Page 93 of Her Highland Prophecy
Diana looked at him curiously.
“What is it?”
Her curiosity deepened even further when Gordain blushed before reaching into his sporran, removing something from inside and placing it in her hands.
Diana opened the small velvet pouch carefully, glancing up at her betrothed with a smile. She could feel that it was jewelry of some sort, and though she was thrilled that he had thought of her, receiving jewelry had been a little bit tricky for her lately.
However, nothing could have prepared her for what actually tumbled out of the small pouch to tumble onto her palm.
It was her mother’s necklace.
She ran her hand reverentially over the familiar pedant, her eyes drinking in the sight of something she never thought she would see again. Her fingers were trembling as she reached out a hand to caress the familiar pattern of the chain that had been around her neck for years before she sold it a few weeks before.
“How?” she asked, her eyes turning up to look at Gordain.
His face was soft as he looked back at her. He pushed a strand of her rapidly lengthening hair behind her ear before responding.
“I kent that it wasnae easy for ye to sell it, but at that time we didnae have another option for ye to have enough coin to pass as a wealthy Lady.”
His face turned apologetic and Diana waved him off. She knew only too well the circumstances.
“After me Faither died and ye returned to the Castle — rather dramatically — I went back to see if I could find it. Do ye remember the trip I took?”
Diana nodded. It was the only time he had left her side since she had returned to him. That wasn’t to say that they didn’t spend time alone with the other people in their lives, but he had been gone for a solid week. At her nod, he continued.
“It took some effort because the merchant had already sold it, but he kent the man who bought it so I went to him and we came to an agreement.”
Her fingers had not stopped tracing over each detail of the necklace that was now her only link to the family she had intentionally left behind.
“Thank you,” she choked out. “You don’t know what this means to me.”
The look that he gave her was one that was full of understanding and love.
“Aye, me Sassenach Princess, I ken verra well how precious it is to ye. I remember how ye kept it for last before selling it, and I remember that it belonged to yer Mither. I would do anything in me power to give it back to ye.”
He was being so sweet that she could barely resist him. She leaned into him and placed a tender kiss on his lips in thanks for being so wonderful. He had given back to her a piece of her that she thought she had lost forever. That necklace had so many memories of her mother and Grace tied to it, that no matter its monetary value, was something she absolutely cherished.
She started to pull away from the kiss, but he pulled her back with a gentle hand behind her neck. She smiled against his mouth and lost herself in the feel of his lips on hers, their love surrounding them like a warm blanket.
No matter what else might happen, she was there now and she would not change the future she could see looming brightly ahead of her. With a silent farewell to her sister and her family, she leaned back against Gordain in front of the beautiful little loch, content to wait for everything that would find them.
Epilogue
London, England, 1928
Grace woke up with a start, her heart racing in her chest. She felt disoriented, but slowly, the details of her familiar childhood bedroom came into stark relief. Her four-poster bed with its matching side tables took up one corner of the room, and she could just make out her bookcases and the phonograph that stood on the other side of her space where toys and dolls once stood.
She padded across the chilled room on bare feet and flipped the switch, bathing the room in soft white light. She could see more clearly now that dozens of newspaper clippings and articles, the police reports and her own handwritten notes that were strewn haphazardly over her desk.
Two months. It had been two months since that ill-fated night were Diana had disappeared with no trace, besides what looked like a hastily scribbled note written on the hotel’s stationery.
I need to check something at the fair. I’ll be back by morning.
What an inadequate explanation! No telling where she could have possibly gone with a message like that. She could have gone anywhere within walking distance, and with the large fair sprawling so close to them, it was impossible to tell.
She shook her head, the old anger resurfacing once more before she managed to quash it.
Why couldn’t Diana have woke her up before leaving? What was so important that she needed to leave in the middle of the night for it, leaving behind all of her belongings? Grace had suspected foul play of some sort since the beginning, but that note still infuriated her whenever she thought about it.
