Murdersdale 16

The job of finding the porcelain doll in the attic wouldn't have been a small one ordinarily - the attic was large, packed full and dusty, with cobwebs everywhere.

But the maids knew a simple way of turning wardrobes, desks and clutter here and there until a path to the doll was made.

"There's no way you guys know about this path coincidentally."

Martha laugged. "Of course that's impossible. Lady Cynster showed it to us herself as a means of navigating this place. There are actually three of these oaths, and they all lead to the centre of the room where the doll is funny enough."

They reached, and sure, it was there. Grabbing it, Miranda smiled. "This is pretty much basic. We had one of these there."

She screwed out the head and sure enough, there was a combination lock. Turning the dial to 1-4-4-1, she heard the mechanism within click and pop out. Pulling it out, she looked into the space and smiled, reaching in and pulling out the diadem.

It was big, roughly the size of a cow's heart. It shine brightly from reflecting the light of the lanterns in the room, and it was definitely a beauty.

"Wow," Jedidiah muttered, obviously in awe.

"That's an understatement, but I'll take it," she grinned,.putting the diadem back in and fixing the combination lock.

After screwing the head of the doll back on, she looked at everyone again. "This part is done, now what?"

Marcel smiled. "Now comes the action part. We need to be setup adequately to handle these guys. And we'll need all hands on deck."

Miranda nodded. "There's a ship off to Spain in the next four days. I'll have to board it and hand this over as soon as I can, if it's okay with you guys?" She asked hopefully, glancing at the maids.

"Surely. We're doing well here already, thanks to Lady Cynster. And this has always been her dream, as Marcel mentioned.*

Which brought us back to the topic of Marcel. Jedidiah looked at him questioningly.

"I might go after all. There's nothing left for me here, no offence Martha..."

Martha just nodded at that.

"...but Lady Cynster was my reason for being here. Now that she's gone, I guess it's time to go back to my roots."

"Then that settles that."

Jedidiah tried to stomp away the feeling of loss, the reality that Miranda would be leaving eventually. She stepped up to him and whispered into his ear. "Will you miss me?"

He smiled ruefully. "You already know the answer to that."

"I can see it in your face, but it would be nice to hear."

"I haven't known you more than a day," he said, yawning. "But I will. A lot."

Then he noticed they weren't alone in the room and blushed. Miranda just giggled with the rest of the girls and Marcel gave a smirk.

"Y'all have to sleep already. Today has been one helluva day for you both, so just rest. We have the whole of tomorrow to draft any and all plans, okay?"

Jedidiah would have loved to be the stronger, hardworking leader who would object to this and proceed to finish it all that night, but another yawn told him.he was only doing a botched job of deceiving himself.

"Alright."

*****

The Sheriff sat at the man's table, eating the food before him with gusto and smiling for the first time. The man also seemed quite relieved - there was no way to verify for sure because the bastard maintained a deadpan look no matter his mood.

The sheriff couldn't care any less.

"We'll be hitting the house tomorrow, or technically in the early hours of the day after tomorrow. Hold them by hostage, ask questions, ransack the place. Someone will know something, and we'll get the diadem back to you by sunrise."

The man just nodded.

"The fact that you were unable to eliminate those two gives me a little hope. Maybe you'll last longer than your predecessors after all. If that's the case, then we'll get along just fine."

He raised a toast - to the diamond and the wealth they would get from it, and after clinking glasses, they drank.

They had no idea how far they were from the truth.

*****

I have a feeling ill be done with this in less than six chapters. And although I hunk it's just a bit rushed, I think my plot and storyline are still holding.

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