"What circumstances?" Olympia demanded, thoroughly irritated with her hostess. If being polite to such people was a requirement of being a viscountess, Olympia thought, she was going to have a very difficult time fulfilling her new duties.
"As my husband says, Chillhurst has a reputation for being quite lacking in the stronger emotions. He is said to be altogether without feeling. One wonders if that is not why Lady Beaumont sought solace from another during her engagement to him."
Olympia crashed her cup down on its saucer. "My husband is an admirable man in every respect, Lady Aldridge. Nor is he lacking in the stronger emotions."
"Really?" Lady Aldridge's eyes gleamed with malicious intent. "Then I wonder why he did not feel compelled to call out his fiancée's lover or respond to her brother's challenge?"
Olympia got to her feet. "My husband's decisions are none of your affair, Lady Aldridge. Now, if you will excuse me, the clock has just struck four and I really must be going. My husband said he would fetch me at four and he is very precise in such matters."
Aldridge hurriedly put down his brandy glass. "I shall see you to the door, Lady Chillhurst."
"Thank you." Olympia did not wait. She stalked out of the drawing room.
Aldridge caught up with her in the hall. "I regret I was unable to assist you this morning, Lady Chillhurst."
"Do not concern yourself."
The truth was Olympia had almost abandoned hope of discovering a map that would give her a clue as to the location of the uncharted island referred to in Claire Lightbourne's diary. She had half of a map of the island itself but no notion of where the blasted chunk of land was located.
"Lady Chillhurst, you will not forget my warning about Torbert, will you?" Aldridge eyed her nervously. "The man is not to be trusted. Promise me you will be extremely cautious in your dealings with him."
"I assure you I shall be careful." Olympia tied the strings of her bonnet as the Aldridge butler opened the door.
Jared was waiting in a hackney at the foot of the steps. Ethan, Hugh, and Robert were with him.
Olympia smiled in relief and ran down the steps to join her family.
Chapter 15
"I say," Hugh whispered when Jared unlocked the door at the top of the stairs in the Flamecrest mansion. "Will you look at that?"
"This is the best room of all. There are all sorts of interesting things in here," Ethan said. He crowded into the chamber behind his twin and surveyed the array of trunks and shrouded furniture that filled the room. "I'll wager there's a fortune in fabulous jewels hidden in one of those old trunks."
"I would not be at all surprised." Olympia held the candle higher and peered over the boys' heads to survey the vast, shadowed room. Huge, delicate cob-webs vibrated like tattered veils in the dim glow of the taper.
Ethan was right, she thought. This chamber, which appeared to be a storage room, was the most intriguing of the many rooms Jared had shown them on the tour through the old mansion.
It was not the most unusual chamber. That honor had to go to the gallery on the floor below which contained a staircase that led nowhere. It simply stopped midway up a stone wall. The room they were exploring now, however, contained the most interesting collection of bits and pieces, Olympia decided.
"There is no telling what one might discover in here," Olympia said.
"We'll likely uncover a ghost or two," Robert predicted with ghoulish delight. "This is a very eerie place, is it not? It looks just like one of the chambers in a haunted castle that is described in a book that I am reading."
"Ghosts," Hugh repeated in a voice that crackled with excitement and dread. "Do you really think there might be ghosts in here?"
"Perhaps the ghost of Captain Jack, himself," Ethan suggested in a voice laced with sepulchral horror. "Perhaps he walks through the walls and goes down that flight of stairs in the gallery."
Jared glanced at Ethan with slightly raised brows.
Olympia frowned in thought. "Now there's an interesting notion. The ghost of Captain Jack."
"Captain Jack died peacefully in his bed," Jared announced in a thoroughly dampening tone. "He was eighty-two at the time and he was laid to rest in the family plot on the Isle of Flame. This house had not even been built at the time of his death."
"Then who built this wonderful house, sir?" Hugh asked.
"Captain Jack's son, Captain Harry."
Hugh's eyes widened. "Your grandfather built it? I say, he must have been a very clever man."
"He was clever, all right," Jared said. "Clever at spending money. This house represents one of the more interesting methods he concocted to demolish a considerable portion of the family fortunes."
"What happened to the rest of your family fortunes?" Ethan asked.
"My father and uncle took care of most of the remainder. If it had not been for my mother, we would all have been sunk in poverty by now," Jared explained.
"What did your mother do to save you from poverty?" Robert asked.
"She gave me one of her necklaces." Jared met Olympia's eyes. "It had been given to her by my grandmother, who had received it from my great-grandmother."
"Claire Lightbourne?" Olympia asked, her eyes widening.
"Yes. It was fashioned of diamonds and rubies and was quite valuable. My mother gave it to me when I turned seventeen and told me to give it to the woman I eventually married. She meant for it to descend down through the family in an unbroken line of Flamecrest viscountesses. Mother was something of a romantic, you see."
"Aunt Olympia is the woman you eventually married," Robert pointed out. "Did you give the necklace to her?"
"Yes, did you give it to Aunt Olympia?" Hugh asked, obviously enthralled by the tale.
"No," Jared said without any sign of emotion. "I sold it on my nineteenth birthday."
"Sold it." Ethan grimaced with disappointment.
"You didn't, sir." Robert looked crestfallen.
Hugh stared at Jared. "You sold your great-grandmother's beautiful necklace? How could you when you knew it was supposed to go to your wife?"
"I used the money to help refit the one ship my family still owned at the time." Jared did not take his gaze off Olympia. "That ship became the foundation for all of my present business enterprises."
Olympia saw the bleak determination in him and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt how much it had cost him to sell his mother's necklace. "That was very practical of you, my lord," she said bracingly. "I am certain that your mother was proud that you used her necklace to rebuild the Flamecrest family fortunes."
"Not particularly," Jared said coolly. "My mother was as melodramatic as everyone else in my family. She wept when she learned how I had financed that first ship. That did not stop her from enjoying the results, however."
"What do you mean?" Hugh asked.
Jared made a motion with his hand that took in the vast mansion. "Mother gave many a fine party here in town. She loved to entertain and she spent a considerable amount on the balls and soirees she gave in this house. I remember one in particular where she arranged for a waterfall and a small lagoon of champagne to be created in one room."
"I say," Hugh whispered. "A whole waterfall of champagne."
Robert tilted his head inquiringly. "I'll wager you bought her necklace back after you got rich."
Jared's jaw tightened. "I attempted to do so but I was too late. The necklace had long since been destroyed by the jeweler who bought it. The stones had been removed and reset in various bracelets, rings, and brooches. The whole lot had been sold off into a variety of hands. It was impossible to find all the gems and put them back together."