She instinctually reached for the box, then pulled her hand back before touching it and looked at Lewis.
“Yes, you can go through this trunk now and gather the child’s things. I also need you to tell me if anything is missing. I will open the next trunk and other bags,” he said.
“I’ll help you,” Cecilia told Rani.
“What are you thinking someone was looking for?” David asked.
Lewis shrugged as he put the key in the lock of the second trunk.
“Given that someone did not want the child to get to Soothcoor, I’d guess it would be some documentation of the child’s legitimacy,” James suggested.
“Legitimacy?”
“Yes. If Owen Sedgewick is dead, the child becomes Soothcoor’s heir, unless he is his natural son,” James explained.
“If Sedgewick was not married to the boy’s mother,” Lewis clarified.
“Precisely.” James crossed his arms over his chest.
“How did you come by that motivation?” David asked.
“It is but one possibility for the kidnapping and luggage search.”
“I agree with Sir James,” said Lewis. “Something those two men who orchestrated the kidnapping said leads me in that direction.” Lewis swore quietly. “The trunk’s lock had been forced open, so its key no longer fits easily.” Lewis’s brows crew together as he struggled with the mechanism.
“What do you mean?” David asked.
“Remember when Mr. Martin told us they were to prevent the child from getting to Lord Soothcoor by any means?” James cut in while Lewis manipulated the stubborn lock. “Any means can include murder, and murder means high stakes. Not much higher than a title and wealthy estate inheritance.”
The lock suddenly clicked open, and Lewis lifted the lid.
“Are there other heirs if Sedgewick died without a legal heir?” Lewis asked absently as he looked into the second trunk, also rifled like the first.
“The old Earl was married three times,” James said. “Soothcoor is the son of his first wife, a Scottish woman by the name of Adamina; Owen is the son of his second wife, Susan; and by his third wife, Lydia, he had a daughter and three sons, two of whom—twins, and the youngest of the Earl’s children—are also currently in India,” James explained.
“You know the family well?” Lewis asked, as he picked up a portmanteau to open.
“I know Soothcoor well,” James corrected.
“Did you know them? Know Owen Sedgewick’s brothers that were in India?” Cecilia asked Rani as she held some articles for her.
“I see them once,” Rani said. “They not like Sahib.” She stood up and looked at the rest of them. She wrinkled her nose. “They—they party, and—” She made a quick, repeated throwing motion with her hand as she sought for the word she wanted. “And dice?”
“They liked to gamble?” asked James.
“Yes, yes. Gamble with dice. Sahib say they are too young to be in India.”
“Miss Rangaswamy, is this the painting you were mentioning?” Lewis asked. He held out a hinged tryptic of paintings in gilt frames.
“Oh! Yes, yes!” she cried. She took the frames from him and opened them. There were three paintings: a man, a woman, and a child.
“See, Sahib, Memsahib, and Krishan.”
“This is lovely! I thought it would be a miniature of the boy,” Cecilia said.
“An engraver can easily work from this size for an excellent likeness of the child,” James observed.
“Look, James, his eyes are so like Soothcoor’s,” Cecilia said, pointing to the characteristic Soothcoor wide-set and slightly downturned eyes. Puppy eyes.
