Authors: Heaven
Bobbi Smith (3 page)
An empty pedestal stood just before him in the very center of the room. This particular black marble pillar was plain in comparison to the other columns, but he’d specifically ordered it that way to enhance the crown’s glory by its very simplicity. Placing the lamp on a table nearby, he opened the coffer and took out the crown once more.
Excitement trembled through him as he placed the crown upon the pedestal. He would keep the royal relic safely hidden away from those who sought it in greed and lust. It would remain here forever—the center of his collection.
Lawrence’s eyes misted with unshed tears as he thought of his beautiful wife, Caroline, dead now some two years. She’d been as intrigued by the legend as he had been, and he would always regret that she hadn’t lived to see the crown here. He did, however, have their two sons, Philip and Robert, and he was determined to teach them to appreciate the relic for the beauty of its history and not the wealth it represented in gold and jewel.
Drawing up a chair, he sat down before the pedestal to enjoy the wonder of his newest acquisition. He knew he would continue in his quest to locate lost artifacts, but nothing would ever mean more to him than this.
Many hours passed before he finally left the room, and when he did go, it was to find his sons. This was their legacy, their future. He wanted to see their expressions as they gazed upon the crown for the very first time.
The boys were asleep, but Lawrence didn’t care. This was too important to him. He woke Philip and Robert. Sleepy-eyed and mumbling their complaints, they followed their father through the house’s in- ner maze to the hidden room. When Lawrence stopped before the door, both boys looked up at him expectantly.
“What I’m about to show you is a treasure that has been my life’s goal. I just acquired it tonight, and I wanted to share it with you.”
“What is it, Father?” Robert, the younger of the two boys, asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“I now possess the Crown of Desire.”
“You found it?” The two were amazed. They’d heard him speak of it often, but had always thought it was just a legend.
“Yes, and now I want you to see it.” With that, he unlocked the door and led them inside.
Eight-year-old Philip followed his father into the room first. As soon as he saw the crown, he stopped and stared, open-mouthed. Nothing that his father had ever said about it equaled its true beauty. The gold was smooth and polished to a high gleam, and the heart-shaped ruby shone as if it had its own inner life.
“It’s beautiful . . .” Philip said quietly. Unable to help himself, he moved forward as if beckoned by some greater power. He reached out to touch the prize, expecting the metal to be cool to his fingers. To his surprise, it felt warm, almost hot, and he drew back immediately as if burned. Robert, ever the cautious one, saw his reaction and decided just to look on from a distance.
“Yes, the crown is beautiful,” Lawrence agreed. “I’ll keep it here, locked safely in this room. You must both give me your word that you won’t speak of this to anyone. Henry will be the only other person who’ll know about it. Do I have your promises?”
“Yes, sir,” they replied dutifully.
They gazed at the crown for a moment more, and then Lawrence ushered them from the room. As he started out the door, Philip paused for just a second to glance back at the crown. Open hunger shone in his eyes. One day that golden prize would be his.
London, 1855
Philip sat at the desk in his father’s study drinking his father’s finest brandy. Robert sat opposite him, doing the same. They had grown into a study in contrasts, these two. Philip was fair; Robert was dark. Philip was tall and thin; Robert was short and tended to fat. Where Philip was shrewd, calculating and quick to act, Robert was slower and more methodical. Given the choice, they would have avoided each other. Philip thought his brother a dullard, while Robert despised Philip’s sharp tongue and vicious wit. One common bond held them together, though, and that was their love of their father’s money.
“I’m glad our father enjoys the finer things in life,” Philip told Robert as he leaned back in the chair and, with casualness of the supremely confident, propped his elegantly booted feet up on the desktop. It didn’t worry him in the least that he might scar the fine woodgrain. “But sometimes his obsessions leave me cold.”
“Like the crown?” Robert asked wryly.
“Exactly. What earthly good is the Crown of Desire locked away in that private collection of his? Nobody knows it’s there but Henry and us, and we’ve only been allowed in to see it three times in all these years.”
“The crown is his most prized possession.”
“As well it should be. It’s worth a fortune. He should sell the damned thing.”
“I’m sure Father thinks we’re rich enough.” He took a drink of his brandy, wearying of his brother’s greed. No matter how much they had, Philip never thought it was enough.
As usual, Robert annoyed him, and Philip turned a contemptuous eye upon him. “You can never be rich enough.” A look of greed was mirrored in his eyes as he imagined having the crown for his very own. “Sometimes I think about hiring someone to steal it, but I know Father would somehow find out I was behind the theft. After all, there are only three of us who know about it, and we’re sworn to secrecy. Still, whenever I think about the size of that ruby . . .”
“You might as well relax, dear brother,” Robert cut him off. “As long as there’s a breath left in his body, father’s not going to part with it.”
“True enough, but the day he dies . . .” He raised his snifter in salute as he considered his inheritance.
“Yes, yes, the treasure will fall to us. But let me remind you that Father’s in perfectly good health.”
Philip paused, his devious mind racing. After a moment, he smiled thinly. “Pity.”
Unbeknownst to them, Lawrence stood in the hall just beyond the door. He’d been on his way to the study to work for a while, unaware that his sons had returned. Usually they stayed out through the night. Now, having overheard their conversation, he was both stricken and angry. For years, Lawrence had tried to instill a sense of values in Philip and Robert, but the only value they were concerned with was the money lining their pockets. He’d often sensed that there was no deep moral fiber in either one of them, and it seemed now his impressions were true. They were both completely amoral.
Without letting them know of his presence, Lawrence went back upstairs to his bedroom. His mood was dark and pensive as he thought of their hunger for the crown. Over and over his memory replayed their words as they reflected how much they were looking forward to his death, and he was filled with a deep, abiding pain.
A soul-weary sigh wracked Lawrence as he realized that he had to do something to change his sons’ hearts before it was too late. Certainly, he wasn’t going to live forever, and he had to make them understand the importance of the crown. If he didn’t, he knew that one day they would destroy all that he’d worked a lifetime to create.
Lawrence paced his room, trying to think of a way to impress upon his errant offspring the truth of riches—that wealth did not bring happiness and that God had not created man merely to enjoy the physical pleasures of this world. Each person had been put on Earth to accomplish some good.
Judging from what he’d just overheard, Lawrence realized that that thought might prove quite novel to his sons. He could not remember the last time he’d seen them extend an act of kindness to anyone, so caught up were they in their own decadent desires.
A glimmer of an idea came to him. As lazy and self-centered as Philip and Robert were, Lawrence knew he had to redouble his efforts to teach them that true happiness came from giving to and helping others.
Retiring for the night, Lawrence lay in his bed planning the trip he was about to take. He smiled as he considered it. He could be ready to leave the following day, but he decided to wait until his sons had departed for their weekend at a friend’s country estate before going. He didn’t want any questions asked about his destination.
The delay in leaving didn’t bother him too much. All that mattered, ultimately, was changing his sons’ hearts. They were his flesh and blood, and, in spite of their vices, he loved them. If it took drastic action on his part to force them to become the men he wanted them to be, he would do it.
Philip and Robert returned from their weekend to discover that their father had gone on an extended trip overseas. They were a bit surprised by his departure, but not concerned. He often went off in search of treasures, so this sudden venture was nothing unusual for him.
Lawrence returned five months later, satisfied with what he’d accomplished. He greeted his sons with warmth and a secret sense of hope.
Philip and Robert were somewhat surprised that he’d brought back only three nondescript leather-bound books that were neither old nor valuable. But they shrugged it off as just another of his idiosyncrasies and continued their debauched lifestyles.
In the ancient ruins near Thebes.
It was dawn. The sky to the east was emblazoned red and gold promising yet another day of unrelenting heat. Alexandra Parker wasn’t thinking about the heat, though, as she rose and quickly dressed in her usual long-sleeved white blouse and khaki split skirt. She was too excited about what they’d discovered the night before to be worried by something so unimportant as the weather. Late last night, they’d found a clue that proved the Crown of Desire really did exist and that it had been buried somewhere nearby. This morning, they would return to the site and continue their dig. They’d been searching for the crown for years, and today just might be the day they were actually going to find it.
Eagerness filled Alex. She was anxious to get back to work, so she sat down on the edge of her cot and picked up her boots, pausing only long enough to check carefully for any desert creatures that might have taken refuge in them during the night. It wasn’t unusual to find a scorpion hiding there, and she had to be careful. This was no time for accidents. She had too much to do! After pulling on the boots, she stood and smoothed out her skirt, appreciating the freedom of movement it gave her. Her clothes might not be fashionable, but style didn’t matter when she was in the middle of the Sahara Desert working on an archaeological dig with her father. When you’re climbing through the ancient ruins and digging for treasures buried beneath centuries of sifting sand, your clothing had to be comfortable and practical.
Before leaving her tent, Alex stopped at her small washstand to freshen up. She washed quickly, then ran a brush through her tumble of short curls. Checking her reflection in a small hand mirror, she smiled. It had been a revolutionary move on her part to cut her hair so short, but living a few weeks in this climate had convinced her that waist-length hair was too difficult to deal with. Her father had been upset for a while, but once he’d understood the necessity of it, he’d said no more. Certainly, she’d never regretted it. She didn’t have a lot of time for a morning toilette.
Alex had begun to work with her father several years earlier when his eyesight had started to fail. Now, at twenty-one, she traveled with him everywhere, sketching and cataloging his finds whenever he was on a dig and accompanying him to the various museums and universities to research. She loved Egyptian history as much as he did, and she shared his passion for locating the missing treasures of the past. They’d been digging at this site near Thebes for almost a month now, and she hoped that today would be the day they’d find the elusive, supposedly cursed, crown.
She grabbed up the hat she wore outdoors to protect her from the fierce sun and left the tent to find her father. To her surprise, he was already up and waiting for her.
“Good morning, Papa,” she greeted him as she went to kiss his cheek.
“Good morning, sweetheart. I thought for sure you’d sleep a little later this morning.” Enoch Parker smiled at his daughter. Though his sight was bad and getting progressively worse every year, right now he could still see Alex’s smiling face and that made him a happy man.
“I’m too excited,” she admitted, giving him a hug. “I’ve got a feeling that we’re very close to finding it, and I hope it’s not just my imagination running away with me.”
“After all these years of searching, it would be the high point of my career to actually lay my hands upon the crown.”
“Let’s get started.”
Enoch’s smile broadened at her enthusiasm. “What about breakfast?”
“We can eat anytime. I want to find the crown!” Alex led the way through the ruins of the partially collapsed ancient structures.
Enoch gave a rueful shake of his head as he followed her confident lead. Alex was his pride and joy. Sometimes she reminded him so much of himself he was amazed. Her determination, forthrightness, and intelligence were all wonderful characteristics, but they were not exactly the attributes men looked for when choosing a wife.
Certainly, Alex was a lovely girl. Tall and slender, with her red-gold hair and dark, enchanting eyes, she was prettier than many a young woman, and yet he worried about her. At twenty-one, she was well past the age when a woman should marry and have children, and now that she’d cut off her hair. . . . Well, he worried.
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