Page 106 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
I guide Benji away from the kitchen where he and the others have just had their breakfast. Charlie had also joined them this morning, but I hadn’t really felt that hungry, so I’d politely declined Dorothy’s kind offer of pancakes, fruit and maple syrup.
‘Perhaps I was a bit harsh on Clara,’ I tell him, when I think we’re safely out of earshot. ‘It appears she did feel some remorse for her course of action, and she did talk very kindly of both Mary and her children, and how she wouldn’t see them go without.’
‘See, I told you. She did the right thing for her . . . ’ Benji looks hopefully at me.
‘I know what you’re hinting at, Benji, and I’m sorry to inform you that I still haven’t made my final decision yet.’
‘Oh.’ His face falls.
‘I think we should at least try to find this child of George’s, and then I’ll decide what to do next.’
‘Based on what? Whether he or she needs to inherit, or is even worthy of inheriting, an ancient castle by the sea in Northumberland?’
‘No, not that at all. I don’t know what I’ll base my decision on, but I think we have to find them before we do anything else.’
‘All right then,’ Benji concedes. ‘I’m guessing you want me to be the one to do the searching?’
‘Would you? But before you start I think I may have something else for us to go on.’
‘What’s that?’
‘This.’ I hold up the velvet pouch that we’d found in the cellar along with the diary.
‘What’s that?’ Benji asks.
‘It’s a brooch.’ I tip the cameo on to the palm of my hand. ‘I think it must have belonged to Clara. It was with the diary, locked away in the chest where we found lots of her other things.’ I’d thought at the time that it was odd that servants’ clothes were packed away with Clara’s things. Now I realise they probably belonged to her sister, Mary.
‘It looks expensive,’ Benji says, examining the brooch.
‘Tom thinks it might be worth quite a bit, but I’m not concerned with that right now. What is important is that Clara mentions this brooch in her diary. She says she had two pieces of jewellery commissioned: one, this cameo, was carved into a likeness of her. The other was a pendant and bore a likeness of her sister. Clara kept the brooch, but she gave the pendant to Mary on a chain, claiming it was a thank-you gift for being her lady’s maid. She insisted to Mary that if she was ever in need she should sell the pendant and use the money. But Mary apparently was so moved by the gesture that she promised to keep it for ever and pass it down through her family, so they would all know the kindness of Clara, Countess of Chesterford.’
Benji stares at me with a wrinkled forehead, trying to take all this in. ‘Yes, I remember reading that. But because I didn’t know we had the brooch, I didn’t see it as important at the time. So if a matching pendant to thiswaspassed down through Mary’s family, and has never been sold, then the new heir would probably own it now?’
‘Yep, that’s what I’m hoping.’
Benji nods. ‘This is good. If we do need a way to clarify that we’ve got the right person, we can see if they have, or someone in their family has the pendant. But I still maintain we have to find them first,’ he insists. ‘And that is not going to be easy.’
‘If anyone can do it, you can, Benji. Please?’ I gaze imploringly at him when he still looks doubtful. ‘I know you don’t really want to, but for me?’
‘All right then,’ he begrudgingly agrees. ‘But I want it on record that this is against my better judgement.’
‘What are you two in cahoots about?’ Tom asks, suddenly popping up next to us and making us both jump. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d be jealous seeing the two of you whispering away to each other.’
‘We’re just discussing the brooch, actually,’ I say truthfully. ‘Benji thinks it might be worth something too.’
‘Maybe you should sell it,’ Tom suggests. ‘It might cover the extra work you’re worried about on the stables?’
‘No! I could never sell this,’ I say a bit too quickly, clutching the brooch to my chest. ‘It . . . it’s a family heirloom.’
Tom stares doubtfully at me for a moment before turning his attention to Benji. ‘Benj, what do you reckon?’
‘I agree with Amelia,’ Benji says rapidly. ‘I think this brooch could prove too important to ever consider selling.’
Tom looks between the two of us now. ‘Hmm . . . I know you two are up to something. Okay, if you won’t sell the brooch, what are you going to do?’ he asks. ‘You still haven’t found a way to pay this woodworm bill yet. And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, Amelia, but time is rapidly running out before you have to do just that.’
‘Actually, I might be able to help you there,’ Benji says quickly. ‘I have a contact who works for one of the larger banks; I haven’t spoken to him for a while, but the last I heard he was specialising in loans to big businesses.’
‘You do?’ I ask in surprise. ‘I mean . . . do you think we qualify as a big business?’
