Paint the Town Red (Fox & Oakby Murder Mysteries Book II)

The Many Oakbies of Fleckney Woulds

Author's Note:

This is the first half of today's double update. Make sure you don't miss the next chapter.

Love xx

Katya

"So, in 1897 Father Thomas Oakby made a note in his diary regarding burying 'it' in the family chapel," Petra started in what the Titan had called her 'professor' tone.

Petra immediately thought of how much the Titan seemed to have enjoyed the tone judging by the actions of said Titan that had followed Petra's small lecture on the gilded leather cuirass of one of the volumes in his possession. Petra told herself to return her attention to Ms. Fox who was sitting like an obedient student, her hands folded on her lap, waiting patiently for Petra to continue.

"He also made pertinent notes on the margins of the family Bible, naughty boy," Petra continued with a snigger. "He was generally such a rascal! You should come look at his portraits I have in my office! He's been banished from the portrait gallery in the Turquoise Drawing Room in the Manor actually - for having an affair with a married woman, no less!" Petra clapped her hands in delight. "But there are the daguerreotypes, Imogen! He's more like your Oakby than mine, softer on the edges, and the nose sort of less–" Petra made a pinching and pulling gesture with all her five fingers in front of her own nose. "Less of a beak!"

Imogen snorted.

"So, in the pictorial family Bible– Such a beauty, Imogen! His Excellency has photos and scans, and I have to say I've never seen more delicious chromolith plates!" Petra sighed wistfully. "But it had been stolen, have I told you? Thankfully, His Excellency squirrelled some scans. It took a while to extract them out of his grasp, but he gave in... under tortures."

Petra thought of the 'torturing' she'd done the night before, felt suddenly quite hot, and huffed air out.

"I spent all yesterday decoding the comments, and after His Excellency went and fetched the diary from my office in Abernathy–" Petra saw Imogen's hiked up eyebrows and laughed. "He does fetch, you know."

Imogen slowly shook her head, her eyes still widened and unblinking.

"Anyway," Petra continued suppressing yet another wave of pleasant memories - this time pertaining to the 'reward' the Titan had received for the 'fetching.' "I was right, it turns out! The 'it' Father Tommy buried was indeed a reliquary that belonged to the second wife of Henry II, Eleonor of Aquitaine. A little something she'd brought for herself from the Second Crusade. It's my favourite crusade by the way," Petra was starting to get carried away. "The whole St. Bernard business, and Barbarossa of course! The man lived for 68 years, which is astonishing in his era, had extraordinary ambition, acumen, and political perspicacity! I've always had the weakness for older men in power!"

"You don't say," Imogen drew out, and they both giggled.

"But you see, the data from the diary and the Bible, even combined together, aren't enough to find the reliquary! No matter what one has first, the Bible or the diary, and even if you have the additional information that I had gathered and marked in my research - which is what the perpetrator was after at the dig - one still can't find it! In 1735 Father Oakby's grandfather commissioned a new chapel with a baroque interior, with painted panels allegedly by Antonio Bellucci. Don't ever question the authenticity of them in front of the Titan! The poor man looked appalled when I mentioned the price tag such extravagancy would have had and how unlikely it would have been! The old brick chapel, meanwhile, remained abandoned and was destroyed in 1912. Which is an excellent story as well, by the way!" Petra poured herself and Imogen more tea. "The Titan's grandfather was 13 at the time, and he was experimenting with explosives! The man was a genius, both in sciences and arts, and perhaps the naughtiest of the Oakbies! Lived to 92, can you imagine? They all have had almost superhumanly long lives, to think of it. When this Oakby blew up his family chapel, his grandfather, born in 1833, was still alive, and allegedly complimented his grandson on his success! His son lived to 88! The only Oakby that didn't last, so to say, was His Excellency's father, the only unpleasant Oakby." Petra wrinkled her nose in disgust. She'd read the man's diaries and found him far from her liking. "He passed away at 66, from a heart attack. Quite surprising, to think of it, considering the man had no heart."