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Two weeks later
Sophia hummed as she scrubbed the kitchen table. Her aunt, Delilah, was busy in the garden and for once, seemed to have embraced being outdoors. Although she was pleased her aunt had ventured outside to enjoy the sunshine, she had to wonder how long that would last. Delilah was most definitely not the gardening type. She was more of a social butterfly who lived to socialise, and nothing else. If she wasn’t going out in an evening, she was entertaining at home, usually until the early hours of the morning. As a result, she tended not to want to leave the snug confines of her bed until early afternoon. When she did get up, it was just in time to prepare for the next round of social engagements.
“Still, it’s not been too bad,” she murmured with a frown.
Although she still wasn’t accustomed to the constant round of social engagements, and was bored with the seemingly endless teas and duty calls, her time at Delilah’s house had passed more swiftly than anticipated.
In spite of Hooky’s reasons for sending her, as far as she could see, Delilah didn’t go out of her way to throw money around. She just liked to go out, that was all. It was a little perplexing given Hooky’s level of agitation. Not for the first time since she had arrived, Sophia wondered whether she should make arrangements to go home so she could talk to him about it. First, though, she had to raise the issue of the state of Delilah’s finances with her – somehow. She just didn’t know when.
“Now where does this go?” Sophia murmured aloud as she eyed a rather lovely trinket box her aunt had left on the kitchen table.
It was plate, with intricate carvings of flowers on the lid. While relatively inexpensive, the design that flowed freely around the box was exquisite. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something she could remember seeing before so had no idea what to do with it.
“Delilah?” She called but suspected her aunt couldn’t hear her out in the garden.
Sophia hurried to the back door, but Delilah was nowhere to be seen.
With a sigh, she studied the tiny box as she wandered through the house. The inscription on the back didn’t make much sense: To AT, with love, Yours.
“Who is AT, I wonder?”
Was ‘AT’ the man in Delilah’s life Hooky had
mentioned?
Sophia decided to put it into her aunt’s bedroom and hurried upstairs. She didn’t give the opulence within the largest bedroom a second glance as she wandered across the room to a dressing table beside the window, and slid the drawer open.
What she saw nestled inside made her stare in shock.
“Oh, my word,” she gasped.
She stared in stunned disbelief at the plethora of trinket boxes, brooches, combs, pins, brushes, and snuff boxes to name but a few. It was only the presence of several ornate brushes in the drawer that warned her that this veritable hoard of expensive items did not belong to Delilah. Mainly because some of the brushes had been used, and none of the different coloured hair strands still caught up in the coarse bristles matched Delilah’s rather unusual shade of red.
Unsure what to do, Sophia closed the drawer and then opened the next one down. There weren’t as many items in the second drawer, but it contained several picture frames, ornate ones just as expensive as the smaller articles in the drawer above, several rather expensive combs, numerous cravat pins, and yet more brooches.
“Why would you have these tucked away in here?” she whispered as she stared down at the trinket box still clutched in her hand.
Intrigued, she ignored the tiny inner voice that warned her she shouldn’t probe into someone else’s personal belongings, and took another look in the drawer above.
Careful to keep the noise down she began to rifle through the contents, searching each item for any engravings or markings which might give her a clue as to who they were from. It quickly became evident that some of the items in the drawer belonged to other people, several other people.
“Seen something you like?” Delilah drawled sarcastically from the doorway.
Sophia let out a squeak and slammed the drawer closed. The look of guilt on her face spoke volumes, but she brazenly brushed it aside and squared her shoulders as she prepared for a confrontation with her aunt.
“I was looking for somewhere to put this.” She nodded to the trinket box she held. “I can’t remember seeing it downstairs before so thought it might belong up here. I don’t believe you need it, though,” she added carefully as she nudged the drawer fully closed with her foot.
It wasn’t lost on her that, for the first time ever, Delilah looked positively menacing.
“I-I am sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” Sophia added when Delilah didn’t immediately answer.
Unable to get past her aunt, who still blocked the doorway, Sophia had to stay inside the room. What could she say or do now? She had just been caught snooping through her aunt’s belongings. There was no excuse.
Delilah stepped away from the doorway in a silent appeal for Sophia to get out. Sophia hesitated and glanced at her aunt. She had expected her to rant and rave at her. This stony silence was so uncharacteristic of Delilah that Sophia wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it. She suspected then that her aunt was up to no good and was avoiding a confrontation herself in case Sophia asked too many questions. Why, though? What could she have to hide?
“I cannot remember seeing them before,” she whispered. “Are they yours?”
“What does it matter?” Delilah snapped, displeased at being questioned.
