Chapter 73
Behind her, the door closed without a sound. The cold, still air of the uninhabited room made even the tip of her nose sting. Her mouth went dry with tension. Vanessa carefully engaged the lock from the inside, making sure not to make a noise.
Despite it being midday, the room was so dark with the curtains drawn that a gas lamp was necessary. She turned up the flame of the lamp on the wall and cautiously surveyed the room. This was the first time she had been left alone in this space since her father’s death.
The Earl’s study was effectively the heart of Somerset. Its value had remained unchanged even seven years ago when they sold the town house in Linden, and even now, as all its glory was slowly beginning to fade.
Her ancestors had stored all sorts of precious items in this vast office. Land ledgers, wills, items too sensitive to entrust even to a butler, precious heirlooms bestowed by the King…. Of course, nothing was quite the same as when her father was alive. Nevertheless, a certain sense of intimidation clearly lingered.
“…….”
Vanessa faced the massive mahogany desk. The wall behind it was entirely covered by bookshelves, packed with various documents and ledgers that sat in a state of disarray. It felt like facing a cemetery made of paper.
Finding what she wanted in a space like this seemed nearly impossible. Fortunately, the document she needed to find was the original will.
There were three requirements for a valid will. First: it must be handwritten. Second: the date and time of writing must be clearly stated. Third: it must bear a handwritten signature.
In other words, she could pass over any typewritten documents without looking at them closely. Anything written on relatively clean, new paper could also be skipped. Vanessa quickly scanned several bookshelves and moved on. Her hand, sliding down the spines of the books, pulled out a few folders to check them before shoving them back in.
‘Not like this.’
Perhaps now was the time to exert every ounce of her imagination. At the same time, it was a moment for logic and deduction.
‘Think.’
What if she cast her uncle Wyatt as a character in her novel? As the wicked, villainous figure pursued by ‘Miss Welsh’?
The ‘Earl’ is a man who is reckless, suspicious, fond of gambling and drink, and possessed by a desire for control and ostentation. At the same time, he is someone who would do anything to satisfy his greed. If such a cruel, deeply sick man were to keep something precious for a long time?
‘He would keep it somewhere within reach at all times. So he could take it out and check it whenever he felt anxious.’
The ‘Earl’ spent most of his time at the castle in the study, his bedroom, and the library attached to the study. It made him look less like the master of the house and more like a sentry. Or a greedy dragon guarding its hoard.
The ‘treasure’ was, naturally, the will and the land deeds granted with the title. He might have taken them out a few times recently, but he wouldn’t have managed them carelessly.
‘He wouldn’t have mixed them in among the ledgers or documents. He’s a man full of worry and suspicion.’
Then, did he carry them on his person? Not likely. The ‘Earl’ drank often and frequented gambling dens. He often lost things, and he had returned home before with his collar and buttons torn off after getting caught up in brawls. Such a man would not carry precious items on his body.
Just as the key to the study was currently in her own hand. If so, what place would a man so deeply suspicious consider the safest in the world?
‘A safe.’
The reason the ‘Earl’ locked the study with a key every time he went out was because of a safe…. This reasoning felt rational. It seemed to fit the ‘Earl’s’ personality well.
Vanessa narrowed her eyes and seriously scanned the vast study. Generally, safes were bulky and required structural work to install. It would also cost a great deal of money. While the ‘Earl’ would waste money freely on pleasure, he was a man who begrudged spending even a single pence on anything else.
It was unlikely that a man who even postponed repairs to the castle would have spent a large sum to install a new safe. If there was one used previously, there was a high probability he would continue to use it. If so, where on earth was the safe? Her eyes, slowly scanning the room, stopped at one spot.
‘Somewhere not far from the desk.’
The floor was structurally impossible, and to the left was the window. Vanessa calmly faced the right wall. The wall was hung with a stuffed stag’s head, various medals, portraits, and a large tapestry. In other words, it seemed an appropriate place to harbor a suspicious, old secret.
She flipped up the old, massive tapestry depicting a goddess sitting by a lake.
“…….”
The first deduction was neatly missed, accompanied by fluttering dust. Vanessa coughed and returned the tapestry to its original position.
‘A place that can be easily opened without a ladder or a footstool.’
No matter how large the study was, the locations where a safe could be hidden were limited.
‘In novels, there’s usually some mechanism that moves the bookshelves.’
She knelt on the floor and checked the carpet in front of the bookshelves for any signs of periodic scratching. She soon stood up in disappointment.
‘It’s clean. There’s not a single trace.’
Vanessa bit her lip anxiously. She checked behind the portraits and even inside the fireplace, but to no avail. If only she weren’t under the pressure of having to return everything she touched to its perfect state, she could have tried various things more comfortably…. Her gaze naturally returned to the first set of bookshelves.
Could it be that it wasn’t a safe? At the end of her wavering thoughts, an idea suddenly occurred to her. Vanessa hurried back to the bookshelves. She meticulously checked the shelves positioned within reach, one by one. And, finally.
‘I knew it. There are traces where the dust was recently wiped away.’
Vanessa urgently pulled out all the books on the shelf. There was something suspicious on the back wall of the shelf. Just as she thought she saw a faint reflection of light, she found a metal plate engraved with some kind of picture.
She felt the thin copperplate and pulled it out from the groove where it had been loosely fitted. Then, the safe hidden behind it revealed itself.
‘There really is a safe!’
She stroked the surface of the safe with a cautious hand. It was certain. It was a household iron dial safe manufactured by the Nocturne Company. Because they were used so universally, they were a common staple in mystery novels. Of course, ‘Miss Welsh’ had used one before.
Among them, this one seemed to have been purchased at least fifteen years ago. During that period, the Nocturne Company embedded gold decorations on the handles of the safes they sold, and those traces were visible on this safe as well. And if it was from that time.
‘It means the person who installed this safe was my father.’
The characteristics of a Nocturne safe were clear. It consisted of a three-digit dial, and the initial set code could not be changed.
Vanessa bit her lip in agitation. The password. If it was her father, who had prepared his will so thoroughly out of concern for her being left alone, he would have surely left something she could recognize.
‘The problem is that my uncle likely figured it out too.’
Vanessa stared blankly at the copperplate in her hand. Death, a bleeding lion, a grim reaper waiting by the lion’s head for the soul to escape, a papyrus crushed under the lion’s massive paw, like some kind of will….
‘The will!’
At the sudden realization, Vanessa almost cried out. How could she not have thought of it immediately, even after looking at the will until she had practically memorized it? She hurried to take out the copy of the will she had brought hidden in her clothes. The first sentence of the page stating that she would inherit the company always began like this.
R, V, ll, lX, CLXXXXll
If one took R to mean ‘right,’ the meaning of these numbers was clear. 5, 2, 9, 192. 1 turned 5 times to the right, 9 turned 2 times to the left, and 2 turned 9 times to the right again.
Vanessa turned the dial amidst extreme tension. After matching the last number, a clunking sound of metal hitting metal rang out, and the safe door opened. Her pale lips trembled. Wyatt would never imagine it. How far she had dared to come. And how much further she would go from now on….
‘I have to hurry.’
Inside the safe, several types of documents were neatly organized. Unlike the disarray of the study, it seemed to be properly managed. A bundle of mortgage documents, land deeds, contracts that looked like they involved something illegal…. And, finally.
‘The original will.’
She found the will tucked at the very bottom of the documents. Vanessa swapped the copy with the original with trembling hands. Then, she was about to close the safe after quickly organizing the scattered documents back to their original state.
Theodore Liam Battenberg
A signature scribbled on a piece of paper caught her eye.
