Series: An Emily Dickinson Mystery
(#2)
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery / HistoricalWhen a literary icon stays with the Dickinson family, Emily and
her housemaid Willa find themselves embroiled in a shocking murder in
this new mystery from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Amanda Flower.
August
1856. The Dickinson family is comfortably settled in their homestead on
Main Street. Emily’s brother, Austin Dickinson, and his new wife are
delighted when famous thinker and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson comes to
Amherst to speak at a local literary society and decides he and his
young secretary, Luther Howard, will stay with the newlyweds. Emily has
been a longtime admirer of Emerson’s writing and is thrilled at the
chance to meet her idol. She is determined to impress him with her quick
wit, and if she can gather the courage, a poem. Willa Noble, the second
maid in the Dickinson home and Emily's friend, encourages her to speak
to the famous but stern man. But his secretary, Luther, intrigues Willa
more because of his clear fondness for the Dickinson sisters.
Willa
does not know if Luther truly cares for one of the Dickinson girls or
if he just sees marrying one of them as a way to raise himself up in
society. After a few days in his company, Willa starts to believe it’s
the latter. Miss Lavinia, Emily’s sister, appears to be enchanted by
Luther; a fact that bothers Emily greatly. However, Emily’s fears are
squashed when Luther turns up dead in the Dickinson’s garden. It seems
that he was poisoned. Emerson, aghast at the death of his secretary,
demands answers. Emily and Willa set out to find them in order to save
the Dickinson family reputation and stop a cold-blooded fiend from
killing again.
Amanda Flower's I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died is the second installment in the authors An Emily Dickinson Mystery series. This story is a retelling of Emily Dickinson's poem by the same name. The series features Willa Noble, maid to iconic American
poet Emily Dickinson, who solves mysteries with her new employer. For Willa, it has been 1 year since her beloved brother was murdered, and she, along with Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), worked together to solve his murder. They also discovered the Underground railroad, and the Abolitionist movement.
It is now August 1856. The Dickinson family is comfortably settled in their
homestead on Main Street. Emily’s brother, Austin Dickinson, and his new
wife Susan Gilbert are delighted when famous thinker and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
comes to Amherst to speak at a local literary society and decides he and
his young secretary, Luther Howard, will stay with the newlyweds. Emily
has been a longtime admirer of Emerson’s writing and is thrilled at the
chance to meet her idol.
She is determined to impress him with her
quick wit, and if she can gather the courage, a poem. Willa Noble, the
second maid in the Dickinson home and Emily's friend, encourages her to
speak to the famous but stern man. But his secretary, Luther, intrigues
Willa more because of his clear fondness for Emily's sister, Lavinia. Willa does not know if Luther truly cares for Lavinia
or if he just sees marrying one of them as a way to raise himself up in
society. Emily is also weary of Luther's request to read her poems.
After a few days in his company, Willa starts to believe it’s
the latter. Lavinia appears to be enchanted by
Luther; a fact that bothers Emily greatly. One afternoon, Willa overhears an argument
between Emerson and Luther. Emerson accused Luther of stealing some of
his works, telling him he was fired when their current visit ended. However, Emily’s fears are
squashed when Luther turns up dead in the Dickinson’s garden. It seems
that he was poisoned. Emerson, aghast at the death of his secretary,
demands answers. Emily and Willa set out to find them in order to save
the Dickinson family reputation and stop a cold-blooded fiend from
killing again.
*Thoughts* The author uses plenty of historical figures in this story once again like Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) writer of Little Women. I honestly don't know much about Emily Dickinson's
life, but understand she ended up spending a lot of time in her own mind, and has been thought of one of America's most talented writer of poems. Even though only 10 poems were released, it is said she may have written up to a thousand which were later edited for format and released. In this series, she's a bit headstrong and flighty, yet actually one of the only
ones that treated everyone kindly. Especially Willa who she treats better than her sister most of the time.
It is curious to see how much longer Willa continues to play keep away from Officer Matthew who has made his intentions known to her. Willa also has issues with Lavinia in not understanding why she and Emily are constantly getting involved in things that the police are supposed to investigate and solve. Willa and the Dickinson's head maid have a curious relationship. Willa never shirks away from doing the job she is supposed to be paid to do, not even when she is constantly pulled away by Emily to do more investigating.
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Chapter One
I thrust the tip of my spade into the earth and had
images flash through my mind of digging a grave, a grave dug in stone.
The tiniest bit of dirt came loose from the combination of my force and
the steel blade. The small amount of soil hardly seemed worth the
effort. I closed my eyes for a moment. Trying to plant these daylilies
in August was a bad idea. This was the driest and hottest month of the
year, not a good time for planting much of anything. However, when my
mistress, Emily Dickinson, saw the lilies growing on the side of an
abandoned road, she had to have them for her new garden at the Dickinson
homestead. One way or another, I had to get them in the ground before
they languished in the heat.
Sweat trickled down both sides of my
face. My only recourse was to wet the ground and then plant the
daylilies. I knew Emily would not want to change the location of the
plants. When she made up her mind about something, it was as good as
done. The only trouble being when I was the one who was supposed to make
sure it got done. At least I wasn't alone on this particular
assignment.
Cody Carey, the family's yardman, stood a few feet
away and looked as hot as I felt. He wiped at his brow. The pair of us
had toiled in companionable silence for a long while. Cody was a few
years younger than my twenty-one years. He had a dusting of freckles
across the bridge of his nose and cheeks. The blond mustache on his
upper lip could only be seen when the light hit it directly. His attempt
at a mustache was the same straw color of his hair. He had just started
to work at the Dickinson home that summer, and Emily hoped to train him
up as a proper gardener, both for the homestead and for the Evergreens,
the neighboring property that was home to Emily's brother and his new
wife.
"Willa!" a breathy voice called.
I jumped and
dropped my spade onto the hard ground. The handle bounced and struck me
in the ankle. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
"Willa!"
Emily called again. "Susan and Austin are home!" The jubilation in her
voice was clear. My mistress Emily wasn't one to do anything by halves.
If you were someone she loved, like her family, then it was wholly and
fiercely.
Emily's brother, Austin, had married Susan the month
before in a private ceremony. Not even the Dickinson family had been
included.
Susan Dickinson née Gilbert was Emily's dearest friend,
and I thought, as such, Emily would be thrilled to now be able to call
Susan not just her friend but her sister. However, when she'd learned
that Susan and Austin were to marry privately, she had seemed relieved.
"I
don't think I could bear to watch. It's like a death. Death causes
division and change, and I sense that coming," she'd told me.
To
this day, I don't understand why she felt that way. Did she fear losing
her brother to marriage or did she fear losing her friend? In any case,
they were both with her now, living in a grand house that Emily's father
had built for the newlyweds. I could not fathom what the loss, or
"death" as Emily called it, could be.
Perhaps I was looking at
this from the perspective of my own pain. Over a year ago, my brother,
Henry, had been brutally murdered. He'd been the only family I had left
in this world . . . the only family worth mentioning at least. I'd
experienced real death and loss, so the comparison chafed at my own
grief.
"We must go over to the Evergreens to greet them," Emily
declared. "I know they will be tired from their journey, but it cannot
be helped. I have to see them straightaway. I can't wait until the
evening meal. That is hours from now."
"You should go," I said.
"I want you to go with me."
I
picked up my spade and noticed that Cody had wandered off when Emily
appeared. I hoped he didn't think I was going to plant all these
daylilies myself. He was the yardman, not me. "I don't know why you'd
like me to go with you."
"They will want to see you," she insisted.
I
wiped sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, certain I would have
dirt on my face. I doubted Austin Dickinson and the newly married Susan
Gilbert Dickinson would be so eager to see me upon their return to
Amherst.
Austin had spoken less than twenty words to me in the
last year and a half I had been under the Dickinson family employ, and
Susan scoffed at my friendship with Emily like I was her competition.
This I could not quite understand. Susan was Emily's dearest friend and
now her sister. I could never compete with that, nor would I want to. I
was a maid. I knew my station. Emily may be amused by my friendship, but
I was still a servant first. I was there to do her bidding and the
bidding of the family.
"Please, Willa, come with me." Emily's
small hands fluttered in front of her face. Emily was a petite woman
with a tiny waist, reddish hair, and deep-set dark eyes. At the moment
those eyes were afraid. Maybe not afraid, but certainly anxious. What
could possibly strain her nerves about seeing her brother and Susan, two
people whom she knew and loved best in the world?
"Are friends delight or pain? Could bounty but remain," Emily said.
I
had become accustomed to Emily speaking so. When she spoke in that
tone, she wasn't speaking to me but to herself. She was working through a
poem. She murmured the words again and added, "Riches are good."
I
picked up my spade and set it into the metal pail I used to carry my
gardening tools around the yard. "I will come, miss. If it will be a
help to you."
Emily's eyes cleared. The faraway look that seemed
to overtake her every so often faded. "Thank you, Willa. You are a true
delight."
I glanced at the large yellow house where I lived with
the Dickinson family and their head maid, Margaret O'Brien. "I should go
wash up. I have been digging in the garden for the better part of an
hour. I'm sure I'm covered in dirt."
Emily waved this idea away.
"Do not bother. It is my brother and Susan. There is no reason to keep
up appearances. Now come. Just remove your apron and you will be
presentable enough."
I glanced up at the house, where it seemed
to loom over the garden. "I can't be long. Miss O'Brien was expecting me
to come in soon to assist with dinner. She will be quite upset if I'm
not there on time. Your father likes to eat at the same hour every
evening for his digestion."
"I have already told Miss O'Brien
that I have need of you and you will clean the kitchen top to bottom
after dinner to make up for the lost time."
I dug my fingernails
into the palms of my hands. I typically cleaned the kitchen top to
bottom every night, but with Miss O'Brien's help. Without her help it
would take twice as long, which meant I wouldn't have any time to read
The Scarlet Letter, the novel Emily lent me. When she'd learned of my
love of reading, she'd given me access to her personal library. Many
nights, I had to force myself to blow out the candle and go to sleep. I
would have much rather stayed up and read, but the time I had outside of
working was limited. My only day off during the week was Sunday. Often
after church, I would walk through Amherst with a book under my arm.
At
times, I would allow Matthew Thomas, a local police officer and friend,
to accompany me on my walks. He would like to join me every Sunday, but
as much as I enjoyed his companionship, I wanted nothing more than
friendship from him. He felt differently and had made his intentions
known. For his sake, I wished he would look elsewhere for a wife. I did
not want him to waste his time on me when he could find happiness with
someone new.
I removed my apron as Emily instructed, folded it,
and placed it neatly onto the garden stool I used while weeding. Perhaps
while I was gone, Cody would return and finish planting the daylilies.
That would be a great gift.
Emily grabbed my hand. "Come, Willa.
There's not a moment to waste." She pulled me along the grass and
released my hand when we reached the younger Dickinsons' property. I
slowed and took in the new house.
Just like the homestead, where
Emily lived with her parents and younger sister Lavinia, the Evergreens
was an impressive home. It was so new that the paint on the shutters
gleamed in the sunlight. I'd heard Emily say it was an Italianate-style
home, which made me think it must have been inspired by grand buildings
in Italy. I'd never seen any structure like it. It was large, but the
most impressive thing was the tower that rose out of the middle of it.
It looked like a clock tower looming over the joint grounds of the
Evergreens and the homestead.
Emily called the house a "bribe
tied into a threat." Her brother had wanted to move west after his
marriage to make his own way in the world and discover his fortune. Miss
Susan had not wished for that. She wanted to stay in Amherst near
friends and most of all near Emily. Mr. Dickinson made his son an offer
that he couldn't walk away from: a grand new home and work at the family
law firm. He would find nothing like this house in the wilderness. It
was a gilded cage meant to keep him close, and Mr. Dickinson had
succeeded.
Emily was running now. She was so eager to greet her
brother and new sister. It made me wonder why she insisted I come along
at all. It was clear she didn't need me. I had found Emily always had a
purpose for everything she did, even if she was the only one who
understood it.
Austin Dickinson stood next to a carriage and
offered a hand to his new bride as she stepped out. Miss Susan looked up
at the house, and her lips curved with pleasure as if some sort of
dream had been fulfilled. It must have been a great comfort for her to
know she was now secure and would always have a home. From the snippets I
had overhead from the family, I gathered Miss Susan hadn't had the same
upbringing as the Dickinson children. Her parents were dead, and she'd
been handed off from aunt to aunt. As luck or providence would have it,
she and Emily struck up a friendship several years ago, and from that
relationship, Miss Susan became acquainted with Austin. Now, she was a
member of one of the most prominent families in Amherst. It was a great
change of fortune.
"You're home!" Emily cried, and ran to her
brother and Miss Susan. "I thought I should die before you returned. It
was so long, and you did not write me nearly as much as you should
have."
"Emily." Her brother laughed. "We are to dine at the
homestead tonight and greet you properly then. There is no reason to
make a scene."
From the light shining in Austin's eyes, he was pleased to see his sister.
Emily
hugged her brother and Miss Susan in turn. "I don't need a proper
greeting. I could not wait one more second without seeing you. You can
greet Mother and Father under the stiff confines of the dining table.
But me, I want to be greeted in the open air with only heaven looking
down."
"Oh, Emily, Sister," Miss Susan said. "I have missed you so. I'm certain I longed to see you as much as you longed to see me."
Austin wrinkled his brow. "Yes, we have both missed you, Sister."
The
porter removed the couple's trunks from the back of the carriage, and
Austin seemed to accept this as a time to escape. "I will show you where
to put those. The house is still being put in order, and not all the
furniture is in place."
"Yes, sir," the man murmured. His thick
Irish accent was noticeable when he spoke. Austin led the green-eyed
porter into the house. It was then that Miss Susan noticed me for the
first time. "And why did you bring the maid with you?" Miss Susan asked.
Her intelligent eyes bored into me.
"She was in the garden and
wanted to welcome you home too. I see no reason to turn a warm welcome
away, do you, dear Sister?" She sighed happily. "What a thrill it is for
me to call you that. I feel as if I have been waiting for this day for
so many years. I have dreamed it, prayed for it, and now it is here. We
will be together each and every day, as we were meant to be."
Miss
Susan's gaze softened when she looked at Emily. "This is what I have
wished and prayed for too. I'm grateful to be married to your brother,
but I wish . . ." She trailed off and then looked at me again. "It is no
matter. This is the best solution." Miss Susan's demeanor changed. "We
have news."
"You are with child already?" Emily gasped.
Miss
Susan clapped her hands as if Emily's thought were a fly that must be
squashed. "Heavens no. We're going to have our first guests to the
Evergreens here in just a week's time. There is a literary society
meeting at the college just before the new term begins, and Mr. Emerson
will be the honored guest. I learned of this while we were on our
wedding trip, and wrote to extend an invitation. He accepted, and he and
his secretary will be staying here with us."
Emily laid a hand to her chest. "Ralph Waldo Emerson, the writer?"
Susan
chuckled and lovingly touched Emily's cheek. "My girl, yes, is there
any other Emerson of literary importance in this world? He will be
arriving from Concord by carriage a week from today. As you can imagine,
this does not give me much time to prepare. My own maid is in a
complete panic over it because, yes, I expect everything to be perfect. I
will not have my first esteemed guest reporting back to the wider world
that I neither knew how to keep a home, nor was a proper hostess." She
lowered her hand from Emily's cheek
