“You must be Mike and Sydney!” Tim said, ushering us into the house.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sydney looking around the room. She was attempting to take everything in.
“Thanks again for welcoming us into your home. This house is so beautiful,” Sydney said.
“It is. We’ve loved being here.”
I followed Tim and his wife, Sue, into the living area. “You did an extensive remodeling, I read.”
“Yes, we did. We took great care to restore the house exactly the way it was built. Even greater care when we stumbled across little hidden gems. Like these tiles we found in the floorboards. The floorboards, if you can believe that! They are all hand painted.”
Sydney and I stepped closer to the fireplace and looked at the tiles. Most of them were paintings of ships. One caught my eye, and I leaned in closer.
“Is this a painting of the Boston Tea Party?” I asked.
“Good eye there, Mike. Not surprised with you being a history lover.”
I smiled at the older man.
“We found this one separate from the others. It was wrapped up in a linen cloth along with a silver spoon. The name R. Collins was written on a piece of paper that was tucked between the two items.”
Studying the painting, I tried to recall where I had seen it before. Is it a painting that Paul Revere had done?
I looked over at the couple. “Where in the house was it found?”
“There was a trapdoor in the kitchen that led down to a root cellar. It was hidden in an old wooden box that had been tucked up in the ceiling beams. We only found it because we’d taken each floor plank out to inspect all the beams in the house. Some needed replacing,” Tim said.
“This might be a strange question, but was there a symbol on the beam?” Sydney asked.
“No, but there was a small symbol with an initial on the box,” Sue said.
“Did it look like this?” Sydney asked, taking out her phone and pulling up the picture of the coin.
Tim and Sue both looked at the picture.
“Yes, that’s the same symbol. Is that a coin?” Tim asked.
Sydney smiled. “It is. My grandfather left it to me with a letter when he passed away. It’s what sparked our interest in finding restored houses in the area and learning about them. Isn’t it interesting how homeowners hid things back then?”
Tim nodded, looking back down at the picture. “Why in the world would that symbol be on the box here in this house in Provincetown and on a coin found in Salem?”
With a half shrug, Sydney remained casual. “I don’t know. We’ve found the symbols in a few of the older homes in the Salem area.”
“Is that so!” Sue exclaimed, clearly excited.
The way Tim was staring at the coin had me curious.
“Have you ever seen that symbol before, Tim?” I asked.