Lady Rample and the Mysterious Mr. Singh Read online

  Lady Rample and the Mysterious Mr. Singh

  Lady Rample Mysteries – Book Seven

  Shéa MacLeod

  Lady Rample and the Mysterious Mr. Singh

  Lady Rample Mysteries – Book Seven

  COPYRIGHT © 2019 by Shéa MacLeod

  All rights reserved.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey of Razzle Dazzle Designs

  Editing by Alin Silverwood

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Also by Shéa MacLeod

  Cupcake Goddess

  Be Careful What You Wish For

  Nothing Tastes As Good

  Soulfully Sweet

  A Stitch In Time (A Cupcake Goddess Novelette)

  Dragon Wars

  Dragon Warrior

  Dragon Lord

  Dragon Goddess

  Green Witch

  Dragon Corps

  Dragon Mage

  Dragon's Angel

  Dragon Wars Boxed Sets

  Dragon Wars - Three Complete Novels Boxed Set

  Dragon Wars 2: Three Complete Novels Boxed Set

  Lady Rample Mysteries

  Lady Rample Steps Out

  Lady Rample Spies A Clue

  Lady Rample and the Silver Screen

  Lady Rample Sits In

  Lady Rample and the Ghost of Christmas Past

  Lady Rample and Cupid's Kiss

  Lady Rample and the Mysterious Mr. Singh

  Lady Rample Box Set One

  Notting Hill Diaries

  To Kiss A Prince

  Kissing Frogs

  Kiss Me, Chloe

  Kiss Me, Stupid

  Kissing Mr. Darcy

  Omicron ZX

  A Rage of Angels

  Omicron ZX - Prequel

  Omicron Zed-X

  Sunwalker Saga

  Kissed by Blood

  Kissed by Moonlight

  Kissed by Ice

  Kissed by Eternity

  Kissed by Destiny

  Sunwalker Saga: Soulshifter Trilogy

  Haunted

  Soulshifter

  Fearless

  Sunwalker Saga: Witchblood

  Spellwalker

  Deathwalker

  Mistwalker

  Dreamwalker

  Viola Roberts Cozy Mysteries

  The Corpse in the Cabana

  The Stiff in the Study

  The Poison in the Pudding

  The Body in the Bathtub

  The Venom in the Valentine

  The Remains in the Rectory

  Write Novels Fast

  Write Novels Fast: Writing Faster With Art Journaling

  Write Novels Fast: Down and Dirty Draft

  Standalone

  Ride the Dragon: A Paranormal/Science Fiction Boxed Set

  Angel's Fall

  Watch for more at Shéa MacLeod’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Note from the Author

  About Shéa MacLeod

  Other books by Shéa MacLeod

  Chapter 1

  “M’lady?” My maid, Maddie, popped her head through the doorway of my study. Her mob cap was slightly askew, and there was a smudge of flour on her cheek.

  Oh, dear. That could only mean one thing. She’d attempted to bake something again.

  Ever since she’d found May Byron’s Cake Book in my library—I’d oddly no recollection of how it got there—she’d become obsessed with baking. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm far outmatched her abilities. Her skills mostly ran to tea and toast with the occasional sandwich thrown in for good measure. This was a pity, as I did so love cake.

  I sniffed the air subtly, but I didn’t catch the distinctive scorched odor I’d become so familiar with. Either she’d managed to pull it off at last, or it had yet to go in the oven.

  “What is it, Maddie?” I turned back to my desk where I was going through an enormous pile of correspondence. I’d gotten a bit behind thanks to the return of my paramour, Hale Davis. But as he was currently practicing with his band—Hale is a marvelous jazz musician and a wiz on the ivories—I was trying desperately to get caught up. In fact, I was in the middle of answering a letter from a new friend of mine, Phil, who happened to be the cousin of my own cousin-by-marriage, Binky.

  I’d met Phil quite by accident while on a mission at the great shopping mecca, Harrods. Binky had been showing her the town and I’d all but invited myself to join them for luncheon. Phil and I had hit it off immediately, and while she lived in an adorable mews house in London not far from my own home, I liked to keep up a regular correspondence.

  “There’s a gentleman to see you.” Maddie fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

  “I’m not expecting anyone. If it’s Chaz, tell him to help himself to the liquor cabinet—not that he needs any encouragement—and I’ll be there in two ticks.” My best friend, Charles “Chaz” Raynott, frequently dropped by for no other reason than a cocktail and a chinwag.

  “Er, no m’lady, it isn’t Mr. Chaz. And I’ve put him in the kitchen.”

  I dropped my pen with a clatter. Ink splotted on a partially finished missive. Devil take it. “The kitchen? One does not put guests in the kitchen, Maddie.”

  “Yes, I know m’lady. And I wouldn’t usually except... well, he insisted.” She shrugged her bony shoulders and gave me an apologetic look.

  That was beyond unusual. Gentlemen didn’t insist on being seen in the kitchen. That was for workers and lower-class types. Not that I wouldn’t invite them into my parlor. I don’t much hold with the whole upstairs-downstairs nonsense. I may be the wealthy Ophelia, Lady Rample, widow of Lord Rample now, but once upon a time I grew up in a small village amongst ordinary people. And while I do not consider myself ordinary by any stretch, I most definitely do not consider myself above anyone simply because of a lucky turn of the wheel of life, so to speak.

  “Who is it, Maddie?” I demanded, finally having enough of her dithering.

  “It’s Mr. Singh himself,” she said in barely a whisper. Maddie was somewhat in awe of Mr. Singh. Frankly, I didn’t blame her.

  “Why didn’t you say so?” I rescued my pen and laid it in its box. “I will see him immediately. I don’t suppose your latest experiment turned out? Cake with tea would be lovely.”

  “’Fraid not,” she admitted, leading the way downstairs. “I forgot to turn on the oven.”

  “Of course you did.” I sighed. Maddie was a decent maid but a dreadful cook. “Have you turned it on now?”

  “Yes, but it’s only been ten minutes. I... don’t think it’ll be ready.” She frowned as if unsure if that were true or not.

  “You’re probably right. It should, however, be ready sooner than three
hours.” That was the most recent incident. I’d no idea what had gone into the over, but the thing had been a brick of charcoal when it came out.

  Maddie sniffed. “I think I can manage to get it out on time.”

  I nearly said something very sarcastic but then decided better of it. If Maddie ever did manage to conquer this baking thing, I wanted to eat her cakes, not be poisoned by them. “I’ve no doubt you can. I’m looking forward to trying it.” I just hoped it was edible.

  I stepped into the kitchen. My aunt’s Sikh butler sat at the table, hands neatly folded, dressed in his usual black suit. “Mr. Singh! Is everything alright? Has something happened to my aunt?”

  He stood up, his pink dastar nearly brushing the low ceiling. “My lady.” He bowed slightly and with great gravity. “Your aunt is well. I am sorry to have alarmed you, but I am here on a personal matter.”

  What an astonishing turn of events! “A personal matter?”

  “I have a great favor to ask.”

  Well, that was unusual. Mr. Singh could always be relied upon in times of crisis, but he’d never once required my help or, as far as I knew, anyone else’s. “Perhaps we should go somewhere more private?”

  He shook his head. “This is good enough for me, my lady. And I’m certain Miss Maddie will keep what she hears to herself.” The look he gave Maddie made her go pale. She may have even let out a squeak.

  “Mum’s the word,” she said, although not particularly cheerfully. “May Jehovah strike me dead if I talk.”

  “Well, that’s a bit dramatic,” I murmured. To Mr. Singh I said, “Sit down.” I took the chair across from him. “Maddie, tea please. And some biscuits if there are any.”

  “There’s some custard creams,” she said, bustling over to the stove.

  “Perfect.”

  Despite Maddie’s assurances of keeping her mouth shut, we waited until she’d finished making tea and left the room. I’d no doubt she was eavesdropping, but at least we’d the appearance of privacy.

  “Now, Mr. Singh. How can I help you?” I couldn’t imagine what this favor could be. After all, Mr. Singh was one of the most capable people I knew. Him needing anyone’s help seemed completely out of character.

  He eyed me carefully, and it was as if his dark brown eyes could see straight into my soul. It was a tad uncomfortable while being oddly comforting at the same time. Mr. Singh was not someone to be easily fooled, and there was a sort of security in that.

  “This morning,” he said at last, “I received a letter from an old friend.”

  “Well, that’s nice,” I said a bit lamely. I’d no idea what else to say. Letters from old friends are nice, but not exactly earth-shattering. And I still couldn’t figure out what it had to do with me.

  “The thing is, my lady, this friend died.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. What terrible news.”

  “No, my lady, you misunderstand.” He leaned forward. “She died many years ago, yet the letter arrived only this morning.”

  Now that was curious. “How dashed odd.”

  He eased back. “Indeed.”

  “Perhaps she’s not dead? If she’s writing letters, I mean.”

  “She is most definitely dead. This letter was postmarked many years ago.”

  That cleared things up a bit. “So the letter got lost in the post. Isn’t that a matter for the Royal Mail? I don’t see how I could possibly help.”

  He tilted his head slightly to the right. “Did you know that I served during the war?”

  He meant the Great War, of course. I hadn’t known, but it didn’t come as a surprise. He was of the right age, and many men from India had fought on behalf of the Empire. It would certainly explain certain skills he possessed. “I did not.”

  “I was injured and sent to the hospital in Brighton to recover.”

  I realized he referred to the Royal Pavilion. Built as a pleasure palace for King George IV, the former royal residence had been turned into a hospital for Indian Corps troops injured on the Western Front. It was believed the place, which had all the appearance of a palace transported directly from India itself, would make the men feel more at home. I was both astonished and unsurprised that Mr. Singh had spent time there.

  “I’m very sorry to hear that, but I’m very glad you survived the war.”

  “As I am glad you survived,” he said softly.

  I’d been a nursing aide during the war. Doing my part and all that. I’d seen and done things that sometimes still haunted my nightmares, but I preferred not to think of them and to put them behind me like a bad dream. I suppose it was my way of dealing with the trauma of it all.

  “While I was recovering,” he continued, “I met a young nurse. An Englishwoman. Her name was Emily Pearson. We struck up a friendship. She made my days much... brighter.”

  There was something in his voice, his eyes. I wondered just how close this friendship had been. I was betting closer than a handshake. “Go on.”

  “When word came that I would be released and sent back to the Front, we planned to meet in secret the night before. I waited for hours, but she never arrived. The next day, before I left, I asked one of the other nurses about her. She told me Emily had disappeared the day before. Her bed hadn’t been slept in. No one had heard from her. I wanted to stay, but I had no choice. I was shipped back to France that very day.”

  I wondered if, perhaps, Emily had gone without leave. It happened sometimes. Facing so many injured and dying soldiers, so much horror day after day... it became too much for some. “How did you find out what happened to her?”

  He nodded, his expression grave. “Her friend Dorothy, the one to whom I’d spoken. She wrote me. Included a clipping of a newspaper.” He pulled a folded bit of paper out of his pocked and slid it across the table to me.

  It had obviously been read many times as it was fragile and heavily creased. I unfolded it carefully and spread it on the table. The letter was in neat, feminine handwriting. It had an address in Brighton and the words “I’m sorry.” It was signed Dorothy Evans. The other was a small newspaper article about a dead body fished out of the pond at Queens Park. The body of a young nurse who’d gone missing a week before. Suicide, it said.

  My sorrow over the wasted life of this young nurse, and the feelings Mr. Singh must have had for her to keep these things so long, made my throat thick and my eyes sting. I folded the letter back up very neatly and handed it back. There were so many things I didn’t know about the mysterious Mr. Singh. “I’m so sorry.”

  He nodded. “Thank you. At the time it was a shock. But I thought nothing more of it.”

  “You weren’t surprised she killed herself?”

  He cocked his head thoughtfully. “Yes and no. She hadn’t seemed in that state of mind, but then with everything going on—”

  I knew what he meant. So much tragedy. Sometimes it snuck up on a person. “I still don’t see how I can help.”

  He took a second letter from his pocket. “This arrived yesterday.”

  I carefully inspected the envelope. The stamp was old, the postmark from 1914. The address was to him at his former regiment but had clearly been rerouted recently. Either Royal Mail had lost the letter, or the regiment had. In either case, a nearly twenty-year-old letter had finally found its way home.

  “Read it,” he urged.

  I unfolded it. Though the paper was old and stained, it wasn’t nearly as worn as the first letter had been. I squinted at the badly smudged ink inside, struggling to make out the words. “Dear Chehzaad.” I glanced up at Mr. Singh. I’d never known his first name.

  “It means ‘a young prince.’ My mother had very grand ideas,” he said dryly. “Go on.”

  “I am writing you because I must tell someone, and I know I can trust you. I can trust you, can’t I? I’m certain I can. I don’t know who else to turn to. You see, I have found something out. Something quite terrible, and I fear my life is in danger. If they knew, they would kill me. They’ve done such terrible—
” A large smear blotted out whatever she’d meant to say. “I need proof. No one will believe me if I don’t have it. I’m going—” The rest of the letter was completely obliterated. At some point it had gotten damp and the ink had smeared beyond all recognition. “Well, she was definitely frightened.”

  “I agree. I no longer believe she killed herself.”

  “What do you think happened?” I asked, handing him back the letter.

  “I believe that whatever it was Emily found out put her life in danger. That she did not leave that night willingly but was dragged away by whomever she was afraid of. And I believe they murdered her.”

  It made a sort of sense. “Why bring this to me?”

  “Because you were a nurse. You know what her life was like. More, you have a keen investigative mind, as we have discovered recently, and many important connections. I need your help to find out who did this to Emily and why and to bring them to justice.”

  Trying to solve a mystery from almost twenty years ago would be a challenge the likes of which I’d never faced before. My biggest yet. Still, I didn’t even have to think about it. “Justice for Emily. What’s the plan?”

  Just then, the kitchen door banged inward, and in strode my aunt. She paused elegantly on the threshold, struck a dramatic pose in her equally dramatic aubergine dress and matching cloche, and eyed us both from beneath exotically painted eyelids.

  “Aunt Butty?” I said.

  “Tell me quickly,” she said. “Who died?”

  Chapter 2

  “What are you doing here?” I said instead of answering Aunt Butty’s question.

  My aunt took a seat next to me and helped herself to a custard cream. Somehow she managed to get crumbs on her ample bosom before she’d even taken a bite. Stray curls gone silver peeked from beneath the cloche which she hadn’t removed. Too bad because every time she turned her head, she whapped me in the face with the giant mustard-colored ostrich feather poking out from the side.

  “I am here, my dear, because the two of you,” she gave Mr. Singh the stink eye, “are in clear need of my help.” She took an enormous bite of her biscuit and chewed furiously.