Murder at the Mikado by Julianna Deering Page A

everything the same way for so long now, and Mr. Benton, well, he wanted to change it up some. You know, make it a bit more up to date.”
    “And Mr. Ravenswood objected?”
    “As I said, he was rather one to say how he wanted things and not expect anyone to say any different. I’m afraid I don’t know what else to tell you.”
    “You will telephone me if you think of anything, won’t you?” Drew asked. “You still have my card?”
    “If I think of anything, I’ll ring up.”
    “Tess, are you coming to my—?” Benton stopped, noticing Drew, Madeline, and Nick were still there near the stage. “I thought you three left an hour ago.”
    Tess looked up, and there was a touch of guilt in her expression. “I’m sorry, Conor. I’m just going now.”
    She hurried off the stage, still clutching the scripts, and Benton watched after her. Then he turned back to the three visitors and said, “Look, she’s been through enough lately. No need for you lot to be badgering her, too.”
    “It was only a few questions,” Drew said. “We’re just trying to find out what happened to Ravenswood.”
    “She’s a frightfully decent girl, and she doesn’t deserve all this.”
    “All this?” Drew asked. “All what? What is it she’s been through lately?”
    Nick slid onto the piano bench nearby and softly picked out a few notes, a line from one of the songs they’d been rehearsing.
    Pretty brook, thy dream is over,
    For thy love is but a rover . . .
    Drew knew the words from the tune as almost anyone would. Being in the play, Benton clearly knew them better than most.
    “It’s none of your business,” the actor snapped. “Nothing to do with the murder.”
    Still at the piano, Nick added more notes.
    Sad the lot of poplar trees,
    Courted by a fickle breeze!
    Benton glared at him and then at Drew. “All right. You’ve figured it for yourselves anyway. Johnnie, as Simone already made plain, was an absolute swine when it came to women. Tess is a parson’s daughter. She didn’t stand a chance with a smooth talker like him.”
    “Threw her over right after, I expect,” Drew said sympathetically.
    “Didn’t even have the kindness to speak to her about it. Just made sure she saw him with his next fling, one of the new girls from the chorus. Tess never said a hard word to him or about him as far as I know, but you could see the heartbreak in her eyes.” Benton shook his head, his eyes full of pity and then a flash of anger. “I let him hear about it, though. I can tell you that straight out.”
    “And Ravenswood said . . . ?”
    “Just shrugged and said she had to grow up sometime.” Again Benton’s eyes flashed. “As if that’s what defines maturity. Is there anything more immature than selfishness? He didn’t love her. He didn’t care a thing for her.”
    Nick turned around on the piano bench, leaning back against the keys. “I wonder she’s still around. I’d have thought a girl like that would bolt back home.”
    Benton sighed. “I told her she ought, but she was afraid what her father might think. I’ve never met him, but from what she says about him, he seems a good chap. Not the typeto turn a girl out of the house and all, you know? But she says she’s disappointed him and doesn’t think she has any business being around him anymore.”
    “And here he’s probably longing for her to come back,” Drew said. “Does she have anyone here? Friends? Relations? Anyone?”
    “Not a soul. She’s friends with a couple of the girls in the cast, I believe, but most of them think she’s hopelessly provincial, not our kind at all.”
    Drew and Madeline exchanged a glance.
    “What do you think, Mr. Benton?” Madeline asked.
    “She seems quite a nice girl, miss. Rotten how Ravenswood treated her. Someone like her shouldn’t be in this business at all.”
    “So what happens now?” Drew asked. “Business-wise.”
    “We keep going, I expect.” The actor’s expression turned bright and