Chapter Thirty-Three
“I’m beginning to enjoy this.?? Jacqueline grinned as she lifted a small wooden carving of an elephant out of a crewman’s locker. “It feels like we’re on a treasure hunt, doesn’t it?”
Judith, who was next to her, sorting through another locker, said, “Don’t you mean scavenger hunt?”
“Considering what was stolen, I don’t believe I do. You know, all combined, that jewelry is probably worth a king’s ransom. Yours alone would be!”
Judith didn’t blush or try to make excuses for her mother’s extravagance. Everyone in the family knew how carried away Roslynn could get whenever she found something to spend her money on.
Judith had hoped to find Nathan working with James’s group in the crew’s quarters when she and Jack joined her uncle there after completing their search of each other’s cabin. But although James had divided the crew who weren’t actually manning the ship into two groups—one searching the cargo hold with Artie supervising, and the other assigned to the main deck and the battery deck with Henry in charge, James didn’t trust any of the sailors to search the crew’s quarters because he considered it the most likely hiding place for the jewels.
Working alone there, James hadn’t made much progress, so he was glad to have Jack and Judy’s help, and later Anthony’s, too, when he joined them, although Anthony was mostly distracting James with his suspicions about who had robbed them. Boyd was at the other end of this deck working his way toward them. They didn’t need to rip open the mattresses in the large bunkroom because the mattresses were thin enough that any jewelry that might have been sewn inside them could be detected by touch.
Boyd entered the crew’s quarters and spoke with James. A few moments later, James called the girls over to him. “Boyd just found this,” James said, holding up an amber ring. “He says it’s not Katey’s. Do either of you recognize it?”
Judith did. The amber ring went with her amber locket and bracelet. So she had brought her amber after all. It wasn’t nearly as expensive as her other sets, but still beautifully made, especially the oval locket, which was circled with tiny seed pearls.
Her father had come over to have a look at the ring and answered for her, “That’s Judy’s ring. Gave her the amber m’self. The other pieces weren’t with it?”
“No,” James said, and nodded to Boyd, who left immediately. James didn’t exactly look relieved by the discovery and told the girls, “I need to let George know she can stop keeping an eye on Catherine. I believe we’re done here for the time being, so you might as well come along.”
“You suspected her, too?” Jack asked, keeping up with him. “I did.”
Judith tsked, but James agreed, “Her—or her brother. Why do you think I sent you all to different cabins? It was to keep them out of theirs.”
“Well, don’t let her know you suspected her,” Judith said quickly as she followed behind them. “She felt bad enough when you only looked at her earlier.” Then, a little red-cheeked, she added, “Though I confess I did have a moment’s doubt about Andrássy.”
“Where this was found doesn’t implicate either of them,” James said.
“So a sailor got greedy?” Jack guessed.
“Or planned this well in advance,” James replied. “But we’ll find out soon enough. Boyd is having him brought to my cabin.”
Judith was frowning before they reached James’s cabin. If the ring hadn’t been found in the crew’s quarters or a specific locker, how did he know whom to bring in for questioning?
“George, really?” James complained the moment he entered his cabin to find her rifling through his desk, the papers on top of it all scattered.
She glanced up to give him a sweet smile. “I was running out of places to look, m’dear.”
“You can stop looking.”
Catherine, standing in front of the bank of windows, turned to ask him hopefully, “So am I exonerated?”
Judith was surprised that Catherine would actually ask that. So was James. Judith didn’t think she’d ever seen her uncle look discomfited, but at that moment he did. He merely said, “Of course.”
Anthony sat down on one of the sofas, stretched his arms over the back, and asked, “So who is our culprit? I’ve a mind to tear him limb from limb just for sneaking into Judy’s room, much less for stealing from her.”
James tsked. “He’ll need to be in one piece when we turn him over to the authorities when we dock.”
“Then just a few minutes with him. Really, James, you can’t tell me you aren’t just as incensed that the blighter would dare—”
“Course I am.”
Anthony rolled his eyes at that calm reply. He should have known getting James to show what he was feeling was next to impossible. He’d tried, and failed, often enough in the past.
Boyd, looking grim now, returned with Katey, and they both joined Anthony on the sofa. Boyd had seemed the least disturbed of all the family members when he’d learned about the robbery. After so many years at sea, he traveled with nothing of real value that couldn’t easily be replaced, and he had tried to convince Katey to do the same. So it was odd that he now seemed more disturbed than anyone else. Georgina noticed it, too, and moved over to perch on the arm of the sofa next to her brother to quietly question him.
Jack was standing next to Judy and leaned closer to her to whisper, “Who do you think it is?”
“I’m more curious to know why your father hasn’t given us a name yet.”
“Because we wouldn’t recognize it if he did. Do you know all the names of the crew? I surely don’t.”
“Of course, I didn’t think of that,” Judith whispered back, then sighed. “I’m letting my suspicions run amok today. This is all so disturbing.”
“Worse than that,” Jack growled low. “We’ve never been robbed before, neither of us. I bloody well don’t like how it feels.”
“But the thief has been caught and we will soon have our jewels back. You shouldn’t still be so angry.”
“Can’t help it,” Jack mumbled.
Artie arrived, four sailors with him. Nathan was one of them. Judith’s pulse picked up at the mere sight of him, but she was overcome with shyness, too, after what they had done last night. She still cast him a smile, but it faltered when she saw how tight-lipped he was. And he hadn’t noticed her yet. He was staring at James, as were the other sailors.
James walked over to the sailors and held out the amber ring. “Recognize this?”
He didn’t seem to be asking any one of them in particular, yet Nathan answered, “Why would I? I’m not your thief.”
“Yet it was found under your bed. Dropped it by accident, did you? Didn’t hear it fall and roll out of sight? Rather careless, that.”
Judith blanched, every bit of color gone from her face. She was too shocked to remain quiet. “My God, a smuggler and a jewel thief! How could you?!”
Nathan didn’t reply, but his emerald eyes weren’t so lovely when they narrowed in anger. They were downright menacing instead. Because he’d been found out obviously. She was going to be furious as soon as she stopped feeling like crying.
“A what?” more than one person asked.
Catherine’s timing couldn’t have been worse when she added, “That’s the man who entered your cabin, Judith, with a bowl of milk for that kitten you adopted. He was quite surprised that the room wasn’t empty when he found me there working on your gowns.”
Judith was even more horrified to realize Nathan had probably robbed her before last night and had still made love to her. Icing for his cake? Or was that so she’d defend him in case this very thing happened? He’d had plenty of opportunity these last four days to rob them. She’d given him that because of the kitten. Had he used the animal as a ploy, in case he got caught alone in her room? It was a perfect excuse, wasn’t it? And she’d played right into his hand, insisting he bring her milk. And last night he hadn’t said he wasn’t a criminal, only that if he had been, he wasn’t one now. The man played with words, and they’d all been burned because she was gullible enough to trust him!
“Why didn’t you tell us he was a smuggler?” James asked her.
Judith’s cheeks turned bright red as she was forced to confess, “Because it was just a suspicion. I thought I could keep an eye on him and ferret out the truth.”
“He tried to buy your silence, didn’t he?” Georgina said gently. “By toying with your affections?”
“Seducing me into silence, you mean?”
“Well—yes.”
“I’ll kill him!” Anthony snarled, and shot off the sofa.
“Wait!” one of the other sailors said.
But James was already grappling with his brother. “Not now, Tony. Jewelry first—then you can kill him if you’ve still a mind to.”
The other sailor spoke up again, this time in a tone of disgust. “You nabobs are a bleedin’ odd lot. Nate’s no thief. I can vouch for that.”
James pushed Anthony back before he turned to the man. “How?”
“I’m his first mate,” the man said proudly.
“Are you now?” James said, and then to Nathan, “And how many more of my crew were previously yours?”
Nathan looked beyond furious, so it was just as well the other two sailors were holding him now by the arms. “Just Corky, and leave him out of this.”
“It makes sense that you’d have an accomplice, a lookout, as it were. Lock them both up,” James said to Artie. “The ladies don’t need to be present for the questioning.”