Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday Read Online Free

sweetness but had to agree with her about running a place like Hailesham. I found it challenging enough to keep the cottage neat and tidy. It would be a thousand times more difficult to manage a large estate.
    “Maybe Derek chose his wife with his heart instead of his head,” I said. “It may not have been the practical thing to do, but since when does love have anything to do with practicality?”
    Love has, alas, always been less important to Edwin than duty. He married for practical reasons and could not understand his son’s refusal to do as he had done.
    “It sounds as if Derek hasn’t done anything his father wanted him to do,” I commented. “Until now, that is. Emma came over today to tell me that Derek’s accepted the earl’s invitation to attend a family reunion at Hailesham Park. Derek’s going home for the first time in twenty years, and he’s taking Emma with him. How’s that for astonishing?”
    Nothing could be more predictable. Derek’s approaching his midforties, Lori. One’s perceptions change when one reaches middle age, especially when one has a son of one’s own. Will Peter be at Hailesham?
    “I don’t think so.” Last I’d heard, Derek’s twenty-year-old son was studying whales off the coast of New Zealand. “He’s on a research ship somewhere in the South Pacific. I doubt that he’ll be able to get back in time to attend the earl’s powwow.”
    His absence may explain Derek’s decision to return home. Peter will one day inherit Hailesham Park—and all that comes with it—from his father. Derek might willingly forgo his own inheritance, but he won’t jeopardize Peter’s. It seems likely that Derek is returning to Hailesham in order to protect his son’s claims.
    “Do you think someone might challenge him?” I asked.
    It’s possible. Derek has exiled himself from his family for the past twenty years. There may be those who question his right to don his father’s mantle after such a lengthy and self-imposed absence.
    I leaned closer to the journal and said, in a confidential murmur, “Do you think there might be . . . violence?”
    What a perfectly preposterous suggestion. Honestly, Lori, you must learn to control your penchant for melodrama.
    “It wasn’t my idea,” I protested. “It’s Emma’s. She’s afraid someone might try to murder Derek.”
    Emma is clearly having trouble adjusting to her new role as viscountess. Please remind her that we are no longer living in the fifteenth century. Poison-filled rings have gone out of style, even in the most aristocratic circles.
    I sat back, feeling vaguely disappointed. I’d rather enjoyed the air of intrigue Emma’s suspicions had lent the trip.
    “Someone might try to fake an accident,” I suggested.
    And someone might challenge Derek to a duel at dawn, but I think it highly unlikely, don’t you?
    I was beginning to understand why Emma had been reluctant to broadcast her concerns to the men. Dimity’s mild sarcasm was bad enough. Our husbands’ combined mockery would have been unbearable.
    “I suppose you’re right,” I mumbled, and moved on to another subject. “Bill and I are going to Hailesham, too. Bill’s going as Lord Elstyn’s lawyer and I’m tagging along as the lawyer’s wife.” I hesitated. “I was kind of hoping you’d join us.”
    I’d be delighted. I haven’t visited Hailesham Park in donkey’s years. I could do with a holiday.
    “It’ll be a working holiday,” I warned. “I’ll need your advice on which fork to use and when to curtsy and what to wear to dinner.”
    Curtsies are reserved for the Royal Family nowadays, but I’ll be more than happy to draw labeled diagrams of typical place settings. As to what to wear . . . Oh, this shall be fun!
     
    Emma had expended too much shocked indignation on her own husband to have much left for mine. When I told her that Bill had been secretly employed by her father-in-law for the past three months, she sighed wearily and said, “I’m