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“What are you trying to say, Conrad?”
“In the past, Hazel has been known to . . . steal things.”
“Steal?”
“Shhh,” he said, looking toward the house. “I don’t want her to hear this. I’m sure she doesn’t do it for devious purposes. Actually, I don’t know why she does it, but it’s happened before.”
“Oh, no, that’s awful! Are you thinking that she might have taken the earl’s ruby and the other items that have gone missing lately?”
“I searched through her things but couldn’t find evidence that would make her guilty. Has she been doing anything out of the ordinary – ordinary for her – lately?”
“Nay, not at all,” said Willow, shaking her head. “She loves coming to work in the secret garden because it makes her happy. All she does is spend a lot of time digging in the earth at Imanie’s grave.”
Willow and Conrad looked at each other, both having the same thought at once.
“Do you think –” asked Willow.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Conrad hurried over to the shed and grabbed a spade and made a straight line for Imanie’s grave.
“You can’t dig up Imanie’s grave! If we do that, we are sure to go straight to hell for disrupting the dead.”
“I’ve been living in hell for too long now to fear it.” Conrad stuck the tip of the shovel into the dirt. “But to ease your mind, I am not going to dig up her body. I doubt I’ll have to dig very deep at all.”
Just as he said that, the tip of the shovel hit something that sounded like metal. Willow fell to her knees and used her hands to push away the dirt at the head of Imanie’s grave. Her fingers closed around a long piece of metal. She dug it out, holding it up high in the sun. It was a dagger with jewels embedded in the hilt.
“That’s Bedivere’s dagger that went missing,” said Conrad.
Willow dropped the dagger, not wanting to touch a blade that was used by an assassin.
“What’s the matter?” asked Conrad.
“Never mind. Dig some more. Faster.”
As Conrad worked, Willow pulled out from the soil Lord Beaufort’s signet ring and her heart brooch as well. She quickly pinned the heart on her bodice. The only thing they hadn’t found was the ruby.
“Maybe the ruby’s not here,” said Willow.
“It’s here. It’s got to be. I’m going to keep digging.”
When they dug so deep that Willow was sure they were going to hit Imanie’s body, she made Conrad stop.
“Why don’t we just ask her where she put it?” suggested Willow.
Willow removed her crown and placed it on her lap, dabbing at the perspiration on her brow from working so hard in the hot sun. When she went to put her crown back on her head, the gems winked in the light. But something was different. She wasn’t sure what, but her gut told her to look closer at her crown. Sure enough, stuck into a hole in the inside metal of the headpiece was a gemstone that didn’t match the rest. “There’s no need to ask Hazel after all. I think I know exactly where the ruby is and where it has been all along.”
