Stephanie Laurens - Beyond Seduction

“Come on.” The next morning, Harry led Edmond and Ben down from the cliff path north of Lowland Point. “We can walk along the sands and look into each cave we pass.”

Leaping down to the beach, Harry waited until the other two joined him, then walked down to the strip of hard-packed sand above the retreating waves and started to trudge north along the shore.

He didn’t expect to find anything in the caves, but the exercise kept Edmond and Ben happy; both were certain that if they just looked hard enough-if they searched every cave honeycombing the peninsula’s cliffs-they’d be sure to find hidden treasure.

Whose hidden treasure was a moot point.

But for Harry the time spent tramping along the beaches, watching the ever-changing sea, gave him time to think, to wonder, to imagine. To examine his options and what he wanted of life. And how to achieve that.

He’d started by looking in on Madeline in the office; he’d half expected her to smile and wave him away-tell him he didn’t need to bother his head with the accounts and ledgers, with the various questions she, in his name, dealt with every day. Instead, she’d taken his offer to learn and help seriously. He now spent part of every day with her, learning of his patrimony and how to manage it.

He’d made the offer to help because he’d felt he should; he’d never imagined he would find fields and crops and yields so intriguing. But he had; now his biggest worry was to keep his enthusiasm for “work” within bounds-and contrarily pretend to some interest in his brothers’ hunt.

“Watch out!” Edmond yelled.

Harry glanced back to see Ben, who had chased after a retreating wave, come scampering, laughing and whooping, back up the sand-only to trip, stumble and fall, and have the wave catch him, and froth and surge around him.

As the wave receded, Ben sat up spluttering. He was drenched.

Harry and Edmond exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing.

Ben sat in the sand, picking feathery strands of seaweed from his hair and flinging them off.

Harry and Edmond staggered up, clutching their sides.

“Your face…” Edmond gasped.

“Fumblefoot,” Harry said.

Ben looked mulish. “I didn’t trip. Well, not over my own toes, anyway.”

He didn’t wait to hear his brothers’ opinions on that, but instead scrambled down to a spot below his feet and started sticking his fingers in the sand. “Here.” He stopped poking and started digging.

Harry frowned and shifted closer. “What?”

“It’s here.” Ben worked his hand into the sand. “What I tripped over. The wet sand keeps filling in the hole…”

Edmond glanced at Ben’s face, then crouched down and used his hands to pull the sand back from the spot where Ben was digging. Harry did the same on the other side; between them, they eased aside the surrounding sand enough to stop it sliding back immediately Ben dug down.

“Got it!” With a wriggle and a wrench, Ben pulled a sand-encrusted object free. A thick strand of seaweed dangled from it; wrapped around it, the seaweed had anchored the object in the sand.

“Look out!” Edmond pointed down the beach to where another, larger wave was rolling in.

Leaping up, they ran back to where the sand was dry.

Ben stopped and brushed at the damp, compacted sand clumped all over his find. Metal winked; the object was shaped like a long oval big enough to cross Harry’s palm. But the wet sand stuck.

“Here-let me.” Pulling his shirt from his breeches, Harry lifted the oval from Ben’s hand and, using his shirttails, carefully dried it, then poked, flicked and blew the sand free…a clump covering the center finally fell away.

“Oh, my God.” Harry stopped and stared.

Edmond’s and Ben’s eyes grew round. Their mouths fell open.

Ben recovered first. “We did it!” he shrieked. He danced around. “We found buried treasure!”

“Sshhh!” Edmond said. He grabbed Ben and held him still.

“Shut up!” Harry glanced around.

So did Edmond and a contrite Ben. But there was no one on the beach but them, no one on the cliffs that they could see.

“Sorry,” Ben mumbled. He looked back at their find.

Then, simultaneously, the three looked down the beach to where they’d made their discovery, the sand now smoothed by the wave. They walked back, searching the surface, kicked, prodded, poked, but there was no sign of any other buried items. Finally retreating from the incoming waves, they glanced at the cliffs again.

“Lucky it’s so early. No one’s about.” Halting, Harry studied the oval; the other two gathered close, staring as he cradled it in his palms. “It’s a brooch, isn’t it?”

Edmond picked it up and turned it over, exposing a long pin running the length of the oval. “It looks like a brooch.” He set it back on Harry’s palms right side up.

Reaching out a wondering finger, Ben traced one delicate metal curve. “That’s gold, isn’t it? And are those diamonds?” The awe in his voice touched them all. “And what’s that?” He pointed to the large rectangular stone in the brooch’s center.

Harry swallowed. “We’ll need to take it home and clean and polish it, then we’ll be better able to see…but I think that’s an emerald.”

They stared in stunned silence, then Edmond, the most practical, said, “What should we do with it?”

Harry raised his brows. “Is it even ours to decide?”

“Of course it’s ours,” Ben hotly declared. “You saw me find it-it’s treasure trove. We asked about the laws and that’s what they say-anything found below the tide line is treasure trove and belongs to the finder.”

“True.” Edmond nodded at the brooch. “So what-”

“I know what we should do with it,” Ben said. “We should clean it and give it to Madeline for her birthday. Much better than that scrappy scarf thing we got at the festival.”

“It’s not a scarf,” Harry said. “It’s a fichu, and she’ll like it and use it, but most ladies use a brooch to hold their fichus in place.” He held their find up between thumb and forefinger. “A brooch like this.”

He looked at Edmond, then at Ben, and the decision was made.

“Right, then.” Edmond turned and headed toward the path they’d scrambled down. “Let’s take it home and wrap it.”

Madeline’s birthday fell two days later. She awoke to sunshine, and stretched luxuriously in the comfort of her bed, a smile curving her lips as she wondered what the day would hold.

Her brothers had been so busy over the last two days, she’d had to be careful not to stumble into any of their whispered conferences-with each other, with Muriel, and even with Milsom and other members of the staff. They had something planned, that much was obvious, but as to what…they’d succeeded in hiding that from her, no mean feat.

Rising to wash and dress, she was conscious of welling anticipation.

Family tradition decreed that gifts were presented at the breakfast table; she reached the parlor to discover two packages, one on either side of her plate.

“Happy birthday!” her brothers chorused.

Muriel’s gentler “Happy birthday, dear” followed.

Smiling and thanking them, Madeline sat in the chair Milsom held for her. He bowed. “The very best wishes of the staff on your birthday, miss.”

“Thank you, Milsom.” Settling, Madeline looked from one package to the other. The larger and flatter showed evidence of multiple attempts to get the tissue paper to lie straight; its bow was lopsided. The smaller but thicker one was much neater-Muriel’s. She picked that one up first, and stripped away the wrappings.

“New riding gloves.” In butter-soft black leather, beautifully stitched, the gloves hadn’t come from the festival. She smiled at Muriel. “Thank you. My current pair is driving me crazy-the buttons keep catching.”

“I’ve noticed.” Muriel nodded to her gift. “Those ones are cut to be more fitting about the wrist-they don’t have buttons.”

“Excellent.” Trying them on, Madeline confirmed they fitted perfectly. She held out both hands, admiring the new gloves-pretending not to notice her brothers’ fidgeting, the impatient glances they threw each other.

Not bothering to hide her fond smile, she looked down at the other package. “Now what, I wonder, could this be?”

A scarf was her first thought as she felt its softness, but as she lifted the package to rest it across her plate, she felt the weight of some heavier object in its center. “Hmm…a mystery gift.” She stripped off the gloves and laid them aside, then untied the bow and ceremoniously unwrapped the gift, playing to the boys’ anticipation.

She lifted the last leaf of tissue free… Peering at what she’d uncovered, she blinked. Twice. “Good heavens.” She heard the awe in her voice, was distantly aware of the swift, satisfied glances the boys shared.

Slowly, a trifle stunned, she lifted the large oval brooch-a cloak brooch from the days when cloaks were the norm. Holding it up, she let her senses drink it in-from its weight and color, it had to be gold, by the way the light fractured and blazed in the stones, the smaller surrounding ones had to be diamonds, while the large rectangular stone in the center, a little paler than forest green, had to be an emerald.

The piece was formed to represent a knot of oak leaves surrounding and supporting the central stone, with tiny acorns formed from the diamonds and a smattering of beautiful pale gold pearls.

Where did you get this? were the words that leapt to her tongue. But she glanced at her brothers, at their eager, expectant faces, and substituted, “It’s beautiful.” Her reverent tone underscored her sincerity.

They relaxed and grinned widely.

Then she could draw in a breath and inquire, “Where did you get it?”

“We found it,” Ben said. “At the festival.”

“On one of the antiquities stalls,” Edmond offered. “The old peddler who sells bits of metal he’s dug up from all around-nails, stirrups, all sorts of bits and pieces.”

“It didn’t look like that when we bought it,” Harry said. “We’ve spent the past two days cleaning and polishing it. It had hard-packed earth stuck all over and was grimy and dirty. You can see where the surface of the pearls got pitted-we rubbed and rubbed to bring back the sheen.”

Madeline peered more closely. “Yes, I see.” She glanced down the table at Harry, at the other end, then at Edmond and Ben-at their happy, pleased, open faces. “Well-what an amazing find!”

“Of course we had to give it to you,” Ben said.

She smiled. “Thank you-all three of you.”

Laying the brooch aside, she finally turned to what else their package contained. Using both hands, she lifted out a delicate gossamer and lace fichu. Again it was no effort to smile delightedly; she’d seen it on one of the festival stalls. “This is perfect, too-I’ll wear it tonight with my new gown.” She glanced at the brooch. “And as my new gown is green, I can anchor the fichu with the brooch.”

The boys looked doubly pleased, exchanging yet more of their triumphant glances. Madeline wondered what else they’d organized; she expected to spend her day much as usual, capped by a quiet celebratory dinner with the family and their closest neighbors and friends. Assuming the boys were anticipating their neighbors admiring their gifts shown off against her new gown, she gave her attention to her breakfast, recommending they do the same if they wanted to ride out with her to check on their furthest-flung fields.

Her day progressed more or less as she’d planned. All three boys remained with her, as they usually did on her birthday, sharing her day. This year, however, their interaction had altered, with Harry asking many more questions, and being much more involved with the duties that heretofore had been solely hers. That required an adjustment on her part, but she found it easier than she’d thought; Harry was sincerely interested now, not simply asking because he felt he ought.

They returned to the house rather later than she’d planned. After luncheon, they spent the afternoon in the office, she and Harry going over accounts and orders, then discussing projections and plans for the harvest.

She was surprised to hear the clocks strike five. “Already?” She glanced at the sunshine outside, then shrugged. Pushing back from the desk, she rose. “Come along. I have to bathe and dress, and so do you.”

Herding the boys upstairs, she sent them down the corridor to their rooms. “The guests will be arriving at half past six-I’ll expect to see you clean and neat in the drawing room by then.”

They mock-grumbled, but she saw the excited glances they darted at each other. Confident they’d be ready in time, she left them to their ablutions, and went to tend to hers.