She dragged a chair over to the left side of the fireplace so she could reach the spot where a warming oven should have been, and she felt gingerly around the edges of the place where she sensed—yes! A void! Perry saw what she was doing and dragged a stool over to join her. His fingers, cleverer than hers, felt the hot stone carefully, then felt along the side of the chimney itself.

There was a sharp click.

And a crack appeared. Abi clawed at it but couldn’t get a purchase on it. Perry jumped down and came back up with a fireplace poker. He inserted it carefully into the crack, and slowly, agonizingly, levered it open. Finally, it swung out on hidden hinges.

Abi tried to reach inside, but it was too hot, and she pulled back her hand with a curse.

“A candle!” Perry called. “We need a candle!”

A moment later someone thrust a lighted candle end into his hand, and the two of them peered into the darkened recess.

“There’re metal strongboxes in there!” Perry exclaimed. He reached in. “Ow! They’re too hot to touch!”

“Hop down, lass,” commanded Hansa from behind her, and Abi obeyed. The woman had gotten the bread peel out of the corner. “Git that poker under ’un, lad. Aye, that’s right—” She thrust the peel into the recess, grunted with satisfaction, then grunted again with surprise. “Kernos’ Horns! Thet be heavy!” She looked over her shoulder at Tobin, whose mouth was agape in astonishment. “Stir thy stumps, old fool, an give ’un a hand!”

Belatedly he leaped to his feet, and the three of them, he, Hansa, and Perry, managed to maneuver the strongbox out of the recess and onto the table. Abi climbed back up and peered inside with the help of the candle. “There’s another!” she crowed.

In the end there were three strongboxes, much too hot to touch, sitting on the kitchen table. Without being prompted, Lori fetched another pair of candles so they could all stare at them, hardly daring to breathe.

“It might only be papers,” Perry pointed out.

“Too ’eavy for papers,” Tobin averred.

“’Sides, papers’d hev crumbled up i’ th’ heat,” said Hansa with authority.

They all stared some more. In the candlelight, it was obvious that all three boxes had been padlocked.

“We don’t have the keys!” Sussena finally cried, a touch of hysteria in her voice.

“To the nine hells with keys,” Perry said roughly and turned to Tobin. “Get me a hammer.”

For once the man had nothing to say. Instead, he scrambled off into the darkness, fumbled around in the corner of the kitchen where he kept his tools, and returned with a hammer.

Perry tried holding the padlock, but it was still too hot to hold. Without being asked, Lori pulled off her apron, folded it into a pad and handed it to him.