Page 23 of The Trick of the Treasure
“You didn’t?” Solomon sat back down. “I thought you were all in the drawing room together while your father showed you the treasure chest.”
She grimaced. “He did show us the chest. He just didn’t open it. Can you imagine how maddening that was? Is!”
“No,” Solomon said slowly. “I’m not sure I can imagine anything like it. Did none of you ask to see it?”
“We all did! Except Sydney, of course, who’d seen it already, since he was present when they dug it out.Hewould have shown us, but Papa made him sit back down again.”
This was sounding increasingly bizarre. No one else had mentioned this odd behavior. In fact, everyone had contributed to the notion that the treasure had been much admired before being taken to the strong room before dinner. Was the child lying? After all, why on earth would Lloyd not let them see the dazzling fruits of his months-long expedition?
Because he had already hidden it elsewhere to fool would-be thieves? Or was the whole treasure story made up to swindle the insurance? Which would mean, of course, that Lloyd had lied about not having insurance. Looking into that shot up Solomon’s list of priorities.
“How will you set about finding the treasure?” Rachel asked.
“Oh, asking questions, mostly,” he said vaguely.
“That doesn’t soundveryexciting.”
“No. It can be interesting, though. Tell me, why would your father have taken the chest into the drawing room if he did not mean to show you the treasures within?”
“Teasing us,” Rachel said. “He’s always doing things like that. I daresay he would have shown us that evening, eventually, only dinner was announced at just the wrong moment. I was allowed to have dinner with them that night,” she added proudly.
Wasthis teasing? Or evidence of Lloyd’s exertion of petty control over his family? Like not telling them what he and Constance were doing in the drawing room yesterday…
With a hint of anxiety, perhaps aware she had chattered too much, Rachel said, “Papa took me to the strong room first thing the next morning to show me the treasure.”
“Just you?”
“No one else was up but he and I. I don’t sleep much. That is,” she corrected herself, “Aunt Aud was already up and out upon her good works. She’s my father’s sister, and we call her Aud because she is—odd, I mean. Sydney thought of it, and I suppose it’s funny, but she isn’treallyodd, just disappointed in love. Are you going to marry the beautiful lady? Mrs. Silver?”
Solomon blinked, suspecting the child had won many a confidence in this apparently artless fashion. “Yes,” he said, and endeavored to bring the conversation back under his own control. “Your father must have been completely stunned to find the treasure gone.”
The faintest giggle escaped her lips and was immediately swallowed. “Amazed,” she agreed, clearing her throat. “And absolutely furious. I’ve never seen him in such a rage.”
“It does not appear to upset you,” Solomon noted, taking in her innocent expression.
“Oh well, I’m sure he is very scary when he’s enraged, only I have no… What is the word? Sensibility?”
She certainly did not look remotely frightened of her father. Who was?Is your mother frightened of him? Is your brother?He could not ask a child such a thing. Apart from anything else, he couldn’t see how it might be relevant to the current mystery.
“Good grief,” Rachel said with exaggerated surprise as a swift step sounded from the hallway. “Sydney is up! Morning, Syd,” she added as her brother did indeed stride into the room.
“Morning, pip-squeak,” he returned cheerfully. “Scarper! Mr. Grey, how pleasant to see you again.” He held out a careless hand to Solomon, who gripped it briefly while Rachel edged very slowly toward the door. “Papa is out, you know.”
“So I have been told,” Solomon replied. “But I thought of another few points you or the rest of the family might be able to help me with while I wait.” Since one of the things preying on his mind was the truth of Rachel’s story of never seeing the treasure, he gazed at her expectantly until Sydney noticed and advanced upon her purposefully.
“Oh, very well, I’m going,” she said with a sigh, though she still dragged her feet, and Solomon was fairly sure she went no further than the other side of the door. Her brother closed it, probably in her face, before sitting in the chair next to Solomon’s.
“Little sisters are a plague upon the world,” Sydney remarked without rancor. “What can I help you with, Mr. Grey? You must know we are all under instruction to co-operate with you in full.”
“I’m sure finding the missing treasure must mean as much to you as your father. After all, you helped to dig it up, did you not?”
“With these not-quite-so-fair hands.” He spread them, inevitably sun and sea bronzed, for Solomon’s appreciation.
“How did that come about?”
“Oh, Papa decided I should go with him, since I wasn’t doing anything else except wasting his money.” He shrugged. “I didn’t mind. I thought it might be amusing.”
“Was it?” Solomon asked.
