Time for Silence Read Free

anything suspicious? No noise or anything from above?”
    “No. After that I went to bed and I don’t remember any more until Millie came in.”
    “I suppose we ought to be glad that it is no worse. I don’t like to think of people’s prowling about the house…especially when we’re all in it. It gives one rather a creepy feeling.”
    I agreed that it did.
    The police came along that morning. Annabelinda, Charles and I watched them from an upper window. Annabelinda hoped they would question her. She began to wonder whether she had heard something after I had left her on the previous night. It was not that she would deliberately tell an untruth. She just liked excitement, and it was essential to her that she be at the center of it.
    She was very disappointed when the police left without seeing her.
    It was two days later. The Denvers were about to leave. I was sorry. I liked to feel that Robert was at hand. He was so kind and always wanted to be on good terms with everybody, whoever they were. I had mixed feelings about Annabelinda, as I knew my mother did about Aunt Belinda. We were attracted by them; we liked them, and yet in a way we were suspicious of them. Whenever I heard they were coming to visit us I would grow excited, and when they arrived, faintly irritated. It was due to Annabelinda’s somewhat patronizing manner, the admiration she demanded, the desire always to have attention focused on her and to jostle out of the way those who might attempt to rival her.
    My mother knew exactly how I felt, because it had happened to her with Belinda. Yet when they went, there would be a feeling of anticlimax; one would feel a mild depression. Life was less interesting and one would find oneself hankering for their return.
    It was almost as though Annabelinda was a part of me—not a part I greatly liked, but one which I found it difficult to do without.
    We had just finished breakfast. Sir Robert was saying what a pleasant visit it had been and we must all come to Hampshire and stay with them. My father replied that things were happening in the House and he would be tied there for a while. Then he would have to do a spell at Marchlands. Constituencies could not be neglected.
    “It is easier for you to come to London,” said my mother.
    “Much easier,” said Aunt Belinda. “Don’t worry, Lucie dear. You will soon have to put up with us again. I know Annabelinda feels the same as I do, don’t you, dear?”
    “I love it here in London,” said Annabelinda fervently.
    “Well, then, we shall see you soon,” replied my mother.
    At that moment Mrs. Cherry, the housekeeper, came into the room in a most unceremonious manner, which was strange for her. She looked agitated. She was holding something in her hand.
    “Oh, sir…madam…it’s Jane. She just found these.”
    We had all risen, for what Mrs. Cherry was holding in her hand was my mother’s emerald bracelet and ring…those items which we thought had been stolen while the party was in progress.
    “Mrs. Cherry!” cried my mother. “Where on earth…?”
    My father had gone to the housekeeper and taken the jewelry from her. “Where were they found, Mrs. Cherry?” he asked.
    “In the bedroom, sir…caught in the valance round the bed.”
    My mother stammered, “It’s…not possible. They were always kept in the case.”
    “Jane found them, did she?” said my father.
    “Yes, sir. I’ll bring her along.”
    We were all astounded. There was no doubt that these were the missing emeralds. How had they come to be caught in the valance around the bed?
    My mother kept insisting that she had not worn the emeralds for a week and when she had she was sure she had put them back in their case. How could this possibly have happened?
    The fact remained that the missing emeralds were recovered, and the police had to be told.
    The general feeling was that there had been no burglary and the emeralds had not been put in their case; instead they had somehow been caught up