find her teeth. Granny’s much too vain to show herself without them. She was a beauty in her day, and she still likes to be thought one. Are you quite sure you don’t want Ludovic to give you another sliver of goose?”
    “Really, I couldn’t,” she assured him. “I’m sure there’s a wonderful dessert to come and I’m trying to save room for a taste.”
    “There is and you must. Babs is right, I always do have to diet after a visit to Graylings. She keeps me on bread and water at home. Don’t you, Babs?” Donald called across the table to his wife.
    “As her lawyer I advise her not to answer that,” shouted Lawrence, who was sitting next to his sister-in-law. He was pretty well flown by now. Ludovic had been keeping the glasses filled with what was probably very good wine, although all Janet knew about wine was that it made her sleepy if she drank much and