SHAKESPEARE’ SECRET by Elise Broach

sure it’s wise to trust him with information about the diamond. More for his sake than for ours.”
    Hero felt like asking Mrs. Roth if she knew about Danny Cordova’s suspension last year. How trustworthy was a kid who’d been thrown out of school? But instead she changed the subject.
    â€œWhat about his dad? His dad seems to think the diamond’s still somewhere at our house, too.”
    â€œYes. But he doesn’t have as good a reason as I do.” Mrs. Roth pushed back her chair and left the room. When she returned she held a small cardboard box in her hands.
    â€œThe day after Arthur Murphy decided to sell the house to your parents, he brought this to me. It was the last time I saw him.” She lifted the flap of the boxand gently tilted it over the table. There was a rustle of tissue paper, then a musical clinking sound. Hero caught her breath.
    There in front of her was a glittering coil of gold, a heavy chain gleaming with pearls and rubies. An empty pendant dangled from the middle.

CHAPTER
9
    â€œOh!” cried Hero. “The necklace!”
    She lifted it, still unable to breathe, and felt its cool weight settle in the furrows of her palm. It amazed her that something so old and fragile could seem so imposing. She was almost afraid to touch it. The rubies and pearls caught the light. The gold still glistened gamely.
    â€œIt’s beautiful,” Hero whispered.
    â€œYes, isn’t it?” Mrs. Roth took the necklace and spread it on the table between them.
    Hero saw that the chain had small, shimmering gold beads alternating with lustrous white pearls. Blood-red rubies set in gold brackets studded the length of the chain at regular intervals. The ornate golden pendant hung at the bottom, bordered by rubies, with ateardrop-shaped pearl dangling at the base. It was forlornly empty.
    â€œSo this is where the diamond was?” Hero asked.
    â€œYes, there in the center. It was a pyramid cut, square at the base, rising to a point.”
    Hero turned the pendant in her hand, looking at the rubies. On the back, she saw something faint etched in the gold. “What’s this design? It looks like a bird.”
    Mrs. Roth nodded. “It’s faded. I can’t really tell. But it looks like a bird holding a tree branch, doesn’t it? Eleanor said that animal designs were quite common in the jewelry of the period.”
    Hero kept squinting at the back, holding it closer to the kitchen light. She touched the surface with her index finger. Suddenly she had an idea. “Can I have a piece of paper and a pencil?” she asked.
    Mrs. Roth pulled out one of the kitchen drawers and handed her a notepad and a stubby, pockmarked pencil. Hero pressed the paper against the back of the pendant and rubbed the pencil across it in dark strokes until the design appeared. She looked at it closely. “Are these initials?”
    Mrs. Roth squinted at the page. “I hadn’t noticed that. Yes, it looks like letters, doesn’t it? A something. What’s the second one?”
    Hero shook her head. “It’s pretty worn down. Maybe an E?”
    â€œHmm, AE. Some Vere ancestor, I suppose.”
    Hero gently nudged the necklace into a circle again. “It’s so small,” she said. “It’s almost like a choker.”
    â€œYes. That must have been the style. Or their necks were smaller in those days.”
    Hero tried to imagine the necklace clasped around a woman’s slender throat. “How old is it?” she asked.
    â€œWell, sixteenth century, so almost five hundred years old. Eleanor thought that it dated from the mid-1500s.”
    â€œI’ve never touched anything that old before.” Hero stroked it lightly, full of wonder.
    â€œNor have I,” Mrs. Roth said, smiling at her.
    â€œBut why did Mr. Murphy give it to you? I mean, it’s so old and valuable, and it had been in Mrs. Murphy’s family for such a long time.