A Heart's Treasure (5 page)

Everyone looked to Summer, who looked to Michael, who only yawned.

Summer said, “I’m sure it will be quite interesting,” causing the other ladies to nod whether they felt agreeable to the plan or not.

The lanterns acquired from the innkeeper were lit, and Kenneth pointed up the hill. “You see that church up there? The caves are in the hill below it. It’s a little bit of a climb to the entrance, but not far, and the caves themselves are not so very steep. Find your partners, if you please,” he said, offering his arm to Penelope.

The stifling heat was somewhat relieved as dusk gave way to evening, and so worked some restorative magic on the travelers. By the time they’d strolled up the hill and reached the grillwork gate, set in stone and mortar, the treasure hunters had been returned to more jovial spirits.

“Was it necessary to crawl into a hole to begin this?” Xavier asked good-naturedly as they all leaned forward to see the dark and gaping cave entrance beyond the gate.

Kenneth pulled the key away and swung the gate open. “I just wanted to start with something memorable.”

“You’ve managed to do so,” Laura said, eyeing the narrow portal before them. The lanterns’ light reflected back eerily from the chalky white walls, accentuating the murky tunnel beyond.

“Oh, my,” said Summer faintly. Xavier automatically covered her hand with his own and offered, “We may wait without, if you so desire, Lady Summer.”

“No, no, of course not,” she replied, stepping forward, following Michael. Her fiancé had already moved ahead, leaving his sister, Genevieve, to trail behind him unescorted as he lifted his lantern near his head to light their way.

“I say, what a place,” he cried, leading the way forward and downward, his voice echoing up to the stragglers still at the gate.

“I’m glad we brought a lantern per couple,” Laura said, holding her skirts to one side to try and avoid too much of a dusting from the uneven floor as she came forward on Haddy’s arm.

“Three hundred feet down,” Haddy sighed, sounding resigned.

“It branches here,” Michael called back, adding, “‘Stay to the right,’ that’s the rule. Stay to the right and you’ll never be lost.”

“Are these caves so confusing then?” Genevieve asked as she turned down the corridor behind him.

“No, in fact I don’t believe they are,” Kenneth answered.

“Still, it’s the rule,” Michael cautioned just before he disappeared around a bend.

Xavier didn’t hurry, for he didn’t expect Summer to do so. They had their own lantern, after all, and she was not the kind of lady one whisked about. If one waltzed with Summer, one did so slowly, with temperance and attention to her comfort, so a descent into the dark required no less attendance. Even though everyone else was ahead of them, Xavier took a moment to follow the other gentlemen’s lead and set his hat among the pile on the chalky floor. This left his head clear of the low roof and one hand free to assist Summer as needed.

When he looked up again, it was to see Penelope looking back at him and Lady Summer. As soon as she saw he looked at her, Genevieve half-turned away and reached out a hand, touching the white wall at her side. She pulled her fingers away with a grimace. “Moist and slick,” she assessed.

“But it is cooler down here, is it not?” Summer sighed happily.

“Indeed,” Penelope agreed. “I like it, so long as I don’t have to touch the walls.”

Further ahead they heard a “boo!,” followed by a female cry, and came around the bend in time to see Laura scolding Michael as he danced outside of her reach. “Really, Michael, do not try to be any more of a nodcock than you naturally are,” she called after him.

“I’m glad it was she and not I,” Summer said, with a crooked smile up at Xavier. “I should so hate to look the goose by fainting or arriving at the hiccups, but if Michael had jumped out at me, I should have.” She appeared to watch the scampering lantern light on the walls for a moment, and Xavier felt her shiver. “I declare these caves unnerve me somewhat.”

“A natural response,” he assured her.

“Come along,” they heard from quite a bit ahead, Michael’s voice echoing. “You must see this.”

The others were oohing when Xavier and Summer belatedly joined them, for before them was a smallish cavern of misshapen stalactites reaching down toward their brother stalagmites spiking up, a narrow stream of water running at their footings.

“Dragons’ teeth,” Genevieve said, eyeing the stalactites revealed and then concealed by the dimly reaching lantern lights.

Summer clutched her hand upon Xavier’s arm, and he patted her hand again.

Michael was holding his lantern aloft, his face reflecting disappointment. “Is this as far as we go then?” he asked of Kenneth.

“The ‘monks’ would not let such a little thing as this trickle stop them, surely?” Haddy scoffed, his own lamp lifted high as he searched for a way across.

“It’s not much of a stream. Still, I’m not sure I’d care to stride across with a lady in my arms.” Michael’s tone said that was an unlikely event.

“No, indeed,” Kenneth said, running a hand through his hair as he glanced about for something. “They say this stream is called the River Styx—but it’s hardly so formidable as its name implies. There should be a boat...” His face lightened, and he pointed. “Why yes, I see a dinghy there, and all nicely tied to this side as well.”

“Here, let me assist you,” Xavier said to Kenneth, taking Summer’s hand and pulling her forward to settle her hand on Michael’s arm in his stead.

Michael turned at the touch as he lowered his lantern, the better to light the small boat they’d all but missed in the flickering dark. “How wide your eyes are,” he said to his fiancée, smiling at her.

“Do we go on?” she asked, tucked in close to him with both hands wrapped around his upper arm.

“Of course. We must not spoil Kenneth’s sport.”

She smiled back tremulously, but nodded.

Kenneth and Xavier had pulled the little boat tight against the water-nibbled edge, and Kenneth stepped down into it, making the boat rock dangerously for a moment until it steadied. “Only room for three at a time,” he cautioned, reaching up a hand toward the nearest lady, Genevieve.

She put out her hand and one foot, and her elbow was steadied by Xavier as Kenneth helped her down into the dinghy. She took up his lantern, to make sure it didn’t tip. She was followed by Laura, who looked unamused as she settled next to Genevieve on the narrow seat.

“There are no oars,” Kenneth belatedly noted.

Michael leaned forward with his lamp, and it was seen that a short pole lay in the bottom of the boat.

“So I am to play gondolier,” Kenneth said, and proceeded to serenade the ladies with a snatch of Italian opera, which earned him a “Here here!” from Michael. The crossing was the work of a moment, completed before the echoes faded away, but getting out on the other side took longer, as Kenneth had to awkwardly scramble past his sister to obtain the bank, to assist the ladies up and out. This accomplished, in a trice he’d slipped back across the stream, and ferried Summer and Michael across, then Penelope and Xavier, and lastly Haddy, who brought the remaining lanterns.

Summer reattached herself to Michael’s arm. Unable to hurry her any more than Xavier had, he matched her pace, so that this time it was the eye patched man who moved ahead of the group.

“Are you quite sure these caves ever end?” Xavier called back to the party.

Michael gave a peal of ghostly laughter as answer.

“Michael!” Laura scolded, as Summer clutched his arm all the more tightly.

Michael made no apology as Xavier slipped around a bend, only the slight reflection on the white walls suggesting to those behind him that he’d passed that way.

“This is it then,” he said when the others had followed his lead and joined him.

Before them was a “room” with a vaulted ceiling carved from the chalk. There was a table and a dozen empty and discarded bottles. Short of the signs of drinking, whatever debaucheries had been practiced here were not visible, yet Genevieve crossed her arms in front of herself, as though to ward off a chill. “How do we go about finding this clue of yours, Kenneth?” she asked.

Kenneth kicked a bottle, stared at another, then bent to pick it up. Out of its neck stuck a curled piece of pale blue paper. He gave a pleased sigh and said, “Here it is. Now, who is to be our first clue-solvers?”

“Let us draw names, as we did at home,” Laura supplied.

“I have no paper, nor even a hat to draw them from,” Kenneth replied. He tucked the bottle under his arm, and reached into his pocket. “But I do have a deck of cards.”

The gentlemen relented at once to the obviously planned logic of this approach, and after Kenneth shuffled the deck quickly, each reached for the card of his choice.

“A deuce,” Michael groaned.

“Lads, I give you the ace of diamonds,” Haddy crowed, showing the card’s face.

The others stated they’d received an eight and a seven, which they handed back to Kenneth. He restored the deck to his coat pocket and presented the neck of the bottle toward Haddy.

Haddy pulled the paper free, turned to Laura, and offered it to her. “Will you do the honors, Miss Manning?”

“Pleased,” she replied, rolling the curls back and adjusting her position until one of the lanterns’ light fell upon the clue. She read, “‘From the card deck your fate is read, now you must look above your head.’”

At once they all raised their faces toward the ceiling, which was higher here and largely lost to shadows.

“I could stand atop this table, and hold up a lantern,” Haddy offered to Laura.

“Er... The clue wasn’t meant to be taken quite so literally,” Kenneth supplied.

“Oh, I see,” Laura cried. “You don’t necessarily mean this cave, do you? But explain the rules to me: how many guesses do we have?”

“Only one, and then it passes on to the next team.”

“Can we look about before we announce our decision?”

“Well,  a little, I suppose. That seems fair enough.”

“You have a ten-minute limit,” Michael announced, extracting his watch from his fob pocket. “Beginning now.”

“Come along,” Laura cried, snatching up Haddy’s hand. “It’s clear we’re to look up outside somewhere. Hurry!”

Penelope gave an appreciative giggle of excitement, then she, Michael, and Kenneth rushed after the teammates, leaving the other three to trail behind, which was just as well, as they’d have to wait their turn for the boat anyway. When they reached the bank of the tiny river, Michael threw the pole into the boat and pushed it back across to Xavier, who caught the dinghy’s stern easily. Michael waited to be sure Xavier had control of the vessel, then turned and hurried after the others who’d already gone on ahead.

“I never thought to see Michael move in anything like haste,” Genevieve commented as Xavier handed her into the boat.

“He’s a different man when he’s free of London,” Summer agreed, and even in the dim light of their single lantern, it could be seen how her eyes glowed. Genevieve and Xavier exchanged a glance over her head. Genevieve looked down, staring at his waistcoat, its light blue color turned to lavender in the low light. His was a long, lean frame, and she’d a sudden impression—as one does at the oddest moments—that for all his wiry length, his was also a body of some considerable strength.

It suddenly occurred to her that hers and Summer’s brothers were nowhere in sight. With the exception of gentle Summer, Genevieve was quite unchaperoned.

She pushed the thought away—they’d all known each other an age, after all—and instead concentrated on trying to steady the boat against the bank into which it repeatedly nudged, so that Xavier might climb out past her. His coattails swept across her face as he did so, but he didn’t seem to notice, and a flick of her wrist restored the misplaced lock of hair that had been pulled around her bonnet.

Free of the boat, they followed the others up the winding tunnels, staying to the right as Michael had cautioned. The gentlemen retrieved their hats as they came near the mouth of the cave.

They emerged into the darkness of the night, giving a group sound of disappointment to find how heavy with heat the evening air still was as they stepped out into it.

Penelope and Kenneth were standing a little off to the right, staring up the hill that rose beyond the entrance to the caves. A quick glance showed that Michael was partway up the hill with one of the lanterns, though he’d stopped there, gazing up through the dark toward where another lantern bobbed against the hillside.

“Where is she going?” he cried to the others below him, indicating the climbing Laura above him with a lift of his arm. Beside him, Haddy shrugged, apparently perplexed.

Laura responded to the question, her words echoing down to their ears, “The church.”

Summer reminded them. “The clue said ‘
From the card deck your fate is read, now you must look over your head.
’”

“Well, that is most assuredly over our heads,” Xavier said.

“Come on then,” Michael called, now with a wave of his arm to summon them upward. “If 
I’m
willing to climb this hill in this dreadful warmth, then surely the rest of you must as well.”

“Ladies?” Xavier turned to include them all.

Penelope shrugged her shoulders, “It would be unsporting to miss the first guess.”

“Michael?” Summer called, but he mustn’t have heard her, for he climbed on ahead without hesitating. She turned to Xavier, putting out her hand toward his arm. “If you wouldn’t mind…?”

“Certainly not. However, Nellie, make sure they wait for us at the top before anyone proceeds. I don’t care to make this excursion merely for the exercise.”

Penelope nodded, lifting the front of her skirt to keep it out of her way as she stepped upward.

They were all breathing heavily when they reached the top, and Summer hung just a little more than before on Xavier’s arm, a handkerchief from her reticule fluttering about her face as though to create a breeze.

“Is
that
the church?” Genevieve asked, indicating the stone walls before them.

“Hardly. Look, ’tis some kind of…I don’t know what you would call it…a pavilion, I guess?” Haddy supplied. “It’s got statuary inside, see? I think it’s supposed to appear Roman.” He gave a look of obvious scorn. “Though it’s no older than I am, by my measure.”