9
“What is this?” Skenan asked as he trod back into the cave a few days later, he, having completed his daily—and cold—early morning bath. After Miss Abagail had bound his injuries, they were starting to heal and they no longer bothered him. Indeed, he was up now and walking about again; although, for two days, he had slept.
“I do not know,” answered Miss Abagail. “Can you show me what is in your hand?”
He stretched out his hand that held the object within it.
“Where did you find this?” asked Abagail, gasping. “Why this is a woman’s necklace. And, it is not simply any woman’s necklace, but one which might have belonged to a lady of ease.”
“It was tangled up in the bushes next to the stream where I bathe,” answered Skenan. “I found these gold coins there, too.”
“Oh,” said Miss Abagail. “The coins had been in my apron, and they probably slipped out when I took off my apron to wash some of the meat. But, the necklace…? Where did it come from? This is the necklace Miss Stockenridge accused me of stealing. How did it come to be there with the coins? Why, the last time I saw it was when Mr. Wilson had held it…right before he gave me the coins. I am starting to believe Mr. Wilson put the necklace there in my apron.”
“Perhaps you are wise,” Skenan said as he offered her both the coins and the necklace to her. She took the coins, but not the necklace. Indeed, she turned her head away from it.
“And so, this jewelry does not belong to you?”
“No,” she answered simply. “And, I do not wish to have it. Throw it away if you must, but I do not wish to have it anywhere on my person or even near me. It has brought me nothing but harm.”
Skenan frowned, and he clutched the necklace within his hand. There was something about this chain and locket, something he could not define, but it was as though the necklace were speaking to him.
He took the jewelry to his sleeping robes, and, sitting, he pulled it this way and that, running his fingers over the black and silver piece. He felt as though this necklace held a secret. But, if it did, how was he to discover it?
Meanwhile, Miss Abagail was preparing their morning meal of corn, beans and the dried deer meat. As he lay on his bedding, Skenan placed the necklace over his heart, trying to discern its message. He was certain there was one. But, what it was alluded him.
Rising and pacing back to Miss Abagail, he sat across from her, keeping the fire between them, and he asked, “What do you know of this necklace?”
“I know nothing of it at all, except that it was the cause of Miss Stockenridge taking the whip to me. And, I suspect…”
“What do you suspect?” Skenan asked.
“Oh, it is nothing,” she said, looking away from him.
“Come,” he invited after a moment, petting the rawhide cloth on the floor beside him. “Sit here with me and let us look at this piece of jewelry together. I feel it is hiding something. Perhaps together we can discover what secrets it might hold.”
“Oh, all right. However, I would like to serve you breakfast first. May I?”
“Of course,” he answered. “Have you been able to have your morning meal yet?”
“No, I haven’t,” she answered. “I’ve been too busy over the fire.”
“Then, sit here with me, and we shall eat the food together and then look at this white woman’s necklace. I am certain it is hiding something. And, perhaps Miss Stockenridge knew this. Maybe this was why she was so unkind to you, and why she sent dogs after you.”
“’Unkind’ is a very mild word for what she did, but you might be right.”
“True,” he said. “But, perhaps this might explain why Mr. Wilson sent me after you. He told me you were carrying something important. Could there be a message within this locket, perhaps?”
“I do not know. But, I will sit next to you, and, together, we can try to unlock the locket’s mystery,” said Miss Abagail as she paced around the fire and sat down next to him. “It is certainly a pretty piece of jewelry. And, perhaps, Mr. Skenan, I should tell you I remembered something when I was in battle with the bear a few days past. Perhaps it is important, perhaps not.”
“But, you will tell me what it is?”
She nodded. “I will tell you.”