Belle (The Daughters of Allamont Hall Book 2) by Mary Kingswood Page A

a set of keys there, Miss Allamont. What do they unlock?”
    “I have not the least idea. They do not fit the locks on these drawers.”
    “Aha, locked drawers. Now, the system my uncles employ is to keep money in a locked drawer, and the key to that is hidden somewhere. One keeps it under the rug before the fire…” He knelt down and scrabbled about under the corners of the rug. “Hmm, not there. An empty vase, perhaps.”
    He moved about the room, looking inside this and under that, but found nothing.
    “Did your father take snuff?” Miss Endercott said.
    “Never, that I knew of.”
    “Yet he has a snuff jar on the mantle above the fire, which is quite the wrong place for snuff to be kept.”
    Mr Burford hurried across the room, picked up the jar and shook it. “There is something inside, but it does not rattle as a key would. May I open it, Miss Allamont?” When she assented, he unscrewed the lid and shook out a small velvet bag. He opened it and triumphantly produced a key.
    “There, Miss Allamont! Surely that will unlock one, at least, of the desk drawers.”
    It fitted all of them, turning with a smooth, well-oiled movement. She slid each drawer open. One contained a locked journal, one a small metal box and the third was empty. Belle lifted the box and set it on top of the desk.
    “This is so heavy, it must contain money!” she said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. “Oh. But it is locked. Everything is locked.” Quickly she tried all the keys, but none opened it. “Oh, that is very disappointing. Mr Burford, do you have any more ideas for hiding places?”
    “For keys? A key may be hidden anywhere, and judging by the size of the lock, this would be a small, delicate one. I have not yet examined the desk itself. May I?”
    Belle stood and with great care, Mr Burford methodically examined the chair, the sides of the desk and beneath it, and every object on the desk. “This book was in the desk?”
    “Yes. I do not know why it was not on the bookcase with the others.”
    “One of my uncles kept a key inside a book, with the pages cut away.”
    “What a dreadful thing to do to a book!”
    “I thought so, too, but it was not a book of great interest. May I, Miss Allamont?”
    “Of course.”
    He opened the book and began flipping through the pages. “Oh!” He went red to the very roots of his hair. “Oh dear. You have not looked inside this, Miss Allamont?”
    “No.”
    “Nor should you. It is… my goodness, what a thing for you to find!”
    Miss Endercott chuckled. “Am I to take it that the book is unsuitable for ladies?”
    “Quite, quite unsuitable. Indeed, I would venture to suggest that the fire is the best place for it.”
    “You wish to burn a book?” Belle said, startled. “Is it so bad?”
    “Dreadful, utterly dreadful. I am not easily shocked but…really!”
    “If there is no key hidden within it, then you had better put it on the fire.”
    He did so, still beetroot red, while Miss Endercott chuckled again, and Belle wondered what book her father would buy that could so shock Mr Burford. While it burned, Mr Burford resumed his examination of the desk, beginning with the insides of the previously locked drawers.
    “Aha!” From the recesses of the empty drawer he triumphantly produced a small silver key. “There you are! Hanging on a little hook in a corner. Very easy to miss. I expect that will do the trick.”
    So it did, and Belle lifted the lid of the money box with an exclamation of delight. Within, she found velvet-lined sections containing coins of various denominations. With Mr Burford’s aid, she added up the values, but to her intense disappointment, it amounted to not much above fifty pounds.
    “It is still not enough.” She sighed. “And look, here is another key which fits no lock we have yet found.”
    “If you wish, I can explore a little further,” Mr Burford said. “I had one uncle who kept a bottle of port in a recess in the arm of his