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His interest deepened and he patted the bed beside him. Giulia shook her head and settled into the maroon wingback next to the bed.
She noticed Jack take a seat in the other wingback that sat beside the fire. Odd. A servant would never take such liberties, especially when the master was inhabiting the room. Although, Jack had never acted like a submissive servant. She had long suspected that there was more there than a simple servant/master relationship, and it made her respect Nick a little more for his compassion.
“May I?” Nick gestured to the letters. They were glued to her hands and she felt an odd reluctance to let them go. The whole concept was still surreal. The reality of her name written in her mother’s loopy hand had yet to truly settle.
“Perhaps,” Nick spoke softly, seeming to sense the magnitude of the situation, “you can begin by telling me what those are.”
That sounded even worse. Verbalize something she could not even force herself to wrap her head around? No, thank you. She straightened her spine and thrust the letters forward.
Nick took them tentatively before settling against his headboard and perusing the words. Giulia watched as his eyebrows did a dance with each new letter. They seemed to rise higher and higher before falling and drawing together, only to rise again. When he finished, he laid the folded papers in his lap and looked at her with a softness in his eyes and a smile slightly turning his lips. Was it pity?
She hardened. “I do not know what you are thinking, Nicholas Pepper, but I can tell you right this instant to stop your pitying and get to work helping me piece this together. This is a business arrangement. Enough of your soft gazes.”
He only deepened his look of concern and she shot to her feet, glaring.
Nick’s hands came up in surrender. “Very well, you have my word. No more soft gazes.”
“Then tell me what you think of this,” Giulia said.
“I thought you hadn’t heard from your mother since she left you.”
“I haven’t,” she whispered, her gaze stuck on the pile of letters in his lap.
Nick’s arched brows rose again. “Well, this is quite a bit of correspondence all of a sudden. And rather desperate sounding, too.”
Giulia chewed on her lip. “That is what I thought as well. I can honestly say I have no idea what she is referring to. Father wasn’t one for souvenirs. We packed light and traveled light, and if you looked at our home you would see there is no great evidence of our trips abroad. Of course, I have gathered a collection of my own over the years, but it is small and there is no jeweled key. I would know. I had to go through all of my father’s things before vacating the house.”
“Perhaps it was left in your mother’s things?” Nick offered. “She wrote that your father refused to return ‘her key,’ so perhaps it was something she had left behind unintentionally.”
“No, if she left it behind then it is long gone. He disposed of everything that belonged to her immediately.” An image flashed in her mind of the rooster cross stitch burning in the fire, the flames licking the rooster’s tail feathers as a young Giulia watched on in horror.
“Then maybe it was not her key,” Nick said hesitantly. “Maybe she simply wants something your father would not give to her. She did wait until he died to approach you.”
“The owner of the key is rather irrelevant at this point. Never have I seen anything like she described. A jeweled key? She simply expects me to know what she is referring to, but I do not.” Giulia scoffed. “As if we have been in contact for the last sixteen years.” She threw her arms up in frustration and then buried her face in her hands.
Raising her head, she scoffed again when she saw Nick’s face etched in sorrow.
Giulia pointed a finger at him. “I meant what I said, Nick. No pity, please, or I will solve this on my own.”
He smiled guiltily. “Has your father ever talked about a key?”
“No, never.”
They sat in thought, and both jumped slightly when Jack’s voice broke the silence. “It is getting late; maybe your detective work would benefit from a good night’s sleep and a refreshed mind.”
Giulia nodded. “You are right, Jack. I don’t know what I was thinking, coming here tonight. I should have saved it for morning.” She shuddered and gave Nick a weak smile, holding out her hand for the letters. He put his own in it instead, squeezing her fingers.
“Do you mind if I keep these tonight? I will go over them again and see if there is something we may have missed.”
Giulia relented. “Very well.” She pulled her hand reluctantly from his firm, sustaining grip and clasped her hands to dispel the overwhelming absence she felt.
“Goodnight, Nick.” She turned toward the door that Jack held open for her and stopped to place a hand on his arm. “Goodnight, Jack.” He smiled at her and closed the door behind her. The dark hallway felt cool and empty and made her feel small.
Giulia wrapped her arms around her waist and began the trek to the west wing. She had not felt this lonely in months. And what she truly wanted, the strong arms of her father wrapped around her and comforting away her sorrows, she could never have again. A renewed sense of anger at Ames for sending her away filled her body. Why had he not reached out to her? Was one simple letter so much to ask?
She stopped dead in her tracks. She had earlier determined that she needed to tell Nick about Ames and shut the door on any fluttering feelings she was beginning to have. Their late-night meeting would have been the perfect opportunity. Why had she not?
Once again, she’d failed to speak the truth. Groaning, she continued toward her room. She would tell him tomorrow. All she had to do was picture Ames’s loving face, his dark hair falling over his forehead, an appreciative look in his eyes. Ames may not possess Nick’s classic good looks, but he was handsome to her.
Would it have hurt for him to protect her with a betrothal? Why had he been so adamant about waiting for that? The wedding, she understood. Or, at least, she tried to understand. But waiting for the betrothal as well?
That, she did not understand at all.
