She seemed surprised to see him there. “Oh! Beg pardon, my lord… sir, I didn’t know… I’ll only be a moment. Captain, I believe you have the key to Mr Nicholson’s safe? I have some jewellery to deposit there, just back from being cleaned.”
“Nicholson had his own safe?” Walter said, frowning.
“Oh yes, sir,” Malling said. “He had it fitted in his room for convenience to keep her ladyship’s jewels safe. Being theonly daughter, she had all her mother’s jewellery. Mr Nicholson always chose what her ladyship wore. He had excellent taste. It is odd, though…” A frown flitted across her face. “Mr Nicholson arranged for this to be cleaned, and I never knew him do such a thing before. I usually took care of the cleaning, with a man in Helmsley, but this fellow has come from York to—”
“From York!” the captain exclaimed. “That seems a long way to go to have a piece cleaned. And has it been cleaned, Miss Malling?”
“Oh, yes, sir, very well cleaned. It looks just like new… see?”
She opened the box, and nestled within was a diamond necklace Walter remembered seeing his aunt wear. It did indeed look like a new piece, every stone shimmering, and the gold gleaming brightly.
“He asked for Mr Nicholson at first,” Malling said. “Seemed very upset to hear he was dead. Then asked for my mistress, but of course that was denied, so it fell to me to deal with him.”
Captain Edgerton lifted up the necklace carefully, turning it this way and that, examining the hallmarks and the clasp, and gazing intently at the largest stone, attached as a pendant. Quickly he lifted the stone to his lips and breathed on it, then held it close to his eye. With a cry of “Aha!”, he carried it to a side table and examined it more carefully with a magnifying glass.
“As I suspected,” he said. “This necklace is a fake.”
Malling cried out in shock. “No, sir, no! Surely not! Then this man has stolen my lady’s diamonds.”
“I suppose he is not still here, is he?” Edgerton said hopefully.
“He might be. I sent him downstairs to have a bite to eat.”
“Ha!” was all Edgerton said, setting off at a run, the necklace still in his hand. Walter tore after him, following as he dived down the spiral service stairs, down and down, their boots thundering, the captain’s sword sheath clattering against thestone walls now and then. Walter burst into the kitchen, seeing Edgerton already at the far side, anxiously asking something of the cook, who pointed down the passageway. They ran on, bursting into the servants’ hall with its long table, almost empty at this hour.
But there at one end sat a small man of sixty or so, with wispy grey hair and a coat shiny from long use, spooning stew rapidly from a steaming bowl. He looked up in surprise, saw Edgerton bearing down on him, necklace in hand, and dropped the spoon, jumping to his feet.
“I only did what he told me!” he cried, eyes wide with fear as he took in the businesslike sword at Edgerton’s side. “Truly, sir!”
“Nicholson told you to do it?” Edgerton said in such stern tones that the man visibly shook.
“Yes, sir! As God is my witness, and may He smite me down on the spot if I lie.”
“I may smite you down myself, lying or not,” Edgerton said tersely. “What are you about, man, to be taking a fine necklace such as this must have been and creating a paste version of it? Even if a man tells you to do it, that is a perversion of your craft.”
“I don’t do it myself,” the jeweller said, in less agitated tones. “I know a man who does, though, and if a gentleman comes to me — arespectablegentleman, and a parson, no less — and says that his wife’s a bit short of the readies and can I make a fair copy of a piece, well… I’m not going to say no, am I? Not when he’s willing to pay a ton for it.”
“A hundred? Is that all the profit you make?”
“It is, sir, I swear, and I give most of that to the man who does the crafting. It’s skilled work, that, and takes him a while to do properly.”
“So you make nothing for the stones or the gold?”
“No, sir! The gold’s used in the copy, for the proper marks, and we gave the parson the full reckoning for the stones.”
“The full reckoning? Not a penny more for yourselves?”
“No, sir. He was an astute one, and knew their worth. It was all agreed before he handed over the necklace. I’m an honest dealer, sir, and I’ve never played any tricks on Mr Nicholson. Here… here is the money from the stones from this piece.”
He laid a roll of money on the table. Edgerton unrolled it, examined the values and then passed it to Walter. Six hundred pounds. He tossed it back on the table in disgust, but Edgerton scooped it up, and tucked it away in a pocket.
“I shall put that in Nicholson’s safe,” Edgerton said. Then, to the jeweller, “Sit and eat your food, and you can tell me how it worked. When did Nicholson approach you?”
“The first time was seven… no, eight years ago, sir. That was diamonds, too. Then about once a year, it would be, he would arrive in my little shop with another piece. The arrangement was just as I told you — a hundred pounds for me and Glover, and we would buy the stones to reuse or to sell on, but discreetly. We were very careful. Unusual sales get talked about, as you might imagine, sir.”
“So what were you planning to do with this money, given that Nicholson is dead?”
“Well, we never knew that, sir. I heard there was a murder, but never realised it was him. Once a piece was finished, it went into my strongbox and waited for Mr Nicholson to come and collect it. That could take a while, and I wasn’t allowed to write to tell him it was ready. It was only yesterday I noticed it was still there, had been there for a couple of months, so maybe he’d forgotten about it, so I thought I’d bring it out to him. Gave me such a turn to hear he was dead, I can tell you! I wasn’t allowed to see her ladyship that was married to Nicholson, and that haughty maid of hers just took the box from me as if it was perfectly normal, but never mentioned the money for the stones. I had no idea what to do, to be honest, so I’m right glad to handit over to you, sir, for you’ll know just what to do about it, except please don’t set the magistrate on me, nor on Glover neither, for I’ve a wife and seven little ones to feed, and he’s got five and another on the way, and we haven’t done anything criminal, sir, only what we were asked to do.”
