items were stored. Cait’s disappointment had lasted for weeks. She had never been up there since and didn’t at all like the idea now, but it was either that or abandon all hope of finding out something about her ancestry.
After taking a look around to make sure nothing seemed amiss, she was heading for the door when she stopped short on spotting a small half-door in one corner of the room, on the wall opposite her parents’ bed. It must be a cupboard. She hadn’t noticed it before as it was painted the same colour as the Anaglypta wallpaper. Her hopes escalated. This looked promising. She went over, bent down and pulled on the small knob. The door did not budge. Then she noticed the keyhole. Her hopes rose further. Surely this cupboard door would only be locked if what was kept inside was important enough to be kept safe. But where could the key be?
She hadn’t come across one when she was searching the room. Cait gave a sigh of frustration as her mind sparked into action. The only option open to her was to make another close search.
She had tried everywhere and just about given up when she pulled too hard on one of the two smaller drawers at the top of her father’s tallboy and it fell out, scattering the pile of folded socks and packets of new ones inside on the floor. She was left holding the handle of the tipped-up drawer in her hand. Issuing a loud sigh of annoyance with herself, she knelt down and put the drawer on the floor, proceeding to pick up the scattered socks and hoping her father would not notice anything amiss when he next used the drawer. It was then that she noticed that on the side of the drawer facing her was taped a small key. She had found what she was looking for.
After carefully lifting the tape enough for her to get at the key, she crawled over to the cupboard, put the key in the lock, then turned it and opened the door. Cait stared at what it contained in surprise, not having expected this. It was a small safe. Very solid-looking. She tried the handle, not surprised to find it was locked. Sitting back on her haunches, she scowled as she tried to fathom just where the key for the safe would be secreted. Could it possibly be taped to the side or back of one of the other drawers in her father’s tallboy? It wasn’t but she did eventually find it behind a loose bit of skirting board to one side of the safe itself.
Her parents seemed to be going to a lot of trouble to hide from prying eyes what they kept in the safe.
Cait found her hands were shaking when she put the thick key into the lock, turned it, then pulled down the heavy lever to open the thick metal door. Her eyes widened when she saw what was inside. The bottom of the safe, at least eight inches thick, seemed just to be a solid metal block, which to Cait was wasted space unless it was there to make the safe much heavier to move should it be discovered by undesirables. It was the piles of bank notes arranged at the front of the metal shelf that first held her attention. There were three of them, in denominations of ten shillings, one pound and five pounds. She took a guess that there must be at least a hundred pounds here altogether, a small fortune to Cait who earned three pounds a week. It was too soon for her mother to have regained anything from her cancelled wedding so this money must just be what was kept in the house for general use. Then she noticed the wooden box tucked away at the back of the shelf. She reached inside and took it out. This must contain what she was seeking.
Sitting back on her haunches, Cait opened it up, thankful that this box wasn’t locked either. For a moment she stared at the contents in surprise. Not the documents she had expected to see but something wrapped carefully in tissue paper. Putting the box down on the floor in front of her, she carefully lifted out the tissue-wrapped parcel, then equally carefully unwrapped it. What it revealed made her eyes widen. Several items that must have belonged at one time to a baby. There was a tiny pair of knitted