April Lady

‘What?’

She quailed involuntarily.

‘You – thought – I – had – stolen – the Cardross necklace?’ said the Viscount, with awful deliberation. ‘Are you run quite mad, girl?’

‘I think I m-must have run m-mad,’ she confessed. ‘It was because you held me up! I never should have thought it if you hadn’t meant to seize my jewels, and sell them for me! I thought –’

‘I want to hear no more of what you thought!’ interrupted Dysart terribly. ‘Good God, are you going to sit there telling me you believed me capable of making off with something that don’t belong to either of us?’

‘No, no! I mean – I wondered if perhaps you thought it was mine! And you knew I didn’t care for it, so –’

‘– so I prigged it while you were out of the way – a thing worth the lord only knows how many thousands of pounds!’ he cut in wrathfully. ‘Just to pay your trumpery debt, too! Oh, no! I was forgetting! Not just to pay your debt, was it? I gave you three centuries – devilish handsome of me, by God! – and pouched over seven thousand! Do you happen to know what I did with the thing? Did I sell it to some fence or other, or did I lodge it with a spouter? I don’t wonder at it that I found you in such a grand fuss! The only thing that I wonder at is how I’ve contrived to keep out of Newgate!’

He had sprung up from the sofa, and was striding about the room, in a black rage that made her quake. She dared not approach him, but she said imploringly: ‘It was very bad of me, and indeed, I beg your pardon, but if you knew how it was – oh, Dysart, don’t be so angry with me! Everything has been so dreadful, and I fear my mind is less strong than I had believed it! I knew how much I had teased you, and when I read your letter my first thought was that you had backed yourself to win some reckless wager. I didn’t entertain the least suspicion then! It was when I knew the necklace had gone – and you had written the letter in the very room where it was hidden, and I remembered that I had shown you once – Oh, it was unpardonable of me, but –’

He had stopped his pacing, and was standing staring down at her, an arrested expression in his eyes. ‘Just a moment!’ he interrupted sharply. ‘You don’t mean that, do you? That the necklace has gone?’

‘Yes, I do mean it. That was what overthrew my mind, Dy!’

‘My God!’ he ejaculated, turning a little pale. ‘When did you discover this?’

‘The next day – on Tuesday. It wasn’t I, but my dresser who discovered it. She told me immediately, and that was when it flashed into my mind that – If I had had time to think, perhaps I should not – But I hadn’t, I hadn’t!’

‘Never mind that! What did you say to your woman?’

‘That I had taken the necklace to Jeffreys to have the clasp mended. She assured me she hadn’t spoken of the loss to a soul, and I told her not to do so, and I am persuaded she has not.’

‘Cardross doesn’t know?’

‘No, no! How could you think I would tell him when I thought it was you who had taken the necklace?’

He drew an audible breath. ‘That’s the dandy, isn’t it?’ he said with blighting sarcasm. ‘It’s been missing for three days, and your damned dresser knows it, and you haven’t seen fit to tell Cardross or to make the least push to recover it! Famous! And now what do you mean to do, my girl?’

Twelve

For perhaps half a minute Nell sat staring up at the Viscount, the colour slowly draining from her face. In the flood of relief that had swept over her her only thoughts had been of thankfulness that Dysart had not taken the necklace, and of remorse for having so misjudged him. But his words brought her back to earth with a jarring thud. She lifted a hand to her brow. ‘Oh heavens!’ she said, in the thread of a voice. ‘I hadn’t considered – Dysart, what must I do?’

‘I don’t know!’ he replied unhelpfully.

‘Someone did indeed steal it. But who? This is dreadful! It must have been one of the servants. Someone who knew where it was hidden, and how can I tell who may have known of it? The chambermaid whom Mrs Clopton turned off a month ago? I cannot think it!’

‘Oh, can’t you?’ said his lordship acidly. ‘Much obliged to you, my lady!’

‘Don’t Dy!’ she begged. ‘If you had taken it I knew you had done it only for my sake! But now – ! It might have been any one of them, at any time! It was not necessary to know where it was kept: it must be known to them all that I have it, and never wear it, and only think how many opportunities there must be for persons living in this house to search for the hiding-place! And when they had found it they would guess that I should not discover the loss for months, perhaps. Had it not been for Sutton’s care, in taking out my winter clothes to brush them, I might have known nothing!’

‘It ain’t a bit of use talking about what might have happened,’ said Dysart. ‘It’s what did happen that has put you in the basket. Unless you can stop your dresser’s mouth, it’s bound to come out that you knew the necklace had been stolen three days before you said a word about it to Cardross. Well, you know the woman better than I do! Can you bribe her to tell the same story you mean to tell?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said slowly. ‘It’s of no consequence, however: I will not do it!’

‘I daresay you’re right,’ he agreed. ‘Too damned risky! She’d be bound to guess there was something havey-cavey afoot, and once she knew you was scared of Cardross’s getting wind of it she’d very likely bleed you white! Lord, there’d be no end to it!’

‘I don’t think it. It is not for that reason! Dysart, all this trouble has come upon me because I set out to deceive Cardross, and it has grown and grown until –’ She broke off with a shudder. ‘I must tell him the truth. I must tell him immediately!’

She got up as she spoke, but the Viscount said dampingly: ‘Well, you won’t do that, because he ain’t in. Told Farley he wouldn’t be back till five or thereabouts.’

‘Not till five! Oh, if my courage does not fail!’

‘Do you want me to see him with you?’ he demanded.