The Butler(31)

“Is everything all right?” he asked her in a businesslike tone. It was his job to notice what went on around him, and he had a sharp eye and a keen awareness of people’s moods and reactions. He could see that Olivia was upset about something.

She had gone into her bedroom to put on a pair of pearl earrings and the diamond band her mother had worn as her pseudo wedding ring from George. It was the first time Olivia had wanted to wear it, but when she opened the small jewel case where she’d been keeping them, it was empty, and neither the ring nor the earrings were there. She’d been keeping the jewel case in her underwear drawer until the installation of the safe. She opened the case several times, as though her mother’s jewelry would materialize, and it didn’t. Alphonsine was busy scrubbing the bathroom, and she didn’t want to accuse her of anything. There had been many workmen in the house, and deliveries, and she hadn’t checked the jewel box since she’d moved. If someone had stolen her mother’s jewelry, she had no idea who it could be, and she didn’t want to accuse anyone unfairly.

    She walked out to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. Joachim walked in, and looked at her closely. She seemed near tears and looked distracted.

“I don’t want to pry,” he said quietly, “but I get the feeling something’s wrong. Is it anything I can help you with?” She didn’t answer at first, not sure what to say. And if they’d been stolen, he could have done it too. He was at the apartment more than anyone else. She didn’t think he was a thief, but she didn’t really know him. They were all strangers to her. And for all she knew, he could have written his glowing reference from the new Marquess of Cheshire himself. Who knew if it was real? She had never called to check his references. She trusted him, perhaps wrongly so.

“No, I’m fine,” she said to him, and left the kitchen, and he noticed that Alphonsine had emerged from the bathroom and was watching her closely too. He had seen incidents like it before, and could guess what had happened, or thought he could.

At the end of the afternoon, he spoke to Olivia again. “Are you missing something?” he asked her. She hesitated and then shook her head. How did he know? Except if he had taken the jewelry.

“No, it’s fine. My drawers are still a mess since the move.” But he already knew her better than that and was trained to learn his employers’ habits. Nothing she touched was ever a mess. She was an extremely tidy person, and a creature of habit. She always put things back in the same place. Too trusting perhaps, but definitely not messy.

    He nodded, and didn’t insist, but she didn’t speak to him again before he left. He could see distrust in her eyes when she said good night.

Olivia suddenly felt surrounded by strangers and people she didn’t know if she could trust. There was no doubt in her mind now. Someone had taken her mother’s jewelry. A workman, a delivery person, maybe Joachim, although she hated to think that. She liked him and had trusted him implicitly. Alphonsine didn’t seem like a likely candidate. She looked like an honest woman, and a sweet little grandmother. Olivia would have sworn it wasn’t her.

She had a sleepless night over it, and felt terrible. Her mother had loved her pearl earrings and wore them almost every day, and the ring from George was her most treasured possession. George had rather sarcastically called it her “unwedding ring” but her mother had loved it. Olivia had taken it off her finger before they buried her. And now her mother’s treasures were gone, forever. She should have put them in a vault in the bank, but she had been careless and too trusting.

She looked tense and unhappy the next morning when Joachim came to work. He had spoken to his mother about it the night before, disturbed by the expression on his new employer’s face. He had been through it before, but they were in such close quarters and she seemed so alone in the world that it pained him for her.

“She thinks I stole something from her,” he told his mother over their dinner in the kitchen.

“How do you know? Did she accuse you of it?”

    “She didn’t have to. I’ve seen that expression before. She looked panicked, and she didn’t look me in the eye when I left.”

His mother looked worried. She didn’t want it to be an unpleasant experience for him, or end badly. “Is it something of great value?”

“I have no idea. Maybe not. But it’s something she cares about deeply. She was almost in tears. And she looked as though she suddenly couldn’t trust anyone. She’s among strangers in a foreign country. I feel sad for her.”

“I remember when Francois’s cleaning woman took a gold locket I had with pictures of you and Javier in it, as babies. It disappeared right after we arrived from Buenos Aires. I looked everywhere and it didn’t turn up.”

“Did it ever?” Joachim asked, worried.

“Francois made a huge fuss and threatened to call the police. And he very cleverly offered a huge reward to the person who would find it. It turned up the next day, mysteriously under a chair where I had looked, and the maid claimed the reward. We fired her almost immediately. But I got the locket back.” Joachim nodded. He had done similar things in the Cheshires’ homes with the staff, usually with good results, but not always. He just hoped he could bring about a good outcome for Olivia. He hated seeing her so unhappy and worried. And he didn’t want her thinking it was him.