Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (6 page)

Kitty frowned. She had been told Briana’s motivation for being part of Gavin Mason’s scheme to get his hands on Colt and Dani’s inheritance, knew that she should feel sympathy for the way she’d had to literally sell her soul to get medical help for her ailing younger brother. Still, the young woman’s name evoked unpleasant memories.

The château was built on a smooth plateau that dropped sharply, abruptly, with a sheer fall to the dangerous, jutting rocks below. The churning waters, whipped by the winds of the sea, today covered the rocks with clinging foam.

They made their way to the rear where Dani stood staring without expression at the first arched window to the south, on the second floor. There was a small balcony just outside.

“They said she fell from her bedroom window.” She turned her gaze downward, to the hungrily foaming waters licking at the fingers of rocks below. “They found her down there somewhere.”

Kitty shivered at the image and turned back toward the pathway that would lead them to the front of the château once more. She knew it had to have been a terrible place for a little girl to grow up, especially with a wicked aunt like Alaina Barbeau. She was glad Dani would never have cause to return to this house once they left.

Dani took from her purse a key Travis had given her and led the way up the steps to the front door. With a turn, and a loud, grating squeak, the door swung open.

They were met by shadowed darkness, and when Dani stepped inside, she gasped, startled, at the feel of sticky cobwebs against her face. Slapping them away, she irritably cried, “Let’s get the shutters open, and the windows. I don’t care how damp and cold it is outside, I want some fresh air and light in this—this
tomb.”

They rushed around the first floor, Kitty having to feel her way, not being used to the setting. Then, when there was light spilling through the grimy windows, she looked about and was relieved to see it had not been ransacked. There were a few pieces of furniture left, some bric-a-brac. She could not tell yet if they were of any value.

“It looks as though we’ll find a few things,” she called to Dani. “Not much, but something…” Her voice trailed off at the sound of Dani’s footsteps on the stairs to the second floor.

A few moments later Dani returned, smiling broadly as she met Kitty in the foyer. “It looks as though my room has hardly been touched. Even most of my clothes are still there.

“Strange,” she continued. “When I left the convent, I wanted to go straight to Paris. I refused to come here, couldn’t stand the thought of coming back to this house of hate and coldness. Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother me as much now as I thought it would.”

Kitty hurried across the marble foyer, oblivious to the grit and dirt crackling beneath her shoes. Putting her arms around Dani, she hugged her. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. I was praying I wouldn’t regret suggesting your coming back.”

Dani returned the embrace, assured her she did not, and added, “I’m glad you’re with me. I think we’re going to have fun these next few days.”

Chapter Five

By the time Dani and Kitty had been in Monaco for a week, they were both convinced that the trip had been worthwhile. Alaina might have disposed of most of the truly valuable furnishings and objets d’art, but they had still been able to find a few items of sentimental significance to Dani. They spent time in Monte Carlo, enjoying the glittering night life and trying their luck at the famous Casino.

One day, they went to the rocky incline that stretched above the small vineyard to the north of the château. It was the site of the family graveyard. The path upward was steep, rocky, overgrown with weeds. The view, as Dani remembered, was awesome in its splendor, and they were so taken by it that they were almost oblivious to the gloom surrounding the decaying burial ground.

In the center was a large common marker, on which was carved
DEBONNETT
. Surrounding it were smaller, less significant tombstones. They walked among these until they found one marked
CLAUDE
and, beside it, a small wooden cross, obviously furnished by the undertaker who had been given the task of burying her, on which was crudely scrawled
ALAINA
.

Kitty drew in her breath in a contemplative draw, let it out slowly. “How sad to be remembered in life but forgotten in death, don’t you think?”

Dani nodded. She would much prefer to move through her own life quietly touching those about her and then have them remember her with kindness when she was gone.

“I don’t want you to hate her, Dani.”

Dani turned to stare at her in wonder. “You can’t expect me to love her.”

“No. It’s just better that you try not to feel anything at all.” She knelt beside the grave and absently pulled a few weeds from around the paltry marker, tossing them to one side before continuing in a voice edged with pain.

“I’ve told you a little bit about my own past, about the people who hurt me so deeply. For a long time, I hated them, too, and then I found that the memories didn’t hurt so much if I just pretended those people, and the things they did to me, just never existed at all. I could almost pretend it was just a terrible nightmare.”

She paused to shake her head and emit a bitter laugh. “I suppose there are those who would say I was just not facing reality, but why should I? I couldn’t undo the past, what had happened to me, so why should I dwell on it?”

Standing once more, she gestured to the raw mound of dirt and rocks that was Alaina Barbeau deBonnett’s grave. “If she had been able to pretend that Travis had never existed, that he had never chosen her sister over her, then we would not be standing here now. But she never forgave him, never stopped trying to get her revenge.”

Dani understood the wisdom of what she was saying. It was truly time to turn her back, to pretend none of it ever happened. She whispered, “Let’s go now. I have everything I came for.”

They were walking back down the path, and Kitty was talking about Colt’s visit to the château to find Briana, when Dani suddenly stopped and cried excitedly, “The wine cellar! We haven’t thought about going down there to look around. There might be something there, if just a few bottles of wine!”

Kitty agreed, though she admitted she did not relish the idea of going down there. “Colt said the steps were so long and deep that they seemed to go right into the bowels of the Earth.”

Dani had gone down there only a few times as a child, and only then because Alaina made her, for some reason she could not now remember. “We’ll need torches,” she said.

Once they had their torches, they went to the wooden hatch on the side of the château, and straining and pulling together, they managed to open it with a loud, grating squeak. At once, they were hit full in the face with a blast of sour, stagnant, dusty air.

“Are you sure you want to go down there?” Kitty asked doubtfully.

Dani said she was, then added teasingly, “It’s your fault, you know. You’re the one who’s gotten me all enthused about treasure hunting. Though I don’t know what on Earth I’ll ever do with all the things we’re sending back. Maybe I should open an antique shop. My Own little
magasin d’antiquites
…”

She had been laughing, but the laughter faded, along with her voice, as she turned slowly to stare at Kitty.

Kitty was staring back…and she was not laughing. The idea of opening an antique shop was not impractical or frivolous.

“I can run it for you while you travel all over Europe on buying trips,” Kitty said.

“And it’s the proper excuse to travel,” Dani chimed in. “Not that I need one, but it will give me something to do, a purpose.”

They hugged each other happily, then Dani pulled back to urge, “Come on. Maybe we’ll find something truly wonderful down there.”

When they reached the cellar, they realized quickly that it was empty. Even the hundreds of slots for wine bottles were empty.

Dani was disappointed. “I guess it was asking too much that vandals not find their way down here. There was no lock on the hatch, and everyone would have known the château certainly had a cellar for storing wine.”

Kitty held up her torch, the light eerily dancing on the walls carved out of the stone innards of the earth. “Let’s take a look around now that we’re here. We might find an old box of dishes or something stashed in a corner. If there was room for Gavin Mason to store Coltrane gold down here, then there is certainly room for a few old forgotten boxes or barrels.”

They picked their way among small stones, clods of dirt, a few bits of broken wine bottles. Dani moved toward the deep shadows beneath the stairs, saw, nothing, turned away, then hesitated. Had she seen nothing? She went back, held out her flickering torch, and carefully looked about.

Then she saw it—the strange-looking iron ring hanging from the rock wall. Slowly, cautiously, she reached out to touch it, felt the chill of the metal against her fingertips and shivered slightly.

Kitty called hopefully, “See anything?”

“A ring in the wall.”

Kitty hurried to join her, quickly examined the ring, then began to run her fingers along the wall. “It could be—” she began excitedly, then cried, “It is! A hidden door. I feel the lines in the stone. Here. Help me pull.”

They laid aside their torches carefully, propping them so the flames would not go out, then, mustering all their strength, they grasped the rusting ring and pulled.

There came the scraping sound of ancient stone against stone and then the door slowly opened; once again, they were assailed by the smell of thick, dead air.

Dani grabbed up her torch eagerly and stepped inside the cavity, without trepidation. At once, her eyes feasted upon the sight of the square wooden box propped against a far wall. It was the size of a small tabletop, perhaps a foot thick. “Oh, it has to be valuable!” she exclaimed. “It wouldn’t be hidden here if it weren’t.”

Kitty was more cautious. “Let’s get it upstairs where we can open it properly and see exactly what you’ve found.”

The box was not heavy, and they were able to maneuver it up the stairs with a minimum of strain. Once inside the house, it became obvious that tools would be needed to pry it open. Dani remembered seeing a few implements in the caretaker’s shed, and she quickly ran to get them.

As she worked at the boards, Kitty warned, “Not too hasty. You don’t want to damage anything inside.”

Once the outer boards were pried loose, however, they were dismayed to find yet another crate within. Working feverishly, anxiously, Dani soon had that one open as well, and they found much straw and packing inside.

“Paintings!” Kitty cried jubilantly. “Oh, let me see, Dani, let me see!”

Dani moved aside, knowing Kitty would be able to make a reasonable judgment should there be anything of value.

‘‘Oh, I don’t believe this!”

Dani was beside herself. “What? What? Kitty, if you don’t tell me—”

Kitty looked at her with eyes that brimmed with joyful, excited tears. “Rousseau. I’d know his work anywhere. And here!” She held up another. “Daubigny.”

In all, there were six works inside the crate, and as they spread them out, Kitty explained what she felt they had discovered. “Around 1850 or so, there was sort of a rebellion against studio painting. A group of young landscape painters, most of whom were also printmakers, formed a group that became known as the Barbizon school. Critics felt that the etchings of Theodore Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Charles-Francois Daubigny were very close to the spirit of the seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes.”

She went on to say that while their find might not be truly valuable in terms of money at that point, they would be treasured by some collectors. “And,” she pointed out with a broad smile, “just having these in your shop will give you a start. You’ll make quite a name for yourself from the very beginning with treasures like these!”

Dani was beside herself with happiness. She knelt before the display to scrutinize their condition more closely. “It’s amazing that they’re so well preserved. I wonder how long they’ve been stored down there?”

“Didn’t you say the Count was killed just a couple of years ago?” Kitty asked.

“Yes. In a duel. Some argument over a gambling debt. I never understood exactly what happened. Aunt Alaina wouldn’t discuss it. But what does that have to do with these paintings?”

Kitty theorized that because of the well-preserved state of the paintings, they could not have been hidden for longer than six or seven years. “The Count had to have been the one to hide them. Otherwise, Alaina would have had them appraised and sold along with the other things she was forced to dispose of.”

There was one painting smaller than the rest, and Dani lifted it up for closer inspection. “This one seems different.”

Kitty joined her in scrutiny, shook her head. “It isn’t the work of any artist I’ve ever studied. It isn’t even well done, but I can see that the subject matter must be beautiful—some sort of palace.”

Dani fingered the wooden frame around the painting. It was crude, unfinished wood, but she found it elegant, somehow, in its simplicity. “I like the frame better than the painting.”

“Well, the mystery surrounding these will make a wonderful story for the art circles in Paris.”

Dani gathered up the paintings, headed for the front door, then paused. “This is it. We’ve found everything there is to find here.”