Chapter 12
Let Me Smack Him Once And I’ll Die A Happy Girl
When Max had the panel completely open, letting the sunlight stream into the small crevasse, we could see just what the flash of gold was: a perfectly preserved gold coin. My heart started thumping in my chest as Max reached in and pulled it from the crevasse, holding it in the palm of his hand. On one of the faces was a shield and the other I really couldn’t distinguish. The date 1713 was clearly visible on it, though.
Dad reached over and took it in his hand, holding it up so he could get a better look at it.
“Where is it from?” I asked, watching him just like Max and Brielle were.
“It’s circa 1713 and it’s definitely a Spanish coin,” he said, flipping it over again. “It’s absolutely perfect, too.”
“1713 Spanish coins,” Brielle said, her eyebrows pulled together. “Weren’t most of them on board the 1715 Treasure Fleet?”
Max looked at her. “The 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet?”
She nodded. “Yes, that one.”
The disaster of the 1715 Spanish Fleet had been one of the greatest loses of any of the Spanish treasure fleets. The convoy of eleven ships carrying millions of pesos in gold and silver had left the New World for Spain, only to be caught in a hurricane a week after setting off. All the ships sank, taking their treasure and hundreds of lives with them.
The remains of the fleet had been discovered off the Florida coast in the 1960s. Since then, hundreds of coins from the eleven ships had been discovered on the bottom of the ocean floor with the some of the remains. But probably none of those coins looked as good as this one, though.
“So what does this mean?” I asked, looking back at Dad. “The fleet wrecked off the coast of Florida. Are we going there next then?”
Dad continued looking at the coin for a moment before looking up at us. “It doesn’t make much sense. Is that his treasure? It can’t be all of it. I mean, he wasn’t even a very well-known pirate in 1715. He wasn’t until the next year.”
“Maybe this is what put him on the map,” I said. “There were tons of pirates who snuck around the wreckage, trying to get anything they could bring up.”
Dad nodded, trying to piece what I said together with information that we already knew.
I saw Max move to sit down in front of the vines. His head was just level with the panel in the stone wall. But when I looked closer, I could see something else hidden there.
“There’s something else,” I said, moving for the panel.
But that sent me crawling over Max’s lap. I wouldn’t have really paid much attention since I was trying to get whatever was in the crevasse. That was until I started to wobble a bit and Max grabbed onto my waist to keep me from falling. Blushing, I kept my face turned from his as I reached into the crevasse and pulled out another old, yellowed piece of paper.
“Got it,” I said, and leaned back.
Max let go of my waist just as I sat down in the plush grass beside him. I peeked over at him out of the corner of my eye. Aw, he was blushing! But then again…so was I. No wonder Dad and Brielle were looking at us funny…
I didn’t even want to know what they were thinking.
But by the looks on their faces, I already could guess.
Curse you, you two overly observant people!
“Okay,” I said, looking down at the piece of paper in my hand. “Let’s see what’s written on here.”
When I opened the paper, I immediately recognized the elegant handwriting as the same as the writing we found on the paper that was hidden in the fireplace. It must have been another letter Blackbeard wrote to Elizabeth. This one seemed like an actual letter, though, not one that only consisted of a stanza of a poem.
21 September, 1715
My dear, sweet Elizabeth,
I am fairing well, despite being far from you. As I sail the lonely seas, all I want to do is sail back to England.
My crew has grown, though, and we are battling our way to riches and higher reputation. Apparently I have got some of the most fearsome men accompanying me according to the stories that are being told. But little do they know, those men are not all they seem.
Now for the news: the gold coin that I have sent is not the only of its kind. The treasure fleet has sunk to the bottom of the sea, along with its treasure of gold and silver. We came across the wreckage mere days after the storm sunk them all. And in the calm waters, it wasn’t hard to seize almost all of the treasure and bring it aboard our own ships.
But in the weeks before, we found a treasure that vastly surpassed the fleet. It was in a land no other man had crossed before, in the territory of a native people that showed us. Riches you could not even imagine were everywhere. We took only a handful of the coins with us. And when we seized the gold and silver, we buried a vast amount along the sand on the coast. The rest we took to the cave. The natives promised that they’d keep it safe, along with whatever else we bring to keep there. Our plan is to bring all of our treasures for safekeeping there.
And with that buried gold, we buried the coins from our other treasure. Maybe one day someone will find it. But if not, you know where to find the journal with the location. After all, you were the one to hide it at the place we first met all those years ago.
Yours Forever,
Edward
I looked up at them once I was finished reading it. “So he took most of the treasure from the sunken fleet,” I said. “And then he hid it where he had…more treasure? But what treasure would that be?”
Dad shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, which was big for him. “There’s no record of him finding a treasure before. He always overtook ships and took whatever they had. He hid that treasure before he died and that’s what we’re looking for now.”
“But apparently it’s way bigger than we thought it was going to be. Who knows just what riches he’s talking about,” he said.
Max took the coin in his hand and looked at it, flipping it over again and again. “And what about the journal that he’s talking about? Apparently Elizabeth was the one to hide it and at the place where they first met. Does anyone know where that was?” he asked, looking at Dad.
He shook his head. “Nothing that I’ve ever heard,” he said. “But I’m sure we’ll be able to figure it out.” He stood up straighter and looked at his watch. “I think it would be best if we went ahead and headed back to the hotel. It’s almost one and Mr. McAllister said that he had another guest coming to look at the manor then.”
Max got up then, tucking the gold coin and the letter in his front pocket before extending a hand to me. Smiling slightly, I reached up and let him drag me up off the ground. I brushed my hands off on my shorts and adjusted Elizabeth’s ring on my finger. Max leaned down to close the panel in the stone wall, moving the vines back over it so it completely disappeared from view.
Dad and Brielle walked ahead of us as we made our way out of the garden and back up to the manor. Max was beside me with his hands in his pocket, holding onto the coin and letter for safe keeping.
“Well, this was a good trip, huh?” I asked, smiling up at him.
He smiled back, nodding his head. “Yes, very exciting,” he said.
I laughed, bumping my shoulder with his.
As we made our way back inside and toward the front door of the manor, we could hear voices drifting back toward us. And when we turned the corner, all of us stopped in our tracks.
There, talking with Mr. McAllister like they were old friends, was none other than Edmund Lewis. How he always managed to be in the same place we were when we were on an expedition, I had no clue, but there he was. When he and his two goons heard us walk in, they turned to look at us, including Mr. McAllister.
“Well, if it isn’t the famous Landon trio and their new intern,” Edmund said with a smile when we walked closer toward them. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Dad smiled, but I could see him stiffen out of the corner of my eye. “Same to you,” he said, and then looked at Mr. McAllister. “We’re heading out now since you’ve got new guests. We wouldn’t want to impose.”
Mr. McAllister opened his mouth to speak, but Edmund cut him off before he could get a word out. “It’s really not a problem,” he said. “You can explore this lovely manor with us.” He smiled slightly…and it made me want to smack it right off his face. “Personally, I’d love to see the garden. You never know what…hidden treasures…could be buried out there.”
My eyes narrowed just in the slightest.
“We really can’t,” Dad said. “And we’ve been here long enough. We should really head out…”
“So I thought you were only staying in England for a day when I last saw you in Cairo. Have you been here this entire time? Or did you come back?”
“We came back,” Max said, speaking for the first time.
Edmund’s eyes cut to him and narrowed slightly. Even I looked up at him in surprise. He’d never even met Edmund before and he was already lying to him why we were actually here.
“We were in Boston until this morning when we flew back here,” he continued. “I wanted to bring them here since my parents brought me here as a child. We’re having dinner with them tomorrow since they haven’t seen them in a while and Callie has never met them.”
Edmunds eyes moved to me then and he smiled again. “Ah, Calliope,” he said. “I didn’t see you there.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes at him more. I had the feeling he already knew I didn’t like him, so I didn’t care if he noticed. “Edmund,” I said.
His eyes wondered over me again, making me want to gag, until he stopped at my right hand which was resting on my arm. I looked down and my eyes widened at Elizabeth’s ring, sparkling in the sunlight that was streaming through one of the windows. I swallowed hard as I dropped my arms to my sides and looked back at him.
“That’s a beautiful ring,” Edmund said, looking back up at my face. “Wherever did you get it?”
I lied quickly. “It was my grandmother’s,” I said.
“Ah,” he said, nodding slowly, still staring at me. “How nice.”
Dad stepped forward with Brielle right beside him. “Well, we’ll be heading off now,” he said, walking up to Mr. McAllister to shake his hand. “Thanks again for letting us come look around. You’ve done and absolute amazing job with the place.”
“Thank you,” Mr. McAllister said. He looked a little out of it as he shook Dad’s hand. He kept looking back and forth between him and Edmund like he knew something was going on.
When we walked down the gravel pathway toward our car, it took almost all of me not to start yelling. Mr. McAllister would have probably thought I was crazy…
So I waited until we were in the car and heading down the road.
“Why?” I said loudly. “Why does he always have to be in the same places that we are when we’re on an expedition? It never fails!”
“Calm down, Callie,” Brielle said from the front, sighing. “It’s not like he knows what to look for.”
“And it’s not like he’s going to find it if he did,” Max said, pulling out the gold coin and the letter from his pocket. “We’ve got it right here.”
Sighing, I leaned my head back against the seat. “True,” I said. “But still…I hate that guy.”
“Hate is a very strong word, Callie,” Dad said, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.
I snorted. “But not when it’s used in the same sentence as Edmund,” I said. “And you can’t honestly think that when you look like you’re about to break the steering wheel in half.”
I saw Brielle smile as she reached over and grabbed one of Dad’s hands from the steering wheel and threaded her fingers through his. He instantly relaxed.
“We’ll talk more about this when we’re in the hotel,” Dad said.
On the way back into London, I kept my head back against the seat, trying to think of ways that Edmund could have found out about Elizabeth’s manor. The only thing I could think up was the little metal jewelry box that I found the ring in. But could Edmund have gone to North Carolina and saw it? I definitely think so.
When we got back to our hotel and up to the room, I went into my bedroom and shut the door. I could hear Dad and Brielle talking about what we needed to do next, but I just wanted to relax and try to get my mind off of everything.
That really didn’t happen for very long before a few minutes later, there was a knock on my door and Max stuck his head in.
“Hey, can I come in?” he asked.
I nodded. “Sure,” I said, sitting up on my bed. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” he said. “Your dad and Brielle are starting to do some research on the treasure fleet, finding out where most of the gold is being exhibited. They said that wherever it is, we need to go.”
He walked over and sat down beside me. I just looked over at him, resisting the urge to touch him. As anyone could imagine…it was definitely hard.
“So what did you think about today?” I asked, trying to get myself to thinking about something else. “Fun, right?”
Max grinned over at me. “Yeah, it was,” he said. “It’s crazy to think that Blackbeard and Elizabeth are the ones who hid all of these things. I’m still wondering about the journal, though. Your dad and Brielle think we need to find out just how big this is going to be before we figure out where to look. That’s why they’re starting research on the coin right now.”
I shrugged, rolling my eyes. “That’s how they’ve always been, wanting to see just how everything looked on a larger scale. They want to know the details. I guess it’s a good thing, though.”
We were both quiet for a minute, listening to the muffled voices of my dad and Brielle. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence or even a strained one. It was kind of nice just being able to sit next to him without having to say a word to fill it.
“So I want to do something tonight,” he said suddenly.
My eyebrows furrowed. “Um, okay?” I said. “What do you mean?”
He looked over at me with a grin. “I want to take you out.”
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Next chapter should be fun, too! ;D
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