Rutland Place - Anne Perry [2]
“Thank you,” she said without looking around, as if she were perfectly accustomed to it, as indeed she had been until only a few years ago.
The door opened before she reached it, and the butler appeared.
“Good morning, Miss Charlotte,” he said, inclining his head a little.
“Good morning, Maddock.” She smiled at him. She had known him since she was sixteen and he had first come as butler when her family lived in Cater Street, before the murders there during which she had met and married Pitt.
“Mrs. Ellison is in the withdrawing room, Miss Charlotte.” Maddock moved easily just before her to push the door.
Inside, Caroline was standing in the middle of the room, a bright fire burning behind her against the chill spring, a bowl of daffodils spilling gold reflections all over the polished table. She was wearing a gown of pink peach, as soft as an evening sky, which must have cost her a month’s dress allowance. There were not more than a dozen threads of gray in her dark hair. She stepped forward immediately.
“My dear, I’m so glad to see you. You look extremely well. Do come in and warm yourself. I don’t know why spring is so cold. Everything looks marvelous, bursting with life, but the wind is like a blade. Thank you, Maddock. We’ll take luncheon in about an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He closed the door behind him, and Caroline put her arms round Charlotte and hugged her hard.
“You should come more often, Charlotte. I really do miss you. Emily is so busy these days with all her social circle, I hardly see her.”
Charlotte tightened her arms round her for a moment, then stood back. Her younger sister Emily had married into the aristocracy and was enjoying every opportunity it afforded. Neither of them spoke of her other sister, Sarah, who had died so dreadfully in Cater Street.
“Well, sit down, my dear.” Caroline arranged herself elegantly on the sofa and Charlotte sat opposite in the big chair.
“How is Thomas?” Caroline asked.
“Very well, thank you. And Jemima.” Charlotte dealt with all the expected questions. “And the house is very comfortable and my new maid is working out most satisfactorily.”
Caroline sighed with faint amusement.
“You don’t change, do you, Charlotte? You still speak your mind the minute you think it. You are about as subtle as a railway engine! I don’t know what I would have done with you if you had not married Thomas Pitt!”
Charlotte smiled broadly.
“You would still be shuffling me round endless polite and disgusting parties hoping to persuade some unfortunate young man’s mother that I am really better than I sound!”
“Charlotte! Please!”
“What have you had stolen, Mama?”
“Oh dear! I simply can’t imagine how you ever detect anything. You couldn’t trick a policeman into telling you the time!”
“I shouldn’t need to, Mama. Policemen are always perfectly willing to tell you the time, in the unlikely event they know it. I can be devious if I wish.”
“Then you have changed since I ever knew you!”
“What did you lose, Mama?”
Caroline’s face changed, the laughter dying out of it. She hesitated as if trying to choose exactly the right words for something that was surely simple enough.
“A piece of jewelry,” she began. “A small locket on a gold bow. It is not of especial value, of course. It’s not very large, and I don’t imagine it is solid gold for a moment! But it was very pretty. It had a little pearl set in the front, and of course it opened.”
Charlotte voiced her first thoughts. “Do you not think one of the maids could have borrowed it, meaning to return it immediately, and forgotten?”
“My dear, don’t you imagine I’ve thought of that?” Caroline’s tone was more anxious than irritated. “But none of them had an evening off between the time I last saw it and when I missed it. And quite apart from that, I really don’t believe any of them would. The kitchenmaid would have no opportunity—and she’s only fourteen. I really don’t think it would occur to her. The parlormaid”—she smiled a little bleakly—“is as handsome as