‘I don’t,’ she said. ‘You’re the ones who seem to think there’s more gold to be found. Not me.’ We both waited. ‘But,’ she added reluctantly, ‘there are some interesting stories about the witch who lived there. You know how we didn’t treat witches very well back in the day?’
That was something of an understatement.
‘Well,’ Amy continued, ‘the old story goes that there was an old woman who lived there a few hundred years ago. Whether she was an actual witch or not, she was poor for most of her life and always struggled to make ends meet – until all of a sudden she started flashing the cash. She bought a bunch of stuff at the local market and started wearing nicer clothes. Nobody couldwork out where she got her money from. Her neighbours got jealous and started pointing fingers, saying that the devil had paid her to do bad things.’ Amy rolled her eyes. ‘The woman was tried as a witch and burned at the stake.’
‘There was never an explanation for where she got the money?’ I guessed.
‘Nope. She could just have nicked it from somewhere.’
‘Or she could have somehow found the Staffordshire Hoard and dug part of it up,’ Hugo said. ‘And she didn’t dig it all up because she was executed before that could happen.’
‘It’s a theory.’ Amy sounded doubtful. ‘But it could just be an old story that’s not remotely true. Sorry I couldn’t come up with anything better.’
I glanced at Hugo. ‘It’s plausible.’
‘It is.’ He looked closely at Amy. ‘You’re an elf.’
‘A low elf,’ she said quickly. ‘I’m not like you.’ That was exactly the sort of thing I used to say.
Hugo persisted. ‘But you’ve got some magic?’
She shuffled her feet. ‘A bit.’
I understood where he was going with this. ‘How’s your earth magic, Amy?’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s a nifty trick that I can show you with earth magic,’ I told her. ‘It might help you when you go to the cottage to hunt for the hidden gold.’
‘Me?’ She stared at us. ‘Why would I do that?’
Hugo and I exchanged glances. ‘You’re smart and you can think on your feet,’ he said. ‘You also seem to have a talent for searching.’ He smiled faintly. ‘As long as there are no spiders to worry about.’
I nodded. ‘And we’ve got other places to be. You could take up the search for us. Anything you find will be yours.’
Amy crossed her arms and nibbled on her bottom lip before eventually shrugging. ‘Alright,’ she said. ’Tell me what I need to know.’
Chapter
Fifteen
The only person who was displeased by the turn of events was Hester. As soon as we waved goodbye to Amy and got into the Jeep, she started to complain. Loudly. ‘You absolute bunch of bloody idiotic nincompoops!’
I clicked my seatbelt into place. ‘What’s wrong now?’
‘We have a decent lead on some real treasure and you handed it over to a teenager! When she gets rich and you’ve got bills that you can’t pay, don’t come crying to me!’
Otis sprang to our defence. ‘Hes, they’re already rich,’ he said patiently. ‘They can pay their bills – even Daisy can pay her bills. She’s not a hard-up delivery driver any longer. She’s a lady. With a mansion.’
‘That’s no reason not to guard against a rainy day! Or to grow those existing riches!’
‘You know there’s much more to what we do than money, Hes,’ I said. Being rich was not anywhere near my to-do list. Besides, as Otis had said, thanks to Lady Rose I was already more than wealthy enough for all of us. ‘Amy has done most of the heavy lifting. She’s the one who pinpointed the old witch’s cottage. If there’s any treasure to be found there, she deserves it.’
‘Plus,’ Hugo added, ‘we’re less concerned with the treasure that Athair wants us to find and more interested in what hedoesn’twant us to find.’
‘Based on what?’ Hester asked sarcastically. ‘An old map with a blank space on it and the ramblings of an ancient giant spider? We don’t have any real information to go on. We don’t even know where to find information.’ She folded her arms, affected a pout and turned away. ‘It’s ridiculousness.’
‘Well, I think they’ve done a wonderful thing,’ Otis said. ‘Even without the immediate concerns about Athair, they’re inspiring the next generation of treasure hunters. They’re creating a wonderful legacy.’
