I stole a quick, worried look at him. Quinn had never known his own father, who had walked out on his mother before Quinn was born. It was a prickly subject.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Prescott was a force of nature and he could be cantankerous. I think it must have been difficult for anyone to live with him—with the exception of Rose. He adored her and she felt the same way about him. My mother said it was as if they lived in their own little world and nobody mattered but each other. On the one hand it was very sweet, a real, romantic love story. But she also said they were so self-absorbed that any affection or attention they gave their children was almost an afterthought. Funny, but I think Clay picked up that diffidence even though he and Prescott aren’t blood relatives, which is why Alex turned into such a rebel and Scotty’s just … so intense. Clay’s wife couldn’t cope with it. Plus she had Rose to live up to. So they split up.”

“Rose died the summer I arrived here when you were still in France,” Quinn said. “I remember your father stopping by the barrel room on his way to the funeral. It was the first time I’d seen him in a three-piece suit. He was driving into Washington since the service was at National Cathedral. He went to the cemetery, too, over in Leesburg.”

“Union Cemetery,” I said. “That’s where the Avery family plot is. Rose was a good person, except she had a blind spot when it came to Prescott. After she was gone it was as though he’d lost his compass. He told me yesterday that his family thought he was spending too much money on expensive purchases, like the copy of the Declaration of Independence. Which makes sense if they’re as broke as Grant hinted they were—he shouldn’t be buying priceless historical documents.”

It also probably explained why Prescott told me not to mention to anyone what he’d done. By now, of course, Clay would have discovered the Declaration if he had checked out Prescott’s Masonic shrine.

“It’s always hard to believe folks as rich as the Averys could have money problems,” Quinn said as we got out of the Jeep.

“It happened to us,” I said. “Although we didn’t have that kind of money.”

“Maybe not, but you still managed to dig out of a deep hole.”

“I never want that to happen again. Ever.”