Page 70 of The Hidden Heart

“No doubt. However, fainting and hysterics were not considered becoming behavior in a soldier’s daughter,” Jessica retorted, picking up a pot and opening it. “But you would think that a minister would have seen a fair number of dead or dying people.”

“But perhaps not violent death.”

“True. Besides, he couldn’t possibly have killed her. He is one of the few people who could not have. He was with Leona at the time.”

“Yes. And perhaps his discomfort came from knowing that he had just been engaged in breaking one of the Commandments,” Richard added.

Jessica closed the pot of flesh-colored greasepaint of the sort used by actors on stage and opened another pot. It contained much darker greasepaint. Jessica froze, her mind skittering back to the dead woman at the bottom of the stairs. “Oh! Rich—I mean, Your Grace! Look at this.”

Richard peered at the jar. “She painted her face. Yes, she has quite a few beauty aids, I see. Creams and rouges and black pencil.”

“Yes, but don’t you see? She wore cosmetics that made her look darker than she actually was. Don’t you remember how pale she was tonight? I remember thinking how pale she was.”

“She was dead.”

“I know. That’s what I assumed. But now, seeing this…I don’t think so. That night, when you chased the man out of your study, she was standing on the stairs with the others when we came back into the house, and I remember thinking that she was very scared because she looked so pale. But what it was, both times, was that it was night, and she had taken off the cosmetics. And another thing—I saw it tonight, but I didn’t think about it until just now. Her hair was darker, too!”

She pounced on another jar that he had set out on the table. “This is dye, such as some women use on their hair. I think she was trying to make herself look different. She was disguising herself. Why would she do that? Why would she travel by mail coach? Unless she was fleeing something—or someone.”

Richard frowned at her. “Perhaps. It is true that I have not yet found anything of a personal nature among her things—no letters or books or—”

“Sweet Mother in Heaven!” came an exclamation from the side of the bed, and they swung around to look at Mr. Cobb.

While they were talking, he had been poking into all the corners of the room, opening doors and drawers. Finally he had knelt beside the bed, and he had apparently found something under it, for a traveling bag was open in front of him.

“What is it?” Richard asked. “What have you found?”

Cobb reached into the bag and pulled out a smaller box. He had opened it, so the lid was standing up, revealing the contents of the box: several items of sparkling diamond and sapphire jewelry.

“I think I just found my jewel thief.”

CHAPTER 16

“What? Are you sure?” Richard asked, going over to the other man, Jessica following.

“Oh, yes. There was a portrait of Mr. Gilpin’s wife wearing this diamond necklace,” Cobb said confidently, taking one of the pieces and laying it on the bedspread. “And these earrings, too.”

He laid the box and jewels on the bed, then pulled more items from the bag: a leather purse containing a startling amount of gold coins, another, smaller, drawstring bag from which he spilled a handful of unset gems onto the bed, and another cloth bag containing some more jewels.

“I’d have to get my list, but I’m almost certain several of these other pieces would match the descriptions of the stolen jewels. There was a good bit of money taken, too. And these other jewels—I would lay odds that these were stolen from someone else in the past and taken out of their settings to make them easier to sell.” He shook his head. “A woman! I never guessed…. Well, that disproves the dancing master theory.”

“So she is—was the thief,” Richard mused. “But it could not have been she who I found in my study the other night. That was no woman I was fighting. He was not as big as I, but he was too strong for a woman.”

“That is a problem,” Cobb agreed. “But we cannot deny this evidence, either, Your Grace. These are the Gilpin jewels.”

“This grows more confusing by the moment,” Jessica said. “Is there a second thief? And is he connected or not to Mrs. Woods? Or was the person in your study there for some entirely different reason? And we still have no idea who killed Mrs. Woods, if, indeed, anyone did.”

“You are right,” Richard agreed. “It is too confusing. And I don’t think any of us are thinking clearly anymore. I suggest we all go to bed and leave it until tomorrow. Perhaps things will seem clearer then.”

They agreed that they needed sleep. Taking the jewels and money downstairs, Cobb and Richard put them in the safe, and Richard then locked the door to his study for extra protection. They went up the stairs, where Cobb parted from them, going up to his room on the third floor. Richard and Jessica walked down the hall toward their own rooms, side by side at the other end.

Despite the late hour, Jessica felt jumpy and wound up, her mind spinning. She had gone through so many feelings this evening—the anger and hurt at what had been done to her jewelry box, the passion she had experienced in Richard’s arms, then the fear Mrs. Woods’ scream had engendered, followed by the shock and horror of finding her body. She felt as though her emotions were raw and exposed.

“I don’t know how I will ever get to sleep tonight,” she mused aloud. “Right now I feel as if I could never close my eyes again.”

“Don’t tell me the redoubtable Miss Maitland is frightened,” Cleybourne said with a faint smile.

“Nervous, maybe. And confused. Yet I can’t stop thinking about it, wondering…. And how does my jewelry box fit into the whole thing? All of it must be connected somehow. I cannot believe in so many coincidences.”