For the next three days as Annaliese recuperated, Miss Pine and Mrs. Wiggins often left her alone to sleep. A large dose of rest and time, Dr. Webb advised, was the best medicine.
Throckmorton, Captain Eugene, Sir Rudyard, and Miss Beatrice enjoyed a long-overdue family reunion at her bedside. The sock monkeys relished this rare opportunity to share secrets, tell stories, and yes, repeat juicy gossip about their keepers.
Captain Eugene had the biggest stash of information, but Throckmorton held a luscious secret: Ebenezer the Lighthouse Keeper, whom they’d meet at Great-Grandmama’s party, had a giant diamond buried inside his heart. (Maybe they all did!)
Throckmorton decided that he’d let the others chatter, chatter, chatter . . . until the moment was right. Then, when the spotlight was his and his alone, he’d tell all.
One night, Sir Rudyard asked Captain Eugene if he knew what had really happened between Olivia and the judge.
Captain Eugene was ever-so-happy to tell them.
“Annaliese was only a few months old,” he explained, “when the housekeeper moved Evan and Teddy into that baby-blue bedroom across the hall from the nursery. Teddy and I slept in one bed. Evan slept alone in the other. I remember Evan telling Teddy at the time that Sir Rudyard was lost. One night, Olivia came in to say good night. But instead of a bringing a storybook, she was carrying a suitcase.”
“What kind of suitcase?” Throckmorton asked.
Captain Eugene hated to be interrupted. He ignored the question and carried on with his tale. “ ‘Mommy has to go away for a little while,’ Olivia told the boys. ‘Be good, and take care of your baby sister until I get back.’
“Olivia must have planned to leave in secret, but suddenly, the judge charged into the twins’ bedroom. He wrenched the suitcase out of her hand. ‘You came with nothing, you leave with nothing,’ he told her.”
“But it still doesn’t explain why Olivia left,” said Throckmorton.
“You know how it is with us monkeys,” Captain Eugene lamented. “We observe. We eavesdrop. Then our keepers move out of range. We may hear the beginning, middle, or end, but rarely do we hear a whole story. It’s really quite frustrating.”
“Sock monkeys should get to live their own stories,” Sir Rudyard asserted. “What good is seeing and hearing and smelling if we can’t do anything?”
“If I had a choice,” said Miss Beatrice, “I’d rather be someone than do something.”
Sir Rudyard scoffed. “So, tell me, Miss Be . . . how did you like be-ing in the mandolin case? How’s it been for you, be-ing the judge’s sock monkey?”
“It couldn’t have been easy . . . ,” Throckmorton empathized.
“It wasn’t,” Miss Beatrice agreed. “The judge was a nasty rat of a child, much like Evan can be, I daresay.”
“In what way?” asked Throckmorton.
“Born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” she said, “but no mother to feed him.”
“You mean the judge’s mother ran off too?” Captain Eugene asked.
“So to speak,” answered Miss Beatrice. “The judge’s mother, Margaret, didn’t care for a dull life on an isolated estate like Eastcliff-by-the-Sea. She preferred London. For the most part, he and his seven sisters were raised by the household help.”
Hmmm . . . never once had Throckmorton considered the possibility that Judge Easterling had had his own set of heartaches as a child.
“So, tell me, how did you end up in the mandolin case?” Captain Eugene asked Miss Beatrice.
“Olivia put me there, along with that locket.”
“She put me in the violin case,” said Sir Rudyard.
“But why?” questioned Throckmorton. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Perhaps Olivia was trying to keep us safe,” Sir Rudyard suggested.
“I agree,” said Captain Eugene. “Olivia must have known what happened to Easterling sock monkeys—like you and Miss Beatrice—who aren’t cherished by their keepers.”
Miss Beatrice stared off into the distance.
“What are you thinking?” Throckmorton kindly inquired of her.
“Olivia was like the moon,” Miss Beatrice replied. “She had two sides: one dark, one light. She was odd, but enchanting. Young and yet old beyond her years.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “I believe the judge was drawn to Olivia’s light, but confused by her darkness.”
“Olivia spent hours hand-stitching the little wedding gown for me,” Miss Beatrice continued. “Right before she closed the mandolin case, she whispered, ‘It’s over.’ ”
“A ritual of sorts,” Sir Rudyard opined.
How strange, Throckmorton thought.
“After Annaliese was born,” Captain Eugene recalled, “Olivia seemed very sad—and very much alone. She sighed and cried and said sorrowful things like ‘Such a secret place . . . this land of tears.’ ”
Sir Rudyard confirmed that Olivia had changed dramatically—especially after the judge barred her friends from coming to Eastcliff to play music. “He called her bandmates ‘riffraff’—country bumpkins whose music was nothing but noise; it gave him a headache.”
“I guess no one really knows the truth,” Captain Eugene concluded. “Some people said that Olivia ran off with another man; others swore that her brother came to Eastcliff and took her back to the place where they grew up.”
“Where’s that?” asked Throckmorton.
“The Black Forest,” Captain Eugene answered. “In a country called Germany.”
“Funny how two such different people could end up together,” Throckmorton mused.
“You know what they say. . . .” Miss Beatrice smiled her charming, off-center smile. “Opposites attract.”
The talkative sock monkeys now heard the sound of footsteps and instantly fell silent.
Annaliese stirred.
Miss Pine walked into Annaliese’s room carrying a cup of hot tea with slices of lemon ringing the saucer.
Annaliese rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “I had the strangest dream, Miss Pine. The sock monkeys were talking about my mother. Isn’t that odd? I wish I could remember what they said. . . .”
“They do indeed seem real sometimes,” Miss Pine acknowledged.
“They’re like spies—the good kind,” Annaliese agreed. “I bet they know all of our secrets.”