Page 111 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)
‘But I don’t think they would ever have used this altar for serving communion,’ Polly said. ‘It’s too small.’ She bent her head sideways to look into the recess. ‘There’s something in there, though. I can see it, right at the back.’
She got down even lower, stretched in, felt around with her fingers, and finally drew out a small object, a metal box about six inches square and three deep. ‘It’s really heavy,’ she said, standing up with it.
Lennie took it from her. ‘I think it’s gold,’ he said. ‘It hasn’t tarnished at all, though it must have been in there a long time.’ He shook it gently, and heard a rattle. ‘There’s something in it.’
‘Open it, then,’ Polly urged.
The lid didn’t lift. ‘It’s locked,’ he said. ‘I need a chisel or something.’
‘Don’t damage it,’ Polly protested.
‘Do you want it opened or not? Unless you’ve got the key …’
‘That could be anywhere. If it still exists. I’ve never heard of anything being kept under there, so it must be old, or Papa would have told me about it, or Aunt Hen.’
They took it to the steward’s room, where shortly Barlow brought a fine-bladed chisel, and everyone who had been helping gathered round while Lennie set the blade into the gap between the lid and the box and levered gently.
Then less gently. Then with considerable force.
The lid flew back violently, breaking one of the gold hinges that held it on.
Inside, the box was lined with velvet. ‘In surprisingly good condition,’ Lennie said. ‘It must have been absolutely dry in there, or it would have rotted away.’
Polly leaned over to look. ‘Black beads,’ she said, in disappointment. ‘I thought it would be diamonds, or gold sovereigns at least.’
Lennie took one out, and lifted it level with his eye between finger and thumb. ‘Not beads,’ he said. ‘This is a pearl. A whole lot of black pearls.’ He peered in again. ‘I suppose they were strung when they went in, but the thread has worn away.’
Polly snapped her fingers. ‘Black pearls!’ she said.
‘There’s a painting in the gallery of one of our ancestresses, wearing a necklace of black pearls.
I remember now, Aunt Hen saying they would have been really valuable, because I’d said I thought they looked dull and wondered why she’d had her portrait painted wearing them. I wonder if these are the same ones.’
‘Hardly likely there would have been more than one necklace of them,’ Lennie said. ‘Black pearls are pretty rare now, probably even more so in those days.’
The whisper was being passed back through the onlookers to others outside for whom there’d been no room. Black pearls … black pearls … black pearls …
‘Do you think they’re worth anything?’ Polly asked.
‘Oh, I should think so. We’ll have to get them valued. And re-strung. You ought to wear them. They’d suit you, you’re so fair.’
‘I wonder why they were hidden,’ Polly mused.
‘The box is solid gold, I think,’ Lennie said. ‘So that’ll be worth a bit.’
‘And we’d never have found it if it hadn’t been for that poor boy and his solo flight.’
On their way upstairs to wash off the grime of the treasure hunt, she said, ‘Funny to think …’
‘What?’
‘Well, there were probably lots of times when finding the gold box and the pearls would have made a lot of difference to the family. Hard times. Even when my father inherited and all the land had been sold off and the house was in a poor state. But here we are, and you’re a millionaire, and Ren left me a fortune, and we really don’t need to find hidden treasure at all. ’
‘You’re all the treasure I ever want,’ Lennie said, and stopped her on the top stair to kiss her.
Stuffy Elphinstone presented himself at Arlington Street with the utmost casualness, saying he’d happened to be in the neighbourhood; but Molly saw the longing way he looked at Charlotte when he thought she wasn’t watching, and promptly invited him to stay for dinner.
He was a very different young man now from the days when he had been a red-faced and tongue-tied investor in Dolphin Books.
He was tall, well-built, far from unattractive, and now had a gravitas that suited him.
It was not that Molly was a match-maker – indeed, she thought interfering in someone else’s emotional life was both impertinent and dangerous; and besides, Charlotte had only just parted ways with Launde.
But she thought Elphinstone much more eligible in every way, and his attachment to Charlotte had never wavered – he was still unmarried, and his name had never been connected to any other woman’s.
In the fullness of time, it would not be a bad thing at all if …
And with war coming, they would all need to grab what happiness they could.
Launde, damn his eyes, might have had the decency to run away sooner if he was going to run at all …
They really ought to stop referring to Elphinstone as ‘Stuffy’.
What on earth was his first name? He had a very decent estate in Hampshire …
Charlotte was comfortable with him, chatted with him, no signs of shyness, which might have been a good thing or a bad thing. At the moment she wanted to know about the international situation more than anything.
‘There’s a lot of negotiation going on,’ Elphinstone said.
‘Diplomacy and so on. Halifax is still hopeful. It looks as though Hitler was ready to go on the 26th – troops on the Polish border and so on – but at the last minute he heard about our formal treaty with Poland, and called a halt. Oh, and I understand that Mussolini told him he wasn’t ready to go to war yet.
I don’t know how much Hitler was depending on the Italians, but it was another scruple to add to the balance. ’
‘So we’ve got a breathing-space,’ Molly said.
‘There’s a suggestion from America that they think Hitler’s bluffing, that he can’t really want war with Britain and France.
And it’s a fact that yesterday he presented Henderson – our ambassador to Berlin, you know – with an offer, guaranteeing the safety of our Empire if we let him solve the “Polish problem”, as he calls it, without interfering. ’
‘Solve it?’ Vivian said, pausing in the dissection of a potato. ‘We know what his method of solving problems is. I take it we’re refusing?’
‘Not right away,’ Elphinstone said.
‘Of course they didn’t refuse, Vivian,’ Molly said. ‘What kind of diplomacy would that be? You keep on talking – am I right?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Elphinstone. ‘If there’s any way we can wriggle through and avoid catastrophe, we’ll take it.
Henderson’s offering to mediate talks between Germany and Poland for a peace, but the last I heard, Hitler handed Henderson a list of demands, including Germany taking back Danzig and the corridor, which Poland would never accept. ’
‘I should think not,’ Vivian said.
‘So we’re teetering on the edge,’ Charlotte said.
Stuffy looked at her, and she saw in his eyes that he didn’t hold out much hope. ‘He’s got troops in place on the Polish border, and some sources say this has been in planning since March. I don’t think it’s a question of “if” any more. It’s “when”.’
‘And when is “when”?’ she asked.
‘A few days at the most.’ He looked at Molly. ‘You were wise to send your children down to the country, ma’am.’
‘A part of me keeps hoping I’ll have them back by the time school starts.’
‘We all keep hoping,’ Stuffy said. ‘We’ve got air-raid precautions in place, the National Service Bill ready to enact, our expedition force primed and ready, the French have the Maginot Line, the Poles have mobilised their navy and they have a million men in arms, close to the border.
But if it all proved for nothing and there was peace after all, we‘d be very happy.’
‘Will you be going into uniform?’ Molly asked, thinking he looked at his best during that speech – almost noble.
‘Oh, yes, straight into the Guards, with a commission. It’s all arranged. But I’ll be staying at the War Office, at least at first.’
Charlotte smiled faintly. ‘You’ll look splendid in Guards’ uniform,’ she said. ‘You have the height.’
Stuffy blushed with pleasure, and Molly, on impulse, said, ‘What is your first name, Stuffy? I can never remember.’
His blush deepened. ‘Nobody ever uses it, not even the mater. Everyone calls me Stuffy.’
‘But what is it?’ Molly insisted.
‘Eadred,’ he admitted. ‘Damn silly name. Family tradition, apparently.’
He looked quite put out, and Molly was sorry she’d asked.
There was scaffolding up in the chapel, and the house reverberated to hammering.
It was felt that there was a real urgency about getting the roof repaired and as much of the inside work done as possible.
It was Thursday, the 31st of August, and that morning the Royal Navy had been mobilised and the reserves of the Army and Air Force had been called up.
Who knew how much longer the workmen would be available to do the job?
The day before, Ambassador Henderson had handed Ribbentrop the British government’s reply to Hitler’s demands over Poland:
His Majesty’s Government repeat that they reciprocate the German Government’s desire for improved relations, but it will be recognised that they could not sacrifice the interests of other friends in order to obtain that improvement.
They fully understand that the German Government cannot sacrifice Germany’s vital interests, but the Polish Government are in the same position and His Majesty’s Government believe that the vital interests of the two countries are not incompatible.
‘Still hoping,’ said Lennie. The wireless receiver in the drawing-room was permanently tuned to the Home Service for the news, and he haunted it for bulletins.
Just after eleven in the morning, came the news that the government had issued an order to evacuate civilians from cities and towns that were likely targets for enemy bombing.
‘That doesn’t sound like hoping,’ Polly said.