CHAPTER9
“Take a good look, Mother,” Edwin urged her.
At first, his mother didn’t understand what she was looking at. Her eyes squinted in confusion at the object in her hand. Her thin lips were pressed against each other, turning into a long slit on her sad face. It had gotten even sadder in the past two years.
She held the necklace and pendant in her hand, inspecting it cautiously. There was no smile on her face. There was no frown. She did not know what it was. Edwin did not want to tell her immediately so as not to possibly taint her memory with any implications.
“Do you recognize this necklace?” he asked softly.
She lifted her gaze then she looked at the two ladies in the corner of the drawing room. She did know either of them. She had not been introduced to them, nor had they been introduced to her. Edwin had skipped that part, impatient to hear what his mother had to say regarding the necklace.
He could feel his heart beating inside his throat, like an obstruction to his airways, making it increasingly more difficult to breathe. He finally found a clue, something to go on from this moot point he had been stuck on for far too long.
He refused to admit it, but he was angry with himself. How could he oversee the jewelry box? Wasn’t it only to be expected that a young lady would keep something truly precious in there? Then, he realized that he would not have had the heart to tear it. He would not have had the heart to change a single thing on it because as it was, it was Rachel’s. It belonged to her. It needed to wait for her to return. Lydia did it because she sensed there was something inside. He could see it in the way her fingers trembled. She knew. She simply knew. And for that, he was grateful, more than he could ever express in mere words.
“I do not recognize this,” his mother finally said, extending her hand to give it back to him. “Did someone lose it?”
“It was Rachel’s…” he said in a voice that was already on the verge of breaking.
Immediately upon hearing those words, his mother snatched the necklace back and pressed it to her chest. Her eyes widened, traversing the distance from her son to the unknown ladies then back to her son again.
“Where did you find this?” she demanded, gripping at the necklace as if she were gripping for her own, dear life. In a way, she was. He was, too. He knew that feeling well.
“I didn’t find it,” he explained. “Lydia did.”
Lydia smiled a little awkwardly as the Dowager Duchess stood up from her chair and walked over to her. She stared at Lydia as if she believed that this young lady held the key to her daughter’s safe return home. In a way, Edwin believed that as well. If he doubted that allowing Lydia to help him was ever a good idea, now all those doubts had been erased.
“You found it?” the Dowager Duchess asked, her voice down to a whisper.
“Yes, Your Grace,” Lydia nodded respectfully. “In the jewelry box in her room. There was a secret compartment.”
She turned to Edwin. “But we checked everything.”
Edwin shrugged. “Not close enough, it seems.” He took out the letter and handed it to her as well. “We found this, too.”
She grabbed it eagerly then read it in an instant. “A love letter?” she asked although the answer was obvious. She simply needed to say something, and in the lack of anything logical, restating the obvious was her only choice. “Who sent it?”
“That’s what we plan to find out,” Edwin assured her.
“I…” His mother shook her head incredulously at the proof she was holding in her hands that someone was secretly courting her daughter. “I cannot believe that Rachel would keep this a secret from us.”
“I am certain she wanted to tell us,” Edwin tried to reassure her, although he himself could not understand this. “There was probably a good reason that she kept it from us.”
“What reason could be good enough for her to keep it from her mother and brother?” she wondered, sounding disappointed.
All of a sudden, she pressed her hand to her chest and closed her eyes. Both Edwin and Lydia jumped to her side at the same time.
“Are you all right, Mother?” he asked, taking her by the hand. He could see that Lydia was keeping a respectful distance, but she was still there at an arm’s reach. He did not even know how much he appreciated her company until this very moment.
“Yes,” she nodded, blinking heavily. “I feel a little lightheaded; that is all. I shall retire to my chamber and lie down for a moment. That should do me some good.”
She gave him back the letter and the necklace then she stood up and walked slowly to the door. There, she stopped and turned around. She looked at Lydia, her eyes the color of green treetops.
“I do not know who you are or how you came here, young lady, but… I am very glad you are here.”
Without waiting for Lydia or Edwin to respond to that, she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. The three were left alone. As always, Susannah kept herself at a distance, there only as a chaperone, or if she were asked to help. This time, however, it seemed that her presence was not needed. Edwin and Lydia had eyes only for each other.
He sighed heavily, walking over to the chaise lounge, and slumping down onto it. He raked his fingers through his hair, feeling overwhelmed by what happened. So much time had passed without a single clue, without a single glimmer of hope that Rachel would ever be found. Now, that hope was renewed, and he had Lydia to thank for that.