A Treasure Worth Keeping (8 page)

Sam stopped so abruptly, Evie slammed into him. It was like running into a telephone pole.

“It might help if your dad was
at
the lodge.”

“That must be where he called you from. According to my itinerary, they should have arrived there at six o’clock.”

“Your
itinerary?
” he repeated.

“I plotted out their trip. Based on mileage. Number of stops. Packing the canoes and paddling to the island. My calculations could be off, but not by more than fifteen minutes.”

Sam stared at her as if she’d spoken in a different language.

“That’s it. We’re going to Sophie’s.”

“What? Why?” She scrambled away from him when he reached for her hand. She was tired of being towed around like a piece of wheeled luggage.

“Because our fathers are having a delayed midlife crisis, that’s why.”

Evie managed to grab her purse as Sam took hold of her elbow and hustled her out the door.

“O
h, dear.” Sophie took one look at Sam’s face and put her hand to her throat. “Come in.”

“Where’s Faith?”

“She fell asleep on the couch. I think the puppies wore her out.”

“We need to talk to you.” Sam lowered his voice. “Is Tyson here?”

Sophie shook her head, casting an anxious glance at Evie. He didn’t blame her for being concerned. If possible, Evie’s skin looked more pale than usual. He’d expected to be bombarded with questions on the car ride over to Sophie’s, but Evie had sat quietly, her hands twisting the straps of the gigantic purse in her lap.

“Come into the sitting room.” Sophie bustled ahead of them. “We can talk there without disturbing Faith. Would you like something to drink? Tea? Coffee?”

“Sophie, I don’t think—” Sophie speared him with a meaningful glance at Evie, who’d wilted into the worn velvet settee in the corner.

“Coffee.” He had a feeling they were in for a long night.

He reined in his impatience until Sophie returned with a tray crowded with delicate china cups and a plate of paper-thin lemon cookies.

Sophie dropped two sugar cubes into Evie’s cup before settling into a chair opposite them.

Sam had never been good at small talk, and he wasn’t in the mood for it now. His stomach still clenched at the thought of finding Evie alone with the guy who’d managed to charm his way into Patrick’s private office. Except Lansky hadn’t gotten what he’d been looking for. Which meant he might come back.

“I got a call from Patrick tonight, Sophie. Before we got cut off, he said Evie might be in danger. When I went to the house to check on her, there was a man with her. A Seth Lansky. He told Evie that Patrick had hired him to work on his computer but it was clear he was really trying to get into the files.” Sam watched the color ebb out of Sophie’s face and felt a stab of guilt. Jacob would string him up for confronting her like this, but Sophie was the only person who might be able to explain Patrick’s urgent phone call.

“You told me that Dad and Patrick were meeting with a friend about finding a ship that sank in Superior. Is there something you
didn’t
tell me?”

Sophie’s hands fluttered in her lap. “I’m afraid there’s a lot I didn’t tell you.”

“We’re listening.” Sam softened his tone, reminding himself that Sophie had gone through a lot over the past year. But he had to make sure Evie was safe before he’d let her go back to the house alone.

“What are you two talking about?” Evie broke in. “Dad and Jacob are on a
fishing
trip. He never said a thing about meeting a friend…or searching for a…
ship.
”

“He didn’t want to worry you.” Sophie sighed. “And the only reason I mentioned it to Sam the other day was because I thought Jacob had told him.”

Evie leaned forward. “Told him what? Where
are
they?”

Sophie paused and closed her eyes. When she opened them, it was obvious she’d come to a decision.

“Shortly before I found out I had cancer, I’d started researching my family genealogy. I knew there’d been a scandal a long time ago. My grandmother always referred to it as the Graham family curse. It made me curious and I started contacting distant relatives, trying to find out what they remembered about it. Finally, I discovered a distant cousin who was thrilled to get rid of a box of old papers she’d had in her attic for years.

“My great-grandmother’s journal was in it, along with letters she and her daughter-in-law, Dorothea, had exchanged. Dorothea and her husband had had a rocky marriage, and she blamed my great-grandfather, Matthew Graham. Apparently Matthew had been branded a thief and betrayed people who trusted him. Dorothea believed Matthew’s actions had marked the family and no one would ever be free of them. I think that was why my grandmother referred to the scandal as a curse. But for me, it became a blessing. In the middle of reading through the journal and Dorothea’s letters, I found out I had cancer. But I didn’t feel hopeless because God had given me a purpose.” Sophie paused and took a deep breath. “I decided to find out the truth. What really happened and if Matthew Graham was guilty or not.”

“But what does this have to do with Dad? And Jacob?” Evie asked in confusion.

“They offered to help me.”

Evie closed her eyes, relieved. “Dad is helping you research your family history? That makes sense. He’ll spend hours sifting through books—”

“He’s not looking through books,” Sam interrupted. “He and my dad are looking for a ship. Or, to be more exact, something
on
the ship.”

“That’s impossible. Dad doesn’t know the first thing about that kind of stuff.” Evie looked to Sophie for reassurance, but the expression on the older woman’s face caused a fresh crop of goose bumps to rise on her arms. Was she really supposed to believe that her quiet, scholarly father had gotten mixed up in a crazy hunt for a sunken treasure? If he had, she didn’t blame Sophie. It had to be Jacob Cutter’s fault.

“Sam is right,” Sophie admitted. “They’re looking for the
Noble.
”

“What do you know about it?” Sam asked.

“Not a lot. According to Dorothea’s letters, a ship came over from England in 1890. Over the past few months, Patrick and I searched through dozens of old newspaper clippings. We found several references to the
Noble,
a wooden steamer that sank in October the same year. It went down in heavy fog and only one person survived.”

“Your great-grandfather.”

Sophie nodded. “Matthew worked in a logging camp and his boss had hired him to go to England and escort Lady Dale Carrington back to the United States. Lady Dale’s father had arranged for her to marry Randall Lawrence, the son of a lumber baron. She brought a wedding gift from her family with her. A dowry, if you will. I can’t find a specific reference as to what it was. Maybe jewelry. A family heirloom of some kind. Whatever it was, it must have been extremely valuable. The loss of it stirred up more of a fuss in the Lawrence family than the loss of a prospective bride.

“Matthew claimed Lady Dale’s dowry sank with the ship, but they found her betrothal ring in his possession. It was all the proof Randall needed. He accused Matthew of saving himself and the treasure. Matthew denied it, but his reputation was ruined. A few years later, he married my great-grandmother but something had happened to him. He drank heavily and couldn’t keep a job. They barely scratched out a living.”

“Not exactly the kind of life a man harboring a treasure would choose,” Sam said. “If he’d managed to survive and keep the dowry, he would have moved far away and put it to good use.”

Sophie gave him an approving smile. “My thought exactly.”

“Who knows about the
Noble?
” Sam asked suddenly. “Is it common knowledge there was something valuable on board?”

“I don’t think so. No one in my family ever said a word about a treasure—I didn’t even know what Matthew had been accused of stealing until I read Dorothea’s letters. She was the first one who had mentioned a dowry. The newspaper articles only reported that the entire crew had gone missing, their bodies never recovered. Some of my distant relatives know I’ve been researching the Graham family history, but only Patrick and Jacob know specific details about the
Noble
and Lady Dale’s dowry.”

Listening to their exchange, Evie remembered the diving gear in the back of Seth’s van and a knot formed in her throat. “Are there people who look for sunken ships that might have a treasure on board?”

Sophie hesitated. “There are laws that protect wrecks from being salvaged in areas designated as underwater preserves.”

“But what if the
Noble
sank outside a preserve?”

“Permits would need to be filed.” Sam answered the question. “But some people might bypass that little detail.”

“But Sophie said no one knows for sure where the
Noble
went down,” Evie reminded him.

“Jacob’s old friend, Bruce Mullins, is a diver. He’s been credited with discovering several important wrecks in the Great Lakes over the past decade,” Sophie said. “He’s familiar with Superior and would know if there’s a possibility the
Noble
can be found. I know Patrick and Jacob made it clear to Bruce that everything they told him was to be held in the strictest confidence.”

Sam scrubbed the palms of his hands against his face. “I’m pretty sure someone knows about it now,” he said grimly. “Do you have any idea why they’d be interested in Patrick’s computer files, Sophie?”

Sophie bit her lip. “The day before they left, Patrick said he had a surprise for me. Something to celebrate my six-month checkup. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, but maybe he figured out where the
Noble
sank.”

“He’s been documenting your research on his computer?”

“Dad hates computers.” Evie felt the need to point it out. Again. Patrick may have helped Sophie pore over old newspaper clippings, but if she knew her dad, he’d taken notes using his trusty ballpoint pen and paper.

Sophie slid an apologetic look in her direction. “That’s not quite true—he’s actually quite knowledgeable about them. He also scanned Dorothea’s letters and pages from the journal into his files. I have everything locked up, but Patrick thought we should have copies. I let him handle that part of it. Tyson has a computer but I never bothered with one.”

Evie didn’t think her dad bothered with them, either.

Sudden tears stung Evie’s eyes and made her nose twitch. It was bad enough that Patrick hadn’t confided in her about his real plans. And it was possible that someone else was interested in the
Noble
’s cargo. But everything Sophie had shared with them shrunk in comparison to one simple truth.

Her dad had broken his promise to her. A promise he’d kept since she was fourteen years old when he told her that he’d always be there for her. That he wouldn’t do anything to put himself at risk…like her mother had.

“What do you mean you can’t get in touch with them?” Sam paced the length of the telephone cord and reversed direction when he reached the end of it. He lowered his voice, aware of Evie and Sophie in the next room and Faith asleep on the couch several yards away. “What if there’s an emergency?”

“Our pilot flies into the camps once a week with supplies,” the proprietor of the lodge informed him. “Even in an emergency, the earliest we could get a message to your father would be next Monday or Tuesday.”

Not good enough. Sam had to warn Patrick what had happened to Evie and find out who else was interested in the
Noble.
He already had a strong hunch
why
they were interested. Legends of sunken treasure lured hundreds of divers to the Great Lakes. Even though Sophie was right about laws existing to protect areas designated underwater preserves, there were unscrupulous people willing to break them.

Bruce Mullins, if he remembered correctly, had served in the Marines with his father. Maybe all he’d done was mention the
Noble
to a relative or friend he thought he could trust and it had sparked their interest.

But how had Seth Lansky zeroed in on Patrick’s computer files instead of going to Sophie—the source of the information?

“Mr. Cutter? Are you still there? What is the message you’d like me to deliver?”

“Ah…could you tell the pilot to have him call home as soon as possible?”

Silence.

Sam rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Right.
Phone home.
That sounded like a legitimate reason to send a pilot on an unscheduled flight to an isolated fishing camp.

“I’ll pass the message on, Mr. Cutter. Was there anything else?” Her tone made it clear she hoped not.

“No. Thank you.” Sam hung up the phone.

The grandfather clock in the corner of the room came to life. Ten o’clock. The past few hours had disappeared, absorbed by Sophie’s story about her family and Matthew Graham. Under any other circumstances, Sam would have been fascinated. But not now. Not with Jacob and Patrick out of reach and Evie alone at the house.

Another wave of helplessness rolled over him. He’d come to the Upper Peninsula to take a break from his problems, not add to them. But Patrick had called him. Warned him that Evie might be in danger and asked him to look out for her.

He couldn’t leave her unprotected, especially if whoever was interested in the ship was convinced Patrick’s computer files held the key to the
Noble
and her secrets.

Hopefully the incident with Lansky would prevent Evie from giving another stranger access to her home, but anyone could show up at Beach Glass during the day, pretending to be a customer.

As much as he wanted Evie to continue tutoring Faith, he didn’t want to risk Evie’s safety. When he’d pulled her to the ground so Seth wouldn’t see them, her slender body had stiffened in his arms, tight as a bowstring. She was fragile. Vulnerable. There was only one thing to do. Convince her to pack her bags, close up shop and go home. And it probably wouldn’t take much convincing. She was such a cautious little thing….

Decision made, Sam padded into the sitting room and saw the two women sitting shoulder to shoulder on the old settee. Hands clasped. Heads bowed.

Praying?

He paused in the doorway, feeling like an intruder, as Evie’s soft voice filled the quiet.

“…and heavenly Father, we turn to you for strength. And for wisdom. Protect the people we love and bring them safely home. For now, we trust they are in Your care.”

The words sailed through the empty places in his heart. What was it like to be so sure Someone was listening? Someone who really had the power to give strength? Over the past few months, his had drained away. Punctured by the bullet wounds in his brother’s spine. Dan had always come to him for advice. But now, when Dan needed him the most, Sam found he had nothing. Nothing to give. Nothing to say. Nothing that could reverse the clock or give his brother hope for the future.