“And he didn’t miss one of them?”
“He never misses,” said Eustacie.
Mr Stubbs drew in his breath. “They had ought to have warned me!” he said feelingly.
“Certainly they—” Eustacie broke off, startled by a crash in the room above their heads, and the muffled sound of a shriek. Who could possibly be upstairs save Ludovic, she could not imagine, but Ludovic would hardly shriek, even if he had knocked something over in one of the bedchambers.
Then, to her amazement, she heard a door open, and hurrying footsteps approach the head of the stairs. A high-pitched voice wailed: “Oh, oh, what shall I do? Oh, Mr Nye, look what I’ve done!” And down the stairs came a gawky female in a large mob-cap and a stuff gown which Eustacie, transfixed by astonishment, instantly recognized as Miss Thane’s. A shawl enveloped the apparition’s shoulders, and she held one corner of it up to her eyes with her left hand. In her right she carried the fragments of a flagon that had once contained Miss Thane’s French perfume. “Oh, Mr Nye!” she whimpered. “Mistress will kill me if she finds out— oh! ” The last word took the form of a scream as the newcomer caught sight of Eustacie. “Oh, miss, I beg pardon!” she gasped. “I thought you was gone out! I’ve—I’ve had an accident, miss! Oh, I’m that sorry, miss, I’m sure.”
Eustacie made a strangled sound in her throat, and rose nobly to the occasion. Running forward, she seized the gawky female’s right wrist, and cried in a quivering voice: “Wretched, wicked creature! You have broken my scent bottle! Ah, it is too much, enfin! ”
The jagged fragments of glass were relinquished into her keeping, and with them, slid into the palm of her hand, a great ruby ring.
Chapter Nine
A torrent of impassioned French smote the Runner’s bemused ears. He stared, quite aghast, at Eustacie, who had changed in a flash from a pleasant-spoken young female into a raging virago. She snatched the jagged fragments of glass from the abigail’s hand, broke into English for one moment to implore Mr Stubbs to look at what the wicked clumsy creature had done, threw the fragments into the grate, shook the abigail, and in French said rapidly: “He means to search the house. Have you taken your clothes out of your room? Answer yes, or no!”
“Oh, yes, miss, indeed I took them to Sir Hugh’s room, like you told me!”