Murder at the Mayfair Hotel (Cleopatra Fox Mysteries #1)- C.J. Archer Page 0,91

study it. “I think it fits well enough. How does it feel?”

I fidgeted with the low-cut neckline, but nothing I did would cover more of my décolletage. “It’s very low and a little tight.”

“Can you breathe?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s perfect.”

I turned to the mirror and had to agree with her. The gown was indeed lovely. The dove-gray silk would have been plain on its own, but the black beading drew the eye. The beads were sewn into a vine-like pattern growing up from swirls at the hem to a denser canopy across my breasts. The capped sleeves clung to the very edges of my shoulders. Coupled with the low neckline, there was quite a lot of skin on display. I’d never worn anything so daring.

Harmony pulled my hand away as I once again tried to tug it higher. “Don’t touch. It makes you look self-conscious.”

“I am self-conscious.”

“Don’t let on that you are. That’s the key.”

“The key to what?”

“To being a sensation.”

I laughed. “I am hardly that. Anyway, the rest of us will look drab next to the two actresses and opera singer.”

She snorted. “I’d like to see them look at you and not feel jealousy.”

“Besides, I’m not going to the ball to dance and flirt. I’m going to watch the police arrest Mr. Hookly for murder.”

Her eyes widened. “You continued to investigate?”

“Yes, and I have some things to tell you. Some of them are quite troubling.”

“Then you’d better sit down and tell me while I do your hair and face.”

Harmony listened in horror to the evidence against Edith, and the theories Mr. Armitage and I had developed that indicated she was involved in the murder, to some extent.

But when I finished, she rejected the notion that Edith was the killer. “I think you’re right when you say Hookly manipulated her into giving him the key and covering up the crime. She’s a mouse, and if someone like him paid her attention, she’d do almost anything for him. Not murder, mind. She wouldn’t do that.”

“If she helped him, it’s as good as doing it herself. Harmony,” I said gently, “she showed no remorse those times we talked about our theories in the staff parlor. She is involved. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Her lips flattened. “It would seem so.” She closed her eyes and a look of pain crossed her face. It was still there when she opened her eyes and her gaze connected with mine in the mirror. “I should have looked out for her. I shouldn’t have let Hookly take advantage of her.”

I caught her hand. “It’s not your fault.”

“I knew she was having a liaison with a guest, but I didn’t know who.”

“And you didn’t know it could lead to this.”

She sighed. “She needed guidance from a friend, and I failed to give it to her.” She continued with my hair, only to stop and frown. “I’m worried about her, Miss Fox. I haven’t seen her for a while. No one has. She’s not at the hotel or the residence hall.”

I nodded gravely. Edith could very well be in danger if Hookly thought she knew too much and might talk. “The inspector’s men will find her.”

He ought to have arrived by now, yet he had not come searching for me. Perhaps Mr. Armitage had spoken to him so there’d been no need to seek me out. I would check with Peter before I entered the ballroom, and ask him to telephone Scotland Yard again if the police hadn’t arrived.

Harmony finished doing my hair and face then stood back. The frown that had settled onto her pretty features when I’d told her about Edith smoothed away. She smiled. “There. You look lovely.”

She had done very well with my hair, sweeping it up high on my head with a few artfully placed curled strands at the sides. The jet and diamond headpiece went perfectly with the dress and there was just enough color contrast with my light brown hair.

I touched the bare skin of my décolletage, still unused to being so exposed.

“A necklace with a large pendant would look nice nestled about there,” Harmony said, indicating where my fingers rested above my breasts.

I withdrew my hand. “I don’t have anything suitable.”

“Then you’ll just have to go to the ball without one.” She gave me an impudent smile. “Hopefully a rich gentleman agrees that a pendant would look very fetching and gives you a ruby necklace when he asks you to marry him.”

It was so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. Harmony did