Page 70 of The Trick of the Treasure
“Oh. So it is. Sorry, Mr. Grey. Please find the old thing. We miss her.”
Solomon rather doubted that, although of course they were used to her, and there was a genuine if mild affection in Jemimah’s voice, at least. It looked to him very much as if Audrey Lloyd had left the house of her own volition, avoiding family and servants. And he wasn’t altogether sure he blamed her.
Had the worm turned? Had she somehow found out that the treasure was in Clarke’s possession andshothim for it?
He couldn’t truly imagine the vague, charitable, kind woman doing anything so violent. And yet she had lied to him about Clarke’s sister. Had she discovered that Clarke was Samuels the carpenter from theQueen of the Seaand guessed that he was the thief? Knowing she would get no share of the treasure from herbrother, had she decided to take it and flee to a new life? Perhaps she had merely meant to threaten, and Clarke had attacked her and the gun had gone off.
Where the devil had she got a gun?
“Good afternoon, Mr. Grey,” said a voice from above.
He realized he had been walking along the landing toward the flight of stairs that led upward to the bedrooms, not down to the kitchen as he’d originally intended. Rached gazed down at him from a stair halfway up. She looked rather more serious than when he’d seen her before.
“Good afternoon,” he replied. “I believe you are just the person I wish to see. Can you take me to your aunt’s room?”
She turned and climbed the stairs two at a time. So did Solomon.
“When didyoulast see your aunt?” he asked casually.
“At teatime yesterday.Myteatime. She was on her way to change for dinner, although I’m not quite sure why she bothers, for her gowns all look the same. I wanted to buy her a new one with my share of the treasure money—a lovely bright blue to match her eyes.”
Now he thought of it, Miss Lloyd really did have rather bright blue eyes, despite their continually vague expression. Or was it a mask rather than an expression?
“That was a kind thought,” he said. “Were you all to be given a share of the treasure, then?”
“So I understood. Sydney says he only ever meant to keep it himself, though, even the quarter Sydney was promised for helping to find it.Ourshares were to be in better food, new clothes, a governess, and even freedom from the bailiffs.”
Solomon blinked. “Did you mind?”
“Only about Aunt’s dress, because I knew Mama would forget.”
“You are an observant creature, aren’t you?” he said as Rachel opened the door at the end of the narrowing passage, next to the servants’ stairs. He followed her into a room that he suspected was smaller than hers. “I don’t suppose you noticed anyone leaving the house yesterday evening?”
“No, I didn’t. Well, apart from Harry the footman, who’s courting the upstairs maid two doors down.” She took a deep breath. “I think she left yesterday evening, immediately after dinner when Papa was in his study and Mama and Jemimah were in the drawing room. The servants would have been clearing up after dinner, and it would have been easy for her to escape unnoticed.”
Having cast his eyes around the meager, tidy room that yet had an air of emptiness, he returned his gaze to Rachel. “Why that time in particular? Why not any time up until Garrick locked the outside doors?”
“I went up to see her before I went to bed. I sometimes do. And last night I wanted to ask her to come with Jemimah and me on our expedition. She didn’t answer when I knocked or when I called, so I glanced in and the room was in darkness. I thought she’d already gone to sleep, so I left again.” She dashed her hand angrily against her eyes. “We might have found her if I’d only thought, and told someone, and—”
“Did you tell your father of it this morning?”
“Yes, but he didn’t listen. He never does.”
“Do you want to search the room with me?” he offered on impulse.
“If you like, though we already did. There’s only a shawl with holes, a disintegrating chemise, and a particularly repellent gown.”
“She took all her jewelry?”
“I don’t think she had any. She never wore it if she did. She probably gave it to charity. She was a bit of an angel in her own way, wasn’t she?”
Did angels shoot people for stolen treasure? “She does sound rather saintly. Do you happen to know if she possesses a gun of any kind? A little pistol, perhaps? Does she know how to shoot?”
Rachel stared at him. “I have no idea. I never heard about it if she could shoot, and I certainly never saw her with a pistol. I suppose she would be safer if she was armed.”
“I suppose she would,” Solomon said noncommittally.
He had wanted Rachel here instinctively, to stop himself feeling so much of a sneak, poking into a woman’s private possessions. But it was as if the room had been wiped clean, as if Audrey Lloyd had never been there. Wherever she was and whatever she had done, she seemed to have planned it meticulously.
