Chapter 18 #3
But then two terrified, wide-eyed and bedraggled creatures ventured into the room, glancing about them in awe and clutching something remarkably heavy wrapped in a cloth sack.
“Milly!” Angel cried and leapt to her feet as Milly gave a choked sob.
“Oh, m-miss!”
The two women ran to each other, hugging, laughing, and crying all at once. Hart followed at a more measured pace, yet a startling degree of pleasure and relief exploded in his chest at seeing them both again.
“Sir! Sir!” Toby exclaimed, dropping the sack that landed with an alarmingly heavy thud on the carpet and ran to him. “Oh, sir, when we saw the bus-nappers had got you, we was that afraid. But we hid ourselves away, and they never saw us.”
Hart took the boy by the shoulders and gazed down at him, smiling as he saw the young fellow was none the worse for his adventures.
“You did right, Toby, my lad. Well done and well done for following us. How ever did you do it?”
Toby’s chin went up, pride glowing in his eyes. “Ah, it weren’t difficult. We just asked along the route if anyone had seen the constables’ cart with two prisoners and we followed behind,” he said blithely. “Oh, but that ain’t the best of it, see—”
“Is anyone going to introduce us to the young people?” Grandmama demanded pointedly.
Toby gasped and shrank behind Hart.
“Yes, of course. Apologies, Grandmama. Come, Toby, Milly. Come and pay your respects.”
Toby ran back and hefted whatever was in the sack with difficulty but refused to be parted from it when Hart offered, so he clasped it to his chest as Hart made the introductions. Milly’s jaw almost dropped to the floor upon hearing that the Dowager Duchess of Langley was his grandmother.
“Then you’re—you’re—” she stammered, unable to take the sentence to its logical conclusion.
“Are you a duke?” Toby demanded suspiciously.
Hart exchanged a wry glance with his grandmother and shook his head. “No, Toby. My father is the Duke of Langley; I am the Marquess of Hartwell. But my friends call me Hart.”
“Hart,” Toby repeated, looking a little dazed.
“That don’t include you,” Milly muttered severely, giving him a little jab with her elbow. “You say ‘my lord.’”
“Bleedin’ ‘ell,” Toby breathed, shaking his head in wonder as Grandmama and the dowager snorted with delight.
“Oh, Milly. I am so happy to see you,” Angel said.
Now that Milly and Toby were here, safe and well, she felt she could finally breathe easily.
Milly sat close beside her, the two of them clutching each other’s hands as if fearing they might disappear if they let go.
“I was so very worried. Leo sent people out looking for you, but we worried you would think they wished to arrest you too.”
Milly nodded. “We kept our heads down and tried to stay off the main road. Especially as…” She hesitated, glancing around at the eager faces all turned in her direction. Flushing, she bent close to Angel and whispered in her ear. “We’ve got it.”
Angel frowned, blinking at her. “What?” she mouthed in return.
Milly rolled her eyes. “We got it,” she repeated, gesturing to the muddy sack that Toby was hugging to his middle as if his life depended on it.
“You’ve got—” Angel began, still rather overwhelmed by recent events, and then the penny dropped. She let out a shriek, leaping to her feet. “Oh! Oh, my word. Truly?”
“Whatever is the matter? Is the child ill?” demanded the dowager, staring at Angel like she’d run mad.
Angel did not care. She turned to Leo and tugged him to his feet. “They’ve got it! They’ve got it!” she cried, practically dancing with excitement.
Leo turned to stare at Toby, his gaze falling to the filthy sack. “Toby?”
Toby grinned at him, a broad, smug grin that almost split his face in two. “You nearly had it, sir—my lord. It weren’t but a few more scrapes under the mud.”
“Good heavens,” he said with a startled laugh.
“We thought we’d best check after they took you away,” Milly explained urgently. “In case anyone else knew of it and thought to take their chances.”
“The treasure!” Hetty exclaimed, realising suddenly what they were talking about. “They found Black Jack’s treasure!”
The room erupted into excited chatter as Leo reached for the sack. Toby released it somewhat reluctantly, but his eyes glinted as Leo withdrew a small, sturdy chest, encrusted with mud and banded about with iron.
“It’s locked,” Toby said with a grimace.
Angel looked at Milly and then to Toby. For all they knew, there was a king’s ransom in jewels inside that box, but it had never crossed either of their minds to take it for themselves.
They’d just kept looking for her and Leo.
Suddenly her throat was tight with emotion.
Black Jack had sent her on an adventure to find his treasure, and it seemed she had done—with a lot of help—but she’d found so much more along the way.
Sensing she was on the verge of tears, Leo looked down at her and smiled. “You did it, love.”
Angel shook her head, blinking hard. “We did it together. I could have done none of it without you, Leo, or without you, Milly, or you, Toby.”
“Well, never mind all this nattering. For heaven’s sake! Open the blasted chest!” demanded the dowager irritably.
“Clear the table,” Cilly said, taking charge and removing the tea tray as everyone drew their chairs closer.
Carefully, Leo placed the sack over the polished tabletop to protect it and then took the chest from Toby and set it carefully down.
“I don’t suppose you’ve a key?” he asked.
Angel’s lips quirked. “Pops was never much of a one for keys. He showed me how to do without them.”
Kneeling before the table, she inspected the lock before glancing up at Leo. “But I don’t have any tools.”
“Oh, have a hairpin,” Cilly said, plucking one from her coiffure and handing it over.
Angel smiled at her but shook her head. “That won’t be strong enough, I’m afraid. But it’s the right idea.”
“Hetty, bring my knitting box,” Leo’s grandmama ordered.
Hetty sprang to her feet and quickly brought a large box from which oddments of wool and embroidery silks trailed on all sides.
“Help yourself,” the old lady said eagerly as Hetty set it down beside her.
Angel opened the pretty inlaid box and rummaged through the contents.
Taking out a pair of fine steel needles of the kind for knitting socks, a bodkin, and a crochet hook, she turned the items in her hand, considering the merits of each.
“Could you bend the very end of this a little?” she asked Leo, handing him a needle.
He considered this, taking the needle over to the fireplace. Toby went with him, the two of them muttering for a moment and deliberating about using the firedogs to help with the job. After a few minutes clanging and clattering, Leo brought the needle back.
Angel regarded his handiwork for a moment before deeming it acceptable.
Sliding the tip of the needle into the keyhole, she used the bodkin to apply gentle pressure.
The lock was old and stiff, and Angel’s hands shook slightly as she wondered what precisely her grandfather had left for her.
Frustrated that the dratted thing refused to budge, Angel let out a breath, flexed her stiff fingers, and tried again.
“Shall I try?” Leo asked softly,
She glanced up at him and shook her head resolutely.
He grinned, and Angel laughed a little, realising he had never expected her to let him.
“It’s a simple lock,” she told him through her teeth as she put all her might behind the tools. “It’s just old, and—”
There was a heavy click, and the lock sprang open. Angel gasped, dropping the tools in shock.
“Oh, how exciting!” Hetty squealed, clutching her sister’s arm.
Angel could do nothing but stare at the padlock, now hanging open. Her heart was thudding too hard in her chest. This was what she’d set out to do. To find her inheritance, the treasure Pops had left for her.
Suddenly it was here, before her, and she was afraid to look.
“Go on then, miss,” Milly said, her voice encouraging. “This is your Pops’ gift to you.”
Angel let out a shaky breath. “Come and help me then, Milly. You too, Toby.”
Eagerly, Toby ran to kneel beside her. Milly hesitated until Angel gestured for her to hurry and then gave a laugh and joined her at the table.
“Leo?” Angel looked up at him, her heart giving an extra hard thud behind her ribs as she saw the warmth of his gaze, the pride and happiness shining down upon her.
“Go on, love. This is yours, like Milly said. Open it up.”
“Right then. On the count of three,” Angel said, as Toby and Milly put their hands on the lid. “One, two, three.”
The lid was stiff and reluctant but opened with an indignant squeak.
Inside, whatever it contained was covered with a mouldering piece of thick red brocade.
Angel reached for it with hands that trembled, aware that everyone had gathered to stand behind her, gazing over her shoulder as she tugged it away.
A collective gasp ran through the assembled witnesses and Angel’s heart leapt to her throat as her gaze took in the gleam of gold.
Coins from different nations lay cheek by jowl: Spanish doubloons, Portuguese escudos, and French Louis d’or, and scattered among them was the glitter of jewels.
Rings and bracelets, necklaces and earbobs, the glitter of rubies and emeralds, many simply lying loose among the coins, winked at them alongside dozens of pearls, some of them the biggest Angel had ever seen.
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Leo’s grandmother with a bark of laughter. “Hart, my dear, you’ve found yourself an heiress. This might make your father look upon Miss Everdene with a little less revulsion.”
“To the devil with Father,” Leo growled. “This is Angel’s. Her grandfather left it to her, and her alone, and so it shall be.”
Angel glanced up at him, such a swell of emotion filling her chest that she did not know how to contain it.
“What else is in there, love?” he asked her with an encouraging smile.
Hardly able to breathe, Angel peered inside and found a thick blue velvet pouch embroidered with a gold J. “Oh, look!” she said, holding it up to show Leo.
Understanding gleamed in his eyes. “A gift for his sweetheart, Jenny.”
Blinking back tears, Angel carefully undid the drawstring and tipped the contents into her palm. There was a stunned silence from everyone except Milly, who shouted, “Lawks!”
Angel stared at the huge sapphire, glinting as if she held the essence of the Mediterranean Sea in her palm. For a moment she couldn’t take it in, and then she laughed. She laughed and laughed until she couldn’t breathe, until everyone was gazing at her in wonder.
“Pops said—” she began breathlessly but struggled to get the words out. “P-Pops said, his t-true love only had one eye. One sparkling blue eye!”
Her fingers curled around the sapphire and for a moment, she held it against her heart and closed her eyes. Thank you, Pops. Thank you for everything, for teaching me all your dreadful tricks, and how not to be afraid of life. I miss you.
In the back of her mind she heard his wicked laughter, harsh and raucous, and she smiled.