Millie rushed to her chamber, remembering to knock on the door as if she was Jess.
Jess flung the door open. “Millie! You’ll never guess what happened!”
“Shh!” Millie rushed in, giggling. “You’re supposed to be me, remember! Someone might hear you.”
“Oh, I forgot!” Jess sat down on Millie’s bed and stroked Jax, who was lying there snoozing. “I’ve got so much to tell you.”
Millie listened to Jess’s tale, all about the cheese and the disappearing paintings.
“No one knows who took them,” finished Jess. “And that means we have a mystery to solve! I haven’t got any clues so far though. I didn’t see anyone suspicious.”
“So the cheese cart blocked the street,” said Millie. “And when you got out of the carriage the pictures were left alone.”
Jess nodded. “The thief must have been really fast. I only left the carriage for a minute.”
“Do you think someone put the cart there on purpose to make the carriage stop?” Millie looked thoughtful.
“I don’t know,” said Jess. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Millie paced up and down the room, questions spinning round her head. Who would want the royal paintings? Had the thief planned to steal them or had he seen them in the carriage and decided right then that he wanted them? “Were the pictures wrapped up in paper while you were riding in the carriage?” she asked Jess.
“Yes, someone tore the paper off. They took three paintings – the ones with the black cat. The fourth painting was left behind.”
“Paintings with a black cat… I know the ones you mean! They hung on the wall in the banquet hall. I liked those pictures,” cried Millie. “Cats are so adorable!”
Jax opened his eyes and barked.
Millie laughed. “Don’t worry, Jax! You’re adorable too!” She paced up and down the room again. Stopping suddenly, her eyes lit up. “But if the paintings were wrapped in paper, the thief couldn’t have just seen them by chance and then decided to take them. It MUST have been planned – blocking the road with the cheese and everything!”
“I guess so! The paintings were only unwrapped in the shop…” Jess bit her lip.
“What is it?” prompted Millie. “Have you remembered something?”
“Well, there were lots of people in the studio and Gilbert – the artist – started talking about the pictures. He said they were painted by a famous painter and worth an awful lot of money. Lots of people heard him!”
Millie’s heart skipped. “Then that’s an important clue! Let me find my clue notebook.” She dashed over to her dressing table and took a notebook and a pencil out of a drawer. Opening it up, she flicked past pages of writing and a very odd drawing of a lake monster.
Missing – three royal paintings, she wrote in big curly letters. They are pictures of Plumchester and all of them have a black cat.
She nibbled the end of the pencil. “Do you remember what the people in the shop looked like?”
Jess screwed up her face. “There were quite a few people. I was there and so was Gilbert Small, the artist, and Miss Clackton came in too. Then there were two ladies in velvet jackets, an old man who couldn’t walk very well and another man with a grey hat. I think that’s everybody.”
Millie wrote it all down.
“And the two ladies were smiling and talking to each other so I think they must have been friends,” added Jess.
“Brilliant!” Millie finished scribbling. “Now we just need to go to Plumchester, find them all and work out which one is the robber.”
Millie and Jess swapped clothes again before going downstairs for lunch. Then Mr Larum called Millie to the schoolroom to do some spelling practice. After spellings he taught her some geography and by the time she’d learned the names of all the rivers in the kingdom, the afternoon was gone and it was too late to go to Plumchester.
At dinner time that evening, Millie pushed her spoon round and round her bowl of vegetable soup wondering where the missing paintings might be.
“Amelia, I think it’s time you stopped stirring that soup and began eating it,” said Queen Belinda, gently.
“Sorry I’m late, Your Majesties.” Mr Larum clomped in, carrying a painting of the palace. “I wanted to show you the only picture that wasn’t stolen this morning. I apologize for the loss of the smaller paintings. I blame myself—”
“Don’t worry, Mr Larum,” said the queen at once. “We know it wasn’t your fault. You were distracted by the obstacles in the street.”
“That’s very kind,” said Mr Larum, sadly. “But it’s so embarrassing to be outwitted with cheese.”
Millie managed not to giggle.
“It’s odd that the largest and most expensive picture was left behind,” said King James. “If the thief wanted money he would have made more from selling that big one than all the smaller ones put together.”
Millie’s ears pricked up. Why had the thief left the largest picture? Had it been too big to carry? Jess came past with a jug of water which she set down on the banquet table. The girls exchanged looks and Millie knew Jess was wondering the same thing.
“Of course, the little pictures do have an interesting history.” Mr Larum gave the picture to the butler and sat down at the table. “They were painted for King Ned a long time ago. There’s even a funny old story about one of the pictures having a clue painted into it.”
Millie dropped her spoon and it clattered to the floor. “A CLUE! What kind of clue?”
“Amelia, what’s got into you?” chided her mother. “Mr Steen, could you bring her another spoon, please?”
Millie dived below the table to grab the spoon, sitting up again so quickly that the room spun a little. “Sorry, Mr Larum,” she said, trying to hide her excitement. “Did you say there was an old story about those paintings?”
“It’s nothing, really!” Mr Larum took a bite of his bread roll and chewed slowly. Millie could hardly breathe while she waited for him to answer. “Well … there’s a book about the history of Plumchester in the royal library. It says one of those paintings might reveal some treasure that got hidden away a long time ago. It’s all nonsense though! No real historian would take it seriously.”
Millie’s eyes widened. “What kind of treasure? And how does the painting show where it is?”
“That’s enough now! Let Mr Larum eat his dinner,” commanded the king, before turning back to the queen. “So my dear, what colour roses would you like to grow in the rose garden this year?”
Millie kept quiet even though she had a thousand questions. Mr Larum might think the story about the clue in the picture was silly, but to Millie it sounded very exciting indeed!
Chapter Four
The Clue Inside
the Painting
Millie fizzed with excitement as she waited for Jess in her chamber after dinner.
Steps sounded in the corridor and Jess burst in. “Can you believe it?” she said in a loud whisper. “One of the stolen pictures has a clue painted in it!”
“I know!” Millie’s eyes sparkled. “It sounds so mysterious! We have to get that book about Plumchester from the library and find out more. I think we should go right now!”
“We can’t,” Jess told her. “King James is in the State Room with the Lord Chamberlain, and the queen’s sitting in the Crimson Room. Those are the only ways to get to the library – unless we sneak through the garden and try to get in through the window.”
Millie thought for a minute. “The windows are usually locked. We’d better wait until they all go to bed. Let’s meet in the entrance hall at midnight!” She held out her pinkie and the girls linked their little fingers.
“See you at midnight, Double Trouble!” said Jess, grinning.
Millie’s mind was whirling so much that she had no problem staying awake but the minutes seemed to tick by very slowly. The cuckoo clock downstairs chimed nine o’clock, then ten, then eleven. Millie waited until she was sure it must be nearly midni
ght. Then she tied her cloak over her nightie and opened her bedroom door just a little.
The corridor looked like a long, dark tunnel. Millie picked up the lamp from her bedside table and crept down the passage. Every creaky floorboard sounded loud in the silence.
Crossing the gallery, Millie went down the grand staircase to the entrance hall. Everything was strange and different in the dark. Her lamp cast a dim glow across the pictures on the walls and the eyes of the people in those paintings seemed to follow her.
Cuckoo! A little bird popped out of the door in the clock and called twelve times. Millie’s heart jumped and she smiled at herself for being startled. It was funny how spooky everything was at night.
“Millie!” Jess slipped through the doorway, a cloak tied over her nightie. “Is everyone asleep except us?”
“I think so,” said Millie. “Come on – let’s find that book!”
The girls crept through the State Room, past the oval table covered with maps and papers. Then they tiptoed through the king’s study and opened the door to the library.
Millie raised the lamp and shone light across the enormous bookcases. Her heart sank as she realized how many shelves there were to check.
“Where should we start?” hissed Jess. “This could take hours.”
“Mr Larum said the book was about the history of Plumchester,” Millie whispered back. “I think the books are grouped together so we just need to find the history ones. And we need books with facts – not stories.”
“I’ll hold the light while you look.” Jess took the lamp and held it close to the nearest shelf so that Millie could see.
They worked their way along, checking each shelf in turn. Jess even carried the wooden stepladder over and climbed it to check the highest shelves.
“Fish and Frogs, Birds of the Sea, Butterflies … these are all animal books,” said Millie. “I can’t find history books anywhere.”
“How about these?” Jess pointed to a row of old-looking books on the bottom shelf.
Millie knelt down. The covers were worn and hard to read. “Yes, I think these are history books. There must be one about Plumchester… Here we are!” She pulled a brown book off the shelf and traced the title with her finger. “Plumchester in the Olden Days – that’s it!” She flicked the pages open.
“It could take ages to find the part about the painting,” said Jess, yawning. “I’m so tired! Maybe we should take it with us and read it in the morning.”
Millie flicked the pages faster. “No, wait! I think I’ve found it.” She started reading. “Many years ago, King Ned was worried that there would be a war. He was afraid of what would happen if an enemy got inside Peveril Palace, so he hid most of his gold coins in a secret place. He died soon afterwards and many people believe the gold still lies in the mysterious place where it was left.”
“Where did he hide it?” cried Jess. “What else does it say?”
Millie carried on reading. “Stories say King Ned made Arthur Black, a famous painter, leave a clue about the hiding place in a painting with a black cat. Whoever works out the clue will discover the King’s Gold.”
“That must be why the paintings were stolen!” said Jess, excitedly. “The thief must have known about the story. They knew that a picture with a black cat shows where the King’s Gold is.”
“It explains why they didn’t take the biggest picture,” Millie said thoughtfully. “They only wanted the painting with the clue.”
“But there are three paintings with a black cat and the thief stole all of them,” said Jess. “So maybe…” She stopped suddenly.
Millie stared. “What is it?”
“Someone’s coming!” hissed Jess, pulling Millie to her feet.
Together, they ran across the library and dived behind the leather chairs near the fireplace. The door handle creaked. Millie hurriedly grabbed the lamp and blew the candle out.
Mr Steen slipped through the door with a lamp of his own. Millie peeped round the arm of the chair. She saw the butler scan the room. Then he glided forward until he was only a few steps from their hiding place.
Millie held her breath, afraid he might hear.
“Peculiar!” he muttered to himself. “Perhaps that noise was just an owl.” Then, after scanning the room once more, he turned and left.
Millie let her breath out, her heart racing. “That was close! I wonder what he’d have said if he found us.”
“He’d have made me do extra sweeping in the morning. That’s for sure!” Jess dropped into one of the armchairs. “Anyway, I was thinking! There are THREE paintings showing a black cat and we don’t know which one of them has the clue. The thief stole them all so I don’t think he knows either.”
“You’re right!” Millie plonked herself in the other chair, still holding the book. “But if we figure it out, we can solve this mystery and catch the thief all in one go!”
Chapter Five
Gilbert Small
Helps Out
Jess hurried back to her chamber after serving breakfast the next morning. She sat down on the comfortable bed. She loved her room at Peveril Palace, even though it was nice to stay at home in Bodkin Street now and then.
The book about Plumchester that she and Millie had found the night before was lying on her pillow. Pulling off her mob cap, she turned to the page about the painting and the hidden gold and read it all over again.
There was a knock at the door and Millie bounced in.
“It’s no good!” Jess closed the book with a snap. “There’s nothing in here about which of the three paintings has the clue. I’ve even tried to draw them but I can’t remember them as well as I thought.”
“I know what you mean!” agreed Millie. “They’ve been hanging in the banquet hall for years but I’ve never really stopped and looked at them properly.”
“I think we should tell the grownups about all this,” said Jess. “The palace guards will be hunting for the paintings and knowing about the clue might help.”
“You’re right!” sighed Millie. “Come on – Mother’s still finishing her breakfast.”
The girls ran up the corridor into the banquet hall where Queen Belinda was sitting with little Prince Edward.
“Mother, we’ve found out something about the stolen paintings,” said Millie, launching straight in. “There’s a book in the library which says King Ned’s gold was hidden long ago and a painting with a black cat shows where it is.”
“We think that’s why the paintings were stolen,” added Jess.
The queen laughed. “Honestly, girls! Mr Larum explained yesterday that it’s just a silly story. The palace guards are investigating the robbery and I’m sure they’ll do a fine job.”
“But, Mother—” began Millie.
“Now hurry along and get ready. A carriage will take you back to the artist’s studio in ten minutes to have your portrait finished.” Queen Belinda cut some toast into little pieces for Prince Edward. She glanced at the scarf round Millie’s neck. “Make sure you wear the same dress again and please take off that scarf. We don’t want that in the picture!”
“Yes, Mother.” Millie stifled a sigh.
Jess said quickly, “Please could we both go to the artist’s studio, Your Majesty?”
Queen Belinda smiled. “Of course! Tell Mr Steen I’ve given you the day off, Jess. Have a lovely time, girls!”
As soon as they’d left the banquet hall, Jess murmured, “We’ll just have to look for the clue ourselves.”
“It’s a shame that Mr Larum said it was all nonsense.” Millie pulled a face. “And what shall I do about my neck? I spent half an hour scrubbing it with soap this morning but the yellow stain’s still there. It’ll look awful in the painting.”
“Don’t worry!” Jess grinned. “We’ll ask Mr Small not to show it. He’s really nice!”
Jess explained to Mr Steen that she had the day off. Luckily the royal butler was too busy to mind. “Yes, off you go then!” he told her, before marc
hing away muttering, “Now where is that gardener? It’s very rude of him to disappear.”
Jess wasn’t sure what Mr Steen meant and she forgot all about it as she ran down the front steps to the carriage.
Millie was waiting for her. “I thought I’d bring these.” She showed Jess the pencil notes she’d made the day before.
Halfway along the road to Plumchester, they passed some guards standing beside a cart piled high with big, round cheeses. A woman wearing a brown bonnet was arguing with them. “I’ve told you! I didn’t leave the cart here,” she was saying. “It was outside my shop. I was loading it up to go to the market and someone just drove it away.”
The carriage rolled on past Halfpenny Square and rumbled to a stop outside Mr Small’s studio in Bodkin Street. Jess jumped out and dashed into the shop with Millie right behind her. Rumble-tum came out of the back room and rubbed against Jess’s legs, purring loudly.
“Morning!” boomed Gilbert Small, his eyes twinkling. “Are you looking forward to painting a jungle animal on my wall, Princess Amelia?”
Millie gazed in wonder at the walls covered with tropical trees and flowers. Jess remembered how amazed she’d felt when she’d seen the place yesterday. Suddenly she realized how strange this was. She’d come here dressed in Millie’s clothes yesterday and now here she was in maid uniform.
Gilbert seemed to guess something was different. He looked from Millie to Jess and back again. “If you girls were in the same clothes you’d look just like twins.” He rubbed his ginger beard, his brow wrinkling. “Except … your eyes are a little darker than your friend’s,” he said to Jess. “In fact you look more like the girl I painted yesterday – even in a maid’s dress!”
“You guessed that we swapped!” cried Jess.
Gilbert’s eyes twinkled again. “As a painter I have to notice every little detail. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. Shall we introduce ourselves properly?”
“I’m Jess!” said Jess, shaking his hand.
“And I’m Millie!” said Millie, shaking it too. “I have a yellow stain on my neck from face paints. That’s why I didn’t come yesterday.”
The Hunt for Hidden Treasure Page 2