Forty #2
The boys would have the pieces dismantled before Hunt released his captive audience. Arnaud needed to know if Thea and Davy might have more jewels to keep them safe from their father’s creditors. He wanted to know now. No more sitting in his tower, above their family dramas. . .
Abandoning the clock molesters, he stalked down the hall to the closed door of the old study and pounded his big fist on the thick panel. “Fire! Thieves! Murderers! La révolution!”
He smirked as the voices on the other side of the door silenced. The question now became, how long would it take them to select and load weapons and which one would stick his head out first.
Thea appeared at his side, sending him a quizzical look.
“I wager on Sergeant-Major Clockmaker coming out first, le sword in hand.” Arnaud took her arm and tugged her out of range.
“If Mr. Upton is in there, he is talking sense to them. But there are no windows, so they’ll fight their way out,” she countered in amusement.
They were both wrong. Hunt strode out, armed only with his walking stick, glared at Arnaud, and led a procession of amused gentlemen to the library.
“Message received," Arnaud murmured, hiding a laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed. He was rusty. But the black cloud that had hovered over him for so long always lifted in Thea’s presence.
Before she could tug him impatiently back to the library, he added, “I love you, no matter what happens or what you decide to do. I will always love you.”
Startled, his pragmatically whimsical partner studied him for an excruciatingly long time before finally offering a rare, affectionate smile and standing on her toes to kiss his bristled jaw.
“I don’t know what is worrying you, but you will never be rid of me after that declaration.
Before you, I never heard those words from anyone. Ever.”
Arnaud vowed right then and there to say the words every day. They did not come easily, but he would change that. She deserved love.
She squeezed his hand, not repeating his declaration. “I am still learning to show affection since I do not always know myself and have no experience at expressing softer feelings. You may have to accept action for words until I learn, but know you are my missing half. I cannot live without you.”
He’d take her up to bed right now, but Davy was in the doorway, shouting for them to hurry.
He’d have to learn how to live with family again.
He’d had a decent, if distant, father. He knew what was expected and maybe a little more.
Davy might require more than that, but he had confidence that Thea would guide him.
Fletch almost had the back off one of the pocket watches as they entered.
“That’s the timepiece in the portrait of Elsa’s mother,” Thea murmured. “Should someone run down to the kitchen and bring her upstairs?”
“She’s preparing a homecoming feast,” Lt. Jack, her husband warned, but he left to summon a servant.
“If the mad earl bungled up a Swiss mechanism of this quality, I hope he’s rotting—” Fletch’s wife entered the library, halting that surly sentence.
While the women filled Kate in on what was happening, Arnaud leaned against a bookshelf and crossed his arms. His future might be decided here, but he wouldn’t show his fear. If they found the missing pendants. . . Wealth did odd things to people.
As another non-participant in the Wycliffe fortune, Fort joined him, although he examined the books they leaned against first.
“They’re like children at Christmas. What happens if they find nothing?” Fort murmured.
“They turn the cider festival into a huge party and have apple cakes and apple pies and give away cider.” Arnaud shrugged, realizing this was one of the many reasons he enjoyed the present company.
“They don’t bemoan fate but have learned to laugh in the face of it.
” He sent the duke’s son a cynical glance. “Watch and learn.”
Lady Elsa arrived just as Fletch reverently removed the last screw.
“My mother already has her ruby pendant,” the cook announced, apropos of nothing at all. “So, if this is the watch in my grandmother’s portrait, it most likely contains more puzzles.”
Arnaud stifled a groan. From his height he could easily see over the seated clockmaker’s shoulder, but it was Fletch’s whistle of appreciation that had him looking closer.
“He must have had a brilliant clockmaker do this. The poor man probably shot himself afterward. Cruel and unusual, but the timepiece should work again once I remove the rubbish stuffing up its cogs.”
The sergeant had said much the same thing about the pendulum clock. Arnaud snorted at the clockmaker’s odd perspective and waited expectantly. He wasn’t disappointed. Small diamonds rolled out—the remainder of the ruby necklace in the portrait.
Ignoring exclamations of excitement, Fletch started on one of the mantel clocks. “Whose portrait was this in?”
“Mine,” the baroness announced, shaking her gray pompadour. “My scoundrel brother died before returning my emerald. It should have gone to my eldest granddaughter.”
Everyone carefully did not look at Lavender.
She was Lady Lavinia’s only granddaughter, unacknowledged for most of her life because of birth.
But there was no denying that Lavender possessed her father’s family traits.
The Reid family was not only blond and blue-eyed, but had peculiarities of ears and thumbs that made them easily identifiable to those familiar with them.
The larger case was apparently easier to open. In minutes, an enormous emerald pendant tumbled out, followed by several large diamonds.
“Just added weight to the base. Didn’t even foul up the movement.” Fletch actually sounded pleased. “There’s a rusty cog. . .” He started work on the mechanism.
“Lavender, you can wear that at your presentation ball, as the rest of us have,” Lady Lavinia proclaimed proudly. After all these years of ignoring her granddaughter, she was finally learning to enjoy having her.
“Bastards aren’t presented.” Due to being disregarded for so long, Lavender seldom performed to expectations. “If you wish me to have it, I thank you, but I will only sell it.”
“Sell it? “The dowager gasped in horror.
Arnaud hid his fascination with the family drama.
“This may be where my negotiating skills are required, before the dowager has the vapors,” Fort murmured.
Pushing himself off the bookshelf, his lordship set a hand on Lavender’s shoulder. “A gem that remarkable is a rare treasure which most likely belongs in a museum or the Tower. They might offer a princely sum to keep it on loan for a period of time. That way, you may have your cake and eat it too.”
Arnaud found this human interaction between the younger couple more interesting than the jewels. Perhaps he could try his hand at portraits again someday. Lovers Discovering Love—that would make a pretty one.
Lavender glanced up at her would-be suitor in surprise and perhaps appreciation, while Fletch moved on to the mantel clock that had been in the portrait of Thea’s grandmother. The case was bell-shaped glass, and he had to remove the bottom carefully.
Even Arnaud held his breath in nervous anticipation. “Ought to be a cuckoo in the collection,” he muttered when Thea took Fort’s place and clutched his hand.
She didn’t chuckle. “He could be holding Davy’s future.”
“Schools and solicitors are expensive.” He nodded understanding. He thought the gems should be used for the good of all, but if it meant saving Davy’s inheritance— and perhaps providing the boy with a proper school and tutors. . .
A sapphire pendant and almost an entire chain of matching gems fell out. Everyone gasped. Thea froze.
Arnaud wrapped his arm around her shoulders and rubbed her back to life. “Looks like the mad old earl knew his precious gems were wasted on your family.” His cynicism caused her to wake and cast him an appreciative glance.
Fletch glared at the empty clock bottom. “English-made, works weren’t worth saving. He threw them out.”
“I need enough for a very good solicitor, please. The rest. . .” Thea shook her head in shock and bewilderment.
“They’ll all go into the vault until such time as you need them,” Hunt declared with decision. “Hoarding valuables has no practical use. Once you’ve decided what you wish to do, Sutter can draw up legal papers expressing distribution according to your wishes.”
Apparently weary of the tension, Lavender rose. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I have work to do. If my wishes are considered at all, I say people before objects.” She sailed out.
Without a word, Fort slipped out after her, leaving his students enrapt with the next clock.
Lady Elsa nodded agreement. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted.” She kissed her husband. “And pies in the oven. I rely on wiser heads than mine to distribute anything that might be mine.” She prepared to depart.
Which was when the town lawyer finally spoke up. “Technically, since they were found on the premises, and the earl left no other direction, it all belongs to the Wycliffe estate and all his heirs.”