“Hi! It’s me again, Lara Lington,” I say into the pedestrian intercom. “I left my umbrella behind. Silly me!” After a moment, the guard opens the pedestrian gate for me and leans out of his window.
“I’ve spoken to Sarah. She doesn’t know anything about an umbrella, but she’s coming down.”
“I’ll meet her, save her the trouble!” I say brightly, and hurry past before he can protest. OK. I’m past one hurdle.
“Tell me the minute he looks away,” I mutter to Sadie out of the side of my mouth. “Say ‘Now.’”
“Now!” she says suddenly, and I dodge to the side of the path. I take a few steps across the grass, then drop down, roll behind a hedge, and come to a stop like someone in an action film.
My heart’s thumping hard. I don’t even care that I’ve run my tights. Through the hedge I can see Sarah crunching swiftly down the drive, a perturbed expression on her face.
“Where is she?” I hear her voice drifting up from the front gates.
“… saw her a moment ago…” The guard sounds baffled.
Ha!
Actually, not ha. They might start looking for me with Rottweilers in a minute.
“Where is it?” I whisper to Sadie. “Guide me. And keep a lookout!”
We start making our way over the lawn toward the house, dodging from hedge to water feature to prizewinning sculpture. I keep freezing as people walk down the drive. But so far no one’s spotted me.
“There!” We turn the corner and Sadie nods at a set of French doors on the second-floor level. They’re ajar, and open onto a terrace with steps up to it from the garden. I won’t need to clamber up the ivy after all. I’m almost disappointed.
“Keep guard!” I mutter to Sadie. I creep toward the steps, slip off my wedges, and run up them silently. Cautiously, I approach the ajar French doors-and catch my breath.
There it is.
It’s lying on a dressing table, just inside the room. A long double row of beads in shimmering yellow glass, with the most exquisite carved dragonfly, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and studded with rhinestones. It’s Sadie’s necklace. Iridescent and magical, just as she described it, although it’s longer than I imagined and a few of the beads are a little battered.
As I gaze at it, I feel overcome by emotion. After all this time. After all the hunting, the hoping; after secretly wondering if it even existed anymore… here it is. Only a few feet away from me. I could practically lean over and touch it without even entering the room.
“It’s… stunning.” I turn back to Sadie, my voice a little choked. “It’s absolutely the most beautiful thing I’ve ever-”
“Get it!” She’s whirling her arms in frustration, her beads jangling. “Stop talking! Get it!”
“OK, OK!”
I swing the French doors open, take a tentative step inside, and am just reaching toward the necklace, when I hear footsteps approaching the room. In what seems like a nanosecond, the door is thrown open. Shit. Someone’s coming in.
In panic, I reverse onto the terrace and duck to one side.
“What are you doing?” demands Sadie from below. “Get the necklace!”
“Someone’s in there! I’ll wait ’til they’ve gone!”
In an instant, Sadie is up on the terrace and poking her head through the glass into the room.
“It’s a maid.” She glares at me. “You should have grabbed it!”
“I’ll get it in a minute when she’s gone! Don’t stress! Just keep a lookout!”
I back right against the wall, praying that the maid or whoever she is doesn’t decide to come out on the terrace for a breath of fresh air and madly thinking of excuses if she does.
Suddenly my heart jumps as the French doors start moving-but they’re not opening. They close with a firm clunk . The next thing I hear is the click of a key being turned.
Oh no.
Oh no, oh no.
“She’s locked you out!” Sadie darts into the room, then out again. “Now she’s gone! You’re stuck! You’re stuck!”
I rattle the French doors, but they’re well and firmly locked.
“You idiot!” Sadie is beside herself with fury. “You absolute fool! Why didn’t you just grab it?”
“I was about to!” I retort defensively. “You should have gone to check if anyone was coming!”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know !”
There’s silence as we face each other, panting slightly.
“I need to put my shoes on,” I say at last. I head down the steps and slip on my wedges. Above, Sadie is still darting in and out of the room in frustration, as though she can’t bear to relinquish her necklace. At last she gives up and joins me on the grass. For a few moments neither of us meets the other’s eye.