The Maid Who Touched the Lady's Necklace

CHAPTER 2 - THE WOMAN THEY ERASED

Security moved toward Clara, but Eleanor stopped them with one raised hand.

“No one touches her.”

The order surprised everyone, especially Thomas.

Clara stood beneath the crystal chandelier, her wrist aching where Eleanor had held it. She wanted to leave. She also wanted answers for the first time since her mother died.

Marta had worked in wealthy homes all her life. She cleaned, cooked, and repaired clothing for people who rarely learned her last name.

But she had never spoken bitterly about them.

When Clara was little, Marta had only said, “Some people are frightened by anyone who remembers where they came from.”

Eleanor led Clara into a small library away from the guests.

Thomas followed.

“You know my mother?” Clara asked.

Eleanor sat slowly, one hand covering the necklace.

“I knew Marta before you were born.”

“You knew she had a daughter.”

Thomas looked at the carpet.

Eleanor's voice tightened. “I knew she was pregnant. I did not know what happened afterward.”

“That is not what he said.”

Thomas flinched.

He explained that Marta had worked for their family when she was seventeen. Their father had promised to help her after she became pregnant, but the family sent her away instead. Eleanor had been nineteen and powerless inside her father's house.

“I searched for her,” Eleanor said. “My father told me she left town. He said she wanted nothing to do with us.”

Clara thought of her mother's silence. Of the way Marta folded old letters and hid them beneath towels.

“You expect me to believe you?”

“No,” Eleanor replied. “I expect you to ask the right questions.”

She removed the necklace and placed it on the desk.

The silver flowers were tarnished between the petals. Clara had polished them many times as a child while her mother watched.

“This was my mother's necklace,” Eleanor said. “She gave it to Marta the night Marta left.”

Clara stared at the pendant.

“Then why was it around my mother's neck when she was buried?”

Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.

“I don't know.”

Thomas suddenly reached into his jacket and pulled out a small envelope.

“I found this in our father's old desk last month,” he said.

On the front, in faded handwriting, were four words:

For Marta, if she returns.