“You heard her,” Darcy said. “We’re staring down at a chest of gold and jewels.”
“Holy shit. Tess and I might be able to get on the next flight up.”
“Don’t you have work?” Brandon said.
“I can get leave to help family. There’s damage from the storm, right?”
“Lots,” Matt said. “You’d better bring your work boots.” The men grinned at each other.
Ed wasn’t a work boots sort of guy, but he’d help in a pinch.
Tess spoke. “There’s a six o’clock flight in the morning.”
“We’ll pick you up,” Amy said.
Sam hung up and looked at the others. “What now?”
“Now we hide the treasure,” Brandon said. “At least until we get the chance to speak to Dot and Nhiari.”
“We’ll talk to them when we head back to town,” Sam said.
Arthur studied the chest. “The trunk won’t survive another trip with that much weight in it. It protested enough when we took it off the ute. We need to take some of the treasure out and put it in bags.”
Amy left the room and came back with some backpacks. Georgie took photos of the treasure for reference and they spent some time transferring the riches to the bags, with Amy cataloguing it.
“This is beautiful,” Penelope breathed, holding up an emerald necklace.
There really were some stunning pieces amongst the gold and silver. Gretchen had her turn at removing treasure and Jordan dug enthusiastically through the coins. He drew out a jewel encrusted dagger. “Cool!” Then he hissed as the blade cut him.
“Careful.” Arthur took the dagger from him while Gretchen examined the cut. “We’d better disinfect this.”
Amy went to the cupboard and drew out a first aid kit, and Gretchen tended to Jordan’s cut. “I can’t believe it was still sharp after all these years,” Amy said.
Hopefully, none of the potential diseases would still be alive on the blade.
When they were done transferring the treasure to bags, Darcy said, “Lara, take Jordan into the lounge room. Neither of you need to know where we’re hiding the treasure. It’s safer that way.”
Lara hesitated, then nodded. “This way, Jordan.”
Jordan glanced at Gretchen, protest on his face.
“Darcy is right,” Gretchen said. “Go with Lara.”
With Faith standing guard to make sure the kids didn’t sneak back, they carried the bags down to the cellar and afterwards rolled the old linoleum floor back over the door, hiding it completely. There was no hint the cellar was there at all.
Probably the safest place for now.
Faith went and got the children.
“I need to get back,” Sam said. “The forecast is for more rough weather and I need to cancel tomorrow’s tours.”
Gretchen nodded, checking her emails. “School says they’re reopening tomorrow. A couple of classrooms were damaged, but they’ll work around it.”
Jordan pouted. “Can’t we stay here?”
“No, sweetheart.” The idea of being so close to the treasure freaked her out a little. If Stonefish came looking for any reason, she didn’t want to be here.
“I’ll talk to Dot and Nhiari,” Sam said.
