Outside, as she clipped on Teazle’s lead, Eleanor said, “I wish I’d had a chance to get to know Rosie properly. I found her very pleasant.”
“She was,” Nick agreed.
“And she sounds like a good person, in spite of everything.”
“We all have our faults,” said Jocelyn with unwonted tolerance.
“The reverse goes for her brother,” Megan said. “No one could call him a good person. In fact, he was a rat. But he avenged her in the end and he deserves kudos for that. If I wasn’t sworn to uphold the law, I’d be inclined to shake his hand. All the same, I’m damn glad you collared him, Aunt Nell.”
“I beg your pardon?” Jocelyn exclaimed.
“Sorry, Mrs. Stearns.”
“Not the ‘damn.’” The vicar’s wife flushed. “The ‘collared.’”
Eleanor caught Megan’s eye. “I’m not allowed to tell you about that before I tell the coroner,” she said virtuously. And she had no intention whatsoever of telling even him the whole story.
Emotionally drained, she turned down Jocelyn’s offer of lunch. After a brief stop at home to change, she took Teazle out through the back door and up the footpath behind the cottages to the cliff-top walk north of the village.
The ever-restless sea reflected the grey clouds. A brisk, chilly breeze encouraged Eleanor to walk fast. No one else was about.
She quickly reached her favourite spot on this stretch of the cliffs. A wooden bench set back a few yards from the edge gave a magnificent view from Tintagel Head to The Mouls, and behind it was a flat area of turf perfect for her exercises.
The grass was wet, so she sat on the bench. After a few deep breaths, she noticed the scent of thyme and gorse in the air. She closed her eyes and heard a skylark singing, the cries of seagulls, the distant, intermittent roar of waves breaking on the rocks at the foot of the cliff. The stress of the morning ebbed.
Calm and focussed, she began her exercises. After all, even here in peaceful Cornwall, her skills sometimes came in handy.
HISTORICAL NOTES
Launceston station was axed by Dr. Beeching in 1966. For the purposes of this story, I have axed Dr. Beeching.
Sanctions forced Ian Smith and his supporters into a peace agreement with the African freedom fighters in 1980, and universal franchise was established.
ALSO BY CAROLA DUNN
The Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries
Death at Wentwater Court
The Winter Garden Mystery
Requiem for a Mezzo
Murder on the Flying Scotsman
Damsel in Distress
Dead in the Water
Styx and Stones
Rattle His Bones
To Davy Jones Below
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker
Mistletoe and Murder
Die Laughing
A Mourning Wedding
Fall of a Philanderer
Gunpowder Plot
The Bloody Tower
Black Ship
Sheer Folly
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Gone West
Heirs of the Body
Superfluous Women
Cornish Mysteries
Manna from Hades
A Colourful Death
The Valley of the Shadow
Buried in the Country
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CAROLA DUNN is the author of three previous mysteries featuring Eleanor Trewynn, most recently Valley of the Shadow, as well as the long-running Daisy Dalrymple series. Born and raised in England, she lives in Eugene, Oregon. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Copyright Notice
Acknowledgments
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Historical Notes
Also by Carola Dunn
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
BURIED IN THE COUNTRY. Copyright © 2016 by Carola Dunn. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover photograph of houses © Jo Parsons / Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dunn, Carola, author.
Title: Buried in the country / Carola Dunn.
Description: First edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2016. | Series: Cornish mysteries; 4
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024102 | ISBN 9781250047038 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781466847408 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women detectives—England—Cornwall (County)— Fiction. | Murder—Investigation—Fiction. | Widows—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. | FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Traditional British. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PR6054.U537 B87 2016 | DDC 823/.914—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024102
e-ISBN 9781466847408
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First Edition: December 2016