Always Friday (19 page)

“But what did you do with all of it, Granny? Show me, show
me!” She checked the next several verses, which had a word here and a phrase
there underlined, and wrote them down.

. . . a bride . . . built a house . . . laid the
foundation . . .

Which bride? Violet? Electra? Casey?

. . . the flood rose . . . shaken of a mighty wind . . .
So we built the wall . . .

“You’re talking about the great hurricane and building the
seawall.”

. . . out of great tribulation . . . island . . . moved .
. . my house . . .filled . . .

The grade-raising of Galveston when the yard and the basement
were filled in! Tess wiped the perspiration off her lip with the back of her
hand, took another deep breath, and went back to her task. She meant this
house. Grandma Casey’s house.

. . . in the earth, hid . . . money . . . earth on top .
. . the earth is full of thy riches . . .

“Yippeee!” Tess screamed and threw her pen in the air. “The
treasure is in the basement! My God, all these years, we’ve been sitting on a
fortune. Where in the basement, Granny?” She retrieved her pen from where it
had rolled under the bed and sat down to decipher the last eight verses.

When she’d finished, she held up her pad and read the last
words aloud. “Seek, and ye shall find under the place where she hath also
furnished her table, a place for the gold. Find the blessing in thine house. It
shall be an inheritance for what things ye have need of.”

Tossing down her pen, she closed her eyes and dropped her
head back. For all those years, an unbelievable treasure had been buried in the
basement beneath the dining table. She looked at the sampler Grandma Prophet
had stitched for Tess’s mother, Anna, and laughed. Now, the words made sense.

You may follow rainbows to find pots of gold, but the
real treasure of the family is in the foundation of our home.

All she had to do was go downstairs and dig it up. There
would be riches enough to buy her house and a whole string of racehorses for
Aunt Olivia and Aunt Martha. She could probably buy Friday Elevators and close
the damned place down if she’d a mind to. The thought was tempting.

Her only regret was that there was no one around to share in
her good fortune. Not Aunt Olivia. Not Dan.

She sighed. And shrugged. Oh, well. She wasn’t going to let
any sad thoughts spoil her moment of triumph. She’d found the treasure. By
damn, she’d finally found it!

And she was going to go downstairs and dig it up and laugh
while she ran her fingers through every last bit of it.

*    *    *

It was as dark and musty as a tomb down there. It was a tomb
of sorts. Maybe not as rich as King Tut’s, but near enough for her, she thought
as she held Hook’s mechanic’s light high. She’d tried a flashlight, but the
darkness had swallowed up the pitiful beam. So she’d gone to the garage and
found the brighter light. The long extension cord trailed behind her like a tail
as she made her way to the spot she estimated to be directly under the dining
table.

The ceiling of the basement was so low—or rather, the floor
was so high—that Tess practically had to duck-walk or scoot on her knees to get
around in some places. She swiped away a cobweb and sneezed at the dust it
stirred.

She looped the lamp cord around a nail in a board overhead.
It was probably the same nail Casey and Marsh had used to hang their lantern
when they buried their treasure. Or did they have electricity then? She
shrugged. No matter.

When the light was secure, she picked up the short-handled
entrenching tool she’d found in the garage and knocked away more cobwebs. She
sneezed again. Wiping her nose on her shirt sleeve, she began to dig. In only a
few turns of the shovel, she hit metal.

“Tess!” a deep voice called out.

She froze. Who was out there? Had she locked the door? She
couldn’t remember.

“Tess! Where are you?”

Dan! It was Dan! Startled, she raised up, banged her head on
a rafter, and let out a yelp. “I’m down here,” she yelled. Hunched over to keep
from bumping her head again, she started for the steps.

“Where?”

“Down here. In the basement. I’m coming.”

When she got to the abbreviated stairway, she looked up to
see Dan standing in the door. He was dressed in a business suit, complete with
conservative tie. He frowned. “What in the hell are you doing down there? You’re
filthy.”

Trying to make herself presentable, she swiped her hands
over her hair and her clothes, but she only succeeded in raising a dust cloud
and smearing spiderwebs on her hands.

“What in the hell are you doing in Galveston? I thought you
were in Pittsburgh playing president of Friday Elevators.”

He grinned. “I discovered it was no fun without you.”

Her heart did a back-flip and her eyes widened. “Do you mean
. . . ?”

He laughed. “I’m here for good. Know anybody who needs a
good architect?”

Tess ran up the steps and hurled herself into his arms. “Oh,
boy, do I!”

He swung her around, and they kissed and laughed and hugged
and kissed again. “Oh, God, how I missed you, babe,” he said, holding her
close. “I don’t think I’ve laughed once in the time I’ve been gone. My
headaches and stomach problems started again the first day I went to the
office, and I was miserable without you. Kathy had done a great job as
president while I was gone. I think everybody was sorry to see me come back.
And she loves it. Can you imagine that? She actually enjoys being president.”

Tess laughed and kissed him again. “There’s no accounting
for taste. Did she boot you out again?”

“No, when she saw me moping around and acting like a bear
with everyone who crossed my path, she insisted that we have a heart-to-heart
talk. For the first time we were honest with each other. I admitted that I
hated the job and only continued with it out of a sense of obligation to the
family and to protect her. She admitted that she’s been dying to take over for
a long time, especially after she saw me struggling through the past year or
two, but she didn’t want to hurt my pride by telling me. That sly sister of
mine sent me to Galveston hoping Gram could talk me into retiring from the
presidency.”

“I think I’m going to like Kathy.”

He grinned. “I think she’s going to like you, too. By the
way, she loved the gifts from Gram and me that you selected.” His hand cupped
the side of her neck and his thumb traced the line of her jaw in a tender,
familiar gesture. “I don’t want us ever to be apart again, love. Will you marry
me as soon as possible?”

She gave a saucy grin. “I always intended to.”

“I can scrape up enough to buy the house for you, and we can
take our time restoring it.”

She threw back her head and gave a low, throaty laugh. “Right
now I have a surprise for you. Take off your coat and tie.”

With a wicked gleam in his eye, Dan quirked an eyebrow. “You
got it, babe.” Before she could say a word, he shed his coat, dropped it on the
floor, and yanked off his tie.

“Not for that.” She gave him a playful swat. “That comes
later. Right now I have a surprise for you.” Grabbing him by the hand, she
pulled him toward the steps. “Watch your head. There’s not room to stand up
down here.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to dig for treasure.”

Dan groaned. “Oh, no, not again.”

“You just wait. This time I know absolutely, positively,
without a single, solitary doubt, where the loot is buried.”

“Where have I heard that before?”

With a little bob of her head, she gave a smug grin and
offered him the shovel. “But that was before I knew about Granny Casey’s Bible
verses.” With both of them kneeling in the basement fill dirt, he sighed, gave
her an indulgent smile, and reached for the short-handled tool. She pulled it
back, narrowed her eyes, and said, “You’re not one of those macho types who
would be intimidated by a rich wife, are you?”

Amusement lifted one corner of his mouth. “I think my ego
can take it.”

“Good, because we’re about to be very, very rich. Dig.”

He dug.

In a few minutes, the earth was cleared from a metal chest,
dark and crusted with age. They looked at one another. “Open it, sweetheart,”
he said, sitting back on his heels.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Her heart was in
her throat and her hands were shaking as she reached for the latch. She lifted
it and slowly opened the lid. Some sort of fabric lay over the top. When she
reached to pull it aside, it disintegrated in her hands.

Through the rotten remnants, something flashed in the light,
and she brushed the scraps aside. Her eyes grew wide, and she sucked in a gasp.
“Oh, Daaan,” she whispered.

“My . . . God.”

The chest was brimming full of gold and silver bars,
hundreds of Spanish gold coins, and all kinds of precious gems both mounted and
loose.

Dan picked up a gold tiara, studded with pearls and rubies
the size of quarters. He placed it on Tess’s head and smiled. “It matches your
outfit, my love.” He clasped a necklace of similar design around her neck.

She looked down at the heavy piece, squealed, and threw her
arms around him. “Oh, Dan, we found it! We’re rich!”

Laughing and crying and crazy with joy, she planted scores
of smacking kisses all over his face. So exuberant were her kisses that they
fell backward in the dirt with Tess sprawled across him. He held her and hooted
with laughter.

When the shock wore off, she sobered and said, “Dan, this is
only one. There are others.” Her eyes flashed and her voice was full of wonder.

They started digging again. In a little more than two hours,
they had unearthed twelve metal boxes, each filled with treasure.

Tess reached down, scooped a mound of gold coins up in her
hand, and let them trickle through her fingers. “How much do you think is here?”

Dan sat down on one of the chests and wiped his face on the
sleeve of his white dress shirt. He shook his head in amazement. “I have no
idea.”

“Do you think one chestful would be worth two million
dollars?”

“I suspect that’s a conservative estimate.”

She was quiet for a moment, then said, “Jean Laffite
provided well for his descendants. And Casey and Marsh Prophet made sure that
it would be safe for coming generations. Why don’t we keep out one for us and
one for Aunt Olivia? The rest we can cover back up to leave for our children
and our grandchildren.”

He looked pained. “Right now?”

Sitting in the dirt beside him, covered with grime, with
cobwebs in her hair and tiara slightly askew, Tess laughed and laid her head
against his thigh. “Tomorrow will be soon enough. Let’s go upstairs and take a
bath. After all that work, I’m sure you’re very tired and need to rest.”

Raising one eyebrow in that deliciously wicked way of his,
he said, “I’m not that tired.”

Pursing her lips to keep from laughing, she said, “I see.”
She leaned close to him and gave him her most provocative smile. “Did I mention
that everybody is in Louisiana? We have the house all to ourselves for three
whole days.”

Over the bateau neckline of a long hostess gown, deep
crimson and made of the softest velvet, Tess wore a heavy gold necklace,
encrusted with pearls and bloodred rubies as big as quarters. They sat snuggled
together on the huge, poofy couch covered in oyster suede and watched the
firelight flicker in the Italian marble fireplace. Above the mantle hung Hook’s
painting of the blue water nymph with Tess’s face. The colors matched the blue
watered silk on the walls.

The smells of burning oak and fresh paint and wax mingled
with those of warm cinnamon and nutmeg. A fragrance of potpourri and baby
powder wafted through the high-ceilinged house as well.

A crystal bowl filled with pine and holly sat on the massive
coffee table beside a wooden Bible case studded with a meandering trail of
rainbow-colored stones. A magnificent Persian rug covered the polished oak
floors.

“It’s taken a long time, but at last it’s all finished,” Dan
said, nuzzling the side of her neck. “Happy with it?”

“Very. I’ve never been happier in my life,” Tess said,
lifting her chin to give her husband better access to the spot where his tongue
was doing delicious things. “I have everything any woman could ever want. You?”

“Very. And you were right. I have more clients now than I
can handle.”

In the corner stood a tall spruce tree, covered with gold
balls and angels and great swags of gold and crystal beads. Four hundred
twinkling lights reflected off the gleaming brass samovar on the long table
next to it. Under the tree were great piles of gaily wrapped Christmas
presents.

“Why don’t you and I go upstairs?” he whispered.

“Can’t.” She sighed. “Hook went to pick up Kathy and your
mom at the airport, and they should be here any minute. Aunt Olivia and Gram
Martha and Ivan said they’d be here for dinner at six. It’s almost that now.”

“What are we having for dinner?”

“I don’t now. Ivan’s bringing everything. He said it would
be a traditional Bulgarian American Christmas Eve feast, whatever that means.”
She gave a deep, throaty laugh.

The sparkle in her eyes worked the same magic on him that it
had when he’d first seen her. “How I love you, Tess.”

She kissed the little freckle on the side of his mouth. “And
I love you. Now and always, Friday.”

The doorbell chimed.

“Up!” came a voice from the playpen at the end of the couch.

“Up!” came another.

Dan and Tess looked at one another. “I think the twins are
ready to play,” she said. “The whole bunch is going to spoil the girls rotten.
And you-know-who is the worst. I’ll get Casey. You get Marsha.”

They each picked up a small imp with identical red curls and
dressed in identical green coveralls . Four new teeth peeked out from behind
each twin’s babyish version of their mother’s million-kilowatt smile.