The Case of the Missing Moonstone by Jordan Stratford

Author:Jordan Stratford [Stratford, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-385-75442-2
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

“Rosie?” asked Mary. “Rosie Sparrow?”

The maid seemed to wake slowly, although she’d been sitting up and her eyes were wet with tears.

“Yes?” she said quietly.

“Rosie, we’re … um, Misses …”

“Ribbon and Newdog,” said Ada.

“We’re friends of Miss Rebecca’s,” Mary continued. “She has asked us to find out why you confessed to a crime you did not commit.”

“Miss Rebecca asked you …?” murmured Rosie, as though from a distance.

“She knows in her heart you are innocent,” Mary persevered. “Tell me, did you take the acorn?”

“The acorn,” repeated the imprisoned maid.

“The pendant. Her birthday gift. Did you take it?”

“I said I did,” replied Rosie.

“We know that already,” huffed Ada.

Mary shot her a look, but Ada missed it. “Yes, Rosie, we are aware of what you said you did. But I must beg of you to trust us. Miss Rebecca wants you to trust us. We know you didn’t actually do it, did you?”

“No,” said Rosie quietly.

“There. And I believe you. Now, whyever would you confess to taking the acorn when you did not?”

Rosie looked like she was about to return to the tears she had been crying before the girls arrived.

“It would break my Rebecca’s heart for her to know the truth,” she blurted suddenly.

“But, Rosie,” assured Mary. “It is breaking her heart to know that you are here, in prison, when you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“She has done something wrong,” said Ada. “She lied to the constabulary, lied to her friend and her employer, and kept the real criminal out of the newspaper. Prison.”

“Ada!”

“Ribbon!” corrected Ada.

“That’s a terrible thing to say,” rebuked Mary.

“It’s not a good thing to do either,” said Ada angrily. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Are you suggesting,” said Mary to Rosie, “that if Rebecca found out who really took the acorn, it would be worse for her than it is knowing that you’re here in this awful place?”

Rosie fought the urge to cry, and nodded.

“So all of this is to save Rebecca’s feelings?”

Rosie sniffed, and nodded again.

“Beau,” said Mary quietly.

“Told you,” added Ada.

“What? How do you—? Please, you mustn’t tell Miss Rebecca,” begged Rosie. “She loves him so, and it would break her heart if she knew Mr. Datchery was the thief.”

“But I don’t understand,” said Mary. “As her friend, wouldn’t you want to stop her from marrying a bad man?”

“That’s just it,” replied Rosie. “He is not a bad man. He’s a very good man. I don’t know what could’ve possibly possessed him to steal the pendant, but I saw him do it. While everyone was downstairs, I saw him coming out of Rebecca’s room. I gasped, I was that shocked, but he never noticed. He had the necklace in his hand—he just carried it down the hallway, staring at it the whole time like it was something from his dreams. Then next morning when Rebecca discovered it was missing, I told her I had stolen it. She’d be crushed to find he took it. And there’d be such a scandal. And think of Mr. Datchery’s reputation.”

“If he stole it, he’s a criminal, and he should be in here and not you,” said Ada.

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