Chapter 4 The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene
Nancy’s Strategy
Nancy’s heart skipped a beat. From Mrs. Blair’s expression she could not tell how much of the conversation had been overheard.
“I was just talking to our housekeeper,” she explained easily. “I wanted to tell her where I am. I’ll pay you for the call, of course.”
“Indeed you’ll not,” the actress returned grandly. “I am indebted to you for the magnificent way in which you have come to my aid. Really, I had no idea babies could be such a bore!”
“I think it is time for them to be fed,” Nancy ventured. “Perhaps you’d like to take charge, Mrs. Blair.”
The actress shuddered.
“Oh, dear me, no! Colleen must attend to such things.”
“But she seems to have disappeared.”
“Then the babies must wait, I fear. I just ran upstairs to change into a tea gown. I haven’t time to bother with the twins now.”
The girls found it difficult to conceal their disgust.
“Let me assist you,” Nancy offered. “It won’t do for them to go without milk at least.”
Mrs. Blair looked relieved.
“The cook will give you anything you need, Miss Drew. I can’t tell you how sweet it is of you to take such an interest in my babies!”
“Your babies!” Nancy thought. It was truly ironical, to say the least.
Mrs. Blair vanished into her bedroom, but presently emerged, wearing a dazzling red silk tea gown with a long, sweeping train. She stepped into the nursery for a minute to survey herself like a proud peacock before the mirror.
When Nancy and Bess failed to pay her compliments, she seemed somewhat disappointed.
“This gown was designed especially for me,” she informed them. “The cost was terrific, but it does flatter my figure, don’t you think?”
“Indeed it does,” Bess murmured politely.
Nancy said nothing. Mrs. Blair was too taken up with admiring her own reflection to notice the girl’s silence.
After the actress had rejoined her boisterous guests, Bess and Nancy went down to the kitchen. There they found the negligent Colleen talking with the cook. Both were in a disgruntled mood.
“I signed up to take care of a baby, not two babies!” they heard Colleen complain. “They’d keep me stepping every minute if I let ’em.”
“If jobs weren’t so scarce, I’d quit this place,” the cook rejoined bitterly. “It’s bad enough getting meals ready at all hours of the day and night. And now it will be extra work to fix baby food and heat milk and wash dirty bottles until I’m blue in the face!”
The two fell silent as they saw Nancy and Bess. However, when the girls laughed, the servants decided that they were friendly and would not carry tales to the Blairs.
Despite her complaint, the cook willingly went to the refrigerator for milk when Nancy requested it.
“I don’t begrudge the poor little tikes their food,” she said in a softened mood. “It’s the Blairs that give me a pain! They make out they’re so crazy about kids, but if they find out the twins can’t be trained for the stage, you can bet they’ll get rid of ’em quick enough.”
“Mrs. Blair carries on something awful when she’s at a party,” Colleen added. “The next day she don’t get up until noon. She quarrels with her husband most of the time, too. Some atmosphere to bring up a pair of kids in, if you ask me!”
The girls did not care to listen to gossip, so as soon as the milk was ready they carried it back to the nursery. Colleen watched them feed the babies, and then helped to undress the twins and put them to sleep. The girls were accordingly relieved to learn that she was not entirely ignorant of the care of children.
Nancy observed that it was growing dark outside. Also, her wrist watch reminded her that Hannah would be coming along at any moment. Preferring to meet the housekeeper without being seen by the Blairs or their guests, Nancy quietly descended the back stairs and left the mansion by way of a side door.
Rounding a wing of the house she halted abruptly. A man was seated on a stone bench directly in her path. She could not reach the front drive without going by him.
Then something about his appearance held Nancy’s attention. She could not see his face distinctly in the darkness, but she thought he resembled Rodney, the chauffeur. It was his position which she noted particularly. He leaned over dejectedly, and poked with his shoe absently at the cobblestones. She heard him sigh deeply.
“Poor man!” she thought sympathetically.
She was tempted to step forward and speak to him. Before she could act, however, he wearily arose and slowly walked away.
The sound of an automobile turning into the drive aroused Nancy from her momentary reverie. Hurrying forward, she was relieved to see that the approaching vehicle was a taxi. Hannah Gruen stepped from the cab, greeting her young mistress somewhat reproachfully.
“Of all the wild chases this is the worst! I declare, Nancy, I don’t know what you’ll think of next!”
“You’re a dear to go to so much trouble for me,” Nancy praised, turning to ask the taxi driver to wait. “Did you bring the things, Hannah?”
Hannah thrust a small bundle into the girl’s arms.
“Here it is. But if you’re aiming to bring those babies home with you, I may have something to say about it.”
“Why, Hannah, don’t you like babies?” Nancy teased.
“I like them all right, but I don’t enjoy turning myself into a nursemaid! Your father won’t be able to do a bit of work with two crying babies in the house.”
Nancy laughed and squeezed the housekeeper’s plump arm.
“Now don’t you worry, Hannah. I’m not planning to bring the twins home with me.”
“Then what do you want with these doll clothes? If I’ve made this trip out here for nothing——”
“You haven’t,” Nancy soothed her. “I can’t explain anything now, but I think I’ve stumbled upon something important.”
“You mean another mystery?” Hannah asked in awe.
“Perhaps.”
“You didn’t tell enough over the phone even to let me catch on,” the housekeeper said in the tone of a fellow conspirator. “I’m glad to help you all I can, Nancy, though goodness knows my hands are more useful than my mind!”
“You’ve been a great help to me tonight,” Nancy praised her. “You must hurry away before someone sees you.”
She urged the good lady into the cab, and saw her safely on her way back to River Heights.
“And now for my little scheme!” Nancy said to herself. “I hope things work out all right.”
Seating herself on the stone bench, she hastily ripped open the bundle. Hannah had obeyed orders implicitly, and had brought two white doll dresses. Nancy decided that they would pass for the garments which Jay and Janet had worn at one time, providing they were not examined too minutely.
She did not find the locket at once. But as she shook one of the dresses, there dropped to the ground the piece of jewelry she had worn a few years before. Nancy studied the heart-shaped gold trinket with great perplexity.
“I must find some way to break it in half,” she reflected. “Otherwise, the Blairs will see at first glance that it isn’t the one they have.”
She tried bending back the hinge, but the locket was well made and refused to break.
“If I only had something hard to pound it against!”
She noticed a sharp stone almost at her feet and snatched it up. One firm blow, and the hinge parted.
Nancy now held two golden hearts in her hand. Each half closely resembled the broken locket in the bundle upstairs.
“Few persons would ever notice the difference,” she chortled inwardly.
At that moment, when success seemed within her grasp, her keen ears detected the sound of footsteps. Nervously she glanced about, but could see no one in the dark.
“Who are you?” a woman’s voice demanded sharply from directly behind her. “What are you doing?”