“Okay. What about in college? First apartment? I couldn’t afford takeout then.”
“Neither could I, so I picked roommates who could cook.”
James chuckled. “Well, you’ve done it again. I was always the roommate who could cook.”
“You?”
“Is that so surprising? My first job was a dishwasher. I hated that, so I worked my way up. I put myself through school working in the kitchens of several restaurants. How do you think I got so good with a knife?”
“There’s something sexy about a man with skilled hands.”
“You can give me that look all you want.” He looked down at himself. “But the body will need time to recuperate.”
Only a man who had already made love four times that night could say such a thing with a smile.
She patted his stomach. “In that case, let’s try the key.” She sat and climbed over him. “Come on. Throw some clothes on.”
He didn’t move. “You don’t really expect to find anything, do you?”
“No. But I won’t able to sleep until we look. And since we’re leaving, we won’t have another chance for two weeks.” She pulled her nightgown over her head.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed with a sigh of resignation. “I suppose I won’t get any sleep either until you know there’s nothing there.”
“Stop being so grumpy. You’re as curious as I am.” She tied the sash of her robe and waited for him by the door.
“But I can control my inquiring proclivity and simply wonder about the key as I fall asleep.” He grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on. He snagged a T-shirt as they left the room and yanked it over his head as they walked down the hall.
They descended the stairs in silence.
The old estate office was in a section not yet renovated, and what furniture was left had been draped in dustcovers. Eleanor put the music box on the desktop and opened it. Tinkling music played.
“I don’t know why you brought that,” he said.
She shrugged. “I went to get the key, and it just seemed right to bring it along.”
They went to the appropriate place on the wall. The wainscoting wouldn’t budge.
“It appears to have been painted over a number of times,” he said. “I should have brought some tools.” He turned around, moved the music box to a chair, and pulled the dustcover off the large darkly stained desk. He found a rusty letter opener in the drawer and used it like a knife to score around the molding. Still the wainscoting wouldn’t budge.
“I can’t wait to see what’s inside,” she said, practically bouncing with excitement.
“Someone must have noticed it was loose and nailed it down,” he said.
“That would have been me,” a male voice said.
James and Eleanor spun around with a gasp.
“Hello, my dears,” Deirdre said.
Two fully materialized male ghosts stood against the far wall, and Mina and Deirdre sat on chairs in front of them. She introduced the ghost who had spoken as her husband, Karel Van Stille.
Mina presented her husband, Narve Van Stille. “Brothers,” she said, as if Eleanor wouldn’t have known from the names or the fact that they looked like identical twins, both tall and blond with blue eyes the color of a deep arctic sea. The men bowed formally, clicking their heels.
James responded in kind despite being underdressed for such formal address. Eleanor curtseyed.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Eleanor said. “Thank you for everything. We bought the manor house with the proceeds from the—”
“We know, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the way everything has turned out,” Deirdre said. “We see you got Uncle Huxley’s wedding gift—the music box.”
Mina crossed her arms. “We’ve been waiting here for hours. It took you long enough to figure out where the key—”
“It’s their wedding night,” Deirdre said in a low voice to her sister.
“Well, it’s not like they never—”
“Mina!” Deirdre said with horror and censure in her voice. After clearing her throat, she turned to James. “Please continue with your task. We’re quite as anxious as Eleanor to see what’s inside.”
“You mean … you don’t know?” he asked.
“We were away for twelve years, and since we didn’t know where to look …”
“Uncle Huxley gave us the key soon after we sailed,” Mina added. “He said when we returned we should have Lord Shermont show us. Well, you know how that turned out. And since we had plenty of our own jewelry …” She looked up at Narve. “Our husbands are very generous.”
The men clearly adored their wives and vice versa.
“We did search for the jewelry but never found anything,” Deirdre said.
James went to work, using the letter opener to pry away the molding.
“It was a lovely wedding,” Deirdre said.
“I thought I saw you,” Eleanor said with a smile.
“We quite enjoyed the dancing and the champagne.”
“Perhaps a bit too much,” Deirdre said, glancing at her sister.
“No such thing as too much champagne,” Narve said, patting his wife’s shoulder.
“Man, a lot of nails here,” James said.
“If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing right,” Karel said.
“He was always building or fixing something,” Deirdre explained.
“Why don’t you ask them about their journals while I work,” James said.
“What about them?” Deirdre looked a bit surprised.
“It’s nothing,” Eleanor said.
“It can’t be
“Just a silly idea James’s editor had about publishing them and making a docudrama, but I know how much you two value your privacy so …” Eleanor’s voice trailed off when she realized the girls weren’t listening anymore. They were in a four-way whispered conversation with their husbands.
They broke apart, and Deirdre nodded to her sister.
“We think that is a fine idea,” Mina said.
“You’re joking.”
“Noooo. The journals tell of our husbands’ and Uncle Huxley’s scientific accomplishments. The two of us took an active role. Rather remarkable for the time. So we rather like the idea of everyone knowing about our work.”
“Except,” Deirdre prompted.
“I’m getting to that.” Mina shook her head slightly. “Except we would prefer if you edited out the um … shall we call them the risqué parts?”
“And …” Deirdre said.
“You should have just done this yourself,” Mina said to her sister before turning back to Eleanor. “And if they make our story into a movie, we don’t want anyone plain to play our parts.”
Their faces were so serious Eleanor stifled her laughter. “I guess I can manage that.”
“I’ve got it,” James cried in triumph, moving the wainscoting aside.
They all clustered around. Eleanor solemnly took the key from the music box and handed it to him. After some initial resistance, the key turned. James pulled on the door, and it opened a crack. He put his weight into it and pulled the door wide open with a loud creak.
They all gasped as one.
“It’s there,” James said. “Just as when I unloaded the portmanteau and put it all back.” He knelt on the floor in front of the cabinet.
Eleanor sat cross-legged beside him. The three-foot metal cube was chock full of flat leather boxes of assorted sizes and colors. He handed her a black one six by ten inches. She opened it.
“My sapphires,” Deirdre said, clasping her hands below her chin.
