Chapter 19
Until she and Duncan had officially moved into the castle, Bex hadn’t explored much of the upstairs at all.
In fact, the only room she’d ever been into was the one she’d slept in.
It had felt wrong. After all, it was Fergus’s house, not hers.
But now it was theirs, and yet so many of the rooms remained untouched.
Still, it wasn’t hard to work out which rooms had once been dressing rooms, from the number of vanities along with wardrobes, trunks, chests of drawers, and other pieces of furniture that filled them.
‘I think it’s all men’s in here,’ Lorna said as she swung open several drawers and cupboard doors one after another. ‘Cufflinks. Kilts. Boots. Yup, all men’s.’
‘Then next door is probably where the women’s clothes are,’ Bex said, closing the door behind her. That room would have to wait for another day before she had a proper look through it, although when that would be, she had no idea.
‘Where should we start?’ Eilidh asked as she placed the bottle of wine and her glass on the window ledge, having just topped everyone up.
‘No idea,’ Bex replied. ‘Just have a look and see if you find anything that might suit me.’
‘It’s crazy, isn’t it?’ Lorna said, pulling out a brown dress with thick fur cuffs that made Bex shudder. ‘You’re actually going to be in a magazine. Marrying the laird. And Duncan is the laird. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel real.’
‘It definitely doesn’t feel real,’ Bex agreed, taking a long sip of her drink, before joining in with the search.
‘This would look good on you,’ Eilidh said, pulling out a simple blue sheath dress. ‘Really understated. Try that one on first. And oh – these shoes!’
‘They look pretty small,’ Bex replied.
Eilidh shrugged. ‘You can squeeze into them for a photo, right?’
Not entirely sure she could, but also not certain she couldn’t, Bex nodded.
The navy dress was a go, and so was the second that Eilidh pulled out: a fabulous beaded ballgown.
‘I think that one might be a bit too over the top,’ Bex said.
‘No,’ Lorna and Eilidh replied in unison. ‘It’ll be perfect.’
‘If you say so…’
Of course, everything still had to pass the Amanda test, but the more options they had, the better.
‘I think I need something that’s a bit outdoorsy too,’ Bex said, after the others had found dress after dress, insisting that each one had to be chosen. ‘Maybe some trousers and a jacket.’
‘Oh, I found some boots that would be perfect for that kind of look,’ Eilidh responded. ‘Now where were they?’
It took only a couple of minutes before she brought out the pair of flat, knee-high, tan leather boots.
‘I need to try those on,’ Bex said, desperately hoping they were the right size. Photoshoot or not, if they fit, she was definitely going to be wearing them.
‘Looks like they’re perfect to me,’ Eilidh remarked as Bex slipped the zipper up the side.
There were. Spot on and so comfortable. She was about to slip on the other boot when Lorna let out a low gasp.
‘Girls, I think you need to look at these.’
‘Are they as good as these boots?’ Bex replied, twisting her left leg from side to side to appreciate just how perfect they were, before reaching down for the right boot.
‘Oh, I’d say they are better than the boots,’ Lorna said. ‘Much better.’
With Bex still wearing just one boot, she moved to gather around Lorna, both she and Eilidh also gasping at what she’d found.
Lorna had discovered a jewellery box. And unlike Bex’s personal one – which was filled with twisted chains and broken bits and pieces – this was immaculate.
And contained only one jewellery type: rows and rows of perfectly ordered rings.
All different shapes and sizes glimmered up from the soft-lined fabric of the case.
Some set with rubies, others with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires.
Some had multiple different types of stones, all in one.
‘These are antique,’ Eilidh said, although Bex had worked out that much for herself.
Some of the details Eilidh went on to describe, however, she hadn’t known.
‘This shape here’s Edwardian, I think,’ she said, pointing at a large diamond solitaire.
‘And that one’s Art Deco.’ She tentatively reached for one, only to hesitate and look at Bex. ‘Is it all right if I…?’
Bex wasn’t quite sure what she should make of it. There was enough in here to start a small jewellery business and she could barely imagine what some of them were worth. ‘Umm, yes, I guess.’
‘You’re lucky Kieron hadn’t seen these when he was living here,’ Lorna said as she plucked a haloed sapphire from the mix. ‘You know he would have sold them out from under you before you could have blinked.’
Bex couldn’t respond. Lorna was probably right about Kieron, judging from the way he’d tried to drink his way through Fergus’s most expensive Scotch when he’d discovered he might be about to lose claim to it.
But the fact that all this was hers… Somehow, it was almost as hard to get her head around as the idea that she and Duncan now had the castle.
‘Keith told us that when he proposed to Duncan’s mum, Fergus let him pick a ring,’ she said, holding up her hand and looking at the ring on her finger. ‘This is the one he picked.’
‘I bet he let him choose from all of these,’ Lorna said, before glancing at Bex’s hand. ‘Looks like he was very restrained, if you ask me.’
Bex knew exactly what Lorna meant. She’d never thought the ring on her finger was particularly small. Any larger and she wouldn’t have felt comfortable wearing it outside, or even around the house. But some of the diamonds they were looking at had to be three, four, if not five times the size.
‘There are forty-seven rings,’ Lorna said, having finished packing them away one by one. ‘I mean, they’ve got to be worth at least a thousand pounds each. You’ve got enough for a house deposit here.’
‘A thousand pounds each? Think again,’ Eilidh said, glancing up from her phone, which she had in one hand, while one of the rings was perched on her middle finger.
‘This one’s worth twenty-five. I reckon your average is going to be 10k at least. Some of them will be worth ten times that. Maybe even more.’
‘Ten thousand pounds for one ring… Forty-seven rings…’
The answer jumped into her head, although she half wished it hadn’t.
The thought that she could have that much wealth in a box, in a room she’d not even thought about, made her nauseous.
There was nearly half a million pounds there in their hands.
It had been up in the room all this time, and they hadn’t even known.
‘Do you want the good news, or… Actually there is just good news.’ Lorna grinned. And yet for some reason, Bex’s body felt entirely hollow.
‘What?’ she said. ‘What is it?’
‘There are another four boxes here. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets and brooches. And they’re all pretty sparkly.’
Another four boxes! Bex stumbled back, landing conveniently near her glass of wine, which she picked up and downed in one.
‘There are millions in here, right? I’m not losing my mind. This is worth millions.’
‘You could buy another castle. You could buy me a castle!’ Lorna said excitedly as she pulled out one of the bracelets. Every inch of it dripped with diamonds.
‘Have you got these insured?’ Eilidh asked. She, like Bex, seemed to be bordering more on nervous excitement than outright glee.
‘I’m not sure,’ Bex replied. ‘They’ll be on the house insurance… right?’
‘You need to get a jeweller out,’ Eilidh continued. ‘Do proper appraisals. Some of these are worth tens of thousands of pounds.’
‘You think?’
‘Absolutely. I suspect you’ll have to photograph it all, get it catalogued. And you probably want to go through the other cupboards and the men’s rooms. Watches can be worth even more than rings and necklaces.’
Great. Get a jewellery appraiser in, catalogue the items, contact the insurance company based on the valuations. Just one more thing added to the never-ending list.
‘You’re definitely going to have to wear some of these,’ Lorna said, staring at her reflection in the mirror as she slipped a pair of pink earrings into her ears. ‘Oh my God, yes. Amanda would love this.’
Now, that was one comment Bex couldn’t disagree with. Maybe if she pulled out a couple of fancy pieces, it would be enough to meet Amanda’s high expectations.
‘Okay,’ Lorna said. ‘Change of plan. Not only are we finding dresses, but we’re finding the jewellery to go with the dresses. And screw the wine, you’ve got champagne somewhere in this castle of yours, right?’