Lacey’s men were heaving a trunk onto the bed.
The magistrate opened it and paused. “Oh, dear.”
Kenneth frowned but remained where he was. Sir Marcus strode across the room, reached inside, and brought out a small folded carpet. The one that had been on the parlor floor the last time Helen had visited the inn.
After the carpet came two glinting diamond earrings, instantly recognizable, a handful of silver teaspoons, and an emerald necklace.
Kenneth had started across the room, his eyes wide and staring, his jaw slack. “But that’s impossible!” he burst out.
Either he was innocent or the best actor Helen had ever seen, on stage or off.
He raised his desperate eyes, not to Mr. Lacey but to Sir Marcus. “I didn’t put these things in there! I couldn’t…”
“Do you recognize these items?” Mr. Lacey interrupted.
“That’s my mother’s carpet. The rest… I don’t think so.” His frown deepened. “Unless these teaspoons…but that is impossible, too. Look, the last time I saw the carpet was last night on the parlor floor. The spoons, if they’re Lady Overton’s, were in her drawing room on saucers, and I most certainly didn’t leave with them clanking in my pockets!”
“That’s true,” Sir Marcus observed. “He didn’t clank.”
“And the earrings?” Mr. Lacey asked, peering at Kenneth.
“Lord, I don’t know.” Kenneth tugged at his hair. “Were they Lady Overton’s, too? She was wearing something similar last night, but I believe she would have noticed if I’d plucked them off her ears.”
Mr. Lacey glanced over his shoulder and saw Lady Overton standing, shocked, beside Helen.
“I took them off,” she blurted. “They pinch. I don’t think it was until the carriages had left, but I don’t actually remember…”
Neither did Helen. She’d had too many other things on her mind.
“And the necklace?” Mr. Lacey asked, holding it up.
“I don’t recall ever seeing that,” Kenneth declared.
“Why, it’s Cecily’s,” Lady Overton exclaimed, going forward to peer at it.
“Lady Verne’s,” Helen confirmed. “She lost it at Steynings after the ball. Mr. Robinov was not at Steynings.”
Mrs. Robinov, who must have left her daughter alone in the chamber opposite, cast Helen a grateful glance as she walked past her into the room.
“That you know of,” Mr. Lacey pointed out.
“He was here with me from the day before Sir Marcus arrived,” Mrs. Robinov snapped.
“He could have ridden there and back during the night while you were asleep,” one of Lacey’s men suggested.
“Why?” Mrs. Robinov demanded. “Why would he bother when several other substantial houses, including Audley Park, were empty and much closer? It’s as ridiculous as the idea that he is a thief in the first place.”
“He could have accomplices,” Mr. Lacey said tiredly. “The matter is not yet clear, but I’m afraid, young man, you will have to come with me to Finsborough.”
“He most assuredly will not!” Mrs. Robinov cried.
“Madam, consider my position,” the magistrate begged. “Stolen goods were discovered in your son’s possession. If they were in Villin’s or the stable lad’s, I would have to arrest them. A foreign young man with no ties to the neighborhood—”
“Foreign!” Mrs. Robinov interrupted, her eyes spitting with rage. “Is that what has inspired this persecution? It is quite clear those things were put there to incriminate my son, who could not possibly have committed these crimes! But because he’s a so-called foreigner, you’ll arrest him anyway. If it was young Mr. Overton there, or your own son, it would be quite different I apprehend! Well, I have news for you, sir, despite his Russian name, his noble Russian father who died in the war against Bonaparte, he is English through me and through his stepfather!”
Mr. Lacey blinked. So did everyone else.
“His stepfather?” Lacey repeated cautiously.
“Sir Marcus Dain, my affianced husband,” Mrs. Robinov declared. “Therefore, almost his stepfather.”
Stricken, Helen pressed her hand over her heart, as though that would stop the pain. She lowered her eyes because she couldn’t seem to see anything anyhow.
“Is this true?” Lacey’s voice seemed to come from very far away.
There was the slightest pause before Sir Marcus said positively. “Of course it is. We have not announced it because Robinov’s death is so recent, but as the lady says, we are engaged to marry. I consider both Kenneth and Carla under my protection.”
Mr. Lacey regarded him in some consternation. Helen risked a glance at Sir Marcus and found him glaring at the magistrate.
“Then you take responsibility for the boy while we look into this matter further?” Lacey snapped “Engaging to bring him before me if and when I ask?”
“Of course,” Sir Marcus said haughtily.
Mr. Lacey swept up the stolen items, dropping the spoons and jewels into his pocket and draping the carpet over his arm.
“I believe that is Mrs. Robinov’s,” Sir Marcus said dryly. “She will not charge her son with putting it in his trunk, and you would be foolish to do so.”
Irritated, Lacey thrust the carpet at him and walked out with dignity. His men trudged behind, scratching their heads.
In silence, Kenneth sat on the bed beside his still-open trunk and dropped his face into his hands. “This is a nightmare. Insanity.”
Sir Marcus gripped his shoulder.
“Lady Overton,” Mrs. Robinov said in a shaking voice. “I can only hope you do not believe this terrible calumny against my son.”
“Oh, don’t upset yourself, my dear,” Lady Overton said kindly. “Lacey will get to the bottom of it, you know. He always does. Miss Milsom, take the children downstairs, if you please, and see they are refreshed.”
Brought back to herself by the hint of displeasure in her ladyship’s tone, Helen hastily shepherded the disappointed children away from the door and downstairs to the empty coffee room.
“What on earth’s going on?” Mrs. Villin asked her in an agitated kind of way as she bustled in from the kitchen.
“When I know, I will tell you,” Helen said. “Some misunderstanding, certainly. You have not had things go missing recently, have you?”
“Not apart from Jem helping himself to an extra slice of pie. You know we don’t hold with thieving here.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Helen said hastily and asked for something to eat and drink for the children.
As Mrs. Villin left, the children bombarded Helen with questions she could not answer. She murmured her lack of knowledge and let them speculate among themselves while her own mind wrapped itself around the thefts and the discovery of stolen items in Kenneth’s trunk. It was easier to think about than Mrs. Robinov’s engagement.
Vaguely, she was aware of the others descending the stairs and going into the parlor, where Mrs. Marshall’s voice was still audible. Probably, Anne was still there, too.
So hard was she concentrating on the issue of the thefts, that she did not notice someone else had come into the room until his voice said, “May I join you?”