“Ah. We now have a conversation that we have thus far been denied. No one would know if you did, except you, me, and the next duke. An inventory is taken of all of the property when there is a death of its owner. One was done by me after your father passed. Another inventory of the valuable property is done every ten years thereafter. If there is a lack of concordance between the two, it is my duty to inquire as to why.”
“I expect that at times something goes missing with no explanation.”
“It is my duty to find it, even if that means ascertaining there has been a theft or careless loss. Sometimes with my patrons I already know something has been sold because it is in the accounts. More commonly my patrons inform me when personal property of such value is disbursed so that I can make a note and not wonder how it happened.”
“Yet the first inventory that you made was after my father passed.”
“That is true, but I have all the records. They were moved here when I had the honor of taking over for my predecessor. Would you like to see the last inventory?”
“I would.”
Leland hopped up and, head back, perused those shelves. Reaching up, he grasped a thick, large ledger. It almost toppled him over as he brought it down. He set it on a desk with a loud thump.
“Now, let us see . . .” He opened it, thumbed to a page close to the back, and turned the heavy pages. He flipped more, then stood back. “The section regarding the jewels is right there.”
Adam bent to the page. Line after line described jewelry in some detail. “And the inventory before this?”
Leland set a paper in the current page, then searched for the prior one. “It is not as complete, of course. Not every bridle in the stables, so to speak. Only the cream in the pitcher.” He found the inventory, paged through, and gestured. “There. 1811.”
Adam scanned down the list. It matched the most recent one. “And the 1801 inventory, if you don’t mind.”
Leland looked troubled now. He found the inventory.
Adam immediately saw a disparity. “This set here is not in the later two.”
Leland peered at the page. “Gold filigree with pearls and sapphires, diadem and necklace.” He flipped to the later inventories. “It appears it is not. I assume that your father explained its absence before 1811, or at the time that inventory was made by my predecessor.”
“Or an error was made.”
“We do not make errors, Your Grace.”
The set had been removed from the list, that was certain. “Do we know what it looked like? I might stumble upon it in a cupboard someday.”
“Of course we do.” Leland returned to the bookcase. This time he used a ladder to access a higher shelf and removed a box labeledStratton. He brought it to the table. “Drawings are made. They prove useful in many situations.”
The box included dated drawings of silver services and paintings as well as jewelry. Adam recognized much of the property. After some digging he uncovered the drawing of the missing jewelry.
The simple description did not do it justice. The necklace alone held at least thirty pearls and five good-sized sapphires. The gold had been worked like filigree but with much thicker wires than the word implied. The diadem was even richer. “Heavy,” he said. “One wonders if any duchess wore it.”
“Perhaps a very sturdy one.” Leland chuckled at his little joke.
“I would like to take this with me.”
“It is yours, of course. Perhaps you will find the jewelry someday, tucked away in a good, safe spot that was then forgotten. I cannot tell you how often that happens. One would think someone handling such valuables would remember what they did with them.”
Adam folded the drawing and tucked it in his coat. His father had shown him all the good, safe spots in the family properties. He would check them. He did not think these were the jewels that Clara said Lady Hollsworth spoke of, however. These had gone missing far too early. Since no others had disappeared, most likely Lady Hollsworth spoke in error or repeated some unfounded rumor.
Not money, and not jewels. How else could a man give aid to the enemy while remaining in England?
* * *
Two days later Clara was discovering that keeping an affair a secret from absolutely everyone required an extraordinary level of subterfuge. One that she came to believe she could not manage.
It began simply enough, with an invitation from Stratton to accompany him to the Epsom Derby Stakes. They would go down in his carriage, he proposed, and stay at one of his properties not far from the downs. In her initial excitement, she wrote back and agreed.
Then the planning started. How to explain her absence from the house? The new servants would accept whatever she said, but Jocelyn would find any excuse suspect.
Worse, how to explain her presence at the race with Stratton as her escort? And how would she explain her lodging when someone asked, as someone was sure to do?
