Oh Danny Boy (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #5)

“Then I need your help, Miss Murphy. And before you tell me, quite rightly, that I do not deserve your consideration after the way I have treated you, I must tell you that I am not here on my own behalf but on that of my dearest friend.”


It raced through my mind that I’d have reacted in the same way if I’d found that my fiancé was courting another woman on the side, but I wasn’t going to share that thought with Arabella when I’d just had something like an apology. “I have no time to take on another commission at the moment, Miss Norton,” I said. “My entire days are taken up with trying to prove Daniel’s innocence. I won’t rest until that is accomplished.”

“He is lucky that you show him such loyalty and devotion after treating us both so shabbily,” she said.

“He has nobody else, Miss Norton. And whatever my feelings are toward him, I couldn’t leave him to die in that terrible place.”

“I feel exactly the same way about my friend, Miss Murphy. It is because my feelings for her are so strong and because nobody else is prepared to do anything that I feel I have to step in on her behalf. Won’t you just hear me out and then decide if there’s any way that you can help?”

“Very well,” I said. “Tell me what is concerning you.”

“Her name is Letitia,” Miss Norton said. “Letitia Blackwell. She and I grew up together. Her family has a country home only half a mile from us. We played together as children, and then we became engaged to be married about the same time, too. We were going to be bridesmaids at each other’s weddings.” She turned her face away from me with her lips pressed together for a second, and for the first time I realized that perhaps she wasn’t entirely glad to be rid of Daniel.

“Then three weeks ago something extraordinary happened. She disappeared, leaving a note to say that she had met a penniless young man and they had run away to California together to seek their fortune.”

“And what concerns you, Miss Norton? That the young man is penniless? That he is unsuitable? I’m afraid even our dearest friends surprise us with their choices when it comes to matters of the heart.”

She shook her head so violently that I was afraid the little hat would come flying off. “No, it’s not that at all. If I really believed that Letitia had fallen madly in love, I’d wish her every happiness.”

The kettle whistled on the stove, and I went across to make the tea. “You can’t expect me to go to California and find her,” I said. “I’m afraid that would be too big an undertaking for a small agency like mine, even if I weren’t fully occupied with trying to prove Daniel’s innocence.”

“That’s just the point, Miss Murphy. I don’t believe she’s gone to California at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that none of it makes sense. I know Letitia better than anybody. She’s a timid little thing, highly strung, nervous, very dependent. Always wants to please everybody. And she adores her fiancé. She worships the ground he walks on. She wouldn’t suddenly run off with another man without telling anybody. It’s just not in her makeup.”

I suspected that Arabella was miffed that her supposed best friend had not shared her plans with her. “She probably feared that her friends would stop her if she confided in them,” I said tactfully.

“I’m sure she would have told me,” Arabella said. “Or at least given me a hint. I was with her several times in the days before she vanished. She was terrible at keeping secrets, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. She would have been bubbling over with happiness and excitement if she were planning such a momentous escape. But as I said, she was timid by nature. I don’t think she would have had the nerve to do such a thing.”

I placed a teacup beside her. “So where do you think she’s really gone?”

“I have no idea. I fear something bad has happened to her.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because of Evangeline,” she said. “When we were children we received similar dolls for Christmas one year. Mine was Emily, hers was Evangeline. I loved Emily dearly, but not nearly as much as she loved Evangeline. Evangeline was her constant companion. Even today she keeps that doll on her pillow and sleeps with it beside her at night. I used to tease her about it. ‘When you and Carter are married, you’ll have to make her sleep in her own bed,’ I told her. But she said Carter would just have to get used to dear Evangeline. When I went up to her room after she had run away, Miss Murphy, the doll was still on her pillow.”