Aunt Sophie's Diamonds (6 page)

"Let me try,” the mother said, and reached out for Claudia's hand, but as the ring was not at all tight, Claudia whisked her hand beyond reach.

"The next few items may strike you as a trifle out of the ordinary,” Mr. Fletcher said, rather understating the matter. “'The collection in the glass case, exactly as it now stands, goes to Miss Beresford, to be held in trust by Sir Hillary Thoreau until her eighteenth birthday or until she marries, whichever comes first, at which time they are to be examined by myself and given to her. The tiara is similarly to be held in trust.’”

Luane hunched her shoulders and made a moue.

"And the diamonds?” Marcia pressed.

"'The diamonds are to be interred with my body, according to instructions given to my solicitor, Mr. Fletcher,'” he read, in a calm voice and with a wary eye.

An audible gasp was heard—a joint reaction from the group—and Marcia Milmont fainted dead away on her chair. Her daughter grabbed at her, but she tumbled toward the captain, who caught her in his arms and called for brandy. Before it could be fetched, she had revived, and the first words to leave her lips were “the diamonds."

There was a good deal of excited babbling from all corners of the group and one quite loud guffaw from Thoreau. Miss Bliss directed an admonishing look on him and said, “Tch, tch."

"Just like the old devil to take it with her,” he said and resumed his laughter till his shoulders shook.

"This is an outrage!” Jonathon shouted.

"She was clearly deranged!” Mrs. Milmont seconded him. “Something must be done."

Gabriel looked a question at Hillary, who smiled back at him and hunched his shoulders.

"What about Luane?” Gabriel asked. “I thought—well, it was generally understood she would get the diamonds. What is to become of her now?"

"Never mind about her now. Let's hear if Sophie buried her blunt with her, too,” Thoreau answered.

"She wouldn't!” Marcia gasped.

"Optimist,” Hillary replied.

"The
devil!"
Luane shrieked, stamping her foot. “She did it on purpose to annoy me because I wouldn't marry Gabriel. She thinks to force me to it yet."

The racket eventually subsided, and Fletcher frowned at the will while his auditors observed him impatiently, fearing more outrages to be in the offing.

"What about the money? Surely she is not burying that, too,” Mrs. Milmont declared.

"'The money—cash, mortgages and investments, mostly in Consoles ... ‘” Mr. Fletcher began, then stopped dramatically.

"Let's hear the worst,” Hillary prodded him.

"'The disposition of the remainder of the estate, with the exception of a few small personal bequests, will be read one year from this date, in this room, when the same people as are now present re-assemble to have the arrangements explained in detail. In the interim, the monies will be in the control of my solicitor, Mr. Fletcher, and my co-executor, Sir Hillary Thoreau, who will handle said monies as they see fit.’”

"But how is this!” Marcia Milmont immediately burst into speech. “You mean we must wait a whole year? This is absurd."

"We should have had her committed long ago,” Jonathon said in a supporting manner.

"Certainly, and I only wish we had thought of it,” Marcia added.

"She was perfectly sane in my opinion,” Mr. Fletcher announced.

"What do
you
know about anything?” Marcia charged. “I daresay you were in cahoots with her and are only planning to slip away with all the money."

He had expected some opposition and pointed out that Sir Hillary was co-executor.

She turned her wrath on him.
"You
are at the bottom of this, Sir Hillary."

"How can you say so? I've been diddled out of my chess set by this arrangement."

"The chess set goes to Miss Bliss, to dispose of as she sees fit,” Fletcher added.

Miss Bliss nodded to Sir Hillary in an understanding fashion. The set was for him, obviously, but not directly as that would invalidate him as an executor.

A silver tea service was bequeathed to Mrs. Milmont, who immediately proclaimed it was only silver plated, and she didn't want the ugly old thing in her house.

"Can leave it here then,” Jonathon offered.

"Certainly not! You only mean to sell it, and it is worth a good deal."

A pair of dueling pistols went to Gabriel—not a part of the entailed estate by law, as she had purchased them herself at an auction. Claudia was the joyless recipient of a Sèvres vase from the same auction, which had in the interim become severely cracked from a fall to the hearth. Luane was given her personal effects and wondered what she would do with a bunch of well-worn gowns suitable to a seventy-year-old invalid. The captain got nothing else.

The will finally read, the pent-up ferocity of the mob was unleashed.

"We must have this abominable will overset,” Mrs. Milmont began immediately.

"Seems devilish odd. Can't think it's legal to go burying diamonds,” Jonathon took it up.

"They are my diamonds!” Luane said furiously.

"No such a thing!” Jonathon returned. The girl had inherited only a rusty old tiara and a caseful of glass junk and was thus rejected.

"Yes, they are. They were always to go to me. It was understood. She
promised."

"Well, she was crazy,” Mrs. Milmont decreed. “Now, captain, how should we go about getting the will set aside?"

"See a solicitor, I suppose."

"That would be unwise,” Mr. Fletcher told them.

"Very inconvenient for you, Mr. Fletcher,” Marcia turned on him. “Yes, indeed, you will end up in Newgate for your part in this affair, or I miss my bet. There was coercion at work here."

"Nonsense,” Sir Hillary scoffed.

"There is no nonsense about it. She was clearly mad, to go burying a fortune in diamonds, and not to tell us who gets the money."

"The remainder of the will is to be read one year from this date,” Mr. Fletcher pointed out. “The money is not buried, but is to be disbursed according to how events fall out."

"What does that mean?” Jonathon asked, confused.

"It means the money is to be distributed according to what happens in the intervening year,” Mr. Fletcher explained vaguely.

"That tells us nothing,” Mrs. Milmont exclaimed. “Do you mean we must do something in the meanwhile to get it? Then you must tell us what it is that is to be done."

"No, that is not the way she wanted it. She wishes you all to go on as though there were no money, and then when a year is up, the conditions will be read, and the money dealt out accordingly.

"Yes, you silly man, but according to
what?"

"It just occurred to me,” Miss Bliss said calmly, “it might be according to who
doesn't
try to have her declared insane. Just an idea,” she added deprecatingly.

"Sounds exactly like her,” Jonathon said, much impressed at Miss Bliss's insight.

Mrs. Milmont was sent reeling at this horrendous possibility. “Well, I am sure you all know
I
was only fooling! As though I would ever seriously say such a thing about my own dear sister.” She then fell silent trying to figure what other implications the phrase “according to what happens in the intervening year” might conceal.

Sir Hillary said aside to Gabriel, “She might have had in mind your marriage to Luane. It was what she always wanted."

Gabriel frowned and nodded. The same idea had occurred to him. Luane had the identical thought and expressed it aloud. “She is trying to make me marry Gabriel again."

Jonathon looked startled. That too sounded exactly like Aunt Sophie. It was not long in striking him that the terms might be more generalized than that. Maybe if either himself or Gabriel married her in the interim ... What had she said? Something about she would leave her money to him if Luane would have him. Or if neither of them took her,
he
might come into the blunt himself. On the other hand, Luane might. Or even Claudia. With such a surfeit of possibilities, he was at
point non plus,
and went and sat alone in a corner to think.

Various other interpretations of the wording of the will were spoken of. Maybe if any of them lost or sold their inherited jewel it would cut them out. Possibly she wanted the captain to do something with Swallowcourt—to bring it into shape, in which case he would have proved himself able to handle the money. The awful idea even darted into Mrs. Milmont's head that what was meant was for her to take Claudia to live with her. Sophie had never approved of keeping the girl with the Milmonts. Or was it conceivably Luane she was expected to take on? She was the girl's aunt and only living relative of the proper age and sex to chaperone her. But then, to take her and have the will mean something else entirely ... Her brain, like the captain's, was reeling. The only thing perfectly clear was that none of them were to get the diamonds. They were to rot away in the ground.

"That seems oddly unlike Sophie, to go wasting a fortune,” Hillary remarked when someone mentioned the fact. “She was too well aware of the value of money to throw it away."

"Maybe something different is to be done with them at the end of the year,” Miss Bliss suggested.

"That sounds more like it,” Hillary agreed, thinking the mystery was solved, for he could not credit her intending them to remain buried forever.

Captain Tewksbury, after cudgeling his brain for ten minutes, determined that the wisest course was to remain on very good terms with both the nieces, and to this end he rejoined the party. “Seems to me she's creating a lot of mischief,” he said, going on to make it perfectly clear he didn't mean to imply she was crazy, but only thoughtless. No harm in that. “Mean to say, if the story gets about there's a fortune buried in the grave, there'll be any number of robbers after it."

"It would be wisest to keep the fact to ourselves,” Fletcher advised them.

"Even so...” Jonathon looked at Gabriel in a suspicious manner.

"No doubt another term of the will is that the grave is not to be tampered with in the intervening year,” Sir Hillary commented.

"Who's to know who did the tampering?” Jonathon asked. “If one of you makes off with the diamonds, he's got a cool fortune, and won't care a peg about the rest of the blunt."

"One of
us,
shall we say?” Sir Hillary corrected with a lazy smile.

"For the sake of argument say one of us then, though I shall be in London."

"You are the owner of Swallowcourt now,” Hillary reminded him. “Do you not mean to sell out and set up as a country gentleman? Much more the thing, Jonathon."

"What about my uniform?"

"Yes, you would lose the advantage of your regimentals. That is certainly a point against the scheme. But then you might have them put into a glass case in the armaments room to replace the reproductions of the jewels."

Jonathon sensed a little irony at this point and reverted to the real item of interest. “Fact remains,
I'll
be in London, and you and Gabriel will be here—right on the doorstep of the buried diamonds."

"The graveyard is
not
on my doorstep,” Hillary replied. “Really, you cannot think I would tolerate so funereal a view. The prospect from my doorway is of gently rolling lawns, well manicured, with discreet groupings of trees at well-placed intervals. Relieves the monotony of just grass without impeding the long-range view."

"That's all very well, but you're
here,"
Jonathon said.

"Well, so are you at the moment. Will it be shovels and spades at midnight, captain?” he asked in a quiet undertone laden with significance.

Jonathon's eyes widened, and he was conned for a moment into thinking Sir Hillary was serious.
"You
may laugh and joke about it, but
someone
will dig her up before the year's half out, and if you don't know it, you ain't such a knowing one as I take you for."

"Very true. I expect the traffic will be heavy in the graveyard the next few nights. I'll speak to Fletcher about setting up a guard."

Jonathon was silent a moment, frowning, but soon added, “Yes, by Jove. Ought to be done."

Luane was recovering from her first spasm of anger and beginning to formulate plans for the retrieval of her diamonds. Her eyes scanned the room, going more than once to Gabriel and Claudia. She went to Gabriel and tugged his sleeve. “I must see you alone before you leave. Come to the armaments room with me. We'll pretend we're looking at my paste jewels."

They slipped out at once, and in the general confusion and noise, which were still at a high level, no one noticed their exit except Miss Milmont. Once they were safely alone, Luane put her plan to Gabriel.

"I mean to dig up the grave as soon as may be and get my diamonds,” she said.

Gabriel looked at her, not in surprise certainly, but not quite in agreement either. “They are bound to be stolen long before the year is up,” he said. “I don't trust Jonathon for one, and the story is bound to get about locally, too. I can't imagine how Sophie came to do such a cork-brained thing. They must be meant for you at the end of the year."

"Of course they are, and this is just spite because you—we wouldn't get married at Christmas."

"Of course it is, the old devil. I wish we
had
gone through with it then—though I'd feel a fool being married and leaving my wife behind while I go back to school like a boy. Hil wants me to take my degree, you know."

"I had no wish to be pushed into it, and I know you didn't want to do it..."

"I told you, Loo, after I graduate. Hil thinks that is the event referred to in the intervening year. I daresay he's right."

"I haven't said I'll have you."

"I haven't asked."

She sniffed. “Never mind
that.
Will you help me get my diamonds?"

"I don't think we can, though I'd love to have a go at it. Hil says he and Fletcher will have a guard set to watch the grave. That must be done, I think."

"I bet you it won't be done
today."

"You mean we should go after them tonight?"

"The sooner the better. What time shall we meet there?"

"Late. About twelve, I suppose. Can you get out?"