Trouble & Treasure by Dave Moyer (learn to read activity book txt) 📖

looked pretty good.

I leaned down and picked up the sweet shoes Elizabeth had left for me. They were pale brown with large brass buckles and a small heel. They matched the outfit perfectly. All I would need was a nice flowing white silk scarf and some ladylike leather gloves and I would belong in an adventure novel from the turn of last century.

For the first time since I’d trundled down my stairs last night to find criminals in my house, I gave a genuine smile and a small laugh. I would have to enjoy it while it lasted, as I would soon be thrust into the company of one monumentally irritating Sebastian Shaw.

When I was satisfied with my reflection, brushing a hand down the nicely fitted jacket, I walked out of the laundry.

When Sebastian saw me, it was clear he found my outfit amusing as he half turned away trying to hide the smile that spread across his lips.

What an insufferable git. I ignored him as I walked past, both hands tugging down firmly on my jacket.

When Elizabeth saw me she clapped her hands together, a warm smile pressing up her cheeks. “Oh, Amanda, you look fabulous.”

“Something like that,” Sebastian mumbled, “But we need to go.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth was visibly disappointed, “Isn't there time for me to make you some snacks for the road?”

“No time.” Sebastian put his hand flat on my shoulder and pushed me forward.

If the man weren’t carrying a gun and weren’t such a large brute, I would have pushed him off and kicked him in the shins.

We walked to the door, and the closer we came the more the situation began to feel real again. A cold tight pressure spread across my chest, and that familiar taste of raw fear infected my mouth.

Elizabeth gave me a hug before she opened the door. “You will be alright, dear,” she assured me, “Sebastian is an excellent lawyer.”

I didn't have the heart to tell her that Sebastian's legal skills aside, it sounded as if I would need an entire army on my side if I wanted to win this.

“Do you have a hat, Elizabeth?” Sebastian couldn't keep his eyes off my unkempt hair. Perhaps he was a neat freak, or perhaps he liked his women to be of the excessively clean and primped variety. “Something with a big brim?”

Elizabeth clicked her fingers together. “I have just the thing.” She darted off down the corridor, disappearing for a while. In those few moments Sebastian took the time to look at me, his eyes traveling down and up my figure. I wanted to slap him.

Perhaps I would be better off with Maratova.

Elizabeth rushed back, a hat clutched in her old hands. It was white with a large wide brim and had a wide silk ribbon tied around the middle. It was exceptionally pretty.

“That will do.” Sebastian hardly gave the hat a glance as Elizabeth handed it to me.

Once I secured all of my hair under the hat, I waved goodbye to Elizabeth.

I turned to follow Sebastian. Chapter Eight

Sebastian Shaw

She looked the part, I had to admit. The hat Elizabeth had dredged up suited Amanda.

Now all I had to do was get her to my car, drive into town, and keep her out of sight. The hat would be a start, but the rest would be up to me.

I didn't bother to open the door for Amanda, and I found it highly amusing when she paused, waiting for me to do it. I could tell she was a well-heeled girl, and I’d also done some checking on her last night, which helped. She had a trust fund and was related to Imelda Stanton, one of the richest women in England. Amanda had gone to uni and walked away with the most useless degree: an arts degree specializing in history and fine art. She had gone on from there to do various stints in volunteer organizations, especially ones that had anything to do with animals or the environment, and had pretty much vacillated for the rest of her life, as children born into rich families often do when they do not have to work for their crust. She didn’t have a police record, she'd only ever had a handful of parking fines, and she wasn't on any lists. Well she would be now, but before the auction, Amanda had led an outstandingly boring life.

Amanda Stanton looked like the most ordinary of girls. I was gobsmacked it was her of all people who’d found my globes. Though technically, it wasn’t her at all, it was her Great-Uncle Arthur Stanton, adventurer extraordinaire. He'd done all the hard work and found the globes, she’d just put them up for auction in the most stupid manner possible.

She got in the car, the giant brim of her hat tilting and covering most of her face save for a thin line of her bottom lip and chin. Move over Serena, in that moment Amanda looked more than attractive. But that moment passed when she opened her mouth.

“Where are you going to take me?” she asked in that highly irritating pitch of hers. “Should I call my great-aunt? I mean, what if people start to realize I'm missing? What if people go to my house and... well, notice all the guns on the ground?”

I shook my head as I walked around the front of the car to sit with a thump behind the wheel. I ignored her as I started up the engine, scratched my neck, waved at Elizabeth, and moved into reverse.

“Won’t the police be looking for me? What about this Maratova man? Last night while you were in my drawing room, you mentioned something about a man named Romeo, won't he be after me too?” Her voice was picking up speed, the words blurring together.

If this woman didn't irritate me so much, I could sympathize with her situation; she'd had one hell of a night. Yet for some reason this chick irritated me, so I pulled my lips back, my teeth stuck together in the worst smile I could muster.

It wasn't until I gunned the accelerator down the immaculately graded stones, tires slipping as they tried to get traction on the uneven surface, that I answered her. “You do not want the list of people that are after you, honey,” I took great pleasure in using that pet name because of the distinctly irritated look she shot me. “First things first: you need to tell me where the rest of the globes are.” I turned to her as I made it to the end of the driveway and onto a large country road.

She didn’t answer right away, she hesitated. I sure as hell hoped it wasn't because she was caught with a desire to open the door and roll out of the car, in her never-ending attempts to flee me.

“Amanda, I need as much information as you can give me. Please don't tell me that those globes are back at that house.” I doubted they were. If Maratova had found the globes lined up neatly under her pillow, I would have heard about it by now.

She bit her lip, and I only noticed because I took the time to take my eyes off the road to glance her way. “Amanda?”

“Well,” she began in a small voice, “Technically I... don't have them yet.”

My lips curled into a frown. “Sorry?” my voice bottomed out low. This wasn't all some game, was it? Had Amanda Stanton been lying when she'd told that auction room she had the full set of the Stargazer Globes?

My throat became dry at the prospect of how fucked up this could be.

“I know where they are, I just don't have them yet,” Amanda started to play with her fingernails, rubbing at her hands nervously.

Before I could blow a gasket at the prospect Amanda had been lying all along, and that the only Stargazer Globe had already been sold off at auction, I took a calming breath. “Where are they, Amanda?”

“Oh,” she clamped her hands tightly on her lap, “They are in his book. Well,” she moved her hands about as if she was trying to extinguish a fire, “I don't mean to say that they're in his book, like they are somehow squeezed between the pages, because that would be silly.”

I didn't even bother to point out that yes, obviously that would be silly, as silly as the current conversation. All I cared about were those globes, not how ridiculously cute Amanda's lips were as she caught them between her teeth.

“What book?” I asked after it became clear Amanda was going to leave out the most important detail.

“My great-uncle's book. The one on his desk where I found the original globe, the one that had been in the attic full of treasure.”

“Sorry? The roomful of treasure? What are you talking about?” my tone was terse; this was like getting information out of a two-year-old.

“I found the original globe, the one sold at auction, in my great-uncle’s attic. While the rest of his house was full of junk, well, the attic was full of treasure,” she said matter-of-factly, “There were even gold statues. My great-aunt, owing to the fact she is the executrix of the estate, dealt with those. She left me that inane-looking globe and all of Great-Uncle Stanton's papers. I suppose she thought they weren’t worth anything.”

I snorted. It didn't surprise me that Imelda Stanton wouldn’t have thought much of the dusty old Stargazer Globe. She wasn't the kind of old dame to look beyond appearances.

That Amanda had obviously thought there was something to the Stargazers, or at least enough to put them up for auction and find herself in the biggest trouble of her life, was interesting.

That the globe sold at auction had been in a room full of treasure, well that very was interesting indeed. Could it be that old crazy Arthur Stanton had already brought all the Stargazers together and found some of the treasure from them (it wouldn’t be all, not unless he’d hollowed out a whole city underneath his manor and had stacked it to the brim with the world’s greatest antiquities)? I had no idea, but it was something to think about. I realized as I let a genuine smile spread my lips that any clues I was looking for might be in the book Amanda was talking about.

I took a corner too hard, Amanda grabbing hold of the armrest, her legs stiffening as she tried to keep balance, her skirt riding up. I flicked my gaze down to her knee, then up to her face. “Where is the book, Amanda?”

She caught me looking at her legs, and sucked in her lips and narrowed her eyes. As if I was interested anyway.

“It's at the local library,” Amanda said with a shrug.

Before I could worry that yet again the next piece of the puzzle was back at old Stanton's house, it was as if she had come at me with a right hook, right out of the blue. “What?”

She offered an awkward smile around gritted teeth. “Well, you see, I accidentally took it to the library when I was returning a whole bunch of other books. They called the other day to let me know, but I haven't