Patricia opened her mouth and closed it again. Her phone, which she had held ready to summon additional security, slipped from her hand onto the counter. She picked it up immediately, almost reflexively, as if restoring the phone to its place might restore the morning to its previous shape. Her cheeks were pale now, and the careful arrangement of her features had collapsed into bewilderment.
"I didn't know," she whispered.
Diana felt anger rise again, sharper than before. The words were true, but their truth did not help Patricia. Everything she had done came from the belief that she did not need to know who a visitor was in order to decide the visitor did not belong. That was precisely the harm Diana had spent twenty-three years trying to remove from the spaces under her control.
"I know you didn't," Diana replied. "You never asked."
Ashley lowered the tablet, and Kevin stared fixedly at the counter to give Patricia some privacy in the moment when none was really available. Customers had stopped moving between the displays. A woman near the front lowered her phone, embarrassed to have recorded what was now unmistakably a workplace disaster as well as a public insult. Marcus moved closer to the entrance to ensure the path outside remained open.
Patricia recovered enough to speak. "Miss Mitchell, I am so terribly sorry. If I had realized who you were, I would have arranged a private viewing immediately. I would have brought you into the consultation room. I would never have spoken to you that way."
The apology escaped too quickly, and Diana heard the part of it Patricia did not intend to expose. If she had known, she would have treated Diana differently. Not because she had discovered a person deserved respect, but because the cost of withholding it had suddenly become enormous. Diana looked at the Blackstones, still standing beside their seats, and then back at the manager.
"What if I hadn't been the founder?" she asked. "What if I were a teacher saving for an anniversary gift, or a grandmother buying a graduation necklace, or someone who just wanted to learn what these pieces cost? Would your behavior have been acceptable then?"
"No," Patricia said after a moment. "No, of course not."
"Then don't apologize for failing to recognize my title. Tell me why you believed the woman you saw deserved what you gave her."
Patricia's lips trembled. She looked around the room, seeking a familiar ally, and realized that none of the usual social signals worked anymore. The Blackstones had fallen silent, Kevin would not meet her eyes, Ashley stood beside the tablet with a mixture of fear and relief, and Marcus remained attentive but impassive. There was nobody she could impress out of the problem.
"I was protecting the merchandise," she said weakly. "The Aurora collection is extremely valuable, and we've had security concerns in the area. I wasn't trying to be discriminatory."
"You called me a thief without an incident," Diana said. "You left the Aurora cabinet unlocked when more prestigious customers arrived. You asked me for bank statements before you had even offered the necklace for sale. Which of those actions protected merchandise?"