“Christmas at Longborough Manor is certainly a splendid affair.”
Edith Langford sipped her mulled wine and gazed around the ballroom, festooned with garlands and baubles of every kind. Around her, chandeliers sparkled, guests laughed, and servants flitted with trays of champagne. She felt a bit like Cinderella at the ball.
She was certainly grateful to have Mrs. Lundy by her side, who as usual kept a sharp eye on the guests and updated Edith on their life history as they went by.
“It’s quite an honour to be invited,” she told Edith confidentially. “Only the best people, you know, although I wonder what Lady Elrington was thinking, inviting the Fredricksons — oh look, there’s the detective!”
Edith stood on tiptoe to see into the hall, where the butler was helping Detective-Sergeant Anderson off with his coat. The latter stamped his feet and waved to her, the snow in his hair making his smile seem all the brighter.
“Oh,” said Edith noncommittally. “So it is.”
Mrs. Lundy looked ready to say many things, but at that moment their hostess swept into view, looking intent on greeting them.
Lady Elrington was a woman of middle age and extraordinary stateliness. She moved through the sea of guests like a ship of the line, and Edith almost felt the urge to hide behind Mrs. Lundy at her approach.
“My dear Mrs. Lundy, it’s been an age!” the lady exclaimed. “So wonderful to see you.”
“Oh, you are too kind, Lady Elrington. You’ve met my friend Miss Langford? She teaches at the school.”
The lady smiled and shook Edith’s hand with an iron grip.
“Oh, Lady Elrington!” exclaimed Mrs. Lundy. “You aren’t wearing the diamonds! Now of course those pearls look divine on you, but I thought as it’s practically a Christmas tradition that we’d be seeing the famous Elrington diamonds. It must be fifteen years since you wore anything else at Christmas!”
Lady Elrington looked a bit put out.
“Pearls suit this gown much better, don’t you think?” she said dryly. “Ah, dear Anderson is here. I must say hello.”
She swept off as rapidly as she had come. Mrs. Lundy shook her head.
“I wonder what’s gotten into her?” she murmured.
“Mrs. Lundy,” said Edith warningly. “You aren’t seeing a mystery here, are you?”
“Everything is a mystery, my dear,” Mrs. Lundy said wisely. “Life is full of mysteries to investigate. Just ask the detective.”
“Ask me what?” Anderson came up to them, brandishing a champagne glass. “Though I must warn you, I’m strictly off-duty to any mysteries.”
Behind him, Lady Elrington frowned. If she were anyone less grand, Edith would have said she looked downright worried.
“We don’t mean to pry,” she told their hostess. “But if anything has happened—”
“They’ve been stolen, haven’t they!” interrupted Mrs. Lundy. “Well don’t worry, we’ve got two of the brightest minds in the country here. They’ll find the diamonds in no time, won’t you, dears?”
Edith glanced at Anderson, who gave her a conspirational grin.
“My diamonds have not been stolen,” said the lady coldly. Then, with a sigh of resignation, she went on. “You see — that’s the problem.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“My diamonds did go missing yesterday,” admitted Lady Elrington. “They were on the dressing table that morning, and by noon they were gone! I searched high and low, and I can’t tell you how distressed I was. Dear Albert would be devastated when I told him. But when I went back to my dressing room a few hours later, there they were on the table again.
“So you see,” she finished. “There’s really nothing to tell.”
“Only you’re not wearing the necklace now,” pointed out the detective. “If you don’t mind me saying, the incident does seem to distress you.”
Lady Elrington sighed again.
“To tell you the truth, it does bother me. Who would play such a cruel trick?”
“You think it was a prank?”
“I can’t think what else it could be.”
“Why, real jewel thieves, of course!” exclaimed Mrs. Lundy. “Didn’t you read about the burglary at Horston Hall last week? They stole diamonds!”
“But mine weren’t stolen,” said Lady Elrington. “It must have been a prank.”
“Is that why you didn’t go to the police?” asked Edith. She found Lady Elrington’s attitude puzzling. “You said you were upset, yet you waited for hours before ringing the police or telling your husband.”
“And my necklace turned up in the end,” said Lady Elrington curtly. “Really, I quite regret telling you anything about it. Now if you’ll excuse me—”
“I’d like to see the necklace,” said Anderson, his demeanour suddenly professional.
He must find this story a bit flimsy too, thought Edith.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“I must insist.”
The lady looked agonised for a second, then motioned the three of them farther away from the other guests.
“I’ll show you the necklace, but there’s something you should know.” She lowered her voice. “The reason I didn’t go to the police is simple. They wouldn’t have bothered with a necklace of paste diamonds.”
To Mrs. Lundy’s credit, she lowered her voice to a stage whisper before venting her feelings.
“The famous Elrington diamonds aren’t real?!”
“They haven’t been since the Wall Street Crash in ’29,” said Lady Elrington sadly. “We nearly lost everything, and I didn’t want Albert to worry, so I never told him…”
“Oh you poor dear,” tutted Mrs. Lundy.
Anderson frowned.
“This puts a new complexion on the case,” he said. “Suppose it was real jewel thieves who took your necklace? Only they realised their mistake and put it back.”
“That’s strangely considerate,” mused Edith. “Why not just throw the necklace away?”
“Perhaps they hoped to escape notice. If Lady Elrington hadn’t come in just then, she wouldn’t have known a crime had been committed.”
“Or maybe it was a trial run,” suggested Mrs. Lundy. “And they were practicing for a bigger burglary later.”
“It must have been an inside job in any case.”
“Now wait a minute!”
Lady Elrington’s voice rang with authority, and the three fell silent.
“Are you suggesting,” said the lady, “that an actual crime was committed at Longborough Manor? And by one of my servants?”
She looked so indignant that Edith almost apologised for supposing such a thing. But Anderson stood his ground.
“I’m afraid this looks more serious than we first thought. Tell me, who had access to the diamonds that morning?”
“Only my maid Sarah. She’s a wonderful girl, you can’t think she had anything to do with it!”
“Has she been in your employ long?”
“Only a year, but still…”
“Right. Let’s go see this necklace and then talk to the girl.”
As they trooped upstairs, Anderson shook his head, puzzled.
“It seems such a clumsy crime,” he told Edith. “What do we know? That the thieves got hold of the necklace, found it was fake, and kindly returned it? I’d expect more from the theft of the famous Elrington diamonds.”
“Yes,” said Edith. “I’d expect more too…”
An idea was forming in her mind. When Lady Elrington took the necklace out of its case, Edith turned to the detective.
“I think you should take these diamonds to the station and have them analysed.”
He gave her a sharp look, then nodded. It was a wonderful feeling, knowing that he trusted her judgment.
And a tense half-hour of waiting later, she got a call on Lady Elrington’s telephone.
“Edith!” The detective’s voice came breathlessly down the line. “The Elrington diamonds — they’re real!”
“I knew it!” Edith exclaimed.
“But how? Was Lady Elrington lying?”
“Oh, no. They were fake before yesterday. I think Sarah came to Longborough Manor in pursuit of the Elrington diamonds. Only when she found out they were paste, she got a different idea.”
“Horston Hall?”
“Exactly. I’d wager she has an accomplice there. What better way to hide stolen diamonds than to put them in a replica of the Elrington necklace? Then they could wait until the search blew over. When the Elrington necklace finally disappeared, Lady Elrington wouldn’t even go to the police. You saw how reluctant she was.”
“What an ingenious plan,” said Anderson. “It’s a good thing she got interrupted while switching the necklaces, or we’d never have been the wiser. I just wonder,” he added, “why it took the necklace so long to reappear.”
“Sarah got roped into the search,” said Edith confidently. “I know these grand ladies. They can’t do a thing without their maid.”
“You’re a marvel,” said Anderson warmly. “Now wait right there, I’ll be by with a constable to talk to this Sarah. And then…”
There was a nervous pause.
“Would you do me the honour of a dance?”
Edith glanced up at Mrs. Lundy, who had been hanging onto every word. Now she was goggling her eyes and nodding so vigorously that Edith burst out laughing.
“I’d be delighted, Detective.”
Daria Writes 