THREE WEEKS EARLIER

“Clarissa, what beautiful earrings!”

“I know.”

“You don’t sound very happy about that. Where did you get them?”

“A present from Zedzed.”

“Oh.”

“I made the mistake of admiring them in his hearing.”

“Well, they’re lovely—and they’ll look perfect with that Poiret dress.”

“Lillie, I couldn’t possibly wear them.”

“You couldn’t possibly not, considering where they came from.”

“I could tell him I’ve developed a skin sensitivity. Or that I’m saving them for some special occasion.”

“If Zedzed thinks you have rejected his gift, he will take it personally. He could make your life here very difficult.”

“I could say his wife wouldn’t approve?”

“Doña Maria would not object.”

“How could she have married the man? Do you think she hasn’t noticed how, I don’t know—empty he is? Sometimes, watching him when he’s looking elsewhere, I find myself wondering how many people he’s killed.”

“Clara, don’t!”

“Oh, Lillie, you’re right. Sorry. It’s just—I hate the notion of being forced to leave this place over a mere pair of earrings.”

“ ‘O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.’ Shakespeare has a bon mot for every situation, doesn’t he?”

“He does, but that isn’t Shakespeare.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I made the same mistake one time, talking with Dr Watson, and Mr Holmes set me straight. It’s from Sir Walter Scott, one of those interminable poems of his—a poem about a woman named Clara, come to think of it. She loves a man, another man wants her, there’s a forged letter and a duel and a battlefield. Terribly rousing.”

“I do hope the villain of the piece isn’t named Basil.”

“No. Nor have I got bricked in behind the wall of a convent, which is what happens to her. Though if I disappear, that’s where you could start searching.”

“Clara, you must be seen wearing these.”

“I know. But…hmm. Perhaps I don’t have to keep them.”

“I certainly don’t think you should sell them.”

“I don’t mean that—I mean, what if they weren’t actually, strictly speaking, mine? Here, put that one back into the box, and let’s pretend there’s a ribbon around it. And so: ‘Lillie, my dearest friend, I missed your birthday this year. Would you please accept these by way of a belated gift? And I am sure my affection will overcome any unfortunate antecedents the earrings might once have had.’ ”

“Clarissa, you cannot simply give them to me.”

“I just did. So now I can say, ‘Oh, Lillie—what lovely earrings! They would go perfectly with that Poiret dress I bought in Paris. Might I possibly borrow them, for a few days?’ ”

“Would that make you feel better?”

“It would make me feel as though I shared a secret with my closest friend.”

“Then by all means, you may borrow ‘my’ earrings for as long as you like. As I borrowed your diamond necklace for all those years.”

“Thank you.”

“Tangled webs, indeed. Who would have imagined, all those years ago, that when you and I were this age, we’d be faced with a problem whose foundation we were then laying down?”

“Neither of us could have imagined being old. And back then, Zedzed was just another clever, handsome businessman who knew all the right people.”

“Back then, he was the same shiny brute, but we were too simple to know the difference.”