They all, it seemed, exhaled at the same moment.
She crossed the fireplace again and bent to insert the key in the lock of the safe and turn it.
The door swung open, the key still in the lock.
“Oh,” Lady Felicity said, and stepped back. Her sister crowded forward to join her and peer inside. “It is not empty.”
“Let us take everything out and spread it on the bed,” Lady Crowther suggested. “Come and see, Justin. Comecloser, Maria. And you too, Lady Estelle. Oh, thisisexciting. I would havekickedmyself if we had gone home the day after tomorrow andthenI had remembered the family heirlooms. Oh, look, Felicity. The ruby brooch. It was myfavorite.”
Soon the bed was half covered with jewelry that must surely be worth a king’s ransom, Estelle thought. But while the sisters were exclaiming over remembered items and declaring that absolutely nothing was missing, the Earl of Brandon was picking up a folded document or letter that had been tossed out with everything else but had not drawn anyone’s interest. He slipped it into an inner pocket of his coat.
Maria meanwhile was reaching out with a trembling hand to pick up a bulging white silk drawstring bag.
“Oh,” she said when she had opened it and peered inside. She closed her eyes and swayed on her feet. “Oh, dear God.”
Estelle set a steadying hand on her arm, and the earl strode across the room to stand behind her and grasp her by the shoulders.
“Mama’s jewels,” she said. “Papa always kept them for her. In this bag.”
“Look through it,” the earl said. “See if everything is there.”
She emptied it onto the bed and spread out the items. She set one hand over her mouth before removing it to speak.
“Everything,” she said. “Oh, I think everything is here.”
“My dear Maria,” her aunt Augusta said, “they were here all the time. Your mama was mistaken.”
Or she had lied. No one said that, though.
“Or I could simply have put them back in there,” the earlsaid, lowering his hands from his sister’s shoulders. “I told the truth, Maria, when I said downstairs that I did not even know of this safe. I certainly did not know where it was or how to expose it or where to find the key. But I could be lying.”
“No,” she said, running a shaking hand over the jewels. “No, Justin. I think I have known for some time that there was no theft, that Papa had some other reason for sending you away. Mama made up that story, did she not? Just for my ears. I do not remember Papa ever saying anything about any theft or Mama mentioning it in his hearing. My mind is weary. I do not want to think about why you were really sent away. You are not a thief. And I am glad.”
She turned to look at him, her eyes troubled.
“She never wore any of them after that day,” she said. “It must have been very important to her that I believe you had stolen them, for she always loved wearing them. She did not take any of them to Prospect Hall with her when we left here. Perhaps she was afraid I would see them. She was very eager to blacken your name and preserve her own name. Did she not understand that Ilovedher? That I always would have done, no matter what? Perhaps she simply did not know how to get them from the safe,” she added wearily.
Her brother drew her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.
“Some things are best left in the past, where they belong,” he told her. “I have always loved you, Maria, past and present. I will love you as long as I live. Perhaps you will come to love me again in time. I will try to be patient.”
“Come,” Lady Crowther said briskly. “We will put everything back and go join everyone else. Perhaps Felicityand I can come back for another look tomorrow, with your permission, Justin. We will bring our daughters with us.”
“Do you want your mother’s jewels to go back into the safe for now?” the earl asked Maria.
“Yes,” she said.
Everything was put away—except the document or letter that was in the earl’s pocket. It seemed to Estelle that she was the only one who had noticed it. The safe was locked, the key removed, and the panel closed. The key was returned to its little nook behind the carved leaf. Lady Felicity led the way to the door while her sister linked an arm through Maria’s and followed. Estelle went after them, leaving the Earl of Brandon alone in his father’s room.
Everyone had returned to the drawing room, Estelle could see when they arrived there. The late-evening tea tray had been brought in, and Esme Ormsbury, Lady Crowther’s daughter-in-law, was pouring. She looked up and smiled at the returning party.
“Was Aunt Felicity able to find and open the safe?” she asked.
“She was,” Lady Crowther said. “And everything was there. We spread it all out on the bed. It felt almost like having Mother back for a few minutes. All the pieces lookedsofamiliar.”
“This is very exciting,” Angela Ormsbury said. “The Wiley family treasures. We must all go and look tomorrow. May we, Mama and Aunt Augusta? But you are not the ones to ask, are you?Maywe, Justin? Oh, has he not come back yet? Ah, here he comes.Maywe see the jewels tomorrow, Justin?”
He was standing inside the door, Estelle saw when she turned her head. He was looking like what she thought of as his granite self, his hands at his back.
