SHAKESPEARE’ SECRET (19 page)

Hero couldn't wait to give it to her. She couldn't wait to see it settled where it belonged, in Anne Boleyn's sparkling necklace. Mrs. Roth would be so happy! After so much time, after so much sadness, the Murphy diamond had finally been found.

When Hero awoke the next morning, sunlight flooded the bedroom. She couldn't believe that she'd slept late on this of all mornings. She had to tell Mrs. Roth about the diamond! She threw off the blankets impatiently and pulled on her clothing, leaving her pajamas in a cottony pool on the bedroom floor. She had just dragged a brush through her hair when her mother leaned in the doorway.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” “I'm going over to Mrs. Roth's.” “At ten thirty in the morning?” “Is it that late? I have to go.” “Not without making your bed, I hope.” Hero groaned and quickly pulled the covers over the bed, dodging past her mother before she could think of another chore.

Outside, the air was crisp and beginning to smell like autumn. One of the big shade trees in the front yard had a bright patch of orange creeping through the green. Hero yanked her sweater tightly around her and ran down the driveway. When she reached the street, she heard distant laughter. Down at the corner, she saw Danny and his friends.

What was he doing down there? She ran toward them, shouting his name.

The group of boys shifted slightly, looking at her. Aaron's brother Ben and the other boy smirked, but Danny just stood where he was, sliding his skateboard back and forth with one foot.

“Hey, Cordova,” Ben said. “Your little girlfriend wants you.”

Hero blushed but ignored him, running up to Danny. She grabbed his arm.

“Come on, we have to go see Mrs. Roth. I thought you'd be there already.”

Danny looked away. “You go ahead,” he said to Hero. “I'll catch you later.”

“But—” Hero protested.

“Later.” He said again, moving away. Hero hesitated. She looked over at the two boys, who were still smirking, then at Danny who had suddenly absorbed himself in picking a leaf off the wheel of his
skateboard. What was going on? Why was he acting like this? Hero felt a thin, sharp prick of anger.

“Look, don't bother,” she said testily. “But,” she swallowed hard, “you have something I need.”

Ben and the other boy hooted with laughter. “Oooo, you have something she needs, Cordova. Something she
needs.”

Hero turned to Ben angrily. “Shut up! Just shut up! This is none of your business.”

Ben leaned toward her, still laughing. “What are you going to do? Hit me?”

Hero was trembling. She clenched her fist, but Danny caught her arm. “She won't have to. Because I will. Cut it out.”

He was still smiling, but his eyes had that hard look, the one that reminded Hero of his father. She jerked free and walked away from the corner, her cheeks burning. When she heard Danny behind her, she walked faster.

“Hero, wait up.”

She wanted to keep going; she wanted to ignore him. But she realized with a start that he had called her Hero, not Netherfield. She glanced over her shoulder, quickening her pace.

“What?”

“Look, I...”

“What's wrong with you?” she hissed at him, lowering her voice. “Why are you acting so weird? We found the diamond! We have to tell Mrs. Roth.”

He caught up to her. “The thing is ...” His voice trailed off and he looked away again.

“What? What is it? We have to give it to her.” Hero scanned his face, unable to read his expression.

“We can't,” he said finally.

“Why?”

Hero stared at him. They were at Mrs. Roth's now, just at the gate. Hero couldn't stand the pleading look in his eyes. She felt a surge of panic.

“You didn't—you didn't tell your dad about it, did you?”

“No ...”

“Then what? What's the matter? Where's the diamond?”

“ I ...”

Hero stiffened, then shivered a little. Suddenly she knew. Without his saying anything. He didn't have it. She felt a wide pit open in her stomach, and all her nervous happiness vanished inside.

“Danny, just tell me. Whatever it is,” Hero said slowly.

He was still watching her with that terrible hopeful look in his eyes. “I don't have it. I...” He swallowed.

“I took it to the post office this morning. I sent the diamond to my mom.”

This was so unexpected that Hero could only stare at him. “What?”

“I sent it to my mom.”

“But . . . why?”

Just then the door swung open, and Mrs. Roth stepped onto the porch. She held out her arms to them. “Oh, finally, you're here! Come in, come in. I could barely sleep last night. What happened? Did you find it? Is the Murphy diamond found at last?”

Hero looked from Danny to Mrs. Roth and back again. She couldn't think what to do, what to say. She longed to hurtle back to last night, to that one bright moment on the porch with Danny, when the diamond had tumbled into her palm. Except this time, she wanted Mrs. Roth to be there, too.

Danny's cheeks were flushed, and he shifted from one foot to the other. He shot a brief, miserable glance at Hero, then stared at the ground. Hero took a deep breath. Squaring her shoulders, she walked to the porch.

“Well, my heavens, what is it?” Mrs. Roth asked. “What's happened?”

Hero reached out and touched Mrs. Roth's arm, fingering the thin silk of her sleeve.

“We found it,” she said softly.

Mrs. Roth's whole face changed. So many feelings chased across it that Hero drew back, a little afraid. Mrs. Roth pressed one hand to her cheek and sat down with a shudder on the top step.

“Oh, my dears,” she whispered. “Hero. Daniel. I can't believe it. The Murphy diamond.”

Danny crossed the path to the porch in a few swift steps. He stood in front of Mrs. Roth, his jaw tight. Hero saw that his sweatshirt was torn at the bottom, and he gripped it with both hands, twisting the hem.

“Miriam, listen. We don't have it,” he said quietly. “I ...”

When he didn't continue, Hero said it for him: “Danny sent it to his mother.”

Mrs. Roth looked up, confused. “What? What do you mean? What has Daniel's mother got to do with this?”

“Nothing,” Danny said. “Nothing. I just ...” He crouched on the steps below her. “Listen. If we had the diamond, what could we do with it? You said yourself, Miriam, it doesn't belong to us. I mean, I know that from my dad. Ever since Mr. Murphy collected the insurance money, the diamond belongs to them, the insurance company. We'd—well, we'd have to turn it in.”

Mrs. Roth continued to gaze at him. “But I don't understand. You gave it to your mother? I thought your mother was in California somewhere.”

Hero couldn't bear the strange, intense look on Danny's face. It made her want to cry. She turned away, her eyes settling on the fading colors of the garden. She thought of how this place had seemed to her—lush and overflowing—when she met Mrs. Roth for the first time. Then she heard her own voice and it surprised her, how calm she sounded.

“Danny's mother's an actress in L.A. At least she's trying to be one. She doesn't have much money.”

“She doesn't have any money,” Danny corrected. “You need money to make it out there. You need classes, you need the right clothes, you need . . . money. I just thought, you know, we can't do anything with the diamond here. We'd have to give it to the police, to the insurance company. You don't even have the necklace, so—”

“The necklace,” Mrs. Roth said softly.

Hero sat beside her and took her hand. “I know.”

Danny looked at them in confusion. “What?”

Mrs. Roth looked at Hero. “I suppose he might as well know.” She rose a little unsteadily and went into the house. She returned with the cardboard box and emptied its contents into Hero's outstretched palm.

“It's Mrs. Murphy's necklace,” Hero explained, as she lifted it, sparkling in the sunlight. “The one that had the diamond in it. It's almost five hundred years old. Can you believe that?” She didn't want to make him feel worse, but she had to tell him. “We found out it belonged to Anne Boleyn—the wife of Henry VIII— and to Queen Elizabeth, and we even think ...” Hero hesitated. How to explain the rest?

Mrs. Roth finished for her. “We think it proves the true identity of William Shakespeare. Imagine that, Daniel! William Shakespeare. We think Eleanor Murphy's ancestor, Edward de Vere, was the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth and the real William Shakespeare. ”

“What?” Danny said. “What are you talking about?” He looked at both of them in bewilderment. “You never told me you had the necklace, Miriam. Hero, you never told me any of this,” he said accusingly.

“Daniel,” Mrs. Roth said gently.

“But if I'd known ...” Danny said. “I didn't know you had the necklace.” He stared at the ground.

Mrs. Roth sighed and took both of his hands in hers, stilling their frantic twisting. The wrinkled hem of his sweatshirt flopped against his jeans. “Oh, Daniel.”

Danny looked at the necklace in Hero's hand. “It's so small,” he said. He turned apologetically to Hero.

“I should have asked you first. I should have talked to you about it. I thought you'd say no.”

“Well, duh.” Hero smiled a little. She thought of the diamond and closed her fist around the empty pendant. Gently she settled the necklace in the nest of tissue paper inside the box. “So what did you do with it, anyway? You just mailed it to her? How do you know it'll even get there?”

“Hey, Federal Express.” Danny smiled, looking more like his old self. “I wrapped it in a sock.”

Mrs. Roth stood slowly, resting her hand on the porch rail. She looked at the Netherfields' house for a minute, not saying anything. Danny watched her anxiously.

“Sorry, Miriam,” he said quietly.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she was smiling faintly. “Well.” She turned to Hero and Danny. “Nothing quite turns out the way we expect, does it? But Daniel is right. The diamond didn't belong to us. I only wish ...” She crossed the porch and stopped at the door. “I wish I could have seen it returned to the necklace.”

“I know,” Hero said.

Mrs. Roth looked at Danny, and her eyes were kind. “But you two found the Murphy diamond! You had it for a few hours at least. I'm sure there's much
to tell, and I want to hear all of it. Come inside. It's chilly this morning.”

Hero and Danny followed her into the dark house. Mrs. Roth gestured to the worn furniture in the living room. “Sit down. I'll bring us some tea.”

Hero moved a newspaper and a book from the sofa, settling into the cushions. She saw that the newspaper was folded open to the crossword puzzle and idly started working it in her head.
Put together,
she read; seven letters, starting with
C.
Combine? No, connect.