“That will do,” Devonshire Sinclair said. “Thinking is never a strong suit of the Ravens.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
He found himself in the most amazing study he had ever seen.
“I just stood in here the first time I entered, and stared.” Gus followed him in. “It’s something once we would only have dreamed of.”
A large antique desk, comfortable furniture, and walls the color of butternut. It smelled of books and happiness, if happiness had a smell. It was a place that a person could sit in and lose hours reading.
“It is.” Ash turned a circle, then made his way to the bookshelves.
“Samantha, Dorrie, and Somer spend hours in here sitting by the windows.”
He could imagine her here, the sun wrapped around her while she was absorbed in a book.
“They are ferocious readers like the rest of the family,” Gus said as Nicholas wandered in with a small scruffy white dog he vaguely remembered from the castle.
“I believe there is a clue inside this.” Gus held the box they had found in Raven Castle.
“What have you managed to decipher?” Ash moved to his side.
“Not much, as a lot of the words are faded. But that says blood,” Gus pointed to a word. “And that open.” He tapped another.
Ash took the box and ran his fingers over the worn letters.
“I am sure that whatever lies in that box relates to the scroll or document about the beginning of the Sinclair and Raven alliance,” Gus said.
“Then it must be opened.” Ash was intrigued. If this held papers about the pact, he wanted to see them.
“We will think on it some more. That lock is certainly a sturdy one for the size of the box.”
“It is old,” Ash said. “Very old.”
Gus lowered the box back onto the shelf. “We will come back to that. Now watch and learn. I’m going to show you just what these people can do.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to trust me he’s correct, as I have no paper or pen to check.”
“What are you talking about?” Ash asked his brother.
“Nicholas, add 791 and 540.”
“1,331,” the marquis said instantly.
“Plus 800, plus 5,430,” Gus continued.
“7,561. I wonder if you will ever tire of this, Gus.” Nicholas sighed.
“Multiply the lot by twenty-two.”
“166,342.”
Nicholas had answered in seconds. Never had Ash seen someone do something like that.
“Now, I could work this out, if I had paper and pen, but you have to trust that he is correct.”
“Of course I’m correct.” Nicholas looked insulted.
