A study in scandal by Robyn DeHart Page B

house questioned me, then let me go. I can be clumsy at times.”
    “Try not to be too nervous. I’m going to ask you a few questions and you need only answer them honestly. I have no doubt that regardless of the outcome, Lord Watersfield and Miss Watersfield will be most kind.”
    “They are the best employers,” she said.
    “Are you happy here?”
    “Oh, yes. Most happy. They are so kind.” The words tumbled out of her mouth in a rapid rhythm. “I have a nice room and good meals. Theypay well, too. And no one yells, save that day when his lordship found her missing,” she said with a whisper.
    “You remember that day?” Colin asked.
    “Yes, sir, very well. It was a sad day. We don’t like to see his lordship upset. He hasn’t been the same since. He’s so sad and quiet. Not his usual cheery self.”
    “Did everyone here know of the importance of that piece?”
    She nodded. “When anyone is hired, Miss Amelia explains everything about the household and how to care for the pieces in the collection. Then her father…” She swallowed. “I’m not sure if he does this for everyone, but he took me aside my first week. Showed me all his collection, told me things about them.” She shook her head. “I never knew anything about Egypt or other faraway places. He’s got so many beautiful things from all those places.”
    Colin made some notes. “So you like the antiquity collection?”
    “Very much.” She frowned. “May I be honest?”
    “Please.”
    “I’ve been in lots of the nice houses, the lords’ and ladies’ houses are full. Trinkets and statues and things. But Lord Watersfield knows about his.He has them for a reason. They’re not things simply to take up space or show people he’s got money. He cares about them. He’s different. Those others, they simply collect things to have more things than their neighbors.”
    It was an astute observation for one so young. But more than likely Penny kept her mouth shut and her eyes open. No wonder the Yard always went to the servants first when questioning began. They knew everything.
    “You’re probably right,” he said. “Now, what can you tell me about the day the statue went missing?”
    “It began as a regular day. I was helping Mrs. Bennet in the kitchen, since I had finished my chores early. We were getting his lordship’s tea ready. I went ahead and brought it to him, since Mrs. Bennet had other things to attend to.” She looked off in the room for a while before continuing. “The statue had to have been gone already, but I didn’t notice. I set his tea down and had barely made it back to the kitchen when he started to yell.”
    “You said you had finished your chores already that morning. Had you cleaned this room?”
    “No, sir. I never clean this room on Tuesdays.We have a schedule, and his lordship prefers to have privacy on Tuesdays.”
    “Why do you think that is?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t think there is any particular reason other than his lordship is peculiar.”
    Now, that surprised him. She’d seemed completely loyal up until that moment. “That’s quite bold of you to say,” he said.
    She smoothed her skirts and nodded. “I thought so too, at first, but he says it all the time. He’ll devise a new rule for the house and then say, ‘ ’Tis only because I’m peculiar.’” The last phrase she said in a voice that clearly mimicked Lord Watersfield’s. “You learn to agree with him. He prefers it that way.”
    “I see.” Colin made a few more notes, then continued. “So you did not clean this room that morning, and you don’t recall either seeing or not seeing the statue when you brought in the tea?”
    “No. But to enter this room from the kitchen, you don’t walk near the area where she sat. So I wasn’t actually looking there.”
    “Was the statue here the day before when you cleaned?”
    “Yes, I dusted her off, as I always do, and set her back on the table.”
    “And then?”
    “Then I left the