Read The Villa of Death: A Mystery Featuring Daphne du Maurier (Daphne du Maurier Mysteries) for Free Online Page A

with Daphne. I’ll stand guard, don’t you worry.”
    “No, I can’t leave him,” Ellen wailed. “I just can’t. Please,” she begged him, “please keep the others away.”
    Nodding, my father went to lock the door while unraveling his tie. “Easily done.”
    *   *   *
    The strangest night passed dismally slow. Despite her protestations, the sedative did send Ellen to sleep. My father and I dozed off and on, my father having the good sense to cover the body with a blanket.
    I felt ill with a corpse so near. A strong, reasonably healthy man and now he was dead. I had difficulty equating the fact in my mind. True, he was several years older than Ellen, sixteen to be precise, however, he conducted himself like a young man. He had a quick step and he rode well. I’d seen him bound up the stairs and swing Charlotte around a few times. If the man had a bad heart condition, he’d have struggled with such activities, and Teddy Grimshaw seemed a man always in control.
    My father had shared none of my qualms that night. Lighting his cigar, he had said to the corpse, “Well, old fellow, I’ll still have a cigar with you, though it’s not what I had in mind.”
    I wondered how the other guests fared. I wondered if Major Browning thought the death suspicious. He, like the others, would have heard Rosalie Grimshaw’s outburst. Murder, she’d cried.
    Murder? It looked like a straightforward heart attack to me. Sometimes it happened when one was in high spirits. It wasn’t fair, but it happened. I remembered reading in the paper about a young woman coming home to England to be reunited with her family only to perish the night prior. That was also heart failure and the woman only in her thirties.
    Ellen still lay sleeping, though fitful and restless and I did not envy her waking up today. Snoring in an armchair by the body, my father remained a neglectful guard. Creeping over to him, I pulled his overcoat.
    “W-what…?” he spluttered, his memory sharpened.
    “I’m just going to organize some tea. Can you watch Ellen while I’m gone?”
    I did not look at the body. I refused to look at the body. Once outside, I was glad to see the house hadn’t stirred yet. It was quiet and undisturbed; the only sound the ticking grandfather clock on the hall’s mantelpiece.
    I entered the kitchen as the cook stoked the fire.
    “Ah, hello there, Miss Daphne.”
    I smiled at the large middle-aged woman. Everything about Nelly Ireson was large—her plump hands, her big smile, her booming voice. “I’ve missed you, Nelly. You haven’t changed at all.”
    “And ye’ve grown up so pretty! Very pretty!” Bustling back to the fire, she shook her head. “Sad. It’s sad. So nice to see her happy again, after all that. Did she sleep?”
    “Yes, a little, with the sedative. I do hope they move the body today.”
    “Oh, don’t ye worry ye little head with it. Dr. Peterson may be old and a little bit deaf but he’s not slow about his business. Ye best stay with her every minute, Miss Daphne. She’s been through hell and I think this one’s near done her in. Good thing that sweet girl is here.”
    “You mean Charlotte? You believe she’d take her life if Charlotte weren’t here?”
    Nelly’s brown eyes narrowed. “That little girl were the savin’ of her, even if she were disowned for it.”
    “Nelly,” I murmured, looking behind me. “You must be careful what you say, for Ellen’s sake. Not many know the full story.”
    “Oh, there’ll be knowin’ now, if ye know what I mean. Death brings it all out. Ye’ll have to help her, Miss Daphne. Don’t ye leave Ellen on her own. I worry about her. I always have, since she were a wee babe.”
    “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving. I have no commitments so I can stay as long as I want … or as long as Ellen needs me.”
    Nelly nodded, pleased. “Ye’re a good girl. Not like these other mad young women I see chasin’ after every male in a flashy motorcar. Phew! Did ye