The Merryweather Jewel Thefts.

Chapter 3

A few hours later, I was alone in my room. Alone, and very, very worried.  Nothing made any sense,  and I was panicking a little inside. I had found nothing of any interest in any of the other guest rooms, and not much else in the servants' quarters. This investigation really was going nowhere, and I meant nowhere.

There was a little thing that bugged me, though. In one of the butlers' rooms, I had found a whole lot of unused blue stamps. The butler in question, a young man named Stephenson, told me he liked collecting stamps. But usually, don't people collect lots of different stamps? That was what I thought,  but I kept it to myself.

To make matters worse, i was beginning to think Newham was getting a little sick of Violetta Dalton already. I knew he loved to be in control of the situation, and the fact that she was taking over everything and generally treating him pretty poorly wasn't going down well, from what I could see. I sighed. I was acting like  Violetta Dalton was a real  person here, not just a character I'd made up in my head. Perhaps I should have taken the character in a different direction, I mused. I myself was struggling  to  keep  on the ball and in control all of  the time. Still, there was nothing I could do about it now. I  had to get Violetta Dalton ready for dinner. 

After about half an hour of pacing and worrying and changing my mind over and over, I decided on a dark green affair that looked remarkably similar to Isabel's old black dress which had been handed down to me. This dress, though, fitted me much better, and I personally thought it looked rather becoming. I had found a little black jewelled barrette in one of the London shops, and I slipped it into my hair, which was still in the ringlet bun that I had put in that morning. I smiled, before hurrying out of the door and along the hall.

"Miss Dalton?"

I paused.

"Good evening, Mr. Arthman" I said courteously, trying to hide my emotions, which had been thrown into  a spin. Why was he waiting for me? Did he want to talk to me about something? I still disliked his accent, as Americans weren't my cup of tea, and definitely weren't Violetta Dalton's cup of tea.

"You look beautiful tonight" the American carried on, as my eyes practically fell out of my head. He was trying to court me. Or Violetta. What was he thinking?

"Thank you" I said stiffly.

"Can I escort you down?" Arthman asked. I took a deep breath.

"Yes" I replied coolly. He offered me his arm, and I took it, a little reluctantly, thinking of Newham. I hoped I could make it up to him somehow, tomorrow.

As we were walking down the stairs, I happened to look behind me. What I saw amazed me. Newham was following me down the stairs, with...with Evangelyn Savoy clinging to his arm, giggling away in her own silly manner. Our eyes met, and the awkwardness descended like a tonne of bricks. Evangelyn twittered loudly and hurried down to join us, dragging Newham behind her like a pet poodle.

"Mr. Arthman! Miss Dalton!" she gushed, beaming. "What a lovely evening! Will you both not join us for dinner? Mr. Carter has already agreed to dine with us."

I shot Newham a look. He shot me the same one back. I sighed. We had put ourselves in the same awkward situation, both agreeing to dinner with someone else, so although I had no ammunition to shoot him with later, niether did he. I scowled to myself, and contented with allowing Arthman to lead me into the dining room behind Newham and Evangelyn. I merely acknowledged his constant chatter, grateful that my character allowed me the excuse of not talking. We all sat down at a table for five, to be joined minutes later by the blonde young lady who had slighted me earlier that morning. Davina Longleath. Ugh.

"Good evening, all!" she said lightly, sitting down with a rustle of skirts next to Arthman. I was sitting on the American's other side, with Evangelyn next to me, and Newham sandwiched between the two twittering terrors. I actually felt quite sorry for him. We all ordered,  and the soup was brought in a few minutes later.