First, the mystery ...
Dianna Mattson, the owner of the General Store and Dickens Station’s own amateur sleuth, was hosting her annual Christmas tea tasting when the incident occurred. Along with a selection of English teas popular in the 1800s, Dianna served her guests lemonade, finger sandwiches, British tea cakes, and other period-appropriate delights on antique Spode china. She usually welcomed her guests with opening remarks that oriented them to the traditions and eccentricities of Victorian English tea. Then she would formally invite them to experience high-tea from nineteenth-century silver teapots while using cobalt glass-lined salt cellars, early 1800s condiment casters, and ornately chaste silver flatware, all on loan from the Plum Pudding Bakery’s museum.
Charlie Mattson, Dianna’s husband, greeted each guest upon arrival and asked them to be seated. As Dianna was speaking with a guest she knew well, one woman ignored Charlie’s instructions and helped herself to the tea and food. Dianna took a deep breath, stopped herself from correcting the guest, and stepped into the kitchen to regain her composure.
The unmistakable sounds of an antique Spode cup and saucer smashing against the tile floor followed by the earsplitting bellow of a walrus being strangled summoned her from the kitchen. Dianna found the pushy guest, Mrs. Perrywhite, writhing on her back across three chairs, her hand to her throat, screaming repeatedly that she had been poisoned. Charlie, kneeling beside the victim, glanced up at Dianna and rolled his eyes.
Dianna snatched up the largest piece of the broken saucer, noticed a few white crystals along the rim of a coffee splash, and deduced immediately that her guest was not in mortal danger.
My challenge to you . . .
Ah, my amateur sleuths, what happened to Mrs. Perrywhite may be obvious to you. What I’m asking you to deduce is why it happened. You have all the clues. Do you know the cause of Mrs. Perrywhite’s consternation? Please do not put spoilers in your comments, but do let me know if you solved the mystery. Then, and only then, read on to see if you are correct.
The Resolution ...
Charlie Mattson helped Mrs. Perrywhite to a seated position, and Dianna sat beside her.
“Mrs. Perrywhite,” Dianna asked. “What do you take in your tea?”
Mrs. Perrywhite huffed, “Well! I do like sugar with my tea. But I only used three of those tiny little spoons in that bowl over there. And it’s a good thing too, that sugar is rat poison!”
Dianna pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Mrs. Perrywhite, that sugar is salt. You see, unlike modern-day Americans who shake their salt and spoon their sugar, affluent early Victorians spooned their salt and shook their sugar.” She reached the buffet and retrieved a bowl lined with deep blue glass and a silver-topped glass container. “This bowl with the tiny spoon is a salt cellar from the mid-eighteen-hundreds. To us, this glass container with a pierced top looks like a saltshaker. To someone in Dickensian London, it was a sugar caster.”
“Well!” Mrs. Perrywhite huffed a second time. “You should really warn your guests before you pull a switch up like that!”
Dianna patted her hand. “You are quite right, Mrs. Perrywhite. Let me fix you a fresh cup of tea.”
Nope…didn’t catch this. My mind went to a whole different scenario!
That’s okay. You’re not alone! 🙂
I knew it was sugar involved, from white crystals mentioned!
Great deduction, April! Nice sleuthing.
Flower and I figured it out! Thanks for the fun mystery. Now that you mentioned food, I’ve got bacon in my mind.
I would have expected you and Flower to figure it out, Spike. You were always brilliant in that way. 🙂