Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE ASHbrOOK ESTATE
The women spoke of babies, baby clothes, nursery decorating and such until the gentlemen joined them. Eliza stifled a long yawn and stood, dropping a kiss onto her mother’s cheek.
“While I am absolutely delighted for Georgiana and Edward, I can’t seem to hold my eyes open. I think I’m going to have a nap.”
Lady Gainsbourne gave her youngest daughter an indulgent pat on the cheek.
“Very well, dear.”
Eliza excused herself with a curtsey to Lord D’Asti and a quick peck on the cheek for Edward before she hurried out of the drawing room. Eugenia and Susan both congratulated Edward with a sisterly kiss on the cheek, causing him to blush.
“I’m so delighted for both of you!”
Eugenia gave her brother a fierce hug.
“Well, yes, we’re quite pleased.” Edward crossed to Georgiana. Pulling her to his side, he gently kissed the top of her head. “How are you feeling, darling?”
Georgiana looked at Edward with pure love.
“We’re fine dear.”
That longing, wistful ache started in Eugenia’s chest again, and her expression must have given something away, because Edward blushed again and changed the subject.
“What of your portion of Grandfather’s treasure hunt, Eugenia? Have you made any progress on it?”
“Oh.” Eugenia gave a little grimace and a palms-up gesture, her expression growing serious. “I’m afraid I haven’t been giving it my due diligence. In fact, I have not thought of it, at least not consistently, for some time. There have been, well… other things on my mind.”
At that, she darted a sideways glance at Lord D’Asti, then immediately wished she had not done so.
“Yes, of course.” Edward gave a subtle nod, letting her know without words that he was aware of what had happened at Lady Duncan’s Ball, as well as since then.
Eugenia knew that their mother and their siblings had been keeping him abreast of her situation.
The Calthorpes didn’t keep secrets from one another.
Even on the rare occasions when they tried to do so, it never lasted long.
For a mere moment, concern flashed through Edward’s eyes, but anyone who did not know him well would have easily missed it.
Eugenia saw it, though. “But what better way to distract yourself?”
“True,” Eugenia replied with a wavering smile. “I have the letter in my reticule. I keep it with me, hoping to make sense of the riddle.”
Glad to have a reason not to dwell on all of the mistakes she’d made of late, Eugenia pulled out the letter from her grandfather which contained the riddle meant for her, and passed it to Edward to read.
Lord D’Asti, who had been quietly observing all of the proceedings up to now, cleared his throat and stepped fully into their circle.
“I must admit that I find this family treasure hunt of yours fascinating, Lady Eugenia.”
She looked up, a bit surprised that he’d chosen to engage her rather than Edward. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and offered the Count a genuine smile. He returned her smile, and his handsomeness quite stole her breath. It took her a moment to find her voice.
“It’s all because of our grandfather and his sister, great-aunt Virtue.
The concept of the family treasure hunt actually goes back several generations past our grandfather, but he and his sister Virtue are the ones who altered the tradition.
Before them, the treasure hunt was only for the firstborn sons of firstborn sons in the Calthorpe family, with no regard whatsoever for their siblings’ welfare.
” Eugenia and Edward exchanged knowing smiles before she continued her explanation.
“Grandfather realised that he never would have found his obscenely vast treasure without Great-Aunt Virtue, so he split it with her, half and half, and the two of them promised each other that they would carry on the treasure hunt tradition, but a bit differently from how it had been in the past. They agreed that all Calthorpe children — and grandchildren — should be equally well provided for, especially since there is more than enough treasure to go around – and grandfather had been growing his wealth through investment, as well. Grandfather allotted a certain portion of his wealth for each of his children and grandchildren, bequeathing specific things to each of us, which we must discover during the treasure hunt. I can only assume that Great-Aunt Virtue did the same for her children and grandchildren.”
Lord D’Asti and the Wingfields listened with rapt attention to Eugenia’s explanation, nodding, their eyes all alight with interest.
“I think that’s an absolutely lovely sentiment.”
Lord D’Asti’s voice was soft and husky, and perhaps a bit strained with some private emotion which Eugenia couldn’t quite identify.
He swallowed convulsively, and Eugenia had an overwhelming urge to pat his hand sympathetically, or perhaps rub her hand in soothing circles between his shoulder blades, but she knew that was a wildly inappropriate thought for her to have, especially considering the events of the past few months.
Edward lifted the parchment and read Eugenia’s riddle aloud.
“From low to high, yet still well hidden
Of earth and sky, of hearth and midden,
Each waits in darkness, all together
Above a home, safe from the weather
Surrounded by the past, yet for your future
In an old estate, set by waters pure
Choose the right place, by neighbour’s measure
Climb to the top, you’ll find your treasure.”
Hearing someone else read the riddle aloud gave Eugenia a moment of inspiration that had eluded her in the past. She rushed over to the drawing room window and looked out at Ashbrook’s grounds.
A beautiful, clear brook wended its way back and forth across the rolling green grounds and through the ash grove on its way to join the river at the back of the property.
“What is it?”
Edward strode over to join her at the window, and everyone else followed.
Eugenia raised a finger and tapped on the glass gently, first pointing at the brook, then at the river.
“What if ‘waters pure’ is referring to the brook and the river?”
“I suppose it could be, yes.” Edward shrugged. “But that alone doesn’t seem to be reason enough to get excited, in my opinion.”
“It’s not just that!” Eugenia grew animated, turning her attention to the view from the window once again.
“Ashbrook is an old estate which was out of use for many years before you gifted it to Lady Gainsbourne.” Edward nodded for Eugenia to go on.
This time, she pointed to the far right side of the vista the drawing room window presented to them.
“Look there. I can see Billington Hall on the property next door from here. I couldn’t even begin to think of a better neighbour to have than Edward.
And Thistlewayte Hall is just a little further on that way, past Billington Hall.
So, ‘by neighbours measure’, Ashbrook is all but perfect. ”
Eugenia whirled around, excitement leaving her practically vibrating on the spot.
“What if the riddle is referring to Ashbrook?” She chewed on her bottom lip, pacing back and forth in front of the window.
Mulling over the other words. From low to high…
Edward had found his treasure in a cellar, the lowest part of the house.
If one were going from low to high, then the opposite of the cellar made the most sense.
“Edward do either you or Lady Gainsbourne have the keys to the attic?”
Lady Gainsbourne shook her head.
“None of the keys we have open the attic.”
“The attic? No. But hold on one moment. I’ll see if it’s somewhere in my study here.” Eugenia was amused - Edward was so excited that, instead of calling Barstow for the keys, he went looking for them himself. He returned shortly with a smile and an oil lamp. “Come, the hunt begins.”
Edward was grinning, giddy as a school boy, and soon they were all laughing and talking excitedly. Lord D’Asti’s fingers brushed against the back of Eugenia’s hand, sending another thrill — an entirely different sort of excitement — buzzing through her body.
Very quickly, they arrived at the door to the attic with a large ring of keys in hand. Eugenia regarded the bundle.
“Do you know which key it is?”
Edward shook his head.
“No – we’ll just have to try them all. But as far as I know, this ring holds a copy of every key related to this estate.”
There must have been more than twenty keys, and they tried each one in turn, but none of them even began to turn in the lock. Eugenia groaned and shook her head, disappointed that her idea had been a failure.
“I should have known—”
“Wait!” Susan gripped Eugenia’s arm, her eyes wide and excited. “What about that rusty old skeleton key you found in the garden at Thistlewayte Hall? Didn’t the stone it was hidden under have ‘the key to your future’ etched into it?”
“Yes, it did!” Eugenia gasped, excitement jolting through every nerve in her body as she dug through her reticule and produced the rusty old key after only a few moments of frantic searching. Her hands shook as she slotted the key into the lock, turned it, and Ashbrook’s attic door swung open.
Inside the attic it was dark and dusty, the space filled with hundreds of cloth-covered shadows.
Edward held up the lamp to light the room.
“Right then. Let’s all start pulling these dust covers off, so that my dear sister may see what she’s inherited from our grandfather.”
Lord D’Asti went first, revealing a portrait of a rather voluptuously beautiful woman.
She was lying on a couch with her head turned back towards the painter, sensually eating grapes.
There was only a small cloth draped across her body, hardly enough to cover her most intimate areas, rather accentuating them instead.
Eugenia blushed a deep crimson at the scandalous nature of the painting and shook her head.
That painting was hardly fit for anywhere outside of the privacy of one’s bedchamber.
But, while she had been distracted by considering the nude, Marco and Neville had revealed yet more paintings, and Eugenia gasped as she turned to see them.
There were a wide variety of paintings, ranging from landscapes to more shocking nudes, to stately family portraits, to portraits of ladies posing in Greek mythology-styled poses.
Thankfully, those were fully clothed, for the most part.
The ones where clothing was distinctly lacking made Eugenia turn her head from side to side, staring and wondering if those women could really bend like that.
“Good heavens!” She gaped at the most scandalous looking painting, her face flaming with a mixture of shock, fascination, and some other sensation too dubious even to identify. “Is it really possible for people to do that? I had no idea those kinds of… nude acrobatics were even humanly possible.”
“Oh, my,” Marco gasped with a start. He was staring at one of the Greek styled paintings. “I know who painted these.”
“Apparently, someone who knew some impossibly flexible women. Who knew a body could bend in such ways?”
Eugenia blushed at having blurted her unfortunate observation out for everyone to hear.
She was embarrassed that she had voiced her thoughts out loud, but they were true, nonetheless.
Susan and Georgiana giggled, causing Eugenia to blush.
She thanked goodness that the low light wouldn’t reveal the full extent of her embarrassment.
“Yes, well,” Marco cleared his throat. He was clearly holding back laughing at her comment.
“These are all paintings by Benedict Chamberlain. I recognize his signature. His landscapes alone are worth a fortune, now, and they’re all the rage.
I knew for sure it was Chamberlain’s work, however, because of this portrait.
” He stopped for a moment and motioned to one of the Greek-styled portraits, the laughter gone from his eyes.
Eugenia felt pulled toward him unexpectedly by his sudden sorrow.
“My mother is the woman in this painting. She was obsessed with his art, and had a vast collection of it. After she died, my father sold it off, nearly every single painting, because it reminded him of her, and he couldn’t bear to look at Chamberlain’s work ever again.
He might as well have kept it, though, because he then gambled all the money away with stunning alacrity. ”
It was Lord D’Asti’s turn to blush. Not that his father’s gambling was unknown, but it was far from proper to mention such things.
Eugenia walked over to the Count, gently placing her hand on his forearm. She looked at the portrait. The woman was posed in a Greek style dress, holding fruit in her hand… a pomegranate if Eugenia wasn’t mistaken. It was both sensual and innocent at the same time.
“Your mother was a beautiful woman.” Eugenia swallowed convulsively, even as her mouth ran dry. She had to pry her sandpaper tongue loose from the roof of her mouth and lick her suddenly parched lips. “You should have this painting.”
“No.” Lord D’Asti’s voice turned raspy and strained. He stepped back from Eugenia. “I did not mean to, that is, I have no ill will towards you owning it, my father was the one who lost it. I could never accept such a gift.”
“I cannot keep it when I can see in your eyes how much this portrait means to you… how much you must have cherished and adored your mother.”
“Truly, Lady Eugenia, I cannot take a part of your rightful inheritance away from you.”
“None the less it shall be yours.” Eugenia took Lord D’Asti’s hand and placed it back on his mother’s portrait. “As it should be.”