Eleanor couldn’t beg off for the sake of sitting in a corner trying to decipher a cryptic message from a dead pirate. Her rudeness would be inexcusable.
The rain, which had held off all day, started just as they sat down to dinner and continued. It was coming down in sheets by the time the merry party gathered in the drawing room for cards and charades.
Eleanor managed to stump them with riddles about time, a windmill, and even a teapot, all memorized from her tattered copy ofFood for the Mindby the secretive John the Giant Killer, Esq. She long-suspected “John” was really a quick-witted woman but couldn’t prove it.
When Grayson guessed her last riddle about the sun, they were all beginning to yawn, and it was time to retire. As she left the room, he caught up with her at the foot of the stairs. It was the first time they’d spoken privately since the kiss.
“Shall we get back to Captain Kidd’s mystery first thing in the morning?” he asked.
“I can hardly wait.” She wondered if they would also kiss again, but that was hardly something she could simply ask. “Where is the paper?”
“I put it back in the book for safekeeping, as it seems no one has looked at those volumes for years.”
“Very well. I’ll see you in the morning.”
But she couldn’t simply turn and go upstairs, knowing he was following her with his eyes. Nor could they go up together.
When she hesitated, they locked gazes, and she could see numerous thoughts flickering behind his dark eyes. If she knew precisely what passion looked like, she would swear she saw it, along with merriment and myriad other emotions.
A slight softening of his lips, a crinkling of the corners of his eyes, and in his expression, a hidden message meant only for her.
“Good night,” he said, turning away and disappearing down the passageway to the back of the house. Lord Angsley was still milling about somewhere. Maybe the two men would smoke cigars and drink brandy.
Eleanor wanted to follow him, but she did the responsible thing and went to bed. Unfortunately, hours later, she still lay awake, listening to the rain. She’d been unable to relax her mind, thinking of how amazing the appearance of the markings on the paper and how even more amazing was Grayson’s kiss.
Getting out of bed, she opened her drapes a little to enjoy the lightning show, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand up when thunder boomed, seemingly directly over Angsley Hall. A moment later, a brilliant, blinding flash split the blackness. She was momentarily blinded.
Strangely, she thought she heard the whinny of a horse, but no rider would be out in this weather. It was worse than the night Grayson arrived.
Was it possible the sound had carried from the stables?
Sighing, she considered continuing to read one of the books from the library. Picking upThe Necromancer, she opened it to where she’d left off. Then she tossed it onto the bed. Instead of reading about the strange and unusual, Eleanor decided she would rather indulge herself in a real-life mystery.
Wrapping herself in her dressing gown and reaching for her lamp, she tiptoed along the hallway and went quietly downstairs. The house seemed larger and the ceiling higher in the pitch black of night. A delicious shiver raced up her spine, and for a moment, she could imagine she was wandering the halls of the castle of Otranto or of Udolpho. All she needed was a good strong draft to blow out her lamp, and the setting would be complete.
Soon, however, she was in the tidy, modern library setting her lamp on the table to chase the gloomy shadows. She lit two other lamps, and then found volume fourteen, relieved to see the paper safely tucked between the pages about Captain Kidd’s trial.
Eleanor couldn’t wait to dive back into the puzzle and discover if the gibberish really were instructions leading to his treasure. Surely, a simple map would have been easier, but then, she supposed, anyone could find the buried gold and jewels.
Perhaps Lord Angsley bought the book from a London merchant who got the book from someone who placed that mysterious paper in it after attending the pirate’s trial or his execution. Maybe this same someone got the paper directly from William Kidd or created the puzzle as instructed without even knowing what it really said.
Hopefully, Grayson wouldn’t be angry with her for forging ahead on her own, but instead, pleased with any discoveries she made. To that end, she studied the seemingly random letters. If they did make up words, which she was positive they did, then some of them would repeat, the vowels, for instance, more than any other.
Did she know this to be true?
Off the closest shelf, she grabbed the first book she put her fingers on, which turned out to be James Boswell’s acclaimedThe Life of Samuel Johnson.Eleanor studied a paragraph, then another, and then another. She was right. The lettereshowed up more than any other letter.
Perhaps if she figured out which of the numbers or symbols was most used in the brief passage, she could mark them as anefor the time being. She should have brought some blank paper, not wishing to mark upon the original.
Luckily, she was in the library with a writing desk. To her delight, it was stocked full of paper, pens, and pencils.
Why had Grayson not been able to find paper when he was looking for a sheet the other day?If he had found some, he might never have looked in Volume XIV and discovered Kidd’s puzzle.How fortuitous!
She set to work making a list of the characters, finding there were thirty-three instances of the number eight.
“I shall make each of them ane,” she said aloud. It made perfect sense, especially when she saw five double eights, which she decided must stand foree, perhaps indicating such words asseenormeet.
The next most prevalent character in the puzzle was a semi-colon though it didn’t seem to be used as punctuation. It was undoubtedly code for another letter; however, she couldn’t decide what letter appeared the most after anein the English language. Perhaps ana.
