“Did you find many of these on your first trip to the area?” Megan asked.
Coffey smiled. “Oh, no. That was more an exploratory expedition. Most of these have come from my most recent journeys to Peru, when I sailed to the western coast and journeyed inland from Lima. I would not recommend the passage up the Amazon. Fascinating, of course, but very hard, and, of course, at the end, one is still faced with the Andes. The wildlife is magnificent, however. Many of my drawings that you see here are from that trip.”
Megan admired the display in the center of the room, where personal jewelry was laid out. There were necklaces of gold and silver, and wide gold armbands, as well as large round ornaments, which Coffey identified as ear spools. Megan examined the necklaces with the most interest, remembering Barchester’s words about Theo having possessed a pendant of some sort.
Some of the necklaces were large gold links with a heavy pendant in the middle, rather similar to Egyptian pectorals that she had seen. There were also some single ornamental disks, which she guessed could once have been attached to a chain or leather thong. Was it something like this that Barchester had seen in Theo’s hand?
She glanced over at Theo to see if he had any reaction to the necklaces, but there was no change of expression on his face as he gazed at them. Nor, she thought, was there any great interest. He looked, she thought, impatient or restless, as though he were ready to leave the room, and she wondered if this implied merely boredom or a wish to get away from things that reminded him of what he had done.
She turned back to Coffey, who had started on an explanation of the hierarchy of the Inca governmental system. Keeping a polite expression on her face, she let her mind wander. Had Mr. Barchester said anything to Coffey about her and her quest? She had asked him not to, but she was well aware how often people ignored such requests. She wished that she could think of some way to get rid of Theo and ask Coffey more searching questions about the expedition and her brother’s death.
“Perhaps we should look for the twins,” she said, turning toward Theo, hopeful that he would offer to do it himself.
“I’m sure they will turn up,” he replied. “Why don’t we continue? What’s upstairs, Coffey?”
Swallowing her irritation, Megan followed Coffey out the door and up the stairs to the next level of the museum, Theo behind her. There were more exhibits in the rooms upstairs, many of them featuring articles from Mexico and the other Central American countries, along with a small library of books focusing on various aspects of South and Central America. Coffey kept up his explanation of the ancient artifacts of the Aztec and Mayan cultures, as well as the more modern exhibits of clothing, jewelry and such.
As time passed, Megan began to really worry about the twins. It was all very well and good for Theo to say that they were contained in the house, but there were doors leading outside, after all, and she knew Con and Alex well enough by now to know that their curiosity might lead them anywhere. It seemed clear that the two of them were not on this floor, either.
“Is there another floor of exhibits?” she asked, interrupting Coffey in the midst of another monologue. “Could the boys have gone upstairs?”
“We have some offices there, and some storage, but little that they would find of interest, I’m sure,” Coffey replied and looked around, a frown forming on his forehead. “I was sure that we would find them up here. Perhaps at the diorama…”
He started down the hall, but at that moment, there was a clatter on the stairs behind them, and the twins appeared. In the mysterious way that Megan had grown accustomed to, the boys had acquired a liberal smattering of dust and stains on their clothes and persons, and even in their hair. She didn’t want to think about where they had been. She only hoped that nothing had been broken on their travels.
“Ah, boys, there you are,” Mr. Coffey said in the hearty sort of voice adults often used with children. “Having fun, were you?”
“Yes, sir,” Con replied. “It’s quite interesting.”
“Especially the animals,” Alex added. “I’ve never seen a jaguar before. I should like to see a live one.”
“I hope you will save that for a trip that does not include me,” Megan told him, smiling. “You missed a most interesting tour. Mr. Coffey is the curator of the museum, and he told us about all the exhibits.”
They made their way back down to the ground floor, the twins pelting Coffey with questions all the way. Con was quite enamored of the feathered cape and the tall, elaborate headdresses on many of the figurines. Alex, as always, was more interested in the various animals.
Megan could see that there was little possibility now of her being able to ask Coffey any questions in private. She would have to return at some other time. Perhaps she could send him a note and arrange to meet him on a Sunday when she was off work. Not this Sunday, though—she was much too anxious to see her father and Deirdre.
They took their leave of Mr. Coffey and walked down the steps to where the Moreland carriage waited. Megan took out her handkerchief and made a largely futile attempt to clean off some of the accumulated dust on the twins.
“Wherever did you go?” she asked. “You must have been crawling about in the dirt.”
“Upstairs and downstairs,” Con replied. “There was a lot of interesting stuff in some of the storerooms.”
“Some of them were locked, though,” Alex added with a grimace as he and Con brushed at their hair and clothes. “There was an enormous room down in the basement.”
“We didn’t get to look at all of the basement,” Con said with regret. “We thought you’d get cross if we were gone too long.”
“I was a little worried,” Megan admitted.
“We’re sorry,” Alex assured her. “Theo should have told you we’d be all right.”
“I did,” Theo hastened to tell them. “And Miss Henderson was admirably calm. She appears to have figured you two out.”
Cook had packed a lunch for them, and they took their well-filled basket to Hyde Park and spread out their picnic on a blanket on the ground. They ate, laughing and talking, and afterward the twins raced off to fly kites, and Theo and Megan watched them, calling encouragement.