Marianne pressed a trembling hand to her stinging cheek, struggling to orient herself on the cold marble floor as Diana continued looming over her, resplendent in a deep blue gown, her face contorted with a fury that seemed disproportionate even to a genuinely missing piece of jewelry.
"I don't understand," Marianne managed, her voice shaking as she pushed herself upright. "What bracelet? I haven't taken anything—"
"Don't lie to me," Diana snapped, gesturing sharply toward the small black jewelry box lying open and empty on the floor between them. "That case was in my dressing room this afternoon, and now it's empty, and you're the only person who's had access to that room all evening."
Marianne stared at the box, genuine confusion mixing with rising panic. "I've never seen this before," she said, her voice cracking with the desperate honesty of someone telling the truth and finding, with mounting horror, that the truth wasn't going to be enough to save her. "I swear, I don't know anything about a missing bracelet."
Nearby, Charles Ashford, Diana's husband, had paused mid-conversation with a departing guest, his expression shifting into concerned surprise as he took in the scene unfolding in his own hallway — his wife standing over a crying housemaid, an empty jewelry case on the floor between them.