The Heiress Strikes Back novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Necklace

Lorna waited four days.

On Friday, the Brightwells gave a dinner for twenty.

It was the store managers, their wives, two bankers, and the minister from Mr. Brightwell's church.

Every one of them had come to meet the daughter who had been found.

I wore the black uniform Mrs. Brightwell's housekeeper had given me and carried a tray of wine.

Lorna sat at Mr. Brightwell's right hand in a green velvet dress.

She had been practicing something in the mirror all week, and tonight it was a shy, dazed look.

"I keep thinking I'll wake up," she told the minister.

He patted her hand.

I poured his wine and didn't spill it.

Mrs. Brightwell sat at the far end in her good grey silk.

The single pearl on its chain lay against her collar bone.

It had been her mother's.

She'd told me so on Wednesday, while I ironed her blouse and she watched me instead of the television.

She had asked me twelve questions that week, and every one of them was easy.

What do you like for breakfast?

Did you have a favorite book?

Do you sleep with the window open?

I answered every one.

I always had the feeling she was waiting for the thirteenth.

At the soup course, Lorna leaned across the table to tell Mrs. Brightwell something.

She squeezed her hand.

She said, "Mom, you are so beautiful tonight."

When she sat back, her face was perfectly sweet.

At the fish course, Mrs. Brightwell touched her throat.

The pearl was gone.

The room felt it before she said a word.

"My mother's pearl," she said. "I had it at the soup."

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