The Treasure Hunters Read online

  On the following Monday, the temporary respite didn’t work as more investors pulled out. By Tuesday, about sixteen million shares had been traded. The ticker didn’t stop, and by the end of the day the market had lost over fourteen billion dollars in one day. People lost everything, including Merridie.

  Her friend had called her late in the evening, and Ruby had gone straight over. Merridie had been in a state of incomprehension, and all Ruby could do was comfort her friend as she came to grips with the new reality before them.

  It was toward evening when Robert finally made an appearance. Ruby sat holding Merridie’s hand as she watched him come to an abrupt halt, the moment his gaze landed upon his pale fiancée.

  “Why didn’t your butler answer the door?” he demanded. “And why are you crying? Really, Merridie . . .I’m playing poker this evening over at the Thorngates, and I don’t want to be late.”

  “The lawyers just left,” she whispered.

  He frowned. “This late at night? What did they say?”

  “My entire fortune was invested in the Exchange,” she said, still sounding a bit dazed. Ruby squeezed her hand. “The bank had been seeing some difficulty in my accounts, but they never thought to warn me.”

  Robert leaned down to grab her arms, giving her a shake to snap her out of her disassociation. “What’s left, Merri? What do you still have?”

  “Stop it!” Ruby yelled at him. “Let her go!”

  “Nothing,” Merridie whispered. “Nothing at all.”

  Robert abruptly let her go and she sank back onto the sofa. Ruby stepped in between them, ready to defend her friend. Clearly, Robert was in a state of shock as well, because he took a step back and looked at them as if they were too dirty to touch.

  “The creditors have already called,” Merridie continued in a pain-filled voice. “Robert, my credit has come due and I’ve got nothing to pay with. They’re going to take my house.”

  “You have nothing saved? No ready cash?”

  Suddenly, Merridie got angry and she surged to her feet. Ruby stepped back to let her deal with Robert. She hoped Merridie would kick him in the balls.

  “Why would I have needed anything else but my credit, Robert? No, I didn’t have anything saved. I didn’t have ready cash. It’s gone, Robert.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment before he stuck out his hand.

  “My ring, please,” he said, voice toneless. “I’m going to need it back.”

  Ruby took a step toward him, ready to follow through on her mental castration, when Merridie pulled the big diamond off her ring finger. She flung it at him, and he scrambled to catch it. He pocketed it quickly and without another word, turned and left the same way he came in.

  “Including you,” Merridie said softly, sadness in her voice.

  Ruby put her arms around her just as Merridie burst into tears.

  ****

  “I’m so glad you’ve both come over,” Eden said as she clipped a few roses from the bushes surrounding the patio. She laid down the sheers on the table and arranged the red flowers in a vase.

  “Merridie is going to live with me now,” Ruby said. Merridie gazed down in her cup. She was worried about her friend.

  “That’ll be swell,” Eden replied. “Or you can live with me, Merrie. Or you can take turns, one week with me and one week with Ruby.”

  “Eden,” Ruby warned but the other girl just blinked blankly at her. She loved Eden so much, but sometimes the attic was empty.

  “Why don’t I ask Papa if I can come stay with you as well?” Eden clapped her hands with delight. “We could play cards. Dance. Charades. Why, we’ll have so much fun that Merridie will forget all about the bastard.”

  Hearing Eden swear shocked them so much that Merridie glanced up from her cup, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

  “All right, Eden,” Ruby said. “That actually does sound nice after what’s been happening. Let’s go talk to your father.”

  Eden grabbed the vase of roses and led the way back into the house. November had dawned to the horror of the world changing. Every day the Dow Jones continued to fall, and somewhere along the way people began to realize there was no going back up. Newspapers told horror stories of people who chose to kill themselves rather than face the future penniless.

  Eden’s home was big and lovely, and everything was white, her signature color: White walls, white furniture, and white rugs. Even growing up, she’d cry if she got dirt on her pristine white clothes. The patio led to the den with her father’s office door off to one side. Eden put the vase on the white marble fireplace mantel and knocked on the door. A loud click emanated from inside, and Ruby’s eyes widened in horror. She rushed forward, just as Merridie did, trying to keep Eden from opening the door.

  But it was too late.

  Eden walked into the room just as her father put the pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger. A deafening roar exploded throughout the room, and Ruby’s ears pulsed with the reverberation. Inside, the white room was now covered in a thick splattering of red.

  Eden looked down at herself. Red blood splatters covered her face, arms and chest. Merridie caught Eden just as she fainted.

  ****

  Later that night, Ruby, Merridie and Eden sat in Ruby’s living room. All the lights were out, as if in solidarity with the dire day. Merridie held Eden, rocking her. In some sad way, Eden’s loss had seemingly brought Merridie out of her own depression.

  Now they were all orphans.

  “What do you think is going to happen?” Merridie asked softly.

  Ruby sighed and reached over to pour more wine in her glass.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “My once-employed accountants told me to expect the market to continue its decline.”

  “I dismissed the rest of my staff,” Merridie said sadly. “I wrote them all letters of reference, but everybody is just like us. How could this have happened?”

  “There were signs,” Ruby told her. “They were ignored. Even Eden’s friend, Mr. Redmont, tried to talk about it.”

  That’d been two weeks ago. Two weeks ago their lives were full, happy. Now it was all gone, and she didn’t mean the money. The security had been ripped from them ungraciously and she was having difficulty thinking of what to do next.

  “I’m sorry about Robert,” she said, latching onto the easiest of thoughts.

  Merridie shrugged, cynical. “I should’ve known he was just interested in the money. I should’ve let Eden keep his wallet.”

  Ruby smiled wearily at that. God, she was tired.

  “Some people are coming tomorrow to evict me,” Eden said, her voice small and disembodied from reality. “I don’t know where I’m going to go.”

  “You’ll come live with me, of course,” Ruby told her. “You’ll both come live with me.”

  “You lost everything too, Ruby,” Merridie reminded her. “It’s just a matter of time before this house has to go as well.”

  “I know,” Ruby whispered. “But I promise you both, I’ll find a solution.”

  “Just please, promise me you won’t hurt yourself,” Eden murmured and began crying again. Merridie held her tighter.

  Chapter Three

  When the front door bell rang early the next morning, it took Ruby a moment to realize that no one was going to answer the summons. She’d let go of the staff a few days before. She hurried to answer it and saw a messenger boy holding out a slip of paper to her.

  “For Miss Ruby Talcott.”

  “I’m Ruby Talcott,” Ruby replied. Taking the paper, she looked at the markings and saw that the telegraph came from London. Who would be contacting her from England? The boy cleared his throat and when she looked at him, he had his hand out. “Oh, right.”

  She reached behind her to the foyer table and snatched up her purse. She pulled out a coin and handed it to him. The boy grabbed the coin, tipped his hat, and darted away. Ruby closed the door, her mind once again turning
to the message. Making her way down the hallway to the veranda where Merridie and Eden sat eating breakfast, she opened the envelope and read. There were only a few sentences, but Ruby’s heart stopped for a brief second before racing off like a Thoroughbred.

  “Merridie! Eden!” she called out, racing to the veranda. Both her friends looked at her in surprise as she burst outside. Eden had cried off and on through the night, leaving her with dark circles under her eyes. Merridie looked tired from taking care of the younger woman.

  “What’s wrong?” Merridie demanded. “I don’t think I can handle one more thing.”

  “I was sent a wire from my relatives in England,” Ruby told them. “They heard what happened and offered me a position with the main company.”

  “That was nice of them,” Eden murmured.

  “A position?” Merridie asked. “Meaning a job?”

  “Yes, you snob. A job. And you two are coming with me.”

  Eden nodded sagely. “I could use a vacation.”

  Merridie looked at Eden like she had a screw loose. Eden continued to nibble on her biscuit as she stared at Ruby.

  “So why are we going to jolly old England?” Merridie asked.

  “I need financial stability to get back my father’s dream,” Ruby told her. “Working at the main branch will strengthen ties, so I should be able to get their support.”

  “That didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’ll train you both up in the company, of course,” Ruby said. “We’ll be like my father and create our own future. Besides, there’s nothing left for us here.”

  “Ruby, New York City is still our home.”

  “We’ll make a new home,” she said. “A new life.”

  Eden cocked her head. “Have you told your family you’ll be bringing us?”

  Ruby slowly shook her head no.

  Merridie sighed. “Inflation won’t be isolated to America, you know. Pretty soon it’s going to spread to other countries. Even I know that.”

  “That doesn’t matter right now,” Ruby insisted. “One bridge at a time. But we do need to consolidate our resources. Money is especially important right now for our passage to England.”

  Merridie’s cup halted halfway to her mouth. She wrinkled her brow as if mentally debating something. After a few minutes, she sat her cup of tea down with a sharp click.

  “I have a resource,” she finally said.

  She stood and lifted her right leg to the chair. While she was busy lifting her skirt to her thigh, Ruby and Eden looked at each other in bafflement. Ruby wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was so far up Merridie’s clothes and then she saw something above her friend’s knee, where the garter stopped. Heavy gauze wrapped around her thigh and she began to unwind it. It only took a moment for Ruby to realize what Merridie was hiding and her mouth dropped open in surprise. Merridie placed the bundle of crisp bills upon the table.

  “I didn’t trust it anywhere else,” she said a bit defensively.

  “Where did you get that?” Ruby whispered in awe.

  “My father hid it right before he and my mother went on their trip last year,” Merridie said. “Petty cash, to invest when they got back. I didn’t think about it until after Robert left me.”

  Eden lifted her hand to Merridie’s face and gently swept back the wisps of dark hair from her forehead. Merridie looked at her and froze, seeing the misty tears welling up in Eden’s gaze.

  “But they never returned,” she said softly.

  Merridie shrugged. “I’m getting quite good at desertion, but I suppose dying is a better excuse than betrayal.”

  “Not all the time,” Eden told her.

  There was a momentary silence as Merridie looked away and discreetly wiped her eyes.

  “Thank you, Merri,” Ruby said.

  “Don’t thank me. I was going to save the money for myself.”

  Out of the three of them, Merridie had always acted the bravest. She liked to pretend she was tough and hard-hearted, and Ruby understood. Merridie had lost her twin brother at the age of ten. She’d lost her parents at the age of eighteen. Now she’d lost Robert and her fortune in the same day. She’d let Merridie have her illusion of stoic toughness.

  ****

  One week later, Ruby and Merridie stood at the rear of the ocean liner, RMS Adriatic. It was a grand ship, dubbed one of the Big Four by the White Star Line, but they were no longer first-class passengers.

  Gone were their gowns of silks and velvets, and instead they wore simple cotton dresses. At least they were clean and the clothes kept them warm. New York had faded away long ago, and before them lay only the vastness of water. Ruby knew a wistful look still graced her face––no matter how many pep talks she’d given herself, she just couldn’t stop her heart from aching for leaving their home behind.

  “Are you all right?” Merridie asked.

  “In one week we’ll be touching English soil. We’ll be starting over. I feel as if we’ve given up.”

  Merridie grabbed Ruby’s hand and squeezed. “I don’t like this Ruby, this, defeated Ruby. What happened to the chin-up girl?”

  “I have my weak moments.”

  “Well, we’ve come this far––no use crying over the past, as I always say. Things will work out.”

  Ruby didn’t reply, nor did she look at Merridie. Yes, she had to find the positive again. They were all together and they had a plan. It could be a lot worse.

  Chapter Four

  The London docks were crowded and dirty. The smell of rotten fish permeated the air, mixed with a strong odor of sewage and mildew. Nausea rose sharply in her throat but she swallowed it down. Now would not be the time to upchuck, although no one would notice the contents mixed with the rest of the slime floating on top of the water. It was late in the afternoon and a fog threatened to roll in. Only the feeble attempt of the sun’s rays kept it marginally at bay, but Ruby knew as soon as the sun completely sank, the docks would be shrouded in mist.

  As they made their way through the swarm of people, Ruby saw a man holding a sign with her name on it. She steered the other two towards him.

  “Hello, I’m Ruby Talcott.”

  The driver looked her over before holding his hand out for her bag. She gave it to him and he turned to leave.

  “Wait. I have two people with me.”

  The driver glanced at Merridie and Eden. A moment passed before he accepted their luggage as well, then turned to quickly walk away. The three hurried after him to a large Rolls Royce where he secured the bags to the roof. He opened the back door and they got in, not saying a word. They were too busy staring out the windows to study their new home. Ruby had been to England before, but the other two hadn’t.

  Her cousins lived near Kensington, one of the more prestigious areas of the city, and she wondered how Merridie and Eden would be perceived. Still, she never would have left them behind. The car drew up in front of her cousin’s large townhouse, where Ruby immediately saw Katherine Talcott waiting for them.

  The driver opened the back door and Ruby got out first. She reached for Merridie’s hand and held tightly, to give her support but also because she needed some of her own.

  “Welcome, cousin,” Katherine greeted in her clipped British accent. She wore a drab, dark grey batiste gown and her brown hair was pulled viciously back into a bun that pulled the corners of her eyes, giving her a ‘pinched’ look. “I’m happy to help provide for you in this trying time. However, I was not expecting there’d be guests with you.”

  She looked condescendingly at Merridie and Eden, and Ruby winced at the pressure Merri applied to her fingers.

  “Thank you, Katherine,” Ruby said as graciously as she could muster. “This is Merridie Morgan and Eden Cariker. We grew up together. I didn’t think there would be a problem. We’re practically family.”

  Katherine walked down the steps to the girls and studied them intently with a raised eyebrow. She was a tall woman, with a back so straight Ruby wouldn’t be surpri
sed if there were a stick holding her up, and her height caused her to look down at each of them. Only Ruby met her gaze. Whatever she was looking for she must have found, because she abruptly stepped back.

  “They’re not my family,” she stressed, giving a brief but unwelcome smile. “Nevertheless, never let it be said a Talcott doesn’t offer rations to the poor. You’ll share the guesthouse on the other side of the gardens. Ruby, you’ll start tomorrow at the shipping office. As for you two––we’ll see what we can find for your keep.”

  She turned and walked back up the townhouse steps, not bothering to glance back at them. Ruby grabbed her luggage case and hurried after Katherine, nodding encouragingly to the other two. Being led through the house and into the back, Ruby realized Katherine was taking them the servant path. Although Katherine was only three years older than she, Ruby rather thought her cousin looked and acted like a dowager.

  The guesthouse was small but it was secure and warm, and Ruby relaxed with the knowledge that at least they wouldn’t be homeless. Whatever else Katherine would say or do, her standings within society wouldn’t allow for family to go hungry.

  Merridie walked around the one-bedroom apartment looking like she’d eaten sour lemons.

  “Lovely cousin you have, Ruby,” she muttered.

  “It’s not much, I agree. But we’re together. We’ll figure everything out.”

  ****

  The next morning, Ruby arrived early at the shipping office and had to wait for the manager, Mike Berg, to arrive. He got there ten minutes late, but Ruby held her tongue. The last thing she wanted to do was start an argument on her first day. She couldn’t afford to incur Katherine’s wrath.

  Once again, she ended up breathing through her mouth as the stench of the air made her stomach heave. Mike escorted her to a large warehouse that looked to be old and run down. He took off the padlock and opened the door for her. When she walked in, it was so dark and dank that she didn’t even know what type of warehouse it was, and sneezed as dust tickled her nose.