I don’t see how it can fail. And I can’t tell you how much better I feel. It’s so good just to be able to share this problem with Stefan. I’ve learned my lesson; I’ll never keep things from him again.
I’m wearing my ring tomorrow. If Mrs. Grimesby asks me about it, I’ll tell her it’s even older than 19th century, it’s from Renaissance Italy. I’d like to see her face when I say that.
I’d better try to get some sleep now. I hope I don’t dream.
Fourteen
Bonnie shivered as she waited outside the tall Victorian house. The air was frosty this morning, and although it was almost eight o’clock the sun had never really come up. The sky was just one dense massed bank of gray and white clouds, creating an eerie twilight below.
She had begun to stamp her feet and rub her hands together when the Forbes’ door opened. Bonnie moved back a little behind the shrubbery that was her hiding place and watched the family walk to their car. Mr. Forbes was carrying nothing but a camera. Mrs. Forbes had a purse and a folding seat. Daniel Forbes, Caroline’s younger brother, had another seat. And Caroline…
Bonnie leaned forward, her breath hissing out in satisfaction. Caroline was dressed in jeans and a heavy sweater, and she was carrying some sort of white drawstring purse. Not big but big enough to hold a small diary.
Warmed by triumph, Bonnie waited behind the bush until the car drove away. Then she started for the corner of Thrush Street and Hawthorne Drive.
“There she is, Aunt Judith. On the corner.”
The car slowed to a halt, and Bonnie slid into the back seat with Elena.
“She’s got a white drawstring purse,” she murmured into Elena’s ear as Aunt Judith pulled out again.
Tingling excitement swept over Elena, and she squeezed Bonnie’s hand. “Good,” she breathed. “Now we’ll see if she brings it into Mrs. Grimesby’s. If not, you tell Meredith it’s in the car.”
Bonnie nodded agreement and squeezed Elena’s hand back.
They arrived at Mrs. Grimesby’s just in time to see Caroline going inside with a white bag hanging from her arm. Bonnie and Elena exchanged a look. Now it was up to Elena to see where Caroline left it in the house.
“I’ll get out here too, Miss Gilbert,” said Bonnie as Elena jumped out of the car. She would wait outside with Meredith until Elena could tell them where the bag was. The important thing was not to let Caroline suspect anything unusual.
Mrs. Grimesby, who answered Elena’s knock, was the Fell’s Church librarian. Her house looked almost like a library itself; there were bookcases everywhere and books stacked on the floor. She was also the keeper of Fell’s Church’s historical artifacts, including clothing that had been preserved from the town’s earliest days.
Just now the house was ringing with young voices, and the bedrooms were full of students in various stages of undress. Mrs. Grimesby always supervised the costumes for the pageant. Elena was ready to ask to be put in the same room with Caroline, but it wasn’t necessary. Mrs. Grimesby was already ushering her in.
Caroline, stripped down to her fashionable underwear, gave Elena what was undoubtedly meant to be a nonchalant look, but Elena detected the vicious gloating beneath. She kept her own eyes on the bundle of clothing Mrs. Grimesby was picking up off the bed.
“Here you are, Elena. One of our most nicely preserved pieces—and all authentic, too, even the ribbons. We believe this dress belonged to Honoria Fell.”
“It’s beautiful,” said Elena, as Mrs. Grimesby shook out the folds of thin white material. “What’s it made of?”
“Moravian muslin and silk gauze. Since it’s quite cold today you can wear that velvet jacket over it.” The librarian indicated a dusty rose garment lying over a chair back.
Elena cast a surreptitious glance at Caroline as she began to change. Yes, there was the bag, at Caroline’s feet. She debated making a grab for it, but Mrs. Grimesby was still in the room.
The muslin dress was very simple, its flowing material belted high under the bosom with a pale rose ribbon. The slightly puffed elbow-length sleeves were tied with ribbon of the same color. Fashions had been loose enough in the early nineteenth century to fit a twentieth century girl—at least if she were slender. Elena smiled as Mrs. Grimesby led her to a mirror.
“Did it really belong to Honoria Fell?” she asked, thinking of the marble image of that lady lying on her tomb in the ruined church.
“That’s the story, anyway,” said Mrs. Grimesby. “She mentions a dress like it in her journal, so we’re pretty sure.”
“She kept a journal?” Elena was startled.
“Oh, yes. I have it in a case in the living room; I’ll show it to you on the way out. Now for the jacket—oh, what’s that?”
Something violet fluttered to the ground as Elena picked the jacket up.
She could feel her expression freeze. She caught up the note before Mrs. Grimesby could bend over, and glanced at it.
One line. She remembered writing it in her diary on September 4, the first day of school. Except that after she had written it she had crossed it out. These words were not crossed out; they were bold and clear.
Something awful is going to happen today.
Elena could barely restrain herself from rounding on Caroline and shaking the note in her face. But that would ruin everything. She forced herself to stay calm as she crumpled up the little slip of paper and threw it into a wastebasket.
“It’s just a piece of trash,” she said, and turned back to Mrs. Grimesby, her shoulders stiff. Caroline said nothing, but Elena could feel those triumphant green eyes on her.
Just you wait, she thought. Wait until I get that diary back. I’m going to burn it, and then you and I are going to have a talk.
To Mrs. Grimesby she said, “I’m ready.”
“So am I,” said Caroline in a demure voice. Elena put on a look of cool indifference as she eyed the other girl. Caroline’s pale green gown with long green and white sashes was not nearly as pretty as hers.
“Wonderful. You girls go ahead and wait for your rides. Oh, and Caroline, don’t forget your reticule.”
“I won’t,” Caroline said, smiling, and she reached for the drawstring bag at her feet.
It was fortunate that from that position she couldn’t see Elena’s face, for in that instant the cool indifference shattered completely. Elena stared, dumbfounded, as Caroline began to tie the bag at her waist.
Her astonishment didn’t escape Mrs. Grimesby. “That’s a reticule, the ancestor of our modern handbag,” the older woman explained kindly. “Ladies used to keep their gloves and fans in them. Caroline came by and got it earlier this week so she could repair some loose beadwork… very thoughtful of her.”
“I’m sure it was,” Elena managed in a strangled voice. She had to get out of here or something awful was going to happen right now. She was going to start screaming—or knock Caroline down—or explode. “I need some fresh air,” she said. She bolted from the room and from the house, bursting outside.
Bonnie and Meredith were waiting in Meredith’s car. Elena’s heart thumped strangely as she walked to it and leaned in the window.
“She’s outsmarted us,” she said quietly. “That bag is part of her costume, and she’s going to wear it all day.”
Bonnie and Meredith stared, first at her and then at each other.