The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries 3)

“The biscuit tin?”

He held out his hands, and despite the sadness in his eyes, they still glinted with amusement. “I was sure he was lying, but when I went home that night, I looked in the biscuit tin and found both his will and a small lock box under a mammoth pile of chocolate digestives.”

“Was the key there?”

“No. He kept one in the medicine cabinet in his bathroom, but that opened a second lock box in the globe bar in the library.”

“That’s a bar?”

“It was supposed to be, and it is again now.” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Inside that lock box was the key for a safe disguised as a recipe book in the kitchen, and that one finally had the key for the box in the office.”

I pressed my hand to my mouth so I didn’t laugh out loud. “How did you find all those things?”

“It wasn’t easy. I remember finding the box with a random key in the globe and going to the hospital and demanding he tell me where the next one was, because I’d searched the entire house and was completely stumped. Mum taught me to cook from memory, and I certainly never used any of the recipe books here, so how could I know one was fake? He finally told me it was in the only books I’d never touched, and Christopher helped me find it.” He shook his head. “I thought he was insane, but when I told him how annoyed I was about the wild goose chase he’d sent me on, he laughed, and I knew he’d done it deliberately.” Matthew’s lips tugged up. “It was the last conversation we ever had.”

“At least it was a good one.”

“That’s very true. It was.”

“What would have happened if you didn’t find it?”

“Oh, that’s the fun part. At least it was in his mind.” He caught my gaze, smiling. “There was a jewellery box he gifted Christopher and Elin, and in it, there’s a secret compartment. It contained a locket. He’d written down the co-ordinates of each key and tucked it inside the locket.”

“That’s crazy. What if you didn’t know about the secret compartment?”

“He put a note in the top of the box that said there was one.” He leaned back against the sofa, laughing. “I think it was his way of having one last hurrah. In the end, I obviously secured the correct key and got all the codes to the numerous safes in the house, but we never would have known about the locket had he not put the note in the box.”

“Did Elin get to keep them?”

He nodded. “There was nothing overly sentimental about the box or the locket. Both my grandfather and my father liked to collect things they found pretty, and I remember him asking Mum if she’d mind if he one day gave Elin the jewellery box because he knew how much she liked it.”

“And she didn’t?”

“Of course not. They’re extremely close friends. You’ve probably noticed that the household isn’t exactly run very strictly around here.” His lips twitched on one side, pulling up to a small half-smile. “That’s because Dad treated everyone as his friends. He didn’t believe in treating the staff below him just because he was fortunate to be born into the aristocracy, and I try to do the same. I hope I do.”

“I think you do. From what I’ve seen, that is,” I said quickly. “It’s quite comfortable here.”

“I’m glad you think so.” He held my gaze for a moment. “Well, I think this is done. Do you want to pick a spot and we can adjust it?”

“Yes, absolutely.” I used the sofa to haul myself up and looked around the room. “Um, I’m not sure. I’m going to need a small table for paints and water.”

“We can take one of the side tables for now. What about the corner so you can see outside?” Matthew carried it over to the corner. “The sun does glare through this window in the morning, but you can pull the blind over to block it out if you’re in here before ten.”

“Helpful. It’s nice to paint in the morning when nobody else is around.” I hovered while he put the easel in place and tilted it so it was perfectly lined up with the angle of the corner.

Okay. So that pleased me greatly. I was a whore for symmetry.

Matthew took the smallest side table and brought it over, carefully setting it next to the easel. “There. Does that work?”

I smiled at him, wrapping my arms around my body. “It works. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He stilled when four loud bangs came from the direction of the front door, then quickly rushed off in that direction.

What was that?

I followed him, having to run a little to keep up with his long stride, and hovered in the library doorway.