Paige - Death at Blenheim Palace

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Table of Contents

PRAISE FOR ROBIN PAIGES MYSTERIES

For those who take their mysteries with dashes of period drama, Death in Hyde Park should be on their list of must-reads. Booksreviewindex.com

Gypsy prophecies, sing-a-longs at the pub, a possible ghost or two: Theres something for everyone. And if you dont fall in love with Glamis Castle, you havent a wee dram o romance in your soul.Kirkus Reviews

Enough danger and intrigue to keep readers turning the pages, which are filled with vivid historical detail.

Booklist

I read it with enjoyment... I found myself burning for the injustices of it, and caring what happened to the people.

Anne Perry

Wonderfully gothic... A bright and lively re-creation of late-Victorian society.Sharan Newman

Robin Paiges detectives do for turn-of-the-century technology and detection what Elizabeth Peterss Peabody and Emerson have done for Victorian Egyptology.

Gothic Journal

An original and intelligent sleuth... a vivid re-creation of Victorian England.Jean Hager, author of Blooming Murder

The Victorian Mysteries by Robin Paige

DEATH AT BISHOPS KEEP
DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN
DEATH AT DAISYS FOLLY
DEATH AT DEVILS BRIDGE
DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN
DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL
DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS
DEATH AT DARTMOOR
DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE
DEATH IN HYDE PARK
DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE
DEATH ON THE LIZARD

China Bayles Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert

THYME OF DEATH
WITCHES BANE
HANGMANS ROOT
ROSEMARY REMEMBERED
RUEFUL DEATH
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
CHILE DEATH
LAVENDER LIES
MISTLETOE MAN
BLOODROOT
INDIGO DYING
AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
A DILLY OF A DEATH
DEAD MANS BONES

Beatrix Potter Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert

THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW

Nonfiction books by Susan Wittig Albert

WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN

CAST OF CHARACTERS * Indicates historical persons

Blenheim Palace: Residents and Visitors

*Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill (Sunny), the ninth Duke of Marlborough and master of Blenheim Palace

*Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, the twelfth Duchess of Marlborough and mistress of Blenheim Palace

Charles, Lord Sheridan, Baron Somersworth and amateur forensic detective

Lady Kathryn Ardleigh Sheridan, aka Beryl Bardwell, author of a number of popular novels

*Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, son of Randolph and Jennie Churchill, first cousin to the Duke, and Member of Parliament

*Gladys Deacon, unconventional American beauty who dazzled European society in the early 1900s, the Dukes lover

Lord Henry Northcote (Botsy), Miss Deacons suitor

Blenheim Staff

Mr. Stevens, butler

Alfred, footman

Mrs. Raleigh, housekeeper

Kitty, Ruth, Bess, housemaids

Mr. Meloy, estate agent

Badger, fishery manager

Woodstock Residents and Visitors

Bulls-eye

Dawkins

Ashmolean Museum Staff

John Buttersworth, Curator of Classical Antiquities

*T. E. Lawrence (Ned), museum volunteer, amateur antiquarian, later the legendary Lawrence of Arabia

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

Sir Winston Churchill

CHAPTER ONE

Friday, 8 May, 1903 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ashmolean Museum, the oldest public museum in Britain, houses the University of Oxfords unrivaled collection of art and antiquities from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Ashmolean Museum
Arthur MacGregor

Oh, sir! the boy cried excitedly, as John Buttersworth stepped into the conservation laboratory in the basement of the Ashmolean. The shipment from Crete has arrived at last! Shall we open it, sir?

Buttersworth regarded the large wooden crate in the middle of the floor. He did not mind the administrative routine of his post as Curator of Classical Collections, and he particularly enjoyed the business of setting up exhibits, such as the display of items from the Knossos excavation, scheduled to open next week. But the happiest moments in his life came when he could indulge his hearts true passion: holding and fondling the objects themselves, each one with its own beauty, its own history, its own secret story. Ah, yes, the shipment from Crete. He rubbed his hands together.

Well, then, my boy, he exclaimed. By all means, lets have a go at it!

Ned Lawrence fetched a long screwdriver and a hammer so ancient that it might have been mislaid from a Roman collection, and eagerly attacked the crate. Buttersworth stood to one side, admiring the deft way the boy handled the tools. Robust and sturdy, young Lawrence had the maturity and discipline of someone much older, and he stood out from all the other Oxford lads who hung about the museum, professing an interest in antiquities and begging to go on the local digs. He was a great favorite among the staff, all of whom felt that, as an archaeologist, he had the stuff in him to go far.

In a few moments, Ned had the lid up and off. Inside, packed in clean straw, were a number of smaller crates, with a large envelope on top. Buttersworth opened the envelope, removed a typed inventory, and began to compare the numbers with those stamped on the small crates that Ned lifted out and stacked to one side. There were nearly a dozen of them.

Buttersworth took off his gold-rimmed spectacles and polished them on his pocket-handkerchief. Lets start with this one, he said, nodding at the top crate. It should contain a five-inch Roman green glass pitcher.

Ned placed the small crate on the bench and applied the hammer and screwdriver until the top came loose. Buttersworth pushed the straw aside and carefully lifted out a small blown-glass pitcher. Turning it in his hands, he gave an involuntary sigh of purely sensual pleasure. The piece was exquisite, the shape round and voluptuous, the design delicate and skillfully executed. Originally, the glass had been a translucent green, but after nearly two millennia in an alkaline soil, it had taken on a metallic irridescence. The surface was a dancing rainbow of yellows, reds, and blues.

Ned seemed to be holding his breath, his eyes fixed on the pitcher. For a moment, neither spoke as Buttersworth held it up and turned it slowly, so that it caught and reflected the light.

Its perfect, Ned said at last, reverentially. Who owned it, I wonderand what happened to him? He paused, wrinkling his forehead. No, it would have belonged to a woman, wouldnt it? I wonder how she got it. What did she think of it? Did she admire it because it was so beautiful? Or was it just something to holdwhat? Wine? Water?

Buttersworth smiled. This was what he liked most about young Lawrence: his desire, rare in one so young, to know the unknowable, to ask questions and imagine answers. If he were really determined to become an archaeologist, this desire of his was essential, for the quest for answers was what drove men of Buttersworths profession. The need to know the who, what, how, and why of these ancient objectssome with their own intrinsic aesthetic value, others plain and insignificant-looking, still others monstrous and ugly, yet beautiful in their ugliness. The need to understand, to unearth, to investigate, to analyze, and, above all, to appreciate, to

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