Page 53 of The Dare Before Christmas

“Good luck, Torie!” Emmeline called after her as Torie ran from the room, determined that finding the treasure would somehow make everything come right.

After all, the hat had all but spelled it out for her, and it hadn’t guided any of them wrong yet. Uncertain of where she ought to start, Torie ran back to the library, flinging the door open and bursting into the room with such a flurry that Evie gave a little shriek of alarm.

“Torie! Whatever is wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” Torie said, offering a sheepish grin. “I was just in a hurry. I don’t suppose you have a history of the house, or anything of the sort?”

Evie laughed and held up a small book. “As it happens, I do. Your interest in Mrs Payne got me thinking, and I remembered I’d seen a series of diaries that belonged to her. They were given to Louis with the estate ledgers when he bought the place. It’s fascinating reading, though the tiny writing is making my eyes cross.”

“Have you found anything about the treasure?” Torie asked.

“Just listen!” Evie said, her eyes alight with excitement. “There’s an interesting bit here. Apparently, there used to be a chapel, with a secret tunnel that led to a hidden room. It was a last resort for Mrs Payne to hide her daughters if they failed to keep the soldiers out. They stocked the place with food and blankets, books and paints, and candles enough to last a couple of weeks.”

Torie’s eyes widened. “She hid her most precious possessions. Her daughters.”

Evie nodded. “Yes! Exactly. Though it couldn’t only mean her daughters, could it, for she promised God never to retrieve them if he kept them all safe? I don’t think she meant to leave her daughters hidden away forever. It seems like she did well to prepare for the worst, though. They had a near miss. Ten soldiers broke into the property. Mrs Payne and her staff fought them off, but her daughters were only young, and she feared what the soldiers would do to them. It says here that she bade them run to their hiding place, and gave the eldest, who was seventeen, ‘the treasure and the care of her little sisters,’ and told her to take them and not come out until someone came to find them.”

“Really?” Torie exclaimed, wide-eyed. “And so they went to the hidden room, with the treasure, and the paints… oh.”

“Isn’t it wonderful? Imagine if we could find the remains of the chapel! Louis has gone to look for the plans of the property, because it must be marked, mustn’t it?”

“Yes,” Torie said, biting her lip. She knew she ought to tell Evie she had found the chapel, but… but it was still her adventure, and she only wanted to find the treasure. She’d give it straight to Evie, but it would be nice to have proven something to herself. Perhaps her father would not think her such a ninny for the mess she was in, too, if he saw she’d had reason for going off on her quest, however ill-advised he might think it. And perhaps Barnaby might be proud of her for finding it. Perhaps he might see that she was not a silly girl with a head full of romantic nonsense, but someone who could see past the obvious, and discover something truly wonderful hidden behind what some people might see as an ordinary façade.

She could only hope so.

By the time Barnaby left the duke’s company, he was pleasantly mellow. Two generous glasses of brandy had soothed his nerves enough to comprehend that Bedwin had not only given his blessing for Barnaby to marry Victoria, but astonishingly, the man seemed to like him! And he even wanted to buy more horses. This was so beyond anything that he’d expected that he had the oddest sense of unreality, as if he was walking in a dream and might wake at any moment. He hoped not, though, for he could not wait to see Victoria and tell her the good news.

Twenty minutes later, however, he still had not tracked her down. So, he hurried to Miss Knight’s room, wondering if Victoria was with Emmeline, as the two of them were close friends.

“No, though she was here,” Emmeline said when she answered his knock. “But she left about forty minutes ago. Have you tried the library? I suspect that was where she was going.”

“No, but I’ll do so now. Thank you,” he said, and hastened back down the stairs.

On reaching the library, he found Louis and Evie poring over an ancient-looking map.

“Barnaby!” Louis said, straightening at once and crossing the room towards him. “How did it go? Do you need a second?”

Barnaby laughed, shaking his head. “No. Nothing of the sort. It was just as you said, Louis. He put the fear of God in me to begin with, but then… he just wants Victoria to be happy, and he likes me. Can you believe it?” he said, still finding the whole thing incredible.

“Of course I can believe it!” Louis exclaimed with an impatient tsk. “I have been telling you this entire time, the lady is lucky to have you. So, he gave you his blessing?”

“He did,” Barnaby admitted and then yelped as Louis hauled him into a hug, kissed him on both cheeks and stood beaming at him. “C'est merveilleux! Truly, Barnaby, I could not be happier. Congratulations, mon ami.”

“Thank you,” Barnaby said, unable to keep the ridiculous grin from his face. “Only I would like to actually ask Victoria to marry me before anyone else finds out, but I can’t find her anywhere.”

“Oh, she was here,” Evie said. “About half an hour ago. We were talking about the treasure. I found Mrs Payne’s diaries, you see, and we discovered she sent her daughters to some hidden room. There’s an underground tunnel from the chapel, apparently, only we’ve never seen the chapel. I suppose it’s a ruin now, but we were trying to find it on the map. Isn’t it marvellous?”

“And, er, what did Victoria say about that?” Barnaby asked nonchalantly, because his beloved clearly hadn’t told them she’d already discovered it.

Evie frowned. “Nothing much, actually, which is surprising as I thought she’d love such information, though she flew out of here like—”

“Excuse me, must dash,” Barnaby said, and ran from the room, much to his friends’ consternation.

Victoria sat on the freezing floor of the hidden room behind the old, deserted kitchens, and stared at the jam jars, wondering if she’d lost her mind, but this was the only hiding place she could think of. When Mrs Payne had sent her daughters down here, they must have feared that someone might discover them, despite the cleverly hidden room. Perhaps they feared that, if their house was taken, one of the servants might confess their whereabouts to save their own skin. If that happened, they would wish to hide the treasure somewhere safe, somewhere they could retrieve it if and when things quietened down. But Mrs Payne, her family, and the house she loved so much had all survived and, in thanks to God, she had left the treasure where it was. Why on earth would anyone hide jam behind a secret panel, unless it was not jam at all?

In her diary, Mrs Payne said they had supplied the hidden room with food, books, and paints. The eldest Miss Payne had both the time and supplies to paint a disguise on the panel between the room and the kitchens. Even if the hiding place was discovered, there was a chance the jam would be dismissed as an oddity as she and Barnaby had done, and if the soldiers had discovered the daughters via the kitchens, they could always still escape through the tunnel or vice versa.

Carefully, using the knife and the spoon she had brought for the job, Victoria peeled off the wax seal and peered inside. The jam was very dark, almost black, and when she poked it with a spoon, she discovered a dense, almost rubbery texture. Wrinkling her nose, she spooned the contents into the bucket she’d carried with her. Evie’s staff obviously believed she was eccentric for asking for such things, but had supplied the items she’d needed without comment. No doubt they were used to odd requests from the nobility and nothing much surprised them. The jam dropped into the bucket with a heavy thud, but to Victoria’s disappointment, there was nothing in it, only rubbery ancient jam. Well, it would have been too easy to discover something in the first jar, she supposed, and it made sense that they would hide the treasure in amongst other ordinary jars of jam to give an extra chance of evading discovery. So, undaunted, she kept opening jars.