CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The next morning, at eight a.m., the family were gathered together at the breakfast table ready to be served. Samuel and Eloise were there. Edmund, Colin, and even Natasha were there. But then there’s Maude. ..
“Where is she?” Samuel asked.
“How should I know?” Edmund asked. “I was forbidden to so much as be around her last night.”
“Although you certainly tried,” said Eloise. “Hortense,” she said to the servant on duty.
The young lady hurried to her chair. “Yes ma’am?”
“Go upstairs and tell Miss Drayton we are awaiting her attendance for breakfast.”
“Yes ma’am,” the servant said and hurried out of the dining room.
“Now that your performance is over,” Edmund said to Natasha, “are you now ready to tell us what’s really going on?”
“Nothing’s going on. You murderer. You killed Hamp.”
“I did not kill anybody,” Edmund fired back. “And why should you care about him anyway? Just before he died, he was still pinning his wife’s murder on you.”
“He knows I didn’t do anything to that bitch.”
“That’s what you say. That’s not what he said.”
“And how would you know about what he said before he died?”
“I was there,” Edmund said, and they all looked at him.
“What do you mean you were there?” Natasha asked him.
“He called Maude and said he wanted to meet with her alone. But naturally, I went with him and took Donnell along too. He claimed he had nothing to do with his wife’s death, nor that attempt at your house, nor anything else.
As soon as we walked out good, there was an explosion.
We came so close,” Edmund said and then exhaled. “So close.”
Samuel and Eloise glanced at each other. They were horrified to hear that news. “Maude was with you?” Samuel asked him.
A look of regret crossed his eyes. “Yes. Unfortunately, I allowed her to meet with that crook.”
“Then shame on you,” said Samuel as if he was upset too. “It’s our job to protect our women, not put them in danger. You failed her. Almost fatally.”
Instead of pushing back, Edmund nodded his head. “Yes, I know.”
Natasha was sickened by it. “What’s so special about her?” she said.
“Everything,” Edmund said before he realized that word had left his tongue.
Everybody stared at him. Especially his parents. This was absolutely not the Edmund they knew.
“In any event,” Eloise said. She learned how to deflect whenever the topic was unpleasant.
“I’m having a charitable ball in two weeks and I want all of you to not only contribute, but attend.
I will absolutely not take no for an--” she started to say when they suddenly heard a loud screeching scream coming from upstairs.
Everybody jumped from the breakfast table and took off running toward the stairs. Everybody, that was, except for Natasha. She remained where she was.
But everybody else ran up those stairs, led by Edmund and Colin, and they hurried down the hall to where the screaming could be heard. To Edmund’s horror, it was coming from Maude’s room.
When they arrived inside of the room, they saw Hortense still screaming, and an empty bed.
“What happened?” Edmund asked her anxiously.
“The door was locked and there was no response,” she said, “so I assumed Miss Drayton was asleep. So I took the back stairs, went to the servants’ quarters, and got the master key.
But when I opened the door and didn’t see anybody, I pulled the sheet back thinking she was under it. But I saw that instead.”
Edmund frowned. “You saw what?”
Hortense was pointing to the bed. “In my panic, I threw the sheets back up.”
Edmund hurried to the bed. And when he pulled the sheets back, that was when he saw the blood. “God no,” he said as his entire countenance fell. He began looking around. Where could she be?!
And then his fear turned to rage. And he began running out of that bedroom.
“Edmund no!” Eloise was still yelling as she began running down that hall and down those stairs after him. Colin and Samuel were running after her.
“Edmund, don’t do it!” Eloise was yelling as she ran. “Don’t do it!”
“Don’t do what?” Samuel was asking. He was as in the dark as everybody else.
But Eloise knew exactly what Edmund was going to do. And Edmund didn’t hesitate. As soon as he ran into the dining hall and saw his sister still sitting at that table, he grabbed her by her blouse and lifted her off her feet.
“Edmund, no!” his mother cried as he slammed his sister’s back against the wall. “Where is she?” he was screaming at her. “Where is she?!”
“I don’t know,” Natasha was crying. “I don’t know!”
Colin ran up and grabbed his brother, trying with all he had to separate the two siblings. But it was no use. Edmund was not going to be denied his revenge.
“Tell me where she is, Tasha, or I swear I’ll break your body in two with my bare hands. Where is she?”
“I don’t know!” she cried again.
Edmund, enraged by her denials, threw her violently across the breakfast table.
“Edmund!”
By now practically every servant in that house was trying to help Colin and Samuel keep Edmund from killing Natasha. But he was too strong. He tossed them all aside like he was swatting away flies.
And then he grabbed Natasha from that table, jacked her up again, and was about to throw her again.
And that was when she broke.
“Okay!” she cried out. “I’ll take you to her.”
Everything stopped when Natasha admitted that Edmund’s accusations weren’t just noise. She was actually involved in Maude’s sudden disappearance! Her parents were aghast.
Edmund released her from his grasp. “Where is she?” he said, attempting to calm himself back down. He was breathing so heavily, and his heart was pounding so hard that they could see his chest rise and fall. Rise and fall.
“I’ll take you to her.”
“She’s here?” Samuel asked.
Natasha nodded. “Yes.”
Edmund dared not ask the next question. And neither did Samuel. It would have been a bloodbath in that breakfast room had she said what both of them were thinking.
And she led them out of the house, down the promenade, and to the last guesthouse on the property.
And Edmund, Colin, Samuel and Eloise all nervously followed Natasha inside.