Her pursed lips parted in shock. She stared at him but recovered quickly. “I rather think the question is what wereyoudoing in my upstairs parlor? Breaking and entering is a crime I shall be most happy to report to Mr. Heron!”
“Really? For the record, I did not enter but merely climbed up and looked through your window. We can, of course, go down the road of formal accusation and counteraccusation, and let the law sort it out. Miss Mortimer might even save you by claiming she lent you the bracelet for that really rather good portrait above the fireplace.”
“She did!” Miss Fernie gasped.
“No, she didn’t. Nor did Mavis Cartwright lend you the jewelry box. Why on earth did you steal such things? You, who already has so much more.”
Miss Fernie glared at him, half lifted one hand in dismissal, then dropped it and stared into the fire instead. “None of my family gavemebeautiful things. My uncles and cousins were rich, and yet they thought their duty to us done by allowing me to stay in their home during a few London Seasons, attend a few parties with them in my provincial clothes. Jessica always had lovely gowns and jewels to shine in and she never eventhoughtto lend them to me.”
“So you took the bracelet for your own Season, had your portrait painted in it, and never gave the original back. What of the box?”
Her lips twisted. “Jessica would havegiventhat Jezebel the bracelet! And she did give her the box. I saw it every time I called on Mavis, until all I could think was that she did not deserve it.”
“And the vicar,” Solomon said quietly. “Did the vicar not deserve his beautiful prayer book? A gift from his wife?”
“The vicar is a good man,” she said sulkily. “But Abigail Raeburn is a silly, worldly woman who saw fit to dispute with me at the Christian Women’s Circle.”
“And the shawl you stole from the Keatons’ shop?”
She shrugged with impatience. “She can be too sharp, Faye Keaton, imagining she and I are equal because she has a little money now.”
Solomon leaned back in his chair. “They’re excuses, aren’t they? Reasons to justify what you did because you knew you were in the wrong.”
A shudder shook her, but she said nothing.
“Are they the only things you took over the years?” he asked.
Slowly, she shook her head. A tear formed at the corner of her eye and trickled down her winkled cheek.
“I can’t help it,” she whispered. “It just comes upon me, and Ihaveto take them. And then I make the best of them, because after all, I can’t give them back, can I?”
“Why not?”
She blinked at him.
“I had the same kind of problem with an employee of mine once,” Solomon said. “He described it as an illness, and I think it is—brought on, perhaps, by unhappiness at a life that isn’t going according to your dreams. But that does not mean you can’t make it right.”
“How?” she demanded, gulping as though for air.
“Give them back.Sneakthem back, if you have to. Make it a game, and smile at your friends’ happiness in finally finding the things that mean so much to them.”
“I could…” She frowned and sat up straighter. “I could!”
“No,” Solomon said, holding her gaze once more. “Youwill. Because that is the only agreement I will make with you, and I will find out. I can sympathize with your compulsion. But you were quite prepared to let Nell Dickie take the blame for your theft—while her frightened child was with her, too. There is no excuse for that. Nor for pushing Mrs. Silver down the stairs at the manor house, and Iwillprosecute you for that with great pleasure if you do not begin today returning your stolen goods.Andif anyone in this village suffers an unexplained accident,everyonewill know where to look.”
He rose abruptly because pity had dissolved once more into anger.
Miss Fernie opened her mouth to speak, but Solomon raised his hand. “Your opinion of Mrs. Silver does not matter to me. You do not know her. But knowthis—her compassion is all that prevented my bringing Constable Heron with me today and charging you witheverything. Do you understand me?”
She was trembling, and he was not sorry for that either.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Then we have a bargain?”
“Yes.”
He nodded curtly. “Good,” he said, and left the house with a massive sense of relief.
