... I couldn’t say no, Granddad. Mattie paused to listen for a moment, then smiled. It was much too late for anyone to be knocking on her door. It was only the wind that had disturbed her, rising to a keening wail outside the window of her room. Such a nice room. She’d cleaned it from top to bottom after supper, and put her things neatly on the dresser, where Granddad could find them and send them home to Mum afterward. Now all that remained was the note. Mattie chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen, then bent to her task once more.
I put all my sketches together and packed my blue bag with the dress Nanny helped me make—the cripe de chine, with all the tucks. Nanny says it’s my best one yet, but I wanted a professional opinion, so I just had to show it to Ashers. And then I thought about accessories. You know how strict Nanny is about them, but I didn’t think my dress needed too much fuss and feathers, as Nanny calls it. The right pair of shoes would be enough. Mattie raised her pen from the paper and looked toward the windows again. The wind was blowing harder than ever, and that was good. It would make everything easier.
“She snuck the shoes outta Suzie’s room,” Syd explained, shaking his head. “Poor kid thought it’d be real impressive to show her dress with Suzie’s shoes.”
I put the shoes in the bag with the dress, Mattie wrote, and told Nanny I was going down to help Madama. Then I told Madama I was going up to help Nanny. Then I came out to the garden, where Ashers was waiting. I know you don’t like Ashers, but she was wonderful, at first. She said I had a real eye for detail and she told me she could put me in touch with all the right people. Can you imagine? I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Mattie reread the last sentence, then scratched it out.
I was very happy, she wrote instead, until Ashers started asking those questions. You know, the ones she was asking Mr. Harris, about that grotty band that stole His Grace’s boat. I told her I didn’t know anything about it, but she said that you did, and told me to ask you.
I couldn’t do that. I tried to be nice about it, but Ashers kept after me, just the same way she kept after Mr. Harris. She got really mean, Granddad. She started shouting at me. She called you a thief. She said she’d have you put in prison if I didn’t help her.. Mattie’s hand began to tremble and she reached for her cup of cocoa to steady her nerves. This was the hard part.
“Things kinda got outta hand,” Syd went on. “One minute Suzie’s standin’ at the top of the stairs, laughin’ at the kid, and, the next thing Mattie knows, she’s got the grub hoe in her hands and Suzie’s out cold on the ground.”
I didn’t mean to hurt her. Mattie underlined the words. I just wanted her to stop saying all those awful things about you. And then she was lying there, not moving, and I knew I’d done a dreadful thing. Not just dreadful for me, but for everyone.
You never talk about it, Granddad, and neither does Nanny Cole, but Mrs. Tharby at the Bright Lady told me how bad it was after that rock singer drowned, and I knew this would be even worse. I didn’t mind going to jail, but His Grace might have to close up the hall if the newspaper people started coming round again, and I couldn’t let that happen. You’ve been so happy here.
So I tried to make it look like an accident. You can probably guess how. I broke one of Ashers’s high-heeled shoes, and took off the flats she was wearing. I put the high heels on Ashers and hid her flats in my bag. I put the flats back in her room the next day. Mattie put down her pen, and reread what she’d written, then turned to stare at her reflection in the window. It had begun to rain.
“All the time Suzie was in Plymouth, it was grindin’ away at Mattie,” Syd said. “And when they brought Suzie back to the hall, she kinda cracked. Said it’d all come out once Suzie got her memory back, so she might as well save everyone the trouble of a trial. And she hadda tell her grandpa the truth, so he could tell the police so nobody else would get blamed for it. Also so he’d know how sorry she was for what she done and not be too mad at her for ... for not sayin’ goodbye.” Syd sighed again and shook his head, adding softly, “Kids.”
That one word summed up Emma’s complex feelings. She should have known something was bothering Mattie the moment the poor child fainted in the entrance hall. “Do you think they’d let me see her?” Emma asked.