Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) by Madalyn Morgan (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

you have just told me.’ Lines appeared on the young woman’s brow. She looked confused. Bess couldn’t tell her that Sutherland had also been stabbed, because when Henry told her, he had sworn her to secrecy. Even so, Bess felt it was her duty to make Katherine understand that she had not killed David Sutherland.

‘Katherine, hitting a man as big as Sutherland with a handbag would have at worst knocked him off balance. He may even have slipped down the bank into the water. But a blow from you would not have knocked him unconscious, so that he drowned. He was a strong man, he’d have been able to climb out of the lake in seconds. Believe me, Katherine, you did not kill David Sutherland.’

Bess saw the worry noticeably lift from Katherine’s shoulders and relief spread across her face in a thin drawn smile. ‘Thank you, Bess.’

‘There’s no need to thank me, Katherine. That man put you through a terrible ordeal. Added to which, for nine months you believed you had killed him. I wish you had talked to me sooner.’

‘I wanted to tell you that day at the bus stop, in the spring. I was desperate to tell you, but my father and Sergeant McGann had forbidden me to speak to you.’

‘I understand.’ Bess wanted to ask Katherine about her mother, but feared asking her outright would upset her more. She waited a moment, and then said, ‘Do you have any one to talk to, other than your father? An aunt, perhaps, or a female friend?’

Katherine shook her head. ‘My aunts abandoned us when my mother died. Dad said they had never liked him. He said they were jealous because he was rich. Once, when I asked him about my mother, he said she had only married him for his money, and if it hadn’t been that she got pregnant with me, he would have divorced her.’

Bess saw in Katherine Hawksley’s eyes the years of sadness and the pain that her vile fascist father had caused her by saying such wicked things. She watched helplessly as huge tears fell from them. ‘Dad said my mother never wanted me.’

Bess could stand it no longer. She leapt out of her chair, knelt in front of Katherine and clasped her hands. ‘I want you to promise me that if you are ever frightened, worried, or just need someone to talk to, you’ll come and talk to me.’ Katherine nodded and with a sad, lost look in her eyes, sniffed back her tears.

Bess left Katherine by the fire and went over to her desk. She lifted the telephone. ‘Would you put me through to Clarke’s taxis, please, Jack?’

‘Hello, Mr Clarke, this is Bess at the Foxden Hotel. Do you have a taxi available?’ She waited. ‘One passenger to be picked up here and taken to Kirby Marlow. Thank you.’

As they walked out of the hotel the taxi was coming up the drive. Bess gave Katherine one of the hotel’s cards with her telephone number on it. ‘Telephone me anytime,’ she said, pressing the small white card into Katherine’s hand. ‘And,’ she added, ‘forget about David Sutherland.’

The taxi pulled up in front of the hotel and Katherine started down the steps. Halfway she turned and ran back to Bess. ‘I told my father I thought I’d killed David and he told Sergeant McGann.’ Katherine held Bess’s hands so tightly her fingernails dug into the soft flesh of Bess’s palms. ‘My father would kill me if he knew I had told you this, but--’ Katherine faltered. Bess held her breath in case she changed her mind and didn’t tell her what was so important that she feared retribution from her own father. ‘Beware of Sergeant McGann. He is a wicked man.’

‘What do you mean, Katherine?’

‘He said it didn’t matter that I had killed David Sutherland, because he was going to pin the murder on you.’ Bess felt a wave of heat like a knife slice through her and the sickly taste of bile rise from her stomach to her throat. She swallowed hard. ‘He said he had a way to make it stick. But don’t worry,’ Katherine said, her expression one of stubborn defiance, ‘I won’t let him blame you. I won’t let anyone blame you.’

Bess’s stomach turned into a sea of nausea and cold sweat trickled down her back. The innocent daughter of the head of the Fascist Association in England was prepared to put her life in danger for her. Bess couldn’t let her do that. ‘I appreciate you telling me this Katherine, but you must now stay out of it. Do you understand?’

Katherine nodded and ran down the steps. ‘Be careful!’ Bess called, as she got into the taxi.

Bess watched the vehicle drive off and went inside. She couldn’t tell Frank what Katherine had said, he would go after Hawksley and McGann - and not only would he get Katherine into trouble, he would more than likely get himself killed. She would tell Ena, and she would tell Henry and the inspector as soon as they returned from wherever it was they had gone.

In the meantime, she must do what she had advised Katherine Hawksley to do: put this business with David Sutherland out of her mind. She had work to do, Nancy to look after, her mother coming for lunch and her sister and new baby to visit in hospital. ‘Any messages?’ she asked Jack as she passed.

‘No, Mrs Donnelly.’

‘Thank God for that.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Frank picked Bess up and swung her round. ‘We are three-quarters of the way through the first year of business and things are looking pretty good.’ Setting her down, Frank took Bess by the hand and led her to the desk. He turned the accounts ledger round so it was facing her. ‘And the bottom line is?’

‘Hooray!’ Bess shouted, throwing her arms