“In the safe,” Lady Crowther said. “In Papa’s bedchamber. Inyourbedchamber.”
“I am not in the room Grandpapa and then my father slept in,” he said. “I have rooms in the corner of the east wing. I... do not go into those rooms.”
His aunts both stared at him.
“Indeed,” Lady Felicity said. “Well. That is understandable, I suppose. But you have not given a single thought to the family heirlooms and where they all might be? One can tellyouare not a married man. They are probably still there in the safe.”
“They are probablynot,” Maria said sharply. “They probably disappeared with Mama’s jewels.”
There was an awkward silence, during which Estelle wished there were a way to get up and move somewhere else without drawing attention to herself.
“Perhaps we should go and see,” Lady Crowther said.
“How are we to get into the safe?” the earl asked. “I must confess I never even knew of its existence. I do remember once seeing the heirloom jewelry with my mother. I must have been quite young at the time. I do not believe she ever wore any of it. Or Maria’s mother. I suppose I would have assumed it was all in a bank vault somewhere if I had ever thought of it at all.”
“If he had ever thought of it,” Lady Crowther said to her sister.
They gazed at each other and spoke in unison.
“Men!”
“You never even knew of the existence of the safe, Justin?” Lady Crowther asked, sounding dismayed. “You do not have the key, then? Maria?”
She shook her head. “Papa used to keep Mama’s jewels in his room,” she said. “But I never knew where. I never saw the family heirlooms. Mama said they were ugly.”
“Our father, your grandpapa, was not so secretive with his children,” Lady Crowther said. “We were always fascinated by the safe, hidden away as it was, and by all the jewels our mother used to wear whenever she had an excuse to do so. But whowouldknow where the key is? Our brother surely would have left that information withsomeone, Justin.”
“He left a whole lot of information with his lawyer and his man of business,” the earl said stiffly. “I have not encouraged them to share any but essential business with me.”
They stared at him, frowning, and Estelle realized, not for the first time, how badly his father had hurt him.
“Well,” Lady Felicity said, looking a bit shamefaced, “I know where the key used to be kept. I watched Papa open the safe once and then close it, and I memorized just what he did and where he got the key from and returned it to. Icrept back in there one day to make sure I was right, and I was. I got it open. But that wasyearsago. I must have been eleven or twelve.”
“And you still remember it, Aunt Felicity?” the earl asked.
“I still do,” she said. “It is amazing what sticks in one’s head from childhood, while something I take particular care to memorize today will in all likelihood be gone without a trace by next week. The human mind is an odd thing.”
“Then let us go,” Lady Crowther said, getting to her feet. “Justin, you had better come too. Those heirlooms are, after all, your property now. Your countess will wear them one day, and I hope that will be sooner rather than later.”
“I am coming too,” Maria said. “Estelle, please come with me.”
Estelle held up one hand. “I believe I had better not,” she said.
“Please do,” the Earl of Brandon said.
“Oh, by all means, Lady Estelle,” Lady Crowther said, linking her arm through Estelle’s. “I hope my brother did not do the sensible thing after our papa died and change the lock or hide the key elsewhere or both. And I hope Felicity’s memory has not become decrepit with age. Otherwise this is going to be very anticlimactic.”
The suite of rooms that had always been the earl’s until six years ago was at the south end of the west wing. The earl’s bedchamber was magnificently decorated in deep shades of wine and gold. The furnishings were heavy and old-fashioned and stately. It was a grand room, Estelle thought as the earl lit candles until the darkness and the shadows receded. Yet it had an air of being unlived in.
The Earl of Brandon’s face, she noticed, looked as though it were carved out of granite.
Maria came to a stop just inside the door. Estelleremained at her side. Lady Crowther pointed to the ornately carved fireplace, and she and her sister made their way toward it. The earl, having finished lighting the candles, stood and watched.
“It was one of those knobs down there,” Lady Crowther said, pointing to the paneling to the left of the fireplace. “This one, I believe.” She bent and pressed and poked at the carved leaves there with no result until her sister bent across her and twisted an acorn. A panel above them slid back. “The safe is still there, at least. Now we just need to get into it. Felicity? Here, I will stand back out of your way and cross all my fingers. And my eyes too. And I will hold my breath for good measure.”
Neither Maria nor her brother moved at all. Estelle found that she was also holding her breath. It somehow seemed terribly important that the family treasures be intact. What would happen if the safe was empty? Or if some of the pieces the earl’s aunts remembered were missing? Or if the safe could not be opened at all?
Lady Felicity went to the other side of the fireplace, reached up to a carved leaf just below the mantel, and pulled outward on it, pressing on the inside of it at the same time. The leaf opened on some sort of hinge to reveal a small dark cavity. She reached inside with two fingers and her thumb and brought out a small metal key.
