Author's note: This is based on the movie National Treasure, and is to a great deal dedicated to the more than worthy performance of Sean Bean. I enjoyed the movie very much, but I thought that since Ben and Ian often used similar methods to reach the same goal, I did not see one of them as more evil than the other. I also thought that the hints of the friendship we saw between them should be explored more. I began doing that in 'Who Did You Say Stole the Declaration,' this story takes up a short time after that one ended, and is my version of what happened next. I hope you all shall like it.
Big thanks to LadyDeb1970 who have been going over this for me, and helped me with plot and story ideas. Also to Celebrion for being my beta.
Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure. I just borrowed it because I like Sean Bean as an actor. I will return all characters in good and whole order, completely undamaged, if covered with a slight glue residue from having been put together again. I also swear I will not make any serious attempt at stealing Ian. More than I already have that is…
The name of Thomas McDowell have been stolen from LadyDeb1970, with her kind permission, as well as one or two other details.
/Elenhin
Chapter 21
After they had eaten they proceeded to check out the castle. Trying to get their bearings enough to see what would be the most likely spot for a hidden treasure. In the meantime there was certain things they wanted to explore. Who knew if he would ever get the chance to explore a castle like this one again.
To the side of the main entrance hall was the armoury, still with an most impressive amount of weapons on the walls. On pegs and racks were swords and axes, lances and muskets, and even rifles. Any kind of weapon that could be used for defence or attack had been put there.
Ben admired a two headed battle axes with a five feet handle. "This one have been used." He noted. "The blade has notches in it."
"Most of this has been used at one point or another." Ian agreed. "Maybe not here, but somewhere." He touched the handle of a heavy mace.
"Looks dangerous." Riley stated as he looked at an old musket.
"This is interesting." Ben had stopped not far from Ian. "There is a gouge of some kind in the wall here." The gouge was maybe four feet up from the floor. It looked as if something heavy had struck the stone wall and broken lose a piece. "There must have been fighting in here at some point, but the strange thing is that it does not look all that old."
"Its about thirty years old." Ian said thoughtfully as he looked at it.
"How can you tell?" Abigail touched the broken surface with her finger. It had not been smoothed by age, but it was still impressive that he could tell it so close.
"Well." Ian looked embarrassed. "I had to try and see if I could figure out how to use the mace." He motioned to the one behind him. "And apparently I was a bit to close to the wall."
They stared at him, all of them stared at him in confusion. He shrugged under their gazes.
"I was a kid, I wanted to know how you used a mace, but the weight of it is a bit tricky to handle, and I wound up smacking it against the wall." They were still staring at him. Ian shook his head, he waved at the mace hanging from its pegs. "That one, I tried to use it."
"You made that." Ben pointed to the wall. "With that?" He pointed to the mace.
"Yes." Ian nodded. It had been really exciting.
Ian was looking around in the armoury. Hefting a sword here, trying to lift an axe there. The mace had caught his attention and he took it down. His great aunt had told him that it might be his only chance to see these things up close.
She had encouraged him to take a closer look, warning him that some of them had sharp edges. For once she had been there to supervise what he did.
Ian hefted the mace, it was very heavy, and he had to struggle with it.
"Can I try to swing it?" He asked, looking up at her.
She nodded. "Just be careful with the weight."
Ian swung it, the weight of the spiked ball nearly tore the shaft from his hands, he held on to it desperately, spun around as it dragged at him, and the spiked head struck the wall. Ian fell to the floor with the mace, but luckily did not get it on himself.
"Well I'll be…" His great aunt whistled. "I never thought they could do that much damage." She admired the whole in the wall. "You learn something new every day, eh. Ian."
"I thought that it was in school you made a mace." Charlotte frowned.
"Well, because of this one, I knew how to make it." Ian admitted. He had studied the mace closely before he went home. Then years later in school he had made one like it. "I told you about it." He nodded to Charlotte.
"I only recalled the one you said you made." She shrugged. "It would however explain some things, thought you had better not fool around with it now."
"I never fooled around with it." He objected.
"Ian, there is a hole in the wall." Charlotte said slowly. "In the stone wall." She gave him that look that said clearly just how stupid she considered it. "If that is not fooling around, then what is?"
"Why do I get a feeling that I will be blamed for any domestic damage." Ian complained to Victor who stood closest.
"Probably cause she knows you to well by now." Victor grinned.
Ian reached out his left hand and fingered the shaft of the mace. "Just once, please?" He begged looking at Charlotte who laughed.
"No, Ian. Lets keep him around for a while longer." She chuckled. "At least long enough for him to learn how to put on a diaper the right way."
"You're gonna have to get a whole bunch of kids before he learns that." Was Gregor's opinion.
"I don't think he ever will." Phil stated looking at his friend.
Charlotte sighed. "Lets go on and see if we can figure out how to find the treasure."
"I am guessing that it will be in the cellars." Ian said, he was back in his business mode and wanted to find it.
"How can you be certain of that?" Riley asked. The way he saw it, it could be anywhere.
"Much easier to hide extra rooms and such below ground." Ian stated.
Ben nodded. "So, where is the cellars?" He asked.
"Pretty much all over the place thought beneath ground level." Ian smiled. "The cellar spreads out all over the place and reaches even further than the actual castle."
"Why would they make it that big?" Riley tried to imagine how vast the cellars would be.
"Partly because they could." Ian grinned. "The cellar here is divided in three different parts. One is more or less an ordinary cellar with not much to it. Then there is one beneath the kitchen that is the wine cellar and the larder. Those two is only connected by a small tunnel."
"What is the third one?" Ben asked, wondering why Ian had not mentioned thirst thing.
"The third one is accessed from behind the stables." Ian informed him. "Again there is a small tunnel to connect them, but it is blocked with an iron gate at each end. It was the dungeon, and it is a rather depressive place."
"Why would they keep the dungeons connected to the rest?" Riley wanted to know.
"The last way to escape the castle." Ian explained. "If it fell to the enemy it was a possible way to escape. As well as if the castle should catch fire it was one way to escape."
"Where would they keep secret passages?" Ben pondered as he studied the walls closer.
"One here and one in the master bedroom." Ian moved over to the other wall where a huge wardrobe stood. "They kept uniforms in here, but if you swing open the back panel of it you enter the secret passage. The two of them are connected, and they did lead somewhere else, but that passage is blocked by a cave in."
"That could be the only way to the treasure." Riley wined.
"No, there would be two ways." Ben shook his head.
"My guess is the main cellar." Ian said confidently. "Once we get down there I think you will see what I mean. I think that we will take the way over the kitchen cellar though, there is one thing I want to check in the wine cellar."
He lead them to the huge kitchen, the one where all festive dinners had been cooked, there was a huge fire pit in the middle. One where spit dogs would be trudging to turn the spits.
Riley was peeking into a cauldron that was so big he could have fit inside it.
"Must have been cooking an awful lot of food in here." Victor noted as he took in the size of it
"That's what you do in kitchens." Gregor scorned him.
"Not always." Victor went on. "I've seen Ian in kitchens hundreds of times. But I've never seen him cook food." He sounded out the word food carefully.
Ian took a long handed wooden spoon and chucked it at him. Cursing the fact that he had worse aim with his left hand than his right. Had he had full use of his right arm he would have hit him, instead it sailed to the side.
"See, he doesn't even know what to do with the stuff." Victor told Gregor as if to prove himself.
Ian glared at him. "Just so you know it Victor, I'm keeping a tally for revenge." He knew the threat would not scare him off. Victor was not easily frightened, and he knew that Ian would never do anything to harm him, but he was enjoying the opportunity of Ian being easy picking.
Then he turned from Victor and pointed to the corner where a wooden hatch could be opened with an Iron ring. It looked almost like a door sunken into the floor.
"The cellar is beneath that one." Ian pointed at it. "But we need some light. Gregor, check the cabinet over there. Before they used to keep some lanterns there."
"Wouldn't flashlights be better?" Riley asked.
"More powerful, but those are actually better." Ian nodded to the lanterns that Gregor was filling up. "They light up all around you in a different way."
Phil moved over to light the lanterns that Gregor had filled, a few minutes, and then everyone but Ian had a lantern and they were ready to go down into the darkness.
No teasing or mocking now Victor went first, Ian following behind him, it was a steep stair, but they did not have any trouble with it. Charlotte was carrying Ianna on one arm, and Phil was holding a steadying hand on her arm.
It was a bit chill and damp in the cellar and it split into two directions.
"Left is the larder." Ian said as he pointed into that direction. "Right is the wine cellar."
They could hear the scratching and skittering of rats as they walked, but none came into view of the light. The wine cellar was huge, with pillars to support the roof. It was several rooms, there were racks for bottles and for kegs. Barrels had been stored along the walls. Ian headed to the furthest corner.
Something gleamed on the floor there and Ben went closer.
"Look at this." He held up a medal of some sort that had been lying on the floor. "I wonder how it got here?" He said as he brushed the dust and dirt of it.
"It is what I wanted to look for." Ian smiled as he held out his hand to Ben. "It fell out of my rucksack the last time I was here. I slept here in this corner while I was looking for the treasure, then I went back here once more before I had to go home, and it fell out. I did not have time to look for it before I went home." He looked fondly at the medal. "I found it in one of the rooms, and my aunt said I could keep it, I was afraid I would not find it again."
Ben grinned as he watched Ian pocket the medal. He could see why Ian had wanted to see if it would still be there.
"You slept here?" Abigail asked sounding astonished by the information.
"Yeah." Ian nodded. "I had brought a sleeping bag and some food along. I was running all over the place, and this looked to be a nice place to sleep in.
"Still you slept here, all alone?" Abigail shook her head.
"I offered a girl who was here at times to go with me." He shrugged. "But she refused to go down here because of the spiders and the rats. She was really rather boring." He frowned. "Always afraid of getting dirty and would not go up on the roof either." Then he smiled. "I thought she would have a fit when I climbed down through the chimney."
"Hold." This time it was Charlotte who interrupted with a sound of disbelief. "What did you say you did."
"I climbed down through the Chimney." Ian took a step back as he was beginning to recognize that voice as dangerous.
"How could even you do something so stupid?" Charlotte rounded up on him, and he cursed the fact that one step back had him against the wall.
"I was up on the roof to get the treasure I had hidden there." He defended himself. "Then I recalled what I had heard about there being rungs for the chimney boys to climb on, I found them and so I used them to climb down through the chimney."
"That has to be the most stupid thing I've ever heard of." Charlotte said angrily.
"I've heard of more stupid things." Abigail intervened. "A lot more stupid things. I don't think you could top the list even if you tried Ian." She smiled at him, even if it was hard to tell in the light from the lanterns.
Before Charlotte could say anything else on the subject Victor touched her arm gently. Leaning close to her ear to whisper why Ian was paying attention to Abigail.
"Don't." He whispered. "He knew what he was doing most of the time, and he trusts you enough to let you know about it. He never tells much about his childhood. Just let him tell it when he wants to."
She nodded, but she still wanted to tell him of for doing such stupid things. In her arms Ianna wined, she seemed to know when Charlotte was upset with Ian, and it always made her upset. She tried to sooth her as best as she could, and then Ian moved over. Stroking her soft cheek and murmuring softly to her.
"I'm sorry Ian." Charlotte told him. "I just got so scared thinking of what could have happened."
"I understand." He nodded. "At least I think I do, but I never thought about it that way." Ianna yawned and hit Ian in the face with a small fist, then she went to sleep.
Ian rubbed his nose, it had not hurt, but he had felt it. "She loves to do that." He frowned. "I think that the connection to the main cellar was over there." He pointed before Charlotte got the idea to ask what more stupid things he had done in his childhood. If she found out about some of the things he had done, she would lock him up somewhere.
Phil took the lead with one lantern, they lit up the area around them very well, better than flashlights would have done it. He could have walked in front of the lantern, but it made more sense to have someone with a light there.
Phil pushed open a heavy oak door, and they entered a dark tunnel. At the other end was a small room, with a gate made of thick Iron bars.
"That one leads to the dungeons." Ian pointed at the gate. "I think that it was the only place where they did not want me to go, because when I asked for a key to the gate they would not tell me where it was."
"So you never where there?" Ben asked peering through the tick bars.
"I could squeeze through the bars." Ian grinned and shrugged.
Ben judged the space between the bars. "It must have been tight." He noted.
"It was." Ian admitted. "But I was curious."
Gregor walked over to the bars, passing his lantern to Ian as he walked past him. Ian held the lantern over to where Victor stood, and he took it without a word.
Gregor felt the bars, then he put his shoulder to it and pushed, it groaned and the old hinges objected, but it moved. It slowly swung open.
Ian ran his hand through his hair. "All the trouble with getting through the bars, and the bloody thing was never locked." He shook his head.
"It was heavy." Gregor grinned. "Must have been to heavy for you."
Ian nodded, he could not remember if he had just squeezed through without testing, or if he had been unable to push it open.
"Shall we take a look there?" Ben asked.
"Dungeons and torture sounds really creepy." Riley inched back from the black tunnel.
"I really don't think that there is anything there." Ian said. "Unless you count some nasty cells and even worse torture equipment."
"We go on then." Gregor did not seem to notice that Victor was the one who gave him back the lantern that he had handed to Ian.
There was another heavy oak door and then they came out into the larger cellar. A steep but broad staircase lead up to the main castle.
This part had another look over it. There were pillars to support the ceiling, and the occasional statue as well as torch holders and lantern hooks on the walls. This part was meant to bee seen by others than servants.
"Impressive." Ben admitted as he looked around.
"Creepy." Was Riley's opinion as he heard a rat skitter away into a corner.
"All old cellars tend to be creepy." Ian said comfortingly, both to Riley and to Ianna who wined.
"She's gonna make you carry her around all the time as soon as you can." Charlotte laughed. "She doesn't like it as much when I'm the one carrying her."
"Come here then." He could manage her now, even if it meant he could not do much else. He held her on his left arm and his right still wasn't good for very much else.
Ian could not recall any particularly part of the cellar that seemed more likely than any other. So they moved through it and tried to find the most likely spot.
"Hey, look over here." Victor called and waved the others over. He was looking at a wall where a the image of two knights had been chiselled out from the stone.
"Doesn't that kind of look like that picture in the book." Gregor asked.
"It does." Abigail ran her finger in the groves. "It must be here."
"Er, how do we get to the treasure." Riley asked as he studied the stone wall. It looked rather solid to him.
"There must be a trigger of some sort." Ben ran his hand over the wall.
Ian looked around, taking in the details. There was a few statues not far of. A women standing with her arms outstretched. A man to the side of her, and then there was the statue of a small child, and infant really, lying in a niche in the wall.
Ianna gave a cry for attention and he looked down on her, she seemed to think that she could not be safer than in his arms, and he thought about the riddle, the one that his great aunt had left in her will for him to solve. The greatest treasure of all is not silver or gold, but a child of yours to hold. He wondered why the child statue was lying in the niche when the women's arms seemed to be made for holding her child.
He went over and looked closer at it. It was not heavy, not more so than that he could lift it with his still weak right arm.
Ianna laughed and tried to reach it, patting it with her small hands and Ian laughed.
"What are you doing?" Ben asked.
"I've got an idea." Ian grinned as he placed the infant child in the other statues arms. She was holding her arms a little to high for carrying the child, but the weight of the smaller statue pulled them down to a better height.
"Is that it?" Riley asked.
"Nothing happened, there has to be more." Ben looked around as if he was looking for something else. Ian had a feeling he had already found it. He looked at the impressions of the knights on the wall. One of them had his sword in his scabbard, the other one had his blade bare at his side, and no scabbard.
What was interesting was that the size of his sword seemed to be exactly the same as the dagger they had found before. He had kept the scabbard to the dagger because he had thought it might come to use, it was still in his pocket.
"They swore to protect." He said quietly. "But only to protect, never to attack, so why would he have a drawn sword." He fished out the scabbard, something Ianna did not like because he had to move her around to reach it. Then he fitted the scabbard against the bare blade, the scabbard covered it perfectly.
He applied the gentlest pressure and slowly, very slowly a section of the wall swung open.
For a few seconds they all stood staring at the doorway that had opened, neither of them had been prepared for it. Ben, Abigail and Riley were really the only ones that had seen it before. Then as if she sensed that the adults was just going to stare Ianna gave a squeal and reached her arms towards the darkness.
A rat squeaked somewhere and there was a skitter of claws. It was enough to make them move slowly forward. Their lanterns lit up the first few yards of the room, and the light caught and reflected of various points in the room.
Phil held up his lantern high, and there was the first sight of a treasure. A suit of gleaming armour, a golden knight. One stood on each side of the door, protecting the treasure.
Ian found it hard to believe, he could not even take in the size of the hidden chamber, and yet it was here, where he had been looking for it the biggest part of a summer. He had slept not so many yards away from it, and never could he have believed what he would find there.
Their lanterns that had cast such a bright light before was not enough to light up all of it.
"Ow." Ian exclaimed, broken out of his thrall by a sharp tug on his hair, Ianna had seen what looked like a lot of fun toys, and she wanted to explore them.
"At least now we know who the boss is." Phil chuckled. "Looks like she's in charge."
"She is." Ian agreed. All his childhood he had dreamt of this moment, and it was his daughter who brought him to his senses so that he could enjoy it. Never mind that she had grabbed a large fistful of his hair, she had earned the right to tug on it. He took Charlotte's hand and walked deeper inside the room. Victor, Gregor and Phil joining up behind them, and then came Ben, Abigail and Riley. Never before had Ian suspected that a room of such immense size could be found beneath the castle.
"This is even bigger than the first treasure." Ben breathed as he held up a golden vase. "It is a lot bigger Ian."
"You'll want to look at this thing Ben." Ian said absently. He had found a stone tablet with and inscription on it.
Ben knew enough Latin to easily read the script. "It says here that the McDowell's were heir's guardians of the treasure, and protector of the order of the Templar Knights." He read out loud so that everyone could hear. "It was a legacy in the family and the male descendants are honorary knights in the order of the Templar Knights. The treasure falls into their property should there be no knights left in the order."
He swallowed several times, very well aware of how everyone was looking at him. "Ian." His throat was dry and he tried to work some moisture into his mouth before he tried to speak again. "Ian, according to this you are the owner of this whole treasure, and I'm pretty sure that it is even legal."
"No, wait. That can't be Ben." Just the sheer thought of the enormous amount of gold in the room made Ian sweat. People claimed that criminals were greedy, yet Ian had never dared to dream of a treasure of such magnitude. They had only been able to check one end of the room briefly. It was several times larger than the treasure beneath the church.
"It says so here." Ben stated. "This also said that this is the largest part of a treasure hidden away. One other part was hidden beneath Trinity Church, and it says where two other very small parts can be found, thought I think that those two has been found already." He admitted, and those two parts had not been a friction of a percent of this on treasure.
"But they always claimed that it was to large for one man?" Ian objected. "They would not do that."
"Ian, they made the McDowell's their guardians of the treasure." Abigail laid a hand on his shoulder after she had skimmed through the text. "I would like to study this more, but it also says that the McDowell's were guardians of the knights. Worked in secret to help ensure the knights safety. From what I can tell, they were all honorary knights. That would mean you as well."
"Wow." Riley was suddenly staring at Ian in something akin to fear, and a slightest touch of admiration. He had believed Ian to be the greedy kind of criminal, not the one who tried to find excuses not to be the owner of a treasure.
"That's something alright." Gregor mumbled.
"All of this." Phil shook his head. "And legal Ian, you've done it."
"No." Ian sank down on a heavily gilded chest. One most likely filed with something glimmering and sparkling. "It cant be right Ben. Look, it was stored here, stored. This castle is huge, but I can not in any way be the one responsible for this." He gestured at the treasure that was all around him.
"I just cant," he mumbled. Shaking his head and not even noticing how it made Ianna find one of his dancing locks to pull on. He could not comprehend the magnitude of the treasure combined with the stone tablet. The castle was big enough, and he had had a long time to get used to being the heir. He had never thought he would be able to be legal owner of it, but he had known he was the heir for almost all of his life.
"Come on." Victor said softly, helping Ian to his feet. Both he and Charlotte had seen how weary he looked, but for once Charlotte did not know how to handle it. "It'll all keep until the morning. We'll come back then."
"It's late, time to call it a day alright." Gregor agreed.
Abigail nodded and shooed Ben and Riley along in front of her. It seemed that Ian needed to come to terms with all of it, and he would not do that in the treasure room. Besides, she did not know how long the lanterns would burn. It still amazed her that Ian's men took so good care of him. The affection he and his men felt for each other was genuine, the same kind that was between Ben and Riley. She had been thinking that there was no honour amongst thieves, but what they had was something more.
She had expected nothing else than the way Charlotte held his hand, but Victor was flanking him as well, and he had a look of vigil on his face. The kind you had for a friend. Suddenly she felt as if she could understand more of how heavily Shaw's death had weighted on Ian, closer than friends.
No one spoke much, no one was really able to formulate words for the awe they felt. Ian kept shaking his head from time to time, as if he could not comprehend it. He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the treasure room, and shook his head again.
Ianna decided that her father should not dangle all that fun hair in front of her, and not letting her play with it. Ian gave a yelp as she struck him beneath his eye with a very hard fist for such a small child.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked, afraid that carrying Ianna had been to much on his arm.
"She punched me." Ian gave his daughter a surprised look, she was laughing happily.
"Punched you?" Charlotte held up her lantern while Phil, Gregor and Victor sniggered. When he turned his head to glare at them Ianna was finally able to get a hold on his hair. He winced as she gave a hard tug.
"I think I know what she wanted." Charlotte tried not to grin as she saw what Ianna was doing, it appeared that she had learnt some tricks to get her will.
"Better than punching." Ian admitted, she was strong, very strong, his cheek throbbed.
"You know, that little brat's really good at distracting him." Victor whispered to Gregor as he allowed the other man to pass him.
Gregor grinned as he looked at them, half hidden in the shadows. "She's her fathers daughter." He grinned. "No doubt there."
"Come, I'll take her." Victor offered as they came to the stair, guessing that Ian would prefer not to be the one who carried her up. He passed his lantern over to Phil, and Charlotte offered a hand o help steady Ian. He really looked as if the stone tablet had been to much for him.
"I think that we all could use a good nights sleep." Abigail stated as they were putting out the lanterns, setting them on the counter.
"The bedrooms are all on the upper floors." Ian said as he rubbed a hand over his face. "There should be beds there, and they should all be in usable condition."
Ben did not feel tiered at all, but he agreed that maybe they needed sleep.
Ian lead them up the stairs, he knew what bedroom he would take, the one he had used as a boy, he felt as if he needed something familiar at the moment. The bed would be big enough for him and Charlotte, and Ianna would sleep in her wicker basket, she really did seem to like that one.
He motioned to a corridor where Ben, Abigail and Riley would be able to find some rooms to sleep in.
"Goodnight Ian." Ben said as he prepared to turn around, then he nodded to Charlotte and the rest. "Goodnight."
Abigail gave Ian a brushing pat to the arm. "We'll sort it out in the morning Ian." She said softly.
Riley smiled at him before he disappeared in search of a room. Abigail opened the door to a big airy bedroom with huge window. There was a big bed and some heavy furniture in it, all of it was dust wrapped, but once the protective sheets were removed it all looked nice and in perfect condition. Even the air in the room was fresh. She immediately took a liking for the room.
Riley took the room next to them, a bit smaller, and with a smaller bed.
Ian was able to find his old room with no trouble at all, and his men all took rooms next to it. Where they would be close to him should there be need, it was their protectiveness again, and not for the first time he was grateful for it.
They followed him inside first and looked around the room. The bed was a massive wooden thing against the wall. There was a huge wardrobe and a decoratively carved desk. One wall was lined with bookshelves, and many of the shelves were filled with books. Yet there were some odd bits and pieces on a few of the shelves. Feathers and pebbles, pieces of woods and crudely made airplanes. Ian recognized them, it was he who had placed them there so many years ago. It was an eternity ago, but it was he who had done it. It was he who had collected the pebbles, and it felt so incredible nice to see them again. They had been his treasure that summer, a simple treasure for a simple lad. One who had dreamt about a bigger treasure, a real one, with silver or gold. He had it now and it was scary.
"Come now, time to sleep." Charlotte pulled him to the bed having put Ianna to bed, Ian shook his head again as he thought about what lay beneath the castle. He said goodnight to the others and laid down.
Yet he could not sleep, it was as if the weight of all the gold kept him awake.
"On your stomach Ian." Charlotte stifled a yawn. She was tiered enough to sleep, but she knew that the way Ian was now he would lay awake all night, and he needed sleep.
"What?" He turned his head to look at her baffled.
"Role over to your stomach Ian." She rubbed at her eyes. "You need to sleep and I guess that it is your arm troubling you." Ian gave her a confused look but obeyed. She began rubbing his back, knowing he could have called the lie. He knew that if she really believed that it was his arm that kept him from sleeping, she would not be kneading his back. Yet she did not want to state that the treasure was bothering him. The lie of it being his arm suited both of them.
Even if he did not quite understand how she supposed that it would make him sleep, he had to admit that it was nice, he was enjoying the feel of her hands on his back when he drifted off to sleep.
Charlotte nuzzled the back of his neck and placed a soft kiss there before she fell asleep beside him. Ian had still not figured it out as far as she could tell, but it never failed to put him to sleep.
TBC
Please review, the Cricket is hungry….