Gift of Fire

it was too late. In the end, the court and a bunch of lawyers gave it to Doug and Elyssa.”
    “Doug and Elyssa will have to sell it,” Verity pointed out gently. “They can’t afford to keep it. How did Digby expect you to be able to pay the taxes and keep the place running?”
    “You’ll laugh, but the truth was, Digby always said that when he found the treasure there’d be plenty of money to run this place in style. He had big plans to buy back all the furniture and paintings he had to sell off over the years. He wanted to restore the villa to the way it must have looked back in the sixteenth century. Oh, he had lots of fine plans, Digby did. And I was gonna help him with ‘em. We was a team, him and me.”
    “Too bad he never found the treasure he searched for all those years,” Jonas commented, leaning back casually against the counter as he sipped coffee.
    “I never did believe in that story about a treasure, though I’ll have to admit findin’ it would have been great,” Maggie said. “But I used to think that for Digby, most of the fun was in the looking, you know?”
    Verity found her remark unexpectedly insightful. “I can understand that,” she said quietly. “You and Digby were obviously very close.”
    Maggie nodded. “You bet your jeans we were close. He didn’t have no one else. His academic friends abandoned him as the years went by, and as for family, well! You’d have thought he was an orphan.”
    “What about Doug and Elyssa?” Jonas asked sharply.
    “You think they ever bothered to visit Digby much before he died? Not on your life. Oh, Doug did come out here once or twice a few years back, but that was about it. Little Miss Sunshine never showed any interest in the villa till after she and Doug inherited it. Now all she can talk about is finding the treasure. Fat chance,” Maggie concluded in satisfaction. “If Digby couldn’t find it, she sure as heck won’t be able to.” She glanced quickly at Jonas. “And neither will you. Not unless you’re a lot smarter than Digby, which ain’t very likely.”
    Jonas nodded soberly. “You’re probably right. Digby was quite smart, even brilliant in some ways. I read some of his early investigations into the nature of Renaissance science. They were first-class. Hazelhurst was a scholar in the old-fashioned sense. I still remember how much I learned about the Renaissance mind from a piece he wrote on sixteenth-century anatomy studies. He understood those men, knew how they thought.”
    A reminiscent gleam appeared in Maggie’s eyes. “Anatomy was one of Digby’s favorite subjects, all right. Whenever I think about some of those nights the two of us spent studying it down in that torture chamber I just kinda melt inside.” The gleam faded and was replaced by a hint of moisture. Maggie wiped the back of her hand across her eyes.
    Verity choked on her coffee. When Jonas reached over to pound her between the shoulders, she saw the laughter in his gold eyes.
    “Maggie, did Hazelhurst ever tell anyone besides Doug and Elyssa about the treasure? Did he ever ask anyone else to help him hunt for it?” Jonas inquired.
    Maggie opened the refrigerator and removed a tub of butter. “Sure. A few. Not many, though. Couldn’t trust most folks. And he damn sure didn’t want no one but historians hearing about the treasure. Real insistent on that, he was. But every so often he’d think he was making real progress, and he’d get excited and invite some old pal from his teaching days to stay here for a while. He’d tell ‘em about the legend and swear ‘em to secrecy. Sometimes they’d get curious enough to help him look for a while. None of ‘em ever stayed interested for too long. It always hurt Digby real bad that none of his pals from the university believed him.”
    “Did he try to get anyone else to believe him?” Jonas asked. “Someone from outside the academic world?”
    Maggie shook her head. “Not really. He only told men he considered real scholars. Never invited nobody but scholars here, said they were the only ones who could appreciate it. Except for Doug, that is. He did tell Doug. Said his nephew was kin and deserved to know about the legend, even if he didn’t have time to help him look for it.”
    “Those are the only people he might have told about the legend?” Jonas prodded. “A few friends from his teaching days and Doug?”
    Maggie’s forehead wrinkled for a moment in concentration. “Well, there