“Lucie.” Prescott’s eyes were filled with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I don’t wish to hurt you, my dear. But your father came across something—a letter—while he was doing some research about the Jamestown Settlement. He wasn’t sure what it was, so he brought it to me. At the time, I had no clue what it meant, either.”

“Go on.” At least he wasn’t talking about documents referring to another affair or another child Leland had fathered.

Prescott pointed to the Declaration of Independence. “Now I do know what your father’s letter meant, thanks to this.”

I was growing irritated and tired of his riddles. “What are you talking about? What does the Declaration of Independence have to do with Jamestown and a letter my father found?”

“More than you might think,” he said with an enigmatic smile. “I’ve been doing some research of my own, studying the Declaration of Independence and how Thomas Jefferson chose the wording, the language he used. And, for that matter, the language James Madison used in drafting the Constitution.”

“I’m lost, Prescott.”

He held up his hands, urging me to have patience. “Since the founding of our country there has been a mystery surrounding these documents—a lost treasure that would explain many things and would also possibly answer one of the most tantalizing puzzles of the last four hundred years. Quite by accident your father stumbled upon a valuable piece of the puzzle concerning what really happened to that lost treasure. Thanks to Leland Montgomery, I believe I have now found the final clue to its whereabouts. Or at least I hope so.”

He gave me a triumphant smile.

I’d had too much to drink. Prescott was talking in circles about some mysterious lost treasure, a puzzle my father knew about, and finding clues to its whereabouts. Maybe. That my father was involved already made me suspicious. Leland was a sucker for every bad deal, every con, every get-rich-quick scam that was out there. Had Prescott gone down the rabbit hole with him?

“What clue would that be? To what mystery, what lost treasure?”

“Why, my dear, you don’t think I’m going to tell you, do you? For one thing, I’m not quite ready. There’s one more thing I need to take care of. For another, it’s far too dangerous.” There was a twinkle in his eye. He was enjoying this.

“How is it dangerous?”

“There is a reason this secret has remained hidden, buried for nearly four centuries,” he said. “There are powerful individuals who do not want it to be revealed.”

“But you’re going to defy them? In spite of the danger?” Maybe he was pulling my leg.