Page 54 of The Case of the Curate

Excitement soared. So the dagger had vanished before Rupert was even in the house—he was innocent!

Kate beamed upon Mr. Otteridge. “Sir, you have been most spectacularly helpful!”

“I have?” Otteridge smiled back with surprised pleasure, although his eyes darkened in a way she didn’t quite care for. But he was laughing as Kate all but danced out of the library.

Chapter Eleven

Kate was heading determinedly for Lord Chadbon’s study when she came upon the housekeeper leaning over the banister, unmoving.

“Mrs. Thornfield? Are you well?”

Startled, the woman straightened, patting her cap in embarrassment. “Oh, Lady Ambrose! Yes, of course. Just daydreaming when I should be busy!” She made to move away immediately, but Kate stood in her way.

“I don’t think you were daydreaming,” Kate said shrewdly. “I think you were worrying. About whomever you saw downstairs.”

Mrs. Thornfield glanced over her shoulder in alarm. “Oh no. They are all good workers, and I stand by all the servants here.”

“Of course you do. Worrying is hardly accusing.”

“True.” A quick, grateful smile flickered on the housekeeper’s lips and vanished.

“So, who is concerning you? Truly, if it is anything to do with Dinah, you must tell me. I won’t act in any way against anyone unless I know”—Kate lowered her voice further—“unless I know that they killed her.”

At this reminder of the violence that had been done, Mrs. Thornfield blanched, touching her cheeks with her closed fists.

“Dear God, nothing like that!” she whispered.

“Then what?”

Mrs. Thornfield twisted her hands in the fabric of her skirts. “I’m worried about Lewis,” she confided at last. “He was terribly devoted to Dinah, and I don’t believe for a moment that he would ever have hurt her. But I found him in the maids’ dormitory yesterday, searching her things.”

Kate blinked. Her euphoria about Rupert’s proven innocence began to slip into a very different suspicion. “What for?”

“A memento, he said. Something to remember her by. But he should have asked me. Her family won’t want her few bits and pieces—they’ve no value. In such circumstances, I’d divide them among her friends. I gave him a handkerchief, and he seemed pleased enough by that.”

“Yet you’re still worried,” Kate said.

“I am. Because he is. He’s not concentrating on his work and he’s beginning to look positively ill. I know grief gets some people that way, but I’m so afraid he—” Mrs. Thornfield broke off abruptly, perhaps seeing Kate’s expression. “No, no! I’m not afraid he harmed Dinah. I’m afraid he took her necklace before I found him.”

“Necklace?” Kate repeated, bewildered.

“She wore it all the time. She liked to show it off, but I wouldn’t let her wear it except on her days off. Pretty little trinket, pure silver, depicting a dancer. She was very proud of it. But it wasn’t in her drawer, and it didn’t come back with her clothes.”

“So you’re afraid Lewis took it?”

“If his conscience is pricking him, it would explain a lot.”

Kate nodded sympathetically. “You are in a difficult position,” she agreed. “You don’t want to accuse him, but at the same time, you can’t let it pass. If it turns out he took it, you would have to dismiss him.”

“Kemp would.”

Kate said, “I am not so burdened with duty. Perhaps you would send Lewis to speak to me, and I’ll see what I can get out of him. Perhaps we can deal with it quietly.”

Mrs. Thornfield glanced at her with a hint of defiance. “For Lady Chadbon’s sake, I suppose?”

“For all our sakes.”

The housekeeper thought, then inhaled sharply. “Very well. Come to my sitting room. I’ll send him in to you in private.”