“Yes.” Lord Eamont patted his wife awkwardly on the hand. “I’m certain that’s what happened, my dear.”
“I never remove it from my finger when I am holidaying. It’s too precious, and I don’t want to risk losing it.”
“It’s true,” Adelia and Lydia Eamont said in tandem. “She never takes it off.”
“Well, we should still search your room, if only to make certain.”
“I’ve had my lady’s maid turn my room upside down! It’s nowhere to be seen. Someone has stolen it! I demand you call the magistrate.”
“My goodness!” Lady Darby clutched her chest. “Are you saying that there’s a thief at this house?”
“Or thieves!” Lady Eamont said.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions, now.” Nate stepped calmly into the fray, much to Bridget’s relief. “You don’t know that it has been stolen.”
“I’d say you start by checking the servants’ rooms,” Lady Darby said. “I once caught a maidservant stealing food from my pantry.”
Bridget frowned. “I am confident that the servants at Villa De Lacey are honest. They don’t steal,” she said, despite being unsure thather words were true. She hardly knew the servants. They were mostly inexperienced young girls, newly hired. And then there were the guests’ servants. Lady Darby and Lady Eamont had brought ladies maids to serve the women in their families. And all of the men had brought their valets.
“I demand that you search every room in this house.” Lady Eamont stamped her slippered foot. “Someone here has my ring!”
“I dare say!” Lady Darby said. “No one is searching my room or my nephew’s. To do so would be to insinuate that we are thieves.”
“Hear, hear!” Frederick bellowed but fell silent at the sight of Nate’s hard glare.
“Miss De Lacey and her aunt will search the servants’ quarters while everyone is breakfasting,” Nate said, “if only to prove their innocence.” He turned to the maids and footman, who had congregated upstairs after being drawn there by Lady Eamont’s screams. “While I am certain that each of you is innocent, I’m afraid all of you will need to gather in the kitchen while we perform a thorough search of your rooms.”
The staff murmured amongst themselves and were slow to move, as if shocked by the implied accusation.
Bridget lowered her gaze. That ghastly woman had probably taken her ring off and forgotten where she’d put it. Yet, she saw fit to humiliate the servants with her accusations.
“You heard Mr. Squires.” Aunt Marianne, who’d been silently watching the events unfold, stepped forward. Sounding much like her old self again, she herded the servants back down the stairs, saying, “Gather in the kitchen, go on.”
Bridget felt almost grateful to Lady Eamont for having caused this commotion. It seemed to have restored Aunt Marianne’s sense of purpose.
“I do hope she misplaced it,” Bridget said to her aunt as they watched the servants retreat. “We’ve only been open a few days. Thiscould ruin us.”
“I’m certain that silly womandidmisplace her ring; nonetheless, we’ll do our duty and thoroughly search the rooms. I won’t have people accusing us of being thieves. We have no choice but to conduct a search and prove her wrong.”
“Let’s hope we do.” Bridget exhaled. “Or we may be searching for a new home soon.”
*
Bridget and heraunt spent the next hour opening drawers and wardrobes and searching under beds and mattresses, to no avail. The ring was nowhere to be found.
“That’s all the rooms.” Aunt Marianne wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “If one of the servantsdidtake it, they didn’t hide it in their room.”
Bridget sank onto the bed she’d just remade after pulling it apart. They had to solve this theft, or it could mean the end of Villa De Lacey. She envisioned Lady Eamont at a London ball, holding out her shaking hand and telling the horror story of how her precious jewels had been stolen right off her finger as she slept at Villa De Lacey, which was teeming with pilferers and lowlifes. Bridget shook the awful image from her mind. “Perhaps we made a mistake rushing to hire so many inexperienced young ladies from the village.”
“Every seasoned housekeeper started as a young, inexperienced maid,” Aunt Marianne said. “Although, you might be right when it comes to Abigail and Sarah. Those two appear to be up to no good sometimes.”
“What can we do?” Bridget asked.
“I should question them. If they took the ring, I’ll scare them into telling me where they’ve hidden it.”
Bridget frowned. Something about this whole situation didn’tseem right. Blaming the young housemaids was too convenient. Also, Lady Eamont’s hysteria had appeared overblown and unnatural. The dramatic way in which she clung to her husband, as though the missing ring somehow represented their love, cruelly ripped from her body, was almost comical.
Suddenly, the image of an agitated Lady Eamont twisting the ring on her finger while glaring across the table at Madam Bouffant flashed in Bridget’s mind. She stood up. “I think I know where the ring is. Can you finish up here and then tell the servants to go about their duties?”
