Free The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons by Barbara Mariconda Page B

coffin!” Pru exclaimed. “The treasure was in there until you made off with it!”
    â€œBrilliant, if I must say so myself,” Great-grandmother Molly said, puffing up like a proud mother hen. “True, I dug it up, and hauled it off with me to the mainland. No small task, I’ll have you know! But I figured it out and I did it! Then I used some of the money to build myself a little inn and tavern, set up a business fer myself.”
    â€œAnd . . . ,” Pru urged, circling her hand in the air impatiently.
    The queen of diamonds smiled, basking in the attention. She cleared her throat, stretching out the suspense. “I had a secret vault built into the foundation of the place. That’s where I hid the treasure.”
    â€œWhere is it now?” I asked.
    â€œHow should I know?” The queen of diamonds snorted. “Stolen out from under my nose. So you know as much as me. You’ll have to use your wits for once!”
    My aunt flew from her chair and in one swift blow smacked the card to the table. Pru stood, palm down, breathing heavily, nostrils flared. I could see the queen of diamonds’s buggy eyes peering up between my aunt’s slender fingers. Walter, Marni, and I held our breath. Another card rose, as though carried by a playful gust of wind. We stared at the dapper king of diamonds, his crafty smile spreading ear to ear. “Can you see how she made it easy to betray her?” he quipped. “The woman could drive a person mad!”
    â€œYou’re even worse!” Prudence exclaimed, snatching his card from the air and holding it before her.
    The queen of diamonds wriggled out from beneath Pru’s flattened hand and flew back into the air, facing her king. “I may have lost the treasure,” she taunted, “but at least you never found it!”
    â€œOh, I found it all right,” he snarled, “and died trying to take it back!”
    â€œHow?” I sputtered. “Where?”
    â€œHow? Where?” he mocked in a high-pitched voice. “That’s for you to figure out!”
    Pru snapped up both cards, stuffed them in the box, and slammed the lid. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
    Marni shook her head. “I’ll never understand how some parents can be so ignorant of the ways their decisions affect their children, and their children’s children.”
    Walter’s face clouded over, and I thought of how we’d all been let down by one ancestor or another—Marni betrayed by both parents, Mary Maude Lee and my great-grandfather, Walter, Georgie, and Annie, by their brute of a father. At least Pru and I enjoyed loving parents, although they were lost to the curse of the previous generations. If they’d taken the curse seriously, they might still be with us. I shook my head, dispelling the litany of what-ifs that traipsed through my brain.
    My musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Comin’ to see if Miss Marni made it back safe ’n’ sound!” came a voice from outside. Pru quickly rearranged our clues and evidence into a neat pile and opened the door. A large wedge of sunlight spilled inside. Seamus stood framed in light, his curly hair sparkling as if on fire.
    â€œI’m fine,” Marni assured him, “after my skirmish with the Grey Man. Thank goodness I’m at home in the water.” A little too “at home,” I thought.
    â€œWell, thank the good Lord,” Seamus exclaimed. “Was hopin’ fer nothin’ less.” His eyes wandered to the papers on the table. “What were ye’s workin’ at there?” he asked. “Looks like quite a pile o’ stuff.”
    Walter swiped up the evidence and handed the collection to Pru. “Nothing,” he said, his eyes boring into Seamus’s face. His tone let Seamus know it was none of his business.
    Undaunted, Seamus grinned. “Hurry out then! I’ve