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“I sat here with Alisa, or Ali, as she liked to be called, and I watched her draw pictures of the windows.”
Ken pulled the cushion off and looked at the way the seat was constructed. “I know how this was done. I’d not noticed it before but it’s quite ingenious.” He looked at Toby with teasing eyes. “But then that’s rather vain of me to say considering that in another life I built it.”
Toby knew he was making fun of her, but she didn’t mind. However, part of her almost wished they would find the key.
Ken got Jared’s big toolbox out of a closet and removed the bottom panel of the seat. He stretched out on the floor to take out the inner panel. When that was done, he had to slide the upper part of his body inside the opening to search with a flashlight and a long screwdriver.
No one said a word as they listened to the scratching and saw the light move about. When Ken scooted back out, he sat up and looked at them. He took his time before he opened his hand to show a little brass key.
“That’s it!” Toby exclaimed as she took it.
It was one thing to laugh about finding a key that had been lost centuries ago but quite another to see it in real life.
Ken, Jilly, and Victoria were staring at Toby in openmouthed astonishment.
Graydon stepped forward, put his arm protectively around Toby’s shoulders, and said, “Shall we look for the box full of jade?”
Ken was the first to recover. “Uh, ah … Does anyone know where it is?”
When no one spoke, Toby said, “I saw it in the attic but I don’t remember exactly where it was. Maybe I should call Lexie and ask her.”
Victoria was recovering from shock. “I’ll find out.” She went to the front door and told Caleb that Ken had found the key.
“I thought he would,” he said. “Third row from the right, halfway down, inside the red lacquer box. When I danced with Alix I knocked the bulbs out, so take a light.”
“I assume you’re talking of the attic,” Victoria said, blinking.
“I am. When you find the box, bring it outside so I can see it.”
The five adults ran up the old stairs to the attic and the treasure hunt began. It took a while, but they found the box exactly where Caleb said it was. They’d had trouble agreeing about the meaning of “halfway down,” and the lacquer box was so old the red was almost black.
“How did Caleb know where this was?” Ken asked in awe. “It was inside another box.”
“He really does know everything about the island,” Victoria said, but this time it didn’t sound like she was bragging. She sounded as though she thought it was a bit creepy.
“Old soul; new body,” Jilly murmured, and everyone was glad to turn their thoughts to someone other than Toby. “Shall we take the box downstairs and try the key?”
They met Caleb outside, then they all walked to the back of the property to the guesthouse, where Ken and Jilly were staying, and put the old box on the kitchen countertop.
“This place has certainly changed,” Caleb said as he looked around. “Used to be where we kept the cow.”
No one asked about that comment. Under the spell of the late night, and the wine and the port they’d ingested, no one questioned his odd statement. Toby gave the key to Caleb. “I think you should be the one to do this.”
Considering that the box had been locked for over two hundred years, the key turned easily. Caleb didn’t open it but picked it up and handed it to Victoria. “The gift was meant for you.”
Victoria opened the box to reveal the jade carvings of the Chinese zodiac. Each figure was of a different color of jade: dark green, white, even lavender. Each was exquisitely and intricately carved.
“I’m a rabbit,” Victoria said as she lifted that figure. “All about family and ambition.” They all began to talk of the year they were born. Only Caleb was silent. When they looked at him in question, he said, “What was the symbol for 1776?”
There was a hesitation, then Victoria said, “Fireworks!” and they all laughed—and their laughter broke the tension. No one had said it, but the question hung over them all: Had Toby actually time traveled? Did the key prove that her dreams were real?
Victoria, Ken, and Jilly turned to look at the two young people standing there in their beautiful eighteenth-century clothes, and it was easy to imagine that they’d stepped out of the past.
Graydon was the first to break the silence. “There’s a room in that house,” he said softly, “where I felt a sense of misery, even tragedy.”
They hadn’t spoken of it, but Toby knew the room he meant. “The door is hidden behind the paneling.”
They were all looking at Caleb, waiting for his answer. No one seemed to doubt that he would know. “The birthing room?” he asked. “Back then women gave birth often and they gathered together when the time came. A lot of the houses had birthing rooms. There was indeed much sadness in there, but there was also joy. Valentina gave birth to the first Jared Montgomery Kingsley in that room. He was a big, healthy boy.” He sounded proud.
