The legend of Lady Juliane's treasure had seeped into the public's ear by the time Maeve had turned nine years of age. The young girl herself was the last person in the kingdom to hear of the rumor. She sat on her mother's deathbed playing with a tip of her brown curled hair, gently picking ink away. She had spent the better part of the day practicing her calligraphy but refusing to tie her hair back with a ribbon, so it lazily dragged through the ink as she wrote. Maeve found the smears more artistic than the writing itself and was thrilled when she was called away from her work to visit her mother. This was not the first time Maeve had been drawn to her mother's side when an old priest was reading her death rites. As a matter of fact, she had been called to her mother's deathbed so many times that she had lost count, which was why she thought nothing of the present time and continued to pick flakes of ebony ink out of her hair.
"Maeve," her mother whispered, "come to me." The young girl quickly leapt up from her chair against the wall and knelt next to her mother's bed. "I wish to speak with my daughter in private," the woman announced to the room's occupants.
They all looked inquisitive of her decision, the priest in particular, who had yet to finish his prayer assuring her soul safe passage to heaven. When the room had emptied leaving the two in solitude Lady Catherine spoke once again, "Maeve, what have you heard of Lady Juliane's treasure?"
The girl furled her eyebrows and replied, "Jaqueline, the cook's daughter, told me that she heard from her mother that there was a secret treasure that only the women in our family could touch."
The mother nodded, smiled gently at her daughter and began her story, "A long time ago Lady Juliane, a maiden of the court fell in Love with the King of England, Richard."
"But King John is the king of England."
"This was hundreds of years ago my dear Maeve, now please try not to interrupt.
The King loved Lady Juliane more than anything in the world, but, alas, he could not marry her. He had been betrothed to the princess of France since birth and such was a bond that could not be broken without a severe war as a consequence. King Richard had his precious Juliane married to one of his loyal Barons and closest friends, Geoffrey of Waldonshire, to be certain that she was never harmed and always within distance. It was said that each year the two spent apart, Richard would send a gift of gold and over the years the wealth accumulated but Juliane could not bring herself to spend the gift. All Lady Juliane had to remember her love by was his gifts. When Baron Geoffrey discovered a note from Richard that Juliane had hid in her undergarments he was furious and stormed into a jealous rage. That night, legend says, Juliane hid her treasure from Geoffrey because she knew as soon as her dicovered it he world prodigally dispose of it leaving her without anything. So, she hid it."
"Where mama? Where?"
"No one really knows Maeve, but legend says that only women who are kin to the Lady Juliane can discover the true hiding place." She the reached behind her neck and raised a silver chain over her head. Attatched to the chain was a circular locket embossed with a seal Maeve was unfamiliar with. "Lady Juliane was your great grandmother," Catherine whispered to Maeve as she lifted the chain over her daughter's head. "This is the only clue she left us."
That night Lady Catherine died leaving her daughter as the last living kinsman of Lady Juliane.
