Luke had submitted a petition to the court to be their guardian, but Uncle William kept submitting challenges that were nothing but delay tactics. He claimed Luke was only a half-brother which shouldn’t carry as much weight with the court as an uncle. Still, what was the court going to do? Maude and Charles were married but also expecting a baby.
Frances might not have paid any attention to the tall man who’d stepped into the hotel’s dining room, if he hadn’t made a choking sound. She’d know it anywhere since the fella made it every time he saw her. She’d leaped from her seat and lunged to grab his overcoat before he’d barely turned around to leave.
“Oh, no, you don’t, Edgar Lowell. You’re just the man I’ve been wanting to talk to.”
She towed him back to the table where the three men still sat, watching. They all wore amused expressions.
“What’ll you have to drink?” Frances asked as she pressed on Edgar’s shoulders until he sat in a chair between Charles and Nick. “Coffee, right? Black?”
“Yes.” Edgar heaved out a breath, apparently accepting defeat, and Frances signaled the waitress before sitting down again.
“You didn’t really think you could get away once she saw you, did you?” the sheriff asked with a chuckle.
“I would never have come here if I had realized she was in town,” the man muttered.
“We were just talking about something you’re involved in,” Frances said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. “You’re a lawyer setting up your first practice. Maybe you can help.”
Edgar accepted a cup of coffee from the waitress and waited until she’d gone before speaking. “I thought you already had attorneys working on this back in Indianapolis.”
“We were talking about my uncle’s argument that Maude shouldn’t receive her inheritance because she was underage when she married Charles. She’ll be twenty-one in less than a month.” Frances met his gaze and held it. “Doesn’t that make it a moot point?”
“Well, aren’t we using big words?” Edgar said, his tone snide but with just a hint of humor to it. She was pretty sure he loved to exaggerate being afraid of her, that it was a game he liked to play.
Nick had shifted in his seat at the words, his posture now menacing.
“I can handle him.” Frances put a gentle hand on his arm. “He knows what he owes my family.”
Edgar had the good grace to look abashed. He might have come to Lilac City under the guise of visiting his cousins Judith and Marshall Breckinridge, but his real motive had been to lure either Frances or her sister Doris back to Indianapolis and into the hands of their uncle. Edgar still carried the snooty, holier-than-thou attitude he’d brought from his high society New York family. Judith, her future sister-in-law, had it too, but she was actively working to overcome it.
“I’ll ask that again,” Frances said. “Even if the court were to uphold Uncle William’s claim that he’s our guardian, once Maude turns twenty-one next month, it shouldn’t matter if she married before her birthday. Right? So, she and Charles should be able to travel back to Indianapolis to claim her portion of the inheritance.”
“Sheshouldbe able to, yes.” Edgar took a sip of his coffee. “Your uncle has already shown how crafty he can be and how many people he has in his pocket. I would never assume she can just waltz in there to claim what’s rightfully hers.”
“How could her uncle do that?” Sheriff Vosburg asked, leaning forward.
“Getting a judge to rule the marriage wasn’t legal because she was underage.” Edgar shrugged. “He might have to grease a few palms to make it happen.”
“I have no doubt he’d try to do anything he can to stop the girls, if he were willing to murder his brother,” Charles said, his tone bitter.
“What’s that?” Abe asked. “That’s a pretty serious accusation.”
Frances met the older man’s gaze. She hadn’t wanted to talk about her dreams and how they helped her to remember, but she shouldn’t have been surprised Charles brought it up, especially to the sheriff.
She started by mentioning the used Steinway her brother had purchased for her as a Christmas gift. By the time she’d finished laying out the facts, Edgar and the sheriff were both looking a little stunned.
“If it’s possible to prove my uncle is responsible for my father’s death,” Frances said, her voice gruff, “it’s my intention to make him pay to the full extent of the law.”
“Proving it is going to be hard,” Charles said. “Your father’s been gone almost a year.”
“Depends on the poison,” Nick said. “Some leave signs on the body.”
* * *
When everyone turnedto stare at Nick, he swallowed, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut.
“What are you suggesting?” Edgar asked.
“There was this case about ten years ago,” Nick said, “where the daughter of a rich man in a nearby town got herself worried she’d lose her inheritance if her father remarried. I don’t remember all the details. I was just a kid, but I do recall my family talking about it on a summer evening. The banker had died after some really bad stomach cramps, and the daughter inherited. Later, one of the servants come forward and said she’d seen the daughter putting something in her father’s milk he had every day with his breakfast. The maid claimed she’d been offered money not to talk but never got it, and that’s why she decided to speak out.”
