Page 61 of The Duke's Stolen Heart
“Sickness?” he repeated.
“Your mother was born with heavy heart. It is a sad thing to say, but true. She threw herself passionately into books, and then, when your father came along, she was determined to make it work with him.” The duchess inhaled. “It was hard on your father. Not that he handled it well, mind you.”
Hard? On his father? Malcolm’s mind reeled. He laid the Heart’s Cry out on the nearby table. Two ear bobs with wire thread framing each half of the necklace. A lovely concoction of gold and red.
“It was a pretty set. Your mother liked symbols. I’m afraid she latched onto the name and the story.” The lady traced the outline of the necklace with the tip of her finger.
“I’m sorry.”
The words were a dam breaking. “I should have come years ago. I wasted so much time.”
His grandmother peered up at him with watery blue eyes. “I have a carriage. I know where you live. After that girl rightly rejected your offer of marriage at Almack’s, I thought you were just like your father. But over the past few weeks I have come to regret avoiding you for so long, Malcolm.” She opened her arms. He had to bend to fit into her embrace. His grandmother smelled faintly of lavender and powder. Tears scraped against his eyelids, hot and itchy.
“I wish I had made the first gesture instead of driving you to hire that woman to take the necklace off of me,” she sobbed into his shoulder.
“That woman is gone,” Malcolm reassured her. His heart thumped with regret.
“No,” Lady Summervale gasped. “You can’t mean you let her walk away?”
Malcolm had the dizzying sense that he had chased the wrong end. “You aren’t going to report her?”
“Report Miss Lowry? For what? I wagered the gem. I knew you too were up to something. I never thought you’d simply let her go.” She gripped his forearms with surprising strength.
“It was the only way to protect her,” he said, but Malcolm knew he was wrong before his grandmother cast her eyes heavenward.
“No, Malcolm. For all the effort you put into getting your mother’s necklace back, I thought for certain you were going to marry her. If I hadn’t believed that, I would never have wagered the stupid thing in the first place.” She trembled with the force of her conviction. “Malcolm. You must go and get her back.”
Malcolm’s body flashed cold. “Grandmother. I can’t. I don’t know where she’s going.”
She regarded him somberly. “Perhaps there’s something to the curse after all.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Only a lot of stupidity getting in the way of the most valuable thing of all.”
“Which is?” the duchess prompted.
“Love.”
She gave him a wan smile. “There it is. Now get out of my house and go find her.”
