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his Mistress and whispered urgently in her ear.
    “I see. Kate, Jenks tells me that a valuable family treasure has gone missing
    – the Fordham Miniature. It was seen in its usual place, my husband’s study, first thing in the morning. Now it is no longer there. None have entered or left the house. I hope you will not take this amiss, but we must search your luggage before you depart – if depart you really must.”
    “Of… of course, Lady Fordham. I would not object in the least,” Kate said, rather primly.
    Kate was dismayed. The Fordham Miniature was the most valuable of this noble old family’s heirlooms. Painted by Nicholas Hilliard in Elizabethan times, it was worth a small fortune. And now she was suspected of being a thief? Perhaps she deserved no better, for if she had acted as if she were a wanton whore, why should they not assume she had the morals of a thief, also?
    The small group moved from the morning room to the hall where Kate’s luggage had been placed in a neat pile by the front door. Mrs Beveridge was already on her knees undoing the straps of Kate’s trunk, while Lady Fordham went through one of the valises she had placed on the hall table. Kate saw her stiffen and she heard her slowly say in an icy voice and without turning around, “Jenks, Mary, you may leave us now. There is no need to search any further.”
    The servants left hurriedly, and when she heard the door close at the end of the hall, Alice turned to face her husband and Kate.
    “Oh Kate. How could you?”
    Kate gasped. Alice held the miniature in her hand.
    “No… I mean… that is impossible… someone must have…”
    Kate blushed. She blushed easily and now she blushed beetroot red, as if she were trying her very hardest to convince the Fordhams of her guilt.
    Sir Bradley’s handsome features, on the other hand, were livid. His lips narrowed in a thin line of anger and his jaw clenched in a most alarming manner. His fists clenched and unclenched spasmodically, and for a moment she thought that he might hit her.
    “In my father’s day, you would have been hung for far less a crime. I’m in half a mind to call the constable. I daresay you’d get a few years for this, my pretty miss!”
    He turned on his heel and entered his study, slamming the door behind him.
    Kate looked at Alice Fordham entreatingly, but the look on the beautiful face of her first lover was hard to gauge. The room seemed to start spinning around her and now she saw Alice Fordham’s inscrutable look change to one of concern as Kate’s vision clouded and darkened. She sank to her knees then fell on her side in a deep faint.
    When she came to, she was lying on a chaise longue in the morning room. Sir Bradley was nowhere to be seen but Alice Fordham was mopping her brow with a dainty embroidered handkerchief dipped in cologne. Kate looked terrified, trapped in a nightmare that was all too real. She rose up, but Alice pushed her gently back and smiled reassuringly.
    “It’s alright, Kate. I know you didn’t steal the miniature. But I have no idea how it ended up in your valise.”
    Oh thank God, thought Kate. Someone believes me. She closed her eyes and let out a little sigh of relief.
    “But although I think I have mostly persuaded him, my husband is not yet as sure as I am. Yet. I shall, before too long, get to the bottom of this mystery. But there must be no more talk of leaving, for that would only convince my husband of your guilt. Now you must go to your room and rest. I will have some luncheon sent up for you, and I have told Ellie that you are feeling below the weather and that she is excused lessons for today.”
    “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you Lady Ford… Alice, thank you from the bottom of my heart…”
    “You poor girl, Sir Bradley, you and I will dine à trois tonight. Ellie will have an early supper. I feel sure that we shall all be looking upon this morning’s events as a storm in a teacup by then. However there are one or two