“So of course you did,” Leah said with a smile.
“Every day. It didn’t really matter because I didn’t care if he caught me or not because I’d already sworn to spend the rest of my life with him, so what more could happen to me? It took some searching, but I found the key, used it every day, searched the room, and returned the key.”
“What were you searching for?”
“For whatever he had hidden in there that he didn’t want me to see. I couldn’t find anything until I found his hidden closet.”
“Hidden?”
“Behind a bookcase. It was all I could do to move that case. Anyway, inside this closet were some very pretty things like jewelry and pretty little boxes and some books. It made me so angry because I thought he was hiding these things so he wouldn’t have to share them with his wife.”
“You thought this? You’ve changed your mind?”
“Leah, I couldn’t wear any of the jewelry, but I thought someone else could. John wouldn’t yell at someone else as much as he would at me. And besides, you’re so good at yelling back at men. You scream at Wesley all the time. I never could understand that, Leah. You said terrible things to him and I was always nice, yet he wanted to stay with you.”
“What about the brooch?” Leah repeated.
“I thought it was a miniature of one of John’s relatives and I knew it’d look good on your green dress and it did until you ruined it by playing in the soot. All right!” she said at Leah’s narrowed eyes. “The next thing I knew, that silly woman was screeching that you’d stolen John’s brooch. John grabbed my arm, said some terrible things to me, and pulled me out of the dance. Oh Leah, I was so scared.”
“Then what happened?”
“John didn’t speak to me all the way home and at the house he locked me in his study and I heard him ride away.”
Kim’s eyes turned misty with a faraway look. “Then Justin came to my rescue.”
“Rescue?” Leah asked. “Wasn’t he a little bit angry at you?”
“Oh goodness yes. He was raging! Shouting all sorts of things to me and calling me the most awful names. I’d always known he wasn’t exactly enamored of me, but I had no idea he detested me. While he was shouting at me, and once he put his hands around my throat, I kept trying to show him the bookcase where the hidden closet was. It took a long time to get him to listen to me, but he finally helped me move the bookcase.”
“And Justin saw all the things inside?”
“More than that. While we were inside, John came home.”
“Kimberly! Where’s Justin now?”
“I’m getting to that. You see, Justin didn’t have any keys and all the doors in our house have locks, not like your house at all, and John had locked every door so Justin had to break in a window and the study door to get to me. Justin and I hid in the closet, wrapped in each other’s arms”—Kim sighed—“while John walked through the house. When we heard him leave and ride away, Justin said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ So we went outside, way into the woods, and it was dark and Justin wanted me to tell him everything that was in the closet because he hadn’t been able to see anything because John’d returned and we had to pull the bookcase shut. So”—she paused for breath—“I was talking and suddenly Justin got real excited and began to kiss me. I was so tired of holding back with Wesley and even wi
th John that I just let go and the next thing I knew we were making love. It was so, so wonderful, Leah. I never dreamed—.”
“What did you say that made Justin kiss you?”
“It was something very ordinary. What was it? Oh yes. At the dance last night John’d said he wasn’t a good dancer and I told Justin that was a lie because I’d found a paper in the closet that said he used to teach dancing in St. Louis.”
“Kimberly,” Leah whispered, “where is Justin now?”
“He said he’d seen Wes and Wes was on his way to Lexington to see what he could find out from the woman who used to own the brooch, and Justin said I was to come to you and we were both to go stay with Bud and Cal, and Justin was going to wait for John to return.”
“Kimberly,” Leah said with as much calm as she could muster, “I think Justin may be in trouble.”
“Probably.” Kim smiled. “John’s going to be very upset when he finds out I’m leaving him, but now that Justin loves me…I did tell you that Justin said he loved me, didn’t I? He even said it with a prayer. He said, ‘God help me, Kimberly, but I think I’m in love with you.’ Isn’t that sweet?”
“Get up, Kimberly,” Leah commanded. “Leave the dishes where they are. We’re going to get Bud and Cal and then we’re going to try to help Justin. Wait! We have to leave a note for Wesley.”
“Oh no! Not me,” Kim said, backing away. “Justin made me tell him all about the last letter I wrote Wes, and Justin said it was his guess that Wesley was keeping you from the dance so he could protect you. If you hadn’t made me send for him, none of this about the brooch would have happened.”
Leah advanced on her. “If you hadn’t tried to kill me you wouldn’t have been forced to marry John. And if you hadn’t been so nosy you wouldn’t have found the Dancer’s cache. And if you—.”
“I understand, Leah.” She brightened. “If none of this had happened, I wouldn’t have known Justin loved me and we wouldn’t have spent last night together. Oh Leah, marriage to someone like Justin must be heaven.”