The Vanished Pearls of Orlov

"And most of all, I didn't lose the Pearls of Orlov!"

     Iolanthe and Charlton sat down to a very late, subdued lunch in the DelFino townhouse. They had found no trace of Lannie at Shondra's previous address. The butler, Grimaldi, did not have good news either.

     "The staff found no signs of Miss Yilanda anywhere. Nor have they seen any trace of that Nelly," he said. "Matsuda has Orlov servants searching for that Nelly and, along the way, keeping track of rumors about Miss Yilanda."

     "Thank you, Grimaldi," Charlton said. "Does DelFino have any banquet or ball invitations for tonight? It would be more efficient to speak with a number of the Four Hundred at once instead of going house to house."

     "As it happens, my lord, we do. The Sakamoto family arrived a few days ago. They will be hosting an open house when dusk falls."

     Charlton and Iolanthe exchanged glances.

     "Anyone else?"

     "No sir. They discourage competition from other hostesses."

     "What about the family?"

     "My lord Zachery made other arrangements for this afternoon and evening so he will not attend. Miss Ulla is out and when she returns, she will meet Andreas and Harcourt Keerkehgard under Lady Ottilie's supervision. Lady Ottilie is also out, making the rounds. Master Walter is recuperating in bed and expects to remain there. No other family members are currently in residence."

     "Thank you, Grimaldi."

     Once they were alone, Iolanthe said, "Poor Ulla."

     "She'll put those fools in their place," Charlton said.

     "True. More importantly, do we dare go to Sakamoto's open house? If word somehow got back to Shondra —"

     "— she'd be sure we were betraying her," Charlton finished the thought.

     He looked over at the clock. There were hours to go before twilight.

     "What do you think of sending a message? Shondra might agree. Plenty of people will be there." His smile flashed. "I can show you off."

     "Hmm," Iolanthe said. "Let's be honest in our message. We need to talk to as many people as possible. We don't bring up Shondra and we certainly don't chat with the Sakamoto family about Lunt or acrimonious divorces. If we're asked, we don't know anything about her. We only talk about Lannie's escape from the altar, your worthless father, how he poisoned your mother, cheated on her with the village apothecary, gambled recklessly, and what a degenerate, drunken fool the sot is, doing his best to destroy Orlov. That will generate plenty of questions and no one will ask about Lannie's relationship to Shondra with fabulous gossip like that to chew over. We also don't mention the Pearls."

     "You know," Charlton said thoughtfully. "We could get everyone on Mars to search for Lannie if we offered some of the Pearls as a reward."

     "We'd get Lannie murdered and the Pearls would vanish without a trace," Iolanthe replied crisply. "The Abbot of Mars wouldn't hand over the Pearls of Orlov in exchange for a pearl hatpin when he could keep them all and fund poorhouses and good works all over the planet. Even he would convince himself he was following the righteous path when facing a temptation like the Pearls."

     Charlton scowled. "You're probably right."

     "That does happen now and then," she replied with a twinkle.

     "You write the message while I summon a footman," Charlton said.

     ***

     They waited impatiently for Shondra's answer. Charlton paced restlessly and shadow-boxed while Iolanthe wrote a comprehensive letter to her father in Orlov, covering each day's events since her arrival in Barsoom and what she needed him to do. That letter finished, she wrote another detailed letter to Cressida Kahn, a more careful letter since she didn't dare admit the loss of the Pearls of Orlov. She didn't admit it to Charlton, but she was grateful to be sitting down and resting her hip and leg in quiet comfort while she wrote. Even more restful, the DelFino townhouse was blessedly empty of dogs, from yappy ankle-biters to pony-sized, man-eating brutes and all the fang sizes in between. While she wrote, he occupied his time examining every object in the glass cabinet, rearranging them as he went.