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‘You can’t?’
‘No, I have faith.’
Summer huffed out a slightly teary laugh. ‘Faith...Faith!’ she yelled, springing up from the chair and grabbing the journal with the last entry in it.
‘Where is it, where is it...yes! Here. Listen.Faith that all will be well and, most importantly, faith that you will find not just what I have left for you, but what you truly need. For the thing about faith is that while it cannot be seen, it can be felt.You’re right. Faith in what cannot be seen!’
Summer placed the necklace back over the map as Theron had done and carefully made a pen mark in the space in the necklace’s ball. She gently swept the necklace out of the way and laughed, rolling her eyes at herself. ‘Of course,’ she groaned. ‘Look,’ she said, beckoning Theron to the map.
‘What? I don’t... Wait, is that—?’
‘Catherine’s room. It’s in the secret passageway just behind Catherine’s room.’
She stared up at him, not realising how close they’d become and for the first time not caring. Her heart was soaring with excitement, her pulse racing, and she swept her arms around him and clung on for dear life. Hope, relief, shock and excitement all warred within her and Summer rode out the storm in his embrace.
Theron was sure he could be forgiven for expecting a sliding bookcase or a vase on a table that swung open, rather than the hole in the wall, with fine wooden slats and bits of plaster crumbling onto the floor.
He wanted Summer wearing a face mask.Hewanted a face mask. There would be at least a century’s worth of dust in these passageways, surely. He followed the shadowy outline of Summer created by the beam of her torch as she made her way along the narrow corridor constructed within the walls of the house. The design was ingenious and the construction infallible. He wondered at Catherine, who had made all this happen, and was beginning to think it wise not to underestimate the Soames women.
Summer was trailing her hand against the wall when she came to a stop, and Theron had to pull up quickly to prevent himself from crashing into her. She ran her hand back and forth along the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, frowning, until her eyes widened in shock.
‘What is it?’ he whispered, not quite surewhyhe was whispering.
‘Here, feel this.’ She grabbed his hand and he ignored the burn he felt from her touch. It was a heat that his body welcomed, and his heart struggled with. Spreading his fingers beneath hers, she gently pressed them against the wall and he felt it.
The metal rectangle with a small impression where a key might go. Even he felt a childlike glee at the thought that they might have found the hidden treasure.
‘You’ve found it!’ he exclaimed.
She bit her lip, but failed to disguise the smile of pure joy spreading across her features. ‘Wefound it.’ She produced the key and placed it into the lock. The metal slid into place as if it had been used only yesterday. He inhaled in expectation and then...
Nothing. Summer didn’t turn the key.
‘Summer?’
She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the door. ‘My sisters should be here for this.’ She shook her head against the door. ‘I can’t... I need to wait for them.’
Theron understood.Family.He knew why that couldn’t be him for Summer, not in this. Star and Skye had gone on this journey with her. It was as much their right as Summer’s.
But it didn’t stop the twist of hurt slice his heart.
He reached up to where her hand still held the key in the lock and pulled it gently back, taking the key from her loose fingers and hanging the necklace around her neck.
‘It’s time for you to call them home then,’ he said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUMMERWANTEDTObottle what she was feeling. She didn’t think she’d ever been so excited. Here in this half place where she knew where the diamonds were but hadn’t yet seen them. She was on the brink of infinite possibilities and anything and everything she’d ever wanted could happen. Her mother healthy and well, her sisters back with her, she even felt for just a second that she might want to meet her father. That perhaps somehow, being with Theron, they could smooth over old hurts and together they could create something beautiful for the future. She could pinch herself.
There was something about the way that Theron had said she should call her sisters backhome. Until that moment, the estate had been in the way. It had concealed the one thing they needed to truly help their mother. It had been broken, dusty, old, damp, full of her grandfather’s ugliness and his father’s, and his grandfather’s—Anthony Soames. The man who had married his unwilling cousin for the estate and some jewels, abused her terribly and been miserable until the day he died. There was so much sadness and anger and neglect in this estate.
But there was also Catherine. And Benoit with his secret passages, and even Sheikh Hatem, who Catherine had met in Duratra, had become as much a part of the fabric of the estate as his family had been integral to finding the diamonds. So this time, as she walked through the corridors, instead of the gloom and darkness, she saw the beams of soft sunlight through hazy windows, she saw the potential that was there, just beneath the surface of dust and chaos.
She shook her head. Renovating and repairing the damage to this estate would cost millions and take years. But, even as she discarded the completely impossible idea, her imagination soared as she picked and discarded various styles or materials that could restore the series of problems in the east wing. Her mind jumped ahead to wonder whether Skye’s fiancé might be interested and able to help. Then she laughed, wondering what incredible fantastical decoration Star would delve into, what inspiration she would return from the desert with... And in a heartbeat an impression of the estate, restored beyond its former glory to something that honoured both Catherine’s history and the Soames sisters’ futures, formed in her mind like a miraculous mirage and a longing so deep, so hard took root.
She paused, peering down one of the hallways, and could have sworn she heard the faint echo of children’s laughter. She placed a hand over her bump and just for a moment let herself imagine what it might be like to raise her child here. With Theron.
And she could. She could see it so clearly, feel it so powerfully, it made her heart hurt. And it scared her because she’d never wanted anything more in her life.
