Saddled with Death

  ***

  It was mid-morning the following day before the police—a Lieutenant Forrester and two troopers—arrived. Mr. Macdonald spoke to them and they interviewed Emma and took her statement. It all seemed satisfactory. Dora wasn’t denying anything. The troopers took over guarding her from the Nettifield men who had been doing the job, and late in the day they took her on board a steamer heading for Wentworth. She would be taken to Adelaide and then by sea to Melbourne for trial. Anthony was to go with her. Mr. Macdonald offered to accompany him but Anthony would not hear of it. He had people he could stay with in Melbourne, he said. He would not be alone. Before they left, Emma was able to speak to him.

  “I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances,” she told him. “I feel some responsibility for your mother’s distress. She said I had put ideas in your head.”

  “On, no, Miss Haythorne. Don’t for one moment blame yourself. If anyone should feel some blame it is Madame Fournier and her brother, but even then, I can’t blame anyone but herself. I hadn’t realised how much her situation had affected her mind. That had obviously occurred before Uncle Vernon set eyes on Madame.”

  “How could you have known? She seemed perfectly rational.”

  “Yes. She had killed my uncle before you and I spoke and what you said just clarified what I already felt, what our trip to England led me to understand about myself. I will be selling Hillcrest. Let someone else build new memories there. For now, though, I will see that my mother is properly taken care of.”

  “I am glad you are doing that. I wish you all the best.” He shook her hand.

  10

  Aftermath

  “Emma, stop daydreaming and pass the salt.” Rose Haythorne’s voice jolted Emma back to the present.

  “Sorry, Mother.”

  She had been daydreaming over lunch, again. The events at Nettifield still filled her mind. Mrs. Macdonald had passed away peacefully a month after Vernon’s murder. Emma’s mother and grandmother had both gone over and visited with her in the final days, and Emma had returned home a week after the burial. That was three weeks ago, and she hadn’t been able to settle to anything since.

  She had gardened and helped her grandmother prepare herbal mixtures in the stillroom. She had visited often with Nella, Lucy’s eldest daughter who was married to their overseer and expecting her second child. There was even a promised visit from brother Joe to look forward to before Christmas. But nothing made any difference. Nothing lifted her spirits. And to make matters worse, the idea of a future as Matty Macdonald’s wife just depressed her. She couldn’t see him as anything more than a friend, or brother.

  After lunch, she went again to the still room. The shelves were stacked with potions, powders and ointments awaiting orders from up and down the river. Her grandmother’s remedies were a legend in her own time. They hadn’t helped Mrs. Macdonald though. And they wouldn’t have helped Dora Appleton. She wondered how Anthony was dealing with it all. And Madame Fournier. She shook her head. She didn’t want to keep thinking the same things around and around, over and over.

  A steamer whistle sounded its distinctive note from the river.

  “There’s the Mary B,” her grandmother said. “Go talk to Captain Berry, Emma. Perhaps you need to take a holiday, a short trip somewhere.”

  “Perhaps, Grandmamma.” If she could conjure up the interest.

  She went down the slope at the edge of the plateau to the landing area on the lower ground. A group of children from the black’s camp ran ahead of her excitedly, hoping for some sweets. They waited for the steamer to reach the landing. Captain Daniel Berry stepped down the boarding plank, a bundle of newspapers and letters in his hands. Another man followed him. Similar build and colouring as the Captain, a few years younger and clean shaven. He had a broad smile and a twinkle in his eye as he looked at her.

  “Miss Haythorne,” said Captain Berry, “I’d like to introduce my brother, Sam.”

  ****

  Fun loving Sam Berry swept Emma off her feet. Six months after their meeting, she became Mrs. Samuel Berry and joined the Mary B on its travels. A Gem of a Problem, book 1 of the Emma Berry Murray River mysteries, begins a year after Emma’s marriage. A year in which a great deal has happened. See the sample following.