The heavy wooden door creaked open, and he stepped inside.The smell of beeswax, mold, aged wood, and holiness swept over him, sending an odd chill across his shoulders.
Beams of silvery moonlight speared through a large open window at the back wall, revealing rows of wooden pews leading up to an altar at the front.He’d been told the church was rarely used, as evidenced by the dust tickling his nose.
The ladies entered behind him, the babe making cooing sounds as Durwin led them to sit on a pew in the back.
“Whatever are we doing here, Captain?”Lady Fox’s tone, filled with both alarm and annoyance, echoed through the church.“Come to repent of your sins?”
He chuckled, then retreated to a table by the entrance.Grabbing flint from a timber box and a candle and holder from a basket, he lit the candle and started toward the front of the church.“Stay with the women, Durwin.”
“So the last clue is here?”Pell eased beside him, frowning as he glanced around the empty church.
“Aye.If ole Barnacle Bill was telling the truth.”Weaving around the altar, he halted and stared at his friend.Sweat lined his brow and upper lip and his normal tan complexion had blanched.“You look like you’re about to meet your Maker.”
Pell cast a wary glance around the sanctuary.“Just haven’t been in a church since…” He gripped the cross around his neck.“Just memories, I guess.”
“You preached behind one of these?”Cadan gestured toward the pulpit.
Pell nodded, his gaze absently scanning the pews.“I used to do some good back then.People said I had a gift at making the Bible easy to understand.”
Cadan didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the man or chastise him for remembering his former occupation with such fondness in his voice.
Instead, all he said was, “Lot of good it did you.”Kneeling, he set down the candle and plucked the pickax from his belt.Probably not the kindest thing to say, but the last thing he needed was for his best friend to become a weak-kneed bumbling preacher again.“A worthless profession, that,” he added.“Serving a God who tossed you to the sharks.”
Memories of his mother surfaced.She would clap him upside the head for even thinking such a thing.Oh, how she had served God and loved Him.That was before He robbed her of her health and put her six feet under.
Groaning, Pell knelt beside him as Cadan counted four planks from the left.“Help me lift the altar.”
“You’re not going to break it,” Pell said with more authority than he should use with his captain.“’Tis sacred.”
“Scads, man.’Tis just furniture.Nothing sacred about it.Besides, thought you were done with this God of yours.”
Still the man hesitated, flattening his lips.
“I won’t damage it.Just help me lift it.”
Dropping back down, Pell slid his fingers beneath the altar and together with Cadan lifted it off the floor.
Reaching under the fourth plank, Cadan groped for the small indention he’d been told was there.
There!His heart felt like it would burst.
“Hurry!”Pell groaned beneath the strain.
Cadan pressed it and instantly a small wooden plank along the top of the altar flipped open.
“Okay, set it back down.”
Grabbing the candle, he held it up to the narrow opening.Something was in there.Reaching in, he grabbed what felt like a tiny scroll.A surge of elation swept over him.He could hardly breathe as he gently undid the scarlet cord and opened it.
“Here.”He handed Pell the candle.
Aye.’Twas the final clue he’d been searching for!
“Is that the clue?”Durwin’s excited voice blared behind them.“What do it say?Do it tell ye where the treasure be?”
“Scads, man!”Cadan growled, trying to keep his voice down.“I ordered you to stay with the women.”Rising, he quickly rolled up the small piece of parchment and eased it into his waistcoat pocket.
At first startled at Cadan’s angry tone, Durwin took a step back.But then he merely shrugged.“They’s in no danger ’ere, Cap’n.”
