Mistletoe’s Kiss

4. Chapter 4

4

Chapter 4

“Christmas is a time for gathering together, for reconciliation, for celebration.” Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

A s with the rest of the house, the dining room was beautiful and in keeping with the 1920s theme. Sara had mentioned earlier that it was often used as a set for TV shows and movies so the owners liked to keep it looking as authentic as possible. There were pretty boughs of festive greenery over the doors with red-berried holly and ivy. Garlands were draped throughout the room and Maddy noticed a smaller Christmas tree softly illuminated with flickering lights near a pair of French doors.

The art deco dining table was impressively large, gleaming with polish and set with bronze, silver, and gold, matching the decorations from the parlour. In the centre stood a couple of candelabras wrapped in holly, their lit candles casting light and shadow across the crystal wine glasses and name cards at each place setting. Maddy quickly scanned the cards, hoping to find her name next to Jude’s. She longed for a friendly conversation, one where she wouldn’t feel anxious about promoting her book and might enjoy the dinner. But she knew how these kinds of parties operated, Sara would likely seat her next to the heavy hitters, where her time and conversation would be rewarded with large book orders or free publicity.

As predicted, Maddy found herself seated between Helen and Priesh, with Moira across from her. Helen had filmed their entrance into the dining room and was busy narrating the evening in her sultry voice. Moira shot daggers at Priesh as usual, she likely felt slighted by the seating arrangement, though Maddy wasn’t sure why, considering it could be easier to converse with someone directly across from you.

She was almost positive that the two buyers got off on their arguments and suspected there might even be a little game of footsie happening under the table later. The bitter animosity between them was just so hot!

Fortunately, Dan was seated at the other end of the table, or Maddy would have been worried about his wandering hands. She doubted he’d try anything with Jude, but he had proven to be unpredictable after a few drinks. It looked like he’d indulged in too many cocktails this evening already, his cheeks were flushed, and she could see little beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Fingers crossed that the murder mystery game would keep him fully occupied and away from her for the rest of the night.

Maddy jolted at the sound of a loud pop, realising that Sara had been let loose with the Christmas crackers. She reached for one of the sparkling golden tubes and waved it at Moira, hoping to coax a smile from her. These crackers looked far more extravagant than the ones she had growing up. Maddy had always loved them as a child—the satisfying snap when they broke, the treasure that tumbled out, and the corny jokes she insisted on reading aloud to her family.

Just then, Dan decided it was his moment. He stood up suddenly, wobbling slightly, and tapped his glass to get everyone’s attention. “I would like to take a moment to welcome our guests on behalf of Cupid Press to the launch of Blood Under the Mistletoe by our most luscious authoress, Madeleine Montgomery. Let’s all show our appreciation for what has turned out to be not only a stellar mystery but a great little romance too. Please raise your glasses to murder, mayhem and Christmas merriment.”

As everyone raised their glasses in a toast, Maddy heard Helen mutter “…a great little romance! Authoress!…” in disgust, “…absolutely no respect for women’s writing or the romance genre, why in God’s name does he even work for Cupid!”

Maddy fiddled with the name card on the table and swirled the wine in her glass trying to pretend she hadn’t heard. It wouldn’t do any good to wax lyrical on the many things wrong with Daniel Scott this evening, especially under a cloud of alcohol. She loathed his disregard for personal space, the constant pervy comments and the fact that he was a blatant misogynist who worked for a publisher where at least 90% of the staff and authors were women. She was pretty sure he only loved his job because of the power he held over his female employees and the way that he could make or break new authors if he felt like it; authors who were sometimes desperate to be signed to a publishing house of Cupid’s pedigree. Maddy felt so lucky that Sara had always been quick to intervene whenever she was left alone with him but not everyone had a Sara when they needed one.

As they waited for the food to arrive, Jude leant over the table to talk to Maddy. “What made you decide to write this one in the 1920s again, is it a spin-off of the last series? And tell us about these new characters lovely… Did you get fed up with the Merryweathers?”

Maddy considered Jude’s question and gave herself a moment to think. “Well, I guess I’ve always loved mysteries, you’ve seen me devour enough of them in your bookshop,” she laughed. “I grew up reading Agatha Christie novels and I fancied myself a young amateur sleuth. I spent hours and hours trying to see if I could solve the mysteries before Poirot or Miss Marple revealed the killer at the end of each book. There was always something in Christie’s novels that appealed to me and my absolute favourites were set in the 1920s.

“It was such a massive time for change. Women cut their hair short and wore more makeup, music and dancing was brash and fast, and there were movies, automobiles and even aeroplanes. The world opened up and not just to the rich. After the First World War, servants who came back to England were changed by their experiences, they didn’t see themselves spending the rest of their lives in the big houses. They wanted to live life to the fullest, go to the city, meet new people, have fun and travel to exotic places. It was an exciting time, full of hope, sparkle and champagne,” she said with a smile.

“The Merryweather Mysteries were my first love and I’ll always treasure them, Tabby and Markus were so much fun to write, they’re high society, they solve murders that take place at lavish parties, country houses and far-flung locations, their suspects are Lords and Ladies, sometimes even royalty. There’s suspense in a Merryweather novel but nothing too dark, spice but nothing too kinky. Readers know what to expect to a degree, a comforting mystery with their favourite romantic duo. Poirot and Hastings but with a little smut thrown in.

“After the last book, I wanted to try something different, not a spin-off though, I thought why not keep the same period but shake everything else up? Writing about the servants in big houses like this,” she said, waving her hand around the room, “… was interesting to research. I felt like I was getting a peek into what goes on behind closed doors. It allowed me to write a grittier story, about characters who’ve known hardship and trauma. There’s lots of passion, fuelled by both Hettie and Felix’s experiences with death during the Great War, a renewed lust for life and the physical side is much… earthier.

“Also, from a mystery writing point of view servants make great detectives or great suspects, they can go almost anywhere in the house, they’re largely unnoticed which means they pick up everyone’s secrets and there’s always a spot of gossip over tea in the kitchens.” Maddy took a sip of her wine and smiled at the guests who were all focusing their attention on her, she loved writing but always got so nervous talking to people about her books. She tended to give overly enthusiastic and detailed answers to questions in interviews, as she had just now and usually relied on Sara to reign her back in.

“Well, I for one found it fascinating to read about what goes on below stairs. I think Felix may just be my new book boyfriend. He’s clever in a ruthless kind of way, sexy as fuck with that take-control attitude and he’s completely obsessed with Hettie. Such a Daddy Dom!” Helen sighed. “Who did you base him on? A famous actor? Or is there a real-life Felix out there? God I hope so…”

Maddy felt an unwelcome blush creep up her cheeks. “Um, I just used my imagination, Helen,” she stuttered, “he’s not based on anyone in particular.” Impossibly she felt her face grow even hotter as her mind flashed to her mysterious ‘number one fan’. She was thankfully saved by the arrival of the food as servers dressed in black and white, placed plates in front of everyone, filled with some kind of salad.

“Yum! I think it’s a Waldorf,” Helen mumbled distractedly. Conversation was sparse as everyone ate, there were four courses, the salad, a delicious fish dish, chicken stuffed with pistachios, a variety of sides and the dessert which was a real wow moment, individual mini Christmas puddings covered in flames. Not to mention more of the cocktails which finally had the dinner guests loosening up a bit. They chatted politely about the rarity of a white Christmas in England, their plans for the next day and for the New Year. Maddy did indeed mention cloth-bound exclusive editions to both Priesh and Moira and even put forward a possible live interview on Helen’s Booktok in the next couple of weeks. She felt like she’d done her job to Sara’s satisfaction and was ready to enjoy the fun part of the evening, the murder mystery.

As the dinner drew to a close, Dan cleared his throat and looked around at everyone seated at the table. “My mystery-solving friends… this is how the rest of tonight’s entertainment is going to work. Firstly, you should have all received character cards in advance,” he waited to see heads nodding in agreement before continuing. “They’ll give you an idea of how your character would react to a murder, how they would investigate and answer questions etc. As you know this evening is of course inspired by Madeleine’s novel but we have changed the identity of the victim and the killer from Blood Under the Mistletoe, just to keep everyone guessing. One of you will have been given a card with the murderer on it, tell no one if that’s you and do your best to join in the investigation and convince the other guests that you’re innocent. Of course that also means that one of you will have to be the victim, if it’s you, keep it under wraps, everyone else will be able to interview you later to see if they can glean any information to help catch the killer.”

There was some more nodding and a couple of nervous laughs. “To start with you have the chance to explore this wonderful old house and look into every nook and cranny for clues which may lead you to our murderer. The lovely staff led by Michaels here had jolly good fun setting all sorts of things out for you to find. Write the clues down and don’t forget to watch out for red herrings!

“Then in ninety minutes we’ll reconvene in the main parlour and can question each other about any evidence you’ve found or theories you might have. Lastly, we’ll round up the night with The Reveal. You can each talk through your suspicions and make a guess at the identity of our culprit before Michaels announces the real murderer at the end.

“Now, just before we kick things off with a search of the house, one of our fictional guests is, as you know, a renowned Tarot card reader and has graciously agreed to be the after-dinner entertainment this evening.”

Jude didn’t really look all that gracious and was in fact looking uncharacteristically pissed off. She was naturally shy and wouldn’t enjoy being the centre of attention. Although, Maddy thought Jude seemed a little off tonight anyway, not her usual cheery self and that argument with Dan earlier had been plain weird.

Dan stood and started to make his way out of the dining room after the butler. “Michaels has set up a reading table in the room next door, please follow and don’t forget that anything Jude says could be a valuable clue or designed to misdirect.”