Page 155 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘You’ve forgottenIwas staying at the house at the same time too, Sophie. Dido was only sixteen at the time and, as I recall, only interested in ponies and tennis,’ Xan said. ‘So I doubt it.’
Of course, I’d also been very interested inhim, but fortunately he didn’t mention that …
‘I’m sure Dido wouldn’t have dreamed of taking it,’ said Nancy. ‘Sabine, wouldn’t it be better to continue this discussion privately?’
‘I don’t think there’s much left to discuss,’ Mrs Powys said. ‘The ring was lost … and now we’ve found it.’
‘I don’t think I quite understand,’ said Lucy, brows knitted. ‘Nigel …?’
But her brother was staring at Sophie as if he hadn’t seen her before – and so were Frank and Olive.
This seemed to unnerve Sophie, who lost her cool and said, slightly hysterically, ‘I don’t know why you’re all looking at me like this, as if I’ve done something wrong! I bought the stupid ring, that’s all!’
‘But no one has accused you of anything else, dear,’ pointed out Nancy. ‘Though of course, now we know it’s the same ring, perhaps you can give it to Dido so she can just quietly return it to its rightful owner – and then no more need be said about it.’
‘Yes, that would be the best course of action,’ put in MrMakepeace, a faint note of relief in his voice. ‘And as Nancy says, it need go no further.’
‘You just shut up!’ Sophie screamed at him with shocking suddenness, standing up so abruptly that her chair went flying.
‘Well, really!’ murmured Olive, and Nigel tut-tutted.
‘Ibelieve you took the ring –andmy earrings, too,’ said Mrs Powys, ‘but then, you returned those when the loss was quickly discovered.’
‘Youtoldthem?’ Sophie demanded, turning on her grandfather again. ‘You said you wouldn’t, if I put them back – and I did.’
She looked around wildly, as if seeking a sympathetic face, and finding none. ‘I told you all to stop staring at me like that! I can’t help taking things. It’s kleptomania!’
‘Thought as much,’ said Henry. ‘There’s one in my family and he can’t resist anything shiny – he’s like a magpie.’
But Sophie was now beyond hearing him. She’d rocketed into peals of shockingly loud hysterical laughter, which only stopped when Nancy removed the flowers from a nearby vase and dashed the water from it into her face.
‘There, that’s better,’ she said as the laughter dwindled into racking sobs. ‘You sit down and try and calm yourself. Weallunderstand that kleptomania is an illness.’
Simon, who had picked up the fallen chair and was now looking both horrified and embarrassed, patted one of her hands gingerly.
‘Of course Sophie can’t help it,’ he agreed. ‘I’m sure we all know she wouldn’t do anything …’ he petered out, uncertainly.
Despite this appeal, not everyone was looking sympathetic and although I had begun to feel sorry for her, I hadn’t forgotten that she’d accused me of taking the ring!
Olive was now eyeing Sophie with extreme distaste, whileher hands closed over a big gold locket she was wearing, as if she expected Sophie to lean across the table and snatch it.
‘A thief in our midst, Frank!’ she said to her husband.
‘Oh dear, how awful this all is!’ said Lucy, wringing her thin hands like an attenuated Lady Macbeth. ‘But I’m so glad Sophie didn’t take Mummy’s bog oak and Irish pearl brooch.’
‘I wouldn’t have touched your tatty little bit of bog oak with a barge pole,’ snapped Sophie, emerging from the handkerchief that Nigel, with surprising practicality, had passed across to her.
The vase of water seemed to have restored some semblance of her former self, though there was still an edge of trembling hysteria in her voice.
Mrs Powys turned to Mr Makepeace, who seemed to have slid down in his chair, in the hope of becoming invisible.
‘Well, Timothy, it’s evident you know about your granddaughter’s little foible, so I really do think you should have warned me, before you brought her here.’
‘With hindsight, yes, my dear Sabine, but she assured me …’ He tailed off, flapping his hands in a helpless gesture. ‘I never imagined she would do such a thing in the house of someone who is not only an old friend, but a client! When I realized she had taken your earrings, it was a great shock to me.’
‘But I couldn’t help myself. It’s not my fault!’ Sophie cried in a trembling voice and this time, Simon put an arm around her shoulders.
‘Of course you couldn’t, we understand,’ he said soothingly.
