Searching For Treasure

chapter 8

The gray outside of Dana's window was just beginning to lighten when she woke. Momentarily startled by the feel of someone's foot sliding along her calf, she smiled lazily in remembrance. Jack... Jack was with her this morning.

His scent, warm and manly, permeated the room and Dana inhaled deeply. While this wasn't the first time she had awoken with a man in her bed, this was the first time it had felt right. Dana had never understood why she always felt awkward and uncomfortable the morning after spending the night with a man. She was beginning to realize that it was because she had been waking up with the wrong man.

Dana felt an arm snake around her waist, pulling her across the bed until her back pressed against a solid, muscular chest. Her whole body tingled.

"Hey,”he said, burying his face into her hair.

"Hey, yourself."

Jack stretched languidly beside her. "God, I feel good."

Dana linked her hand in his and pulled it up to her face, cupping her cheek with his strong fingers. She kissed his palm. "Me, too."

"Why haven't we done this before now?"

"Beats me."

Trailing kisses down her spine, Jack paused. "Do you hear that?"

"Mmmhmm."

"What is that?"

"It sounds like-"

"Good morning, Good morning!" Tap, tap, tap.

If anyone had imagined that the fear and excitement of earlier would have kept Grace in bed past 6 a.m. to catch up on her beauty sleep, they would have been wrong. This time, however, only Rose bothered to emerge from her room.

"Grace, shut the hell up!" Rose shouted.

"Good morning to you and you and you and you!" Blowing kisses to an imaginary audience, Grace tapped her way down the stairs and out of sight.

*****

It was some time later before Dana and Jack made an appearance at breakfast, Jack playfully chasing her into the room. Seeing the broad smiles on their faces, Rose exchanged a telling glance with Henry. "Well,”she said, taking a sip of her coffee, "like Mama used to say, looks like somebody's been getting their pain eased."

If there had been a hole in front of her, Dana would have gladly dived in headfirst and dragged Jack in behind her. But it took more than a little teasing to dim her grin.

Mark, however, was immediately concerned. "Were you hurt, Miss Dana?"

Henry coughed and cleared his throat. "I'll explain it to you later, son."

"Oh. Must be about sex," Mark said. Henry coughed and sputtered some more. Mark gave him an irritated look. "Well, I'm not ten, you know."

Her cheeks flaming, Dana buried her face into Jack's shirt. "Please, Lord, just take me now."

"I just love French toast,”announced Grace, waving the bite speared on the end of her fork, gallantly attempting to change the subject.

Oscar was only too happy to oblige her. "It's Lost Bread."

"Excuse me?"

"Mrs. Babineaux calls it Lost Bread or pain perdu."

Grace eyed her plate suspiciously. "It looks like French toast to me."

In addition to the warm platters of Lost Bread, which were indeed crisp-crusted deep-fried pieces of bread similar to French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar and nutmeg, breakfast, once again lavishly laid out.

Noah, who had been piling his plate high with banana fritters when his sister and his friend had walked into the room, continued to lurk next to the sideboard, adding far too much apple butter to his plate while he waited for them to approach. He knew they looked happy, but what did that really mean? Looking everywhere but at them, he found himself unaccustomedly at a loss for words. "Um, you guys all right?"

Dana looked at Jack, who simply nodded. Grabbing a couple of beignets and a cup of coffee, he gestured towards the kitchen. "Come on, pal, let's eat out back this morning." Leading Noah out of the dining room, Jack looked at her and smiled reassuringly. This wasn't the first man-to-man talk Noah would have with Jack and probably not the last. Jack was a whole lot better at it than Dana had ever been.

Taking her plate and settling at the table, Dana watched Rose brush crumbs off of Henry's t-shirt with a distinctly territorial gesture. She hid a smile. Apparently, it wasn't only her and Jack that had been infected by the romance of this place.

"I was telling Henry all about our little run in with the world of voodoo last night."

Looking vastly disappointed at having missed it, Mark added, "Miss Grace said she was scared to death. How come you weren't scared, Miss Dana?"

"I'm just not scared of chickens, I guess,”she said with a laugh.

"Aren't you scared of nothin'?"

"Anything,”Henry corrected automatically, not even looking up from his plate.

"Oh, sure. If it had been a spider, say, I would have been tearing down the walls." She shuddered. "I can't imagine a more horrible feeling than a spider's web on my skin. If I accidentally run into a cobweb, I totally freak out."

"Grandpa once had a kid in his class that used to throw spiders on all the girls. Is that what happened to you?"

Dana was surprised. Ignoring Mark's question, she asked one of her own. "You're a schoolteacher?"

"Retired. Fifth grade. Wasn't very good at it I'm afraid. I'd try to teach them, but I really spent more time fussing at them, telling them to straighten up and fly right. Once I had dreams of shaping young minds, you know? But spit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one gets full the quickest."

"You taught me, grandpa,”said Mark loyally.

Henry's eyes twinkled with warmth. "That I did, boy, that I did. Which reminds me," he said, turning to Oscar, "you said something about a school teacher bandit the other night. I've been meaning to ask you more about it."

"Yes, Roan Davis was his name. He lived here in Raven Keep Castle as the schoolmaster for the Randolph children."

"Randolph. You mentioned that name before."

"I remember,”said Grace.

Oscar seemed surprised and delighted that she remembered. "That's right. By all accounts, he was very well thought of by Mr. Randolph and very popular with the children. But, the story goes that at night he was secretly preying on coaches. There were also claims that he robbed banks and trains, but I believe those were simply embellishments, since he was only supposed to be doing his thieving at night. I would imagine it would be quite difficult to rob a train in the dark."

"I believe that Josie said that my room was the old schoolmaster's bedroom," Dana said.

Oscar nodded at Dana. "That's right, Roan stayed in that room as well as several other teachers throughout the years. Many wealthy children were home-schooled in those days. Originally, there was a door that connected it to the nursery. But that was boarded up when I remodeled. Jack and Noah are sleeping in what had originally been the schoolroom and nursery."

"At least Noah is,”Rose cracked.

"So what happened to Davis?" asked Dana, ignoring the remark.

"Eventually he was caught and sent to prison amidst much scandal, as you can imagine. A legend sprang up that he had hidden his treasure somewhere in this castle, taking the secret of its location with him to the grave. One story has it that a fellow inmate claimed that Davis told him just before he died that the secret to the location was hidden in a letter. What became of the letter, or if it ever really existed, no one knows. But off and on people have been looking for the treasure ever since."

"But I remember you saying that you didn't believe the story,”observed Rose.

"Oh, there is historical evidence of Davis and the fact that he went to prison for robbery. But I have always had difficulty believing in stories of hidden booty."

"Like pirate treasure?" asked Mark.

"Exactly. The mere idea that bandits and thieves would hide their money rather than spend it always seemed a bit ludicrous to me."

"Now there's a point I've never considered,”mused Rose. "Oh well, I know this is our last day here and all, but I'm kind of bored with looking for treasure. And Grace has always been more interested in the ghosts than a pot-load of cash that may or may not exist. I'll tell you all the truth; I've had more fun just hanging out with you folks. It's kind of been like a cruise that never left land."

Yawning mightily, Josie wandered in. "I didn't miss breakfast did I?"

Oscar smiled indulgently. "Just about, sleepy head. Why so late, didn't you sleep well?"

"Not really, I had these weird dreams about maniacal laughter."

Dana turned red and Rose hooted with laughter of her own. Josie looked around. With another yawn she asked, "Where's Noah and Jack?"

With an evilly gleeful look at Dana, she replied, "They're out back discussing the consequences of maniacal laughter."

*****

Noah wasn't laughing when he asked, "So are the two of you getting married?"

Jack gaped at him. "Whoa, aren't you jumping the gun a little bit?"

"Why not, you're with each other almost all the time anyway. You just don't live together. You love each other, don't you?"

With a shock, Jack realized that he hadn’t actually told Dana that he loved her. But then again, she hadn't told him either. "Your sister and I have always loved each other."

"Don't treat me like a kid. You know what I mean." With sudden wariness, Noah studied him. "Or was last night just about sex?"

"It wasn't just sex,” Jack replied with some heat. Not for him. And dammit, he thought, not for her either. Hadn't she said she wanted to move forward? But maybe she meant something different by that than he had. Did she just want to be friends who slept together sometimes? No, he told himself fiercely, the way she felt in his arms, the way she responded to his touch, it couldn't have been just sex for her. Could it?

"Jack, now you're worrying me."

"Why?"

"Because you look worried."

Jack sighed. "The truth is, we really haven't talked about it."

"About marriage?"

"About any of it."

Noah stared at him, quietly astonished. "Don't you think you should?"

"Probably,”he said with a rueful chuckle.

"Jack, aren't you in love with my sister?"

At least this was one question he could give Noah a definitive answer to. "Yes, I have been for quite some time."

"And she's in love with you?"

Of this Jack was less sure. He shrugged. "I don't know, I think so."

"But you don't know for certain."

"Not until she tells me, no."

Noah was silent for several minutes. It had seemed so simple at first. Try to get Jack and Dana to see that they belonged together. He knew it and they knew it, too, whether they acknowledged it consciously or not. At least now Jack had. Surely after last night Dana did as well. So why hadn't she said anything? Why hadn't Jack? "This is a lot more complicated than I expected it to be."

"You and me both, brother. You and me both." Jack got up from the steps, dusting off his rump. "I'm going back in for some more coffee. You coming?"

*****

"Dana," Noah exclaimed as he came back in the dining room. "You wouldn't believe the kitchen. It's as clean as a whistle and there's no sign of Mrs. Babineaux. It was spooky."

"I've been saying all along that she was one of Oscar's ghosts,”Dana answered with a grin. "While you're up, toss me another beignet." Her smile dimmed a bit when she caught sight of the brooding expression on Jack's face. Whatever had been said between them on the back steps appeared to have eased Noah's mind. It seemed to have had the opposite affect on Jack, however.

"I was surprised to see that Austin came down for breakfast," Josie said, as Noah seated himself next to her. "Neither of them bothered yesterday." She looked with some surprise at all of the blank stares. "I saw him heading down the hall from this direction. Wasn't he coming from here?"

"Maybe he started to and heard we were all still in here. Those two sure aren't inclined to socialize," Henry said and shook his head. "I don't think all of their Easter eggs got colored."

It was Josie's turn for a blank stare. Noah leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Oh, I get it now," Josie said.

Rose watched as Dana studied the sugar bowl with a thoughtful air. "I've noticed you doing that before. Look at things like you know what you are looking at. Is there something special about that bowl?"

"I believe it's a Lamente’sheen sugar bowl."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that it's probably worth about six-hundred dollars."

Rose stared at her, momentarily speechless. "You lie!" Dana simply shrugged. "Come on up to my room. There's something I want you to take a look at."

Rose led the way upstairs and turned down the hall to her room with Dana trailing behind her. Flicking on the light, she said, "It's there on the wall."

But it was the floor, not the wall that caught Dana's attention. "Oh my God,”she breathed reverently as she dropped to her knees by the bed. She stroked the faded yet still lovely rug cushioning the floor under the bed. "It's a Dubisson."

"Are you kidding me? I've heard of those. I've never seen one though. Are you sure?"

"I think so. My mum was the expert, she was nuts for antiques, but I did manage to pick up a few things from her." Dana looked at Rose wide-eyed. "Rose, Oscar can't know this is up here."

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm not sure exactly how old this rug is, but I've seen Dubissons’of this era sell online for twenty-five to even seventy thousand dollars. If it was you, would you want to take a chance on one of your guests sneaking a smoke and burning a hole in seventy grand?"

"Hell, no! Okay, what about the mirror on the wall?" Rose pointed to the reason she had brought Dana to her room to begin with.

Dana looked up from her perusal of the rug. She smiled. "That's a Granera painted mirror. Pretty old, too. That alone is probably worth fifteen-hundred." She shook her head in amazement. "Oscar has mentioned a couple of times about money being tight. I keep meaning to tell him about the furnishings, but I've never found the right time."

"Well, what are we sitting on our butts for? There's no time like the present. Don't go without me. I have to make a pit stop,”Rose said as she headed towards the bathroom.

Dana made her way down the hall only to find Austin leaning lazily against the wall, blocking her way. He smiled at her arrogantly. "If you get tired of playing with little boys, let me know." Since Jack was neither little or, at thirty, hardly a boy, Dana didn't even deign to answer. She tried to brush past him. Austin thrust his arm out, barring her attempt. His eyes were hard but he smiled silkily. "I think you could do better."

An artic chill blew up in Dana's eyes. Coldly, she replied, "I doubt there is anyone better."

Austin leaned into her, further violating her space. "Baby, you don't know what you're missing."

Catching Austin off balance, Dana quickly shoved, pushing her way past him. He stumbled heavily against the wall. "Yes, and I intend to keep it that way."

Growling with irritation, Austin heard chuckling behind him. He swung around angrily. "Mind your own business, you old battle-axe."

"And why don't you go piss up a rope?" Rose replied sweetly. Joining Dana at the top of the stairs, who was trying and failing not to snicker, she muttered, "When it comes to women, that boy don't know his ass from a hole in the ground."

The dining room was empty when they returned save for Josie, who was still trying to wake up with a cup of coffee. "They're all outside" Josie replied to their inquiries. "Jack mentioned that it looked like it might rain and everyone went outside to look." Josie gave an elaborate 'why bother?' shrug. Dana knew what she meant. If it rained, it rained. Why bother to look?

They found Oscar and Henry outside deep into a conversation about, of all things, fishing. "Never been fly-fishing myself,”said Henry. "Looks like a lot of work to me. Put me in a boat with a worm and a hook, and I'm a happy camper."

"Fly-fishing isn't just about catching fish. It's about poetry, artistry and style. It's about skill and concentration melding into relaxation."

Rose rolled her eyes. Oh brother, her eyes said.

"Oscar,”Dana began, but broke off when they all heard a keening sound from around the castle.

"Aaahh!"

A terrified chicken burst into view from around the corner, beating its wings frantically and squawking as if the devil itself was after it. Rounding the corner behind it raced Grace, flapping her arms and screeching at the top of her lungs.

She skidded to a halt at the sight of four sets of mouths hanging open in dumbfounded surprise. "I thought,”Grace panted, "I thought it was another poltergeist."

"No, Grace, that was just our rooster," Oscar said.

"That was your rooster,”said Rose, who was about to fall down laughing. She was clutching Henry's shoulder with one hand and her side with the other. "He's probably halfway to Japan by now. I would be, too, if I saw a crazy woman chasing me, flapping her arms and wagging her tongue."

"I was not wagging my tongue!"

"Sure."

"Well, if all of you are finished having a laugh at my expense,”said Grace, as prim as any schoolmarm, "I think I will go wash up. I feel a little dusty."

As if happy to fulfill a lady's needs, the Sky opened up and delivered the rain it had been promising all morning. Everyone made a dash for the castle, meeting up with Brett and Austin in the front entryway, complete with luggage.

"You'll be hearing from our attorney, Mr. Gaston. There's no treasure here. We consider this false advertising,”sputtered Brett importantly. He cast a look at Austin to make sure he would back him up. Austin simply glared at Dana in silence. "Yes, well, we're leaving."

"So what,”shrugged Rose heartlessly, "we'll all be leaving tomorrow morning anyway. I pity anyone who thought they were just going to waltz in here, find the treasure, if there is one, and waltz back out in a day or two. To me that's just simple-minded."

Oscar pulled himself up to his full imposing height. "If you gentlemen feel the need to try to make trouble by claiming I promised something I couldn't deliver, you'll have a difficult time proving it."

"That's right,”piped up Henry. "We all heard him say there were no guarantees."

Brett looked again at Austin, who still hadn’t said a word. Clearly not liking the look on his face, Brett tried to hurry them out the door into the rain. "Yes, well, goodbye."

Oscar heaved a sigh that seemed to come from his shoe soles. "Well, I can't say that I'm sorry to see them leave. Most unpleasant gentlemen."

Henry went to close the door behind them. "Hell's bells and shotgun shells, will you look at that rain? Like pouring piss out of a boot."

"I guess that limits our activities today to the inside of the castle,”Rose said.“Which reminds me, Oscar. The sight of Grace chasing chickens put it right out of our heads. Go ahead, Dana."

"Oscar, you told me that when you bought the castle, it was being sold for taxes. But did you have the interior appraised?"

"The interior? No. Why, it's just old furniture."

Dana took him by the hand. "Not exactly. Come with me." She led him into the kitchen, the others following. She showed him the objects she had noticed that first night and what she thought they would be worth to collectors. "Even that Old Judge coffee jar,”she pointed it out sitting on top of the refrigerator, "has to be worth at least fifty bucks. You're just using it now to keep pennies in."

Rose nudged her. "Tell him about the rug."

"Upstairs you have what I believe to be a vintage Dubisson rug. If I'm right about the age, it could be worth twenty-five grand at the very least. Maybe more."

Oscar seemed almost to sway in shock. His mouth opened and closed twice before he could find his voice at last. "For a rug?" he asked weakly.

"For a Dubisson rug,”she corrected. "But don't take my word. As soon as you can, you need to have a reputable antiques appraiser take a look around."

"Good heavens,”murmured a stunned Oscar. "Good heavens." Dana gently led him back out of the kitchen and settled him at the dining table. "Good heavens,”he said again.

"Do you really think he can get that much for a rug?" Rose asked.

"That's what they've been valued at. But the truth is any antique is only worth what someone will pay for it. Just because something appraises at twenty-five thousand, if you can't find someone to buy it at twenty-five thousand, then it's not worth that," Dana said.

"That makes sense. And that can apply to a lot of stuff, cars, castles, and art. It's not worth a plug nickel if no one will give you a plug nickel for it," Rose said.

"Uncle Oscar, what's wrong?" Josie rushed into the room, Noah following closely behind her.

"He's alright,”Henry chuckled. "He's just had a bit of a shock."

Getting a glimpse of flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes; Dana had a good idea that the pair had been participating in some old-fashioned spooning. She closed her eyes and prayerfully hoped that she and Jack were not serving as bad examples.

As if thinking about him made him appear, Jack was there behind her. She jumped slightly. "Where have you been?"

"Around." Dana lifted a brow at this, but she said nothing. "What did I miss?"

"Which part, when Grace chased the chicken, when Austin made a pass, when Oscar found out he's surrounded by a fortune in collectables, when Brett and Austin left in a huff or when Noah and Josie slipped away for some teenage groping?"

Predictably, Jack zeroed in on only one part of her sentence. "Wait a minute... Austin made a pass at you?"

"Forget about it, he's gone now."

"Where was I?"

She couldn't resist. "Around."

By this time Oscar had regained his composure. "If you ladies wouldn't mind, I'd like to take a look at that rug."

Once again, Rose led the way to her bedroom. Jack hung back and pulled Dana towards him. "You know, I hear it is going to be a rainy afternoon. I might be in the mood for some teenage groping of my own."

Dana allowed herself to be distracted. She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him teasingly. "We are long past being teenagers, Jack."

"Consider it my second childhood."

"Hey, you guys,”called Noah. "Don't embarrass yourselves."

With a quick kiss and a murmur, Jack pushed Dana up the stairs. Her stomach did a funny flip-flop at the implied promise.

Rose pushed open the door to find Grace sitting on the floor with Mark. He was sitting cross-legged in front of her. She was holding his hand and frowning at a book in her lap. "According to the book, your life line is supposed to curve like this, so what is this line running up and down? And where the hell is your Mound of Venus? Your hands are flat."

Mark seemed embarrassed to have been caught. "Um, hi, Grace asked me to help her out. She bought this book, you see-"

Much excited about the very notion of valuable antiques, Oscar insisted that Dana should take a tour of the castle with him. Besides the things she had already seen, she pointed out a Boulle cabinet, a Sevres vase, and a 19th century saddle-seat Windsor chair. "There may be other things that I'm not seeing,”she warned. "You really need to contact an expert."

They ended their tour back in the dining room, where they found that in the meantime lunch had been laid out with platters of sandwiches.

"This is getting scary,”exclaimed Henry. "Where are you keeping her, Oscar? We were just down here and there wasn't a sign of anyone. Now we have sandwiches."

"I need tell you, Oscar, you've got me scared to get on the scales when I get home,”Henry said cheerfully, patting his round belly. "You've been feeding us mighty well."

Rose patted Henry's belly, too. "I like a man who looks well fed. Besides," said added, patting it again, "isn't this supposed to be good luck?"

"That's Buddha,”Grace informed her.

"Whatever," Rose replied.

"Apparently,”Grace continued, ignoring the smitten looks being traded between Rose and Henry, "this is going to be a lazy afternoon. Tell us, Oscar, how did ladies spend their time when Raven Keep Castles was in its glory years?"

"When they could get outside, they spent a lot of time in the garden. Otherwise they did a lot of crocheting, embroidering or reading."

Grace was vastly disappointed. "How boring."

"Too bad you don't have your kit with you, Dana,”chuckled Noah. "You could paint the ladies' faces."

This caught Rose's attention. "What was that?"

"Dana used to do face-painting at fairs and carnivals to make some extra money."

"No fooling!" Josie jumped up and dashed from the room. Jack had the sinking feeling that his plans for the afternoon had just been ruined. In less than a minute she was back. "Here it is,”she said unnecessarily. "I got this for my birthday and have never used it." Still in the wrapper was a deluxe face-painting kit.

Grace was hanging over Dana's shoulder looking at the box. "Oh, can you make me a daisy? That's my favorite flower!"

"Hey, this Harlequin mask looks pretty cool." Rose pulled Dana up out of her chair. "Come on ladies. Let's go have some girl time."