“Go on.”
“I’ll be giving away a part of a state secret, but I’ll say this. Before Jean Capot, it belonged to my ancestors. They gave it to him, likely because he had an English wife. They no doubt hoped Jean and Eliza would get it to England and keep it safe.”
“What?” She stares at me openmouthed. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Together with eight other keys, it opens a vault. In that vault, we hope to find a legal document that could literally save my family from ruin.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you that, but I hope you understand now why this key is so valuable to me.”
She nods once.
I detach a check, write down Margot’s name, place and date, and sign it. “Name your price, or I’ll name one for you.”
She picks up the key and sets it in front of me. “Take it. I’m giving it to you for free.”
“You can’t,” I say. “It isn’t fair.”
“The key isn’t objectively very valuable,” she says. “It’s only valuable to you because you need it really badly. I won’t have you pay for it.”
“Oh, but I’m paying, sweetheart! By the way, I’m paying from a shared fund, so it’s no biggie. Definitely not a sacrifice.”
“No.”
“Don’t be silly!” I explode. “What will your parents say?”
“They don’t even know I have this key. Like I said, it was a secret between Grandpa and me.”
I expel a frustrated breath. “Margot, why refuse to take my money in exchange for a possession of yours?”
She lowers her gaze to her hands. “Can’t you see?”
“Honestly? No!”
Her beautiful eyes glisten in the electric light, welling up.
What the hell?
She nudges the key closer to me. “Please take it and go.”
“I refuse to take advantage of your momentary lapse of judgment, which you’ll regret soon enough.”
Margot thrusts the key into my hand. “Take it. And go!”
She turns away to press the heels of her palms to her eyes.
“Thank you! And… goodbye.” I drop the key into the inside pocket of my jacket, pack my checkbook, and head out the door.
CHAPTER31
MARGOT
I get off the train at Cambridge and walk to my parents’ house on Coleridge Road, across from the Coleridge Recreation Ground. It’s a lovely, airy park that makes for a fantastic view and a great place to jog or walk the exuberant and affectionate Papatte the spaniel, Mom’s favorite creature in the world after her children and husband.
Nah, before.
Mom and Dad used to live in Southwark in London, but now that Dad’s business is done mostly digitally, they were able to afford a house here in Cambridge, a town Dad has been enamored with ever since he studied law at its famed university decades ago. Incidentally, if you want him to despise you for the rest of your life, just tell him Oxford beats Cambridge. You’ll see.
