Roderick

“Evelyn’s abused you in the past, too, I think.”

She’s always disliked me, Thedra writes in her pretty hand.

“So why attack you now? Was it planned, do you think? Or did she simply notice an opportunity and seize it?”

She created the opportunity when she sent me to fetch nails from the shed.

Thedra sits up thoughtfully, frowning at the window. Then she begins to scribble again.  

Before that I saw her with a jeweled bracelet. She seemed frightened when I walked in on her, like she’d been caught doing something wrong. After that she sent me outside.

I like this account less and less. “Can you describe the bracelet?”

I only glimpsed it from across the room. I thought the stones were red.

I rise with a scowl and cross to my safe. I do not bother hiding the combination from Thedra. Somehow it feels as though everything inside belongs to her already; every deed and bar of gold, each priceless jewel.

But the jewels are missing, I can see that at a glance. All of them, gone. And Evelyn left downstairs unguarded except by other members of the staff, who doubtless wouldn’t have the guts to stop her if she chose to leave on her own against my orders.

I turn back to Thedra, who watches me wide-eyed. I watch her lovely lips mouth the horrified word, Robbed?

“It’s nothing to worry about,” I go to her, and to her great surprise I sweep her up once more in my arms and carry her to my bed. “This will all be cleared up by morning. Right now, I just want you to rest and be well. Don’t worry,” I add with a faint grin as I guess her panicked thoughts. “I’ll sleep in the guestroom.”

I can’t tell if her expression is relieved or disappointed, and I’m suddenly overcome with the strongest urge to kiss her. But I’m afraid if I do that, I won’t be able to stop, and Evelyn would slip away into the night, getting away with attempted murder while I stayed here and made love to Thedra. With the way I feel now, part of me is almost alright with that. Then I remember she very nearly killed the woman I love, not once, but twice, and I remember why I can’t rest.

Forgoing the kiss, I stroke her cheek again with my palm and smile gently down at her. She stares back up with a look I can only describe as wonder, giving the distinct impression of her incredible faith in me.

“Trust me,” I say, finding my voice a little changed, deepened by affection and a bit husky. “I’ll take care of everything.”

Evelyn

When I saw the master carrying that girl through the house my first instinct was to run. But that was no good. Thedra will have already told him about my wearing the bracelet by now; there’s no way he won’t catch me. But I may yet outsmart them all.

While everyone was feeling anxious, wondering what had happened to Thedra and when we’d be allowed to leave, I snuck away to the servant’s quarters to hide one of the master’s rings, the cheapest and ugliest of the bunch, in one of Thedra’s stockings. Then I slipped back into the main hall unobserved, found a seat on a chair against the wall, and waited with my cane across my lap.

It takes more than an hour for the master to show his face at the top of the stair. The carriages have arrived and the drivers wait with impatience to take us back to town. With any luck, they won’t be waiting long.

Roderick Bentham descends the stairs without a word and comes to a stop before me. I look up at his monstrous visage and sigh wearily.

“I already know what you would say, Sir.”

“Do you?” his voice is cold. “And what have you to say in your defense.”

“That the girl is a liar.”

A murderous rage commands his features for a brief moment, but somehow he manages to hold it back. “Evelyn Murdock, so help me—”

“She took the jewels, Sir,” I answer back unflinchingly, while behind him the other servants gasp and murmur. Let him rage and hit me if he wants, it won’t change my story. And he’ll never find the jewels.

His eyes widen at my accusation. “She took them?”

“It’s why I locked her in the shed. I was going to tell you about it, Sir, but I thought better of it. Since I did not want to get the girl into trouble, I thought it would be better if she confessed to the deed herself and turned over the jewels. Then we could put them safely back without you having ever been the wiser.”

“So that’s why you locked her in the shed,” he realizes. “To get her to confess.”

“That’s right, Mr. Bentham,” I lower my head in deference. “I admit I was wrong for taking things into my own hands, but you must understand, I thought only of that girl’s future. Fool though she may be, she didn’t deserve to rot in a jail cell for the rest of her life for one moment of indiscretion.”

“And what proof do you have of these accusations, Mrs. Murdock?”

“I have none. But I’m sure if you search Thedra Clyde’s room, you’ll find all the evidence you need.”

Mr. Bentham considers this with his hands on his hips. His jaw is set, his mouth is grim. He doesn’t want to believe it of her, I can tell. But he can’t deny his suspicions, either. After all, though he’s smitten with her, he barely knows the girl.

“Very well,” he relents at length. “Search her room. But we’ll search your room, too, Evelyn Murdock. Your bags and your person as well,” he adds with a sneering glare. Calling two maids over he orders them to strip search me in private.

“I shall bear with this insult,” I declare, rising from my seat and leaning heavily against my cane. “But when I’m proven innocent, I will leave this house never to return. With or without your apology,” I add coldly, and allow myself to be escorted from the room.

The girls perform their duty well. They are as intrigued as the rest of them about all this new drama surrounding Thedra and the jewels. I endure the strip search with grim stoicism, humiliated to have my clothing and naked body examined and heaving a little with being forced to stand for so long in the cold air. All of this excitement really isn’t good for my heart. When I get out of here and buy my new home, my first purchase will be a big easy chair that I can lean back in, and an ottoman so I can put up my aching, swollen feet.   

“Satisfied?” I arch my eyebrows at the maids after they’ve poked at me for more than a full minute. They look at each other and shrug, then leave me to dress myself. “Uncultured wenches,” I mutter, struggling to stand on one foot long enough to get my pantaloons back on. “They could have at least helped an old woman back into her things.”

I feel good when I finally reemerge from the room to find Mr. Bentham waiting for me, arms folded with a scowl on his face. Everyone is waiting, watching apprehensively as I return to my seat with my hands resting atop my cane, head high and wheezing slightly.

A few young men return from the servant’s quarters. Everyone watches with bated breath as they converse in low tones with Mr. Bentham, whose scowl only deepens. Then they hand him a glittering token, and I get a light pang of regret as I watch him examine the ring and slip it into his pocket. It may have been the least valuable of the jewels, but I am still sorry to part with it.

“Well?” I challenge him as everyone returns to their place. “I already know you found no jewels in my room or my bag. And these girls here will tell you there were none on my body.” I indicate to them and they nod their affirmation. “So tell me what that was you’ve slipped into your pocket, Mr. Bentham.”

“My grandmother’s ring,” he admits reluctantly.

“And where was it found?”

Again he hesitates. “In Thedra’s sock drawer.”

I settle a little deeper into my seat, wearing a smug look. He glares at me, but his ire only serves to deepen my satisfaction.  

“It was only one jewel,” he says, somehow still managing to accuse me even after all the proof he’s been shown. “What of the others that have gone missing?”

“They’re sure to turn up if you search the house properly,” I reply condescendingly. “If Thedra Clyde hasn’t already sold them to some traveling salesman. You mustn’t be too hard on her, Mr. Bentham,” I say when his face starts to color with indignation. “Everyone here knows her family is in deep with loan sharks. I’m sure she only did it to save her father’s good name.”

Ripples go through the servants, faint murmurs of agreement. Of course, no one here is on Thedra’s side. She hasn’t a single friend in this manor. And now her life is over.

Even if Mr. Bentham chooses to take her side, he’ll never look at her the same way again. His trust has been broken by this incident, and innocent Thedra will be hurt and insulted by his mistrust. Soon they will see just this small grain of doubt will become a maelstrom of contention neither can bear. They’ll split after five years, I predict— if indeed they last that long. Then Thedra will lose her life of luxury, and return to the impoverished misery of her former days.

This is satisfying too, in a way. Though I’m disappointed I could not kill her, it still feels good to tarnish her like this, and rob her of her future. 

It’s only what she deserves.

“It would seem I owe you an apology, Madam,” Mr. Bentham steps forward and offers me a hand up. I accept his gesture smugly, but too trustingly. In an instant, he’s ripped my cane from my grasp. I shriek as he lifts it with similar motion to one I saw before, and my new cane meets the same fate as the former, snapped in two across his knee. Only this time, a gleaming, jangly lump of jewels slips out from the broken, hollowed tube and lands on the floor with a cold thud.

“Well now,” Mr. Bentham’s cruel smile nearly stops my heart. “What have we here?”