“I will cherish this,” she promised her friend’s spirit. “And think of you always when I look at it or use it.”
She smiled past her tears and reached out to turn the little key already in the lock. The top opened and she set the keys aside as she looked inside where velvet lined the spaces for rings or necklaces or bracelets. She had little jewelry, but what she did have would fit.
She opened the drawer of her table and drew out a few precious items to place inside, but as she set the first ring into a snug little pocket designed for it, she noticed something peculiar. There was a slight imperfection in the velvet along the back of the box.
Setting the ring aside temporarily, Marianne drew the container to the edge of her table and leaned closer. There was definitely something wrong with the velvet. She touched it and felt something beneath the fine fabric. It was flat, like a folded sheet of paper.
But that couldn’t be correct, for it made no sense whatsoever.
She felt along the seam between the main compartment of the box and the backing, but it seemed firmly attached. There was no way someone could have slipped something behind the backing without damaging the velvet, and yet it remained unmarred.
“How very odd,” Marianne murmured to herself as she slid her candle closer to inspect the fabric even more carefully. “How in the world would it get there? And more importantly, what in the world is it?”
She lifted the chest and looked at it, slowly turning it until the back faced her. She had never seen the box anywhere but in its place on her friend’s table and had not thought to lift it or paw at it, so she had never known that the beautiful brass filigrees crisscrossed all along the back of the box.
“Lovely,” she breathed, briefly forgetting the secret stuffed behind the velvet as she examined the delicate lattice work of the brass in the light of her candle.
And that was when she saw it. Hidden within the intricate decoration along the back, so well incorporated that one would never see it until one was looking for it, was another keyhole.
“The second key,” she whispered as she snatched the set from the table where she had placed them after a few moments earlier. She fumbled with the two, first trying the wrong key, but finally the correct one slipped into the second lock and there was a faint click as the mechanism opened and the entire backing of the container went loose.
Heart pounding at the unexpected mystery of it all, Marianne gently set the wooden backing aside and slid her candle to the correct angle to see what was hidden within. There, propped up in a narrow secret chamber, was a folded piece of heavy vellum paper. It had been carefully tied with a crimson ribbon and set into the space.
Her hands shook as she drew it out. As she set the box back onto the table, she stared at the folded paper. Should she open it? The jewelry container had been given to her, to be certain, but the marquess had said nothing about a hidden note. Likely he hadn’t even known about it. This item, whatever it was, wasn’t something the average person was meant to find.
But perhaps her friendhadwanted her to find it. Perhaps the note was the real gift, not the item which contained it. And if she simply burned it to protect Claudia’s privacy, it might be against her friend’s wishes.
“Bother,” Marianne muttered, and then carefully loosened the ribbon around the paper. She unfolded it and sucked in a breath. It was written in Claudia’s hand. Even, fine swirls of words that were far more elegant than Marianne’s messier scratch. She had always envied Claudia’s fine script.
She shook her head and read the words before her. It was not a note, a final farewell, as she had expected and even hoped for. Instead it was…a list.
Daring to Live Before I Die, Things to Dowas written across the top, and Marianne choked on a sob as she read the date. Claudia had written this list the day after she had suddenly fallen ill.
Marianne turned her attention to the list itself and her mouth fell open. Dear Lord, her friend hadn’t been exaggerating when she called her list daring. The items before her were that and more:
Learn What Naughty Words Mean and Use Them in a Proper Sentence.
Marianne stared at the first item, reading it over and over. Claudia couldn’t have been serious to want to know this. Even less so to actually want to use those words out loud. Of course...Marianne had always wondered about those words, too. Sometimes when she overheard her brother and his friends saying certain things, she’d been very curious.
Go to a Party Uninvited.
Why, the very idea was terrifying! A person would be swiftly found out and judged and talked about. No one wanted that.
Get Drunk.
Again, she couldn’t picture a scenario where that would be a good idea. She rarely drank at all, just a little madeira from time to time, or a sherry after supper if there was nothing else to find. But to get fully drunk? That would imply a loss of control she wasn’t certain she desired.
Sneak Into a Gentleman’s Home.
“Claudia!” she gasped, as if to admonish a dead woman.
Say Something Shocking.
As if her friend hadn’t already said…or at least written, all these shocking things. She’d known Claudia sometimes longed for more adventure, but never that she’d gone so far as to imagine these kinds of scenarios.
Wear Something Daring.
Marianne’s hand came up to touch the modest neckline of her own nightgown, almost out of habit.
