Fortune at Stake

FORTUNE AT STAKE

Sally James

?Chapter One

‘Item: one gold quizzing glass, set round with emeralds, and with an engraved representation of the large-eared African elephant on the handle. How odd! Why an African elephant, do you suppose, when the jewels came from India?’ Susannah queried, lifting her head and pushing back her unruly dark curls.

Her companion, divinely fair, who was seated on the far side of the table comparing the sheets of paper covered in Susannah’s neat but decided writing with some old and tattered pages, shrugged.

‘I cannot think we shall ever know, so why be concerned?’ she replied a trifle pettishly. ‘How long will you be?’

‘This is the last one. On the handle, the same coming apart at the centre by twisting to the right, and revealing a toothpick fashioned from ivory which has the initials JK carved at the base. The quizzing glass, not the toothpick. There, that is the last of them,’ she added and shook the sand over her papers. ‘I must say, Amanda, I would dearly love to see some of these jewels. They sound fabulous!’

‘I think it is worse, knowing what they look like, and your brother not having them,’ Amanda responded.

Susannah held her head to one side. ‘Do you? But, Amanda, is it not better to be able to imagine them rather than merely knowing there is an anonymous collection of jewels somewhere?’

‘It brings home more clearly what Julian has lost!’ Amanda said despondently. ‘Before that list was found all we knew was that there had been some jewels which disappeared at about the time his father died. We did not know what they were, or the value of them, but now, with this list, we can see they must have been worth some enormous sum!’

‘Mm. But you must admit it was exciting when this old list was discovered! If Julian had not lost that bill and started to poke behind the drawers of his desk to recover it, the secret drawer would never have been found. He had not the slightest idea it was there.’

‘It does not help us to find the jewels.’

‘No,’ Susannah conceded. ‘It makes it more certain they existed, though.’

‘We knew they existed because the bank Lord Horder deposited them in confirmed that he took them out before he came down to Horder Grange, just before he died,’ Amanda interposed. ‘They told Julian when he was twenty-one and the Trust ended.’

‘Yes, but until this list was found we did not know exactly what they were, and somehow they never seemed real to us, only a legend,’ Susannah explained. ‘But, Amanda, if there is one secret drawer at Horder Grange there might be others! It is a very old house and we know there is at least one priest hole.’

‘But everyone for miles around knows about that,’ Amanda objected.

‘To be sure, but often they did have a fairly obvious one which the searchers could find without causing too much damage, and when they discovered it empty they would go away and the priest, or whoever was in hiding, would be safe in some better-concealed place.’

‘Is there another one at the Grange?’ Amanda demanded.

‘I don’t know of one, but there could be. I’ve never lived there to search for it and Julian has only been there these past four years. Oh, Amanda, pray do not despair! I have the feeling something will happen now. This,’ gathering together the sheets of the old list and rolling them up, ‘is perhaps just a beginning. We are sure to find something else.’

‘Hardly at Horder Grange, since neither of us lives there, and we will soon be in London. We cannot go searching for secret panels or hidden passages then,’ Amanda protested, while she placed the copies Susannah had made in order.

‘No, we cannot, but Julian can!’ Susannah declared, undaunted, and tied a faded strip of red ribbon round the sheaf of papers. ‘Now this list has been discovered he will be encouraged, and I will persuade him to stay in Sussex for a time and search again. It will keep him away from those gambling hells he patronizes!’ she added calmly.

‘He does not really enjoy them,’ Amanda said quickly. ‘He is not a bit like his father, for Lord Peter was a compulsive gambler, while Julian swears he does it merely in the hopes of restoring his fortune so that his offer for me will be acceptable! Oh, if only he could find the jewels! On that old list the value is set at hundreds of thousands of pounds. If Julian had that, I am sure Papa would never favour Sir William.’

Susannah nodded thoughtfully. Her half-brother, although somewhat wild and apparently addicted to all the most ruinous forms of gambling, was, at twenty-five, a handsome and attractive suitor and she could perfectly well understand Amanda’s preference for him. He had an old title, and although his father had gambled away all of the unentailed parts of the estate, the main house and surrounding farms were unencumbered, and if he recovered the jewels which had so mysteriously vanished he would be a most acceptable parti in the eyes of Mr Timothy Grant, Amanda’s wealthy father. She shared Amanda’s belief that Julian indulged in desperate pursuits in a bid to retrieve his fortunes and be able to offer again for Amanda.

‘Has Sir William declared himself?’ she asked and Amanda nodded dolefully, her fingers restlessly pleating the pale pink muslin skirt of her simple round gown.

‘My father has told him he must wait until I have been to London, for he hopes I may receive a still better offer there. He likes the match with Sir William only because his land adjoins ours, and would be happy to see me accept him, but if a better offer came I think he would welcome it. Yet I do not want any other offer! If I refuse everyone else they will urge me to accept Sir William, and I cannot! Why, he is well over forty, and a widower, and even fatter than the Prince Regent. And Augusta is a year older than I. Fancy becoming stepmama to that detestable girl.’

Susannah giggled. ‘Dreadful!’ she agreed hurriedly as Amanda turned aggrieved blue eyes on her. ‘Is she always so very haughty and distant as she was the other evening when they came to dinner? I’m sure she would abhor having to call you Mama and obey you and be chaperoned by you just as much as you would dislike it.’

‘That would be no consolation for being married to an odious man old enough to be my father who simply wants my fortune and an heir!’ Amanda snapped.

‘Well, it is most unlikely to happen,’ Susannah said soothingly. ‘Your father cannot force you to wed him and I am sure my aunt would support you if she knew your feelings.’

Seeing that Amanda continued to take a gloomy view, Susannah tried to divert her mind by talking of the plans for their first London season, and succeeded well enough to have Amanda chatting enthusiastically about the people she had met at Christmas, when she had attended a few private parties at houses nearby, and the current fashions illustrated in the Ladies’ Magazine.

The girls were cousins, Amanda’s mother being the sister of Susannah’s father, Sir David Rendlesham. Susannah’s mother had been married twice, first to Lord Horder, Julian’s father, but she had been dead for several years. Sir David was in the diplomatic service and since he was frequently engaged on missions abroad Susannah had been educated at a select academy in Bath, spending her holidays either with an elderly great-aunt in Bath, or her maternal grandmother in London.

Neither of these ladies, however, had felt able to sustain the effort of presenting Susannah in her first season, and as Sir David was engaged on a mission’ to India, his sister had suggested that the two girls be brought out together, saying she would appreciate company for her own daughter. The cousins had been at the same school and were good friends, but this was Susannah’s first visit to Amanda’s home for several years. She was staying at The Hall until the season began, her father having left England some weeks before.

‘I do wish you did not have to go to London early, Susannah,’ Amanda said after a while. ‘It would be much more fun to go together.’

Susannah nodded, then smiled mischievously.

‘But you need not think I shall have an exciting time with Grandmama and Aunt Elizabeth,’ she said. ‘Can you not recall what it is like in Laura Place? I used to dread the holidays I spent there with my aunt. It was so much better to go to my grandmother’s even if she does live so far out in Kensington. But Aunt Elizabeth is my mother’s aunt and she has been good to me in her way, and Julian and I must pay our respects before she leaves Kensington to return to Bath. Then after a few more days with Grandmother I can join you again.’

‘I am not jealous,’ Amanda said with a laugh. ‘I would like us to travel to London together, that is all. I envy your going with Julian.’

‘I am very sure you do!’ Susannah said teasingly and Amanda blushed.

‘Don’t be idiotish! You will be going in a fast chaise, while we, because Mother suffers so badly from sickness whenever we travel, have to crawl along in that ancient travelling carriage. Think, it always take us two whole days to reach London and you will be there in a few hours!’

‘Poor Aunt Sarah! It must be miserable to be so indisposed on every journey.’

‘It is, and I do feel for her. But the moment she gets out of the carriage she feels perfectly well again, you know.’

‘I must take the list back to Julian before we leave,’ Susannah remarked. ‘He wants to replace it in the desk, for that is as secure a hiding place as we could find, and now we have the copy to take with us to London.’

‘Why bother? What purpose will it serve?’Amanda asked and Susannah shook her head.

‘I cannot tell, but it seems sense to have a copy, in any event. I will ride across to Horder Grange in the morning with it. I must see Julian to arrange the exact day we are to go to London and I will tell him also not to fear your father! I think he ought to renew his offer. His title is a better one than Sir William Andrews’ and you will have an ample fortune. Sir William is not especially rich.’

‘Father will not consider it. Apart from the fortune, he thinks Julian wild and too much like his father, too fond of gaming.’

‘Then I will certainly persuade him it is his duty to return to the Grange and continue to search for the jewels.’

‘There is no certainty they are there.’

‘No,’ Susannah conceded, `but where else could they be? Lord Peter took them from the bank and brought them to the Grange, for his valet swore he unpacked them. Yet when he died a few days later they could not be found and no one else in the hunting party knew aught of them. Julian thinks he was intending to use them as stakes in his gaming, since he had no money and very little credit, yet all the men who were there say they never saw them or heard them mentioned.’

‘His death was suspicious!’

‘Indeed, exceedingly so. It was never discovered who fired the shot that killed him, and it seemed unlikely, because he was an excellent marksman and had been used to guns all his life, that it was an accident.’

‘Was there not a suggestion he did it deliberately?’

‘People will always say that, yet why? He had received this legacy from his godfather only a few weeks earlier. He had sold some of the jewels - they were marked on the list - and redeemed the mortgages on his land and had sufficient to recover his position, or gamble again if he could not refrain from it. There was no reason for him to shoot himself. The verdict was that a stray shot accidentally hit him. It must have been so, and he had hidden the jewels without telling anyone where they were.’

Amanda smiled at her cousin.

‘You are so cheerful and certain, Susannah, that I am tempted to believe you and hope.’

‘Do so, and I will do my best to convince Julian too! Did not your mother say that she wished to visit Mrs Poulton tomorrow?’

‘Yes, for she has been suffering from an ague and I must go with her.’

‘And since I do not know her it will be convenient for me to do as I suggested.’

So it was that after breakfast on the following day Susannah set off, riding Amanda’s mare, towards the house her half-brother had inherited which lay some miles to the west of The Hall.

Susannah had ridden that way twice before while staying with Amanda and had little difficulty in remembering her way. She had dispensed with the services of a groom and enjoyed the ride across the fairly thickly wooded country, even though there was a chill in the air which a pale sun had not succeeded in dispelling.

Soon she came to the wall surrounding the park at Horder Grange and hesitated for a moment, wondering in which direction the lodge gates lay. Deciding to turn left, she followed the wall for some distance before realizing she had chosen wrongly. She halted, reluctant to retrace her steps, and then saw that the wall in front of her seemed to disappear. Pressing forward again she found that, like so much else at Horder Grange, it was in sad disrepair. The wall had