Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn Page A

on.”
    â€œDaisy, don’t talk to me of clues,” Alec groaned, tearing off his stiff collar. He hated stiff collars, but he would have hated still more to give his mother-in-law any extra ammunition to use against him. “I was hoping for a rest from sleuthing. All that’s happened is that the captain has invited a bigoted zealot to stay and the rest of the family wants—quite reasonably in my opinion—to see the last of him.”
    â€œHe’s simply frightful, isn’t he, darling?” She wrinkled her nose in the adorable way which always made him want to kiss her. “But Captain Norville travelled all the way from India with him, so he knew quite well what he was like. Why invite him? And why try so hard to please him now he’s here?”
    â€œCommon courtesy to a guest. And I expect the captain invited him before he found out what a pill he is.”
    â€œThere’s more to it than that,” Daisy said with conviction. She was halfway out of her frock by now, and Alec didn’t want to talk about the Norvilles, or even think about them. “He’d hardly go off into the woods at midnight on
his own to wrestle with his soul about whether to stay a few more days.”
    â€œEnough, love! If I know Belinda, she’ll be here at dawn to show us the contents of her stocking, even if she doesn’t believe in Father Christmas any more. No doubt bringing Derek with her. Let’s get some sleep!”
    â€œSleep?” Daisy queried innocently, but there was a beguiling glint in her usually guileless blue eyes.
    â€œTo bed, woman! I’ll be with you as soon as I’ve folded this damned instrument of torture.” He wrestled with the studs of his starched shirt.
    â€œLet me help, darling,” said Daisy.
    Somehow the shirt ended up on the floor, where it spent the night.
    Bel and Derek appeared at first light. By the time Daisy chased them out to wash and dress, they had consumed two tuppenny bars of Fry’s chocolate, two sherbet dabs, and the tangerines from the toes of their stockings, and had read their own and each other’s comic papers.
    â€œI’m sticky,” said Daisy.
    â€œI’m exhausted,” said Alec, “but I suppose we’d better get up. It’ll take a policeman to stop those two opening all the rest of the presents before breakfast.”
    â€œBreakfast before presents and presents before church. I suppose Calloway will insist on giving a sermon even on Christmas morning. I hope it’s short and not too full of hellfire.”
    After breakfast everyone gathered in the library. Daisy, having had no idea who lived at Brockdene, had provided a large box of chocolates which was well received. Trust her to get it right, Alec thought.

    He was worried about the present he had bought Daisy for their first Christmas. She had admired some petrified wood they had seen somewhere in the western United States, and he had secretly bought “wood opal” earrings and a long string of beads. Knee-length beads were fashionable, but would she rather have had real pearls, even though he could afford only a short string and not of the best?
    He need not have worried. She was thrilled, and when he muttered something about pearls, she said dismissively, “Oh, everyone has pearls. I bet no one else in England has anything like this.”
    Belinda and Derek were equally pleased with their presents from America, but the big hit was something Daisy had picked up for a few pennies. When she explained that the dried maize kernels would turn into “popcorn” when toasted, they had to try it at once. Derek ran off to the kitchens for a frying pan.
    Everyone gathered around the library fireplace to watch. When the kernels started to pop, Nana howled and hid behind a chair. Some of the white puffs flew out and flared up in the fire. They were bigger than Daisy had expected and soon overflowed the frying pan,