16. Chapter 16
Istop short on the bottom step as my gaze latches on to a dark, bulky object tucked into an alcove beneath the stairs.
“Where did you find that?” No furniture has ever graced the cottage—not as long as I’ve been coming here, yet now an enormous throne-like chair nearly black and cracked with age looms in the corner.
“It was in the sealed chamber. I thought to—”
“The what?”
He tips his head with a smile. “The secret sealed chamber. In the tower.”
I grasp the railing. “Show me.”
He fetches an oil lamp and leads me around behind the tower, climbing through knee-deep brambles, running his hands along the wall.
He gives a few gentle pushes, then plants his shoulder against the wall and shoves.
At last, a hidden door swings free with a groan of thick, ancient timber and disappears into a dank cavern.
I step down into the darkness and the light illuminates a forgotten old room heaped with enormous, ancient furnishings.
“What is this place?” I say in the hushed shadows, and even my whisper stills.
Life has stood still here. It’s another world entirely—no, another time.
Something… medieval. It’s at the base of the tower, but extending oddly into the cliff face itself—a secret cavern of sorts. “Who put all this here?”
“No one who’s still living. This has been sealed a long time.”
“You see? Now you have to stay so we can fully explore this treasure.” We have stumbled into the ancient world of kings and knights, with large wooden furnishings hewn together with rusted metal fastenings and studs, legs heavy and curled at the bottom.
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. He’s enjoying it as much as I am. He wishes to remain in the cottage.
“I wasn’t certain which pieces you preferred,” he says, his voice low in the darkness. “But you could furnish the cottage with these.”
I touch the ornate carvings on a tall chest of drawers, caked with years of grime.
In the center of the room is the largest refractory table I’ve ever seen.
With curved lions’ head feet and a surface thicker than my arm, it belongs in a castle fortress surrounded by knights in dented armor and clanking chain mail.
Yet it isn’t some rough, practical piece—it’s smooth as cream beneath the cobwebs “This,” I say. “I want this.”
I’ve chosen the largest, most unwieldly piece in the entire collection, but he merely nods. “You’ll have to assist,” he says, reaching to unbolt the legs.
Together we tug and maneuver that enormous tabletop through the door on its side and turn it end over end until it’s around the front and through the door.
Never has any task proven more satisfying than polishing and reassembling the massive table in the wide open timbered room in which it clearly belongs.
“It’s perfect,” I breathe, and stand back to see how well it fills the space. “What secrets it could tell us.”
Chairs. We need chairs.
Back in the cavern, I hold the light aloft and run my hands over oaken furniture built to endure. “How has it kept all these years?”
“The seal is quite secure,” Simon answers from behind me. “Perfectly closed off against moisture and weather. Nothing has touched this chamber in years.”
“A great treasure hidden away,” I murmur, then glance again at him.
Then Simon gasps and I turn to see him staring down at a glittering on his palm. “Paste jewels,” he says, but he cannot stop staring at them.
I take one and hold it up against the lamp’s glass, watching it bend and refract the light with startling clarity. “No.” I lift my gaze to him. “Mr. Balfour, you’ve found real gems.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “How can you tell?”
“A lifetime spent with Elias Dunn.” I hold a light-green stone to the light and watch it catch, see the inclusion that marks its authenticity.
“This changes everything.” Once I have found Papa, we’ll have the means to begin life anew.
Even if Uncle never accepts him again. I shove aside the notion that, although I now hold these gems in my hand, I haven’t any idea who actually owns them.
For a moment, hope tastes too delicious.
“This is our chance. Oh Simon, now you must stay and help me find Papa.”
“What if he doesn’t wish to re-enter society? He’s doing a great deal of good now, without society’s approval.”
“It was never about them. It isn’t society who needs to see Papa’s worth, or even Uncle.
It’s Papa.” I lean back against a cabinet and shudder as I relive the words hurled at him after the accident.
The miners had slowly begun to forgive over time, but the whole of society, the people to whom he supposedly belonged likely never would.
“I need to find him so I can tell him… that he is the most valuable of all men. That they are the imitation, and he is what’s real.
That when he left, he didn’t save me—he took from me the only thing of true value.
No matter what’s in his pocket, no matter how much dust the world sees on him, he is the father I need.
Inclusions and all. And I want him back.
I desperately need him to know these things.
Even if he doesn’t choose to come back with me.
” I lift my gaze to Simon. “I cannot find him without you, I’m afraid. ”
He sighs and his face contorts. “I suppose I can wear a mask. For one night, mind you. But if we find nothing…”
As my heart swells, I rise and bestow a gentle kiss on his forehead. “You’re a dear, Simon Balfour.”
“I haven’t discovered anything yet.”
A flicker of a smile. “You never know what will happen on Twelfth Night. It’s the time for wonder and surprise. For everything unexpected.”
His face darkens. “What exactly have you planned?”
“Promise me you’ll come.”
His jaw works back and forth, no doubt judging the wisdom of trusting Rosalyn Snow.
“Promise,” I urge.
I catch his gaze and I’m nearly certain he’s agreeing. And now, anything is possible.