Page 55 of Murder of a Dead Man

“Thank you. I wanted to apologize,” Cecilia said.

“Apologize?” Liddy repeated, her face crumpled up in confusion.

“Yes, I’m sorry I was not awake when you came to visit me in my room yesterday,” Cecilia said, determined not to mention she’d seen her in her portmanteaux.

“Oh.”

“Mrs. Vance and Lady Stackpoole have told me you were a good friend to Mr. Montgomery.”

“Yes. He teached me and listened to me.”

Cecilia nodded. “It is very special to have a friend who listens to you.”

“And he didn’t laugh at me,” she said solemnly, shaking her head.

Cecilia frowned. “I don’t think anyone here laughs at you. From what I’ve heard, everyone likes you.”

Liddy sighed dramatically. “I know. I’m not talking about this stupid purple birthmark. That’s just me.”

“Oh, then I confess I am confused. What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she said, speaking with careful emphasis, “he never laughed at mytreasure chest.”

“Your treasure chest?”

She nodded and took a bite of food.

“Our Miss Liddy likes to collect things and store them in a box she calls her treasure chest.”

“It is my treasure chest,” Liddy defended fiercely.

“We,” Mrs. Vance continued sadly, waving her hand to indicate everyone in the room and beyond, “have made the mistake of laughing at an item or two in her collection.”

“Mr. Montgomery never thought them silly,” Liddy said stoutly between bites. “He liked them all.”

“What do you like to collect in your…treasure chest,” Cecilia asked.

She shrugged, one thin shoulder rising nearly to her ear. “Things.”

“Things you see and like?”

The child nodded as she quickly shoveled more food into her mouth. Cecilia wanted to tell her to slow down, but didn’t want to risk breaking the tenuous communication she had with her.

“I did something like that at one time,” Cecilia told her. “My grandparents took me to the beach, and I collected shells and bits of sea glass from the sand. I kept the shells in glass vases on a shelf in my bedroom.”

“Do you still have them?”

Cecilia smiled sadly. “No, I moved away from there,” she told her, thinking back to all she’d left behind in her forced arranged marriage to George Waddley so many years ago. She wondered if the shells were still there. Or if her father even owned that house any longer, or if he’d finally wagered it away like everything else he did in his life.

She pushed those thoughts away. Another time, another place, another life. Now, she had wonderful, loving James and their coming babe. She laid a hand on her growing stomach.

“Do you miss them?” a serious Liddy asked her, bringing Cecilia out of her past.

“My shells? Yes, I think I do. I hadn’t realized that until you asked me,” Cecilia told her.

Liddy looked at her intently. “Maybe I will show you my treasure chest. If you promise not to laugh.”

“I should like that, and I make you a solemn promise not to laugh.”