“He said it was so that even if the world separated us, we would still be linked in some way.”
Noah swallowed hard.
“But your parents interfered?” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said, her mouth tightening, the years folding over her like shadow. “They considered him unsuitable. He was Australian. Young. From a farm, no less. A man with soil underhis fingernails and ambition in his heart, two things my parents could not forgive.”
She paused, drawing a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed carefully at one eye.
“They forbade me from seeing him again. They confined me to the house for a time. I was only allowed outside with a chaperone. I tried to write to him, but my letters were intercepted. My mother burned them.”
Noah winced.
“After a while,” Lady Beaumont whispered, “my parents announced my engagement. My future was decided without a single word from me. And by the time I found the courage to rebel, it was too late. Edward had returned home, thinking… believing… that I no longer wanted him.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
And in that moment, she wasn’t Lady Victoria Beaumont, formidable, elegant, untouchable.
She wasToriagain.
A girl in love.
“And then, very quickly, I was someone else’s wife.”
I felt my eyes widen.
“Duke Beaumont.” Lady Beaumont nodded. “Edward didn’t understand at the time why I had to stop seeing him. He didn’t know the truth.”
I exhaled shakily. “So when you found out that the wedding was to be here?”
“When I found out I panicked. I thought… if he left anything behind, letters, tokens, objects, someone might find them. Someone might realise who Tori was.”
“And link it to you,” Noah murmured.
“Yes,” she said. “And drag our family name into scandal.”
“But it wouldn’t be your fault,” I protested. “You were in love. It was real.”
“Real things,” Lady Beaumont said briskly, “can ruin reputations just as swiftly as false ones.”
She continued, voice steadying with resolve. “So I travelled here a few days early. I asked my driver to keep an eye on things for me before I came. I searched the east wing. Edward always hid sentimental items in places he thought no one would look.”
She turned to me. “Benson saw you taking the brooch to your room, and I asked him to take it. I thought… perhaps selling the brooch would destroy the evidence, should anything surface. A decoy of sorts. But when I reached the antique shop, I couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?” I asked.
Her hands tightened together in her lap. “Because I loved him. And selling the brooch felt like erasing him. Instead I bought a locket, a small, harmless thing. I intended to replace the brooch with something that wouldn’t draw attention… something Margaret would accept without question as a family heirloom.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed as a realisation dawned on him.
“Benson? As in Benson C? It was Cooper who signed in on the delivery form and gained access to the house?”
“Yes.” A shadow crossed her face. “I am ashamed to say I asked him to assist me. He should not be in any trouble for it, he was only following my instructions.”
A memory flashed through my mind, Lucas casually mentioning that Cooper had driven him to the café one early morning.
He’d been here the whole time.
