Page 92 of The Jewels of Halstead Manor (Ladies of Devon 1)

Chapter 33

“It’s locked,” Nick said, pulling at the lid of the beautiful, ornate box. It was not large, by any means, but it was absolutely breathtaking. The box was gold—or perhaps brass—the lid covered in precisely cut, clean jewels of every shade that came together to form the image of an elephant.

A beautiful, ornate, jeweled elephant.

Nick glanced up to find Giulia staring at the box, her eyes wide with fear and hesitation, her hand resting over her chest. “Giulia, what is it?”

She glanced up to him and then back at the box as if a magnetic pull kept her vision from moving elsewhere. Her hand went to her throat and hovered there before Nick reached forward, grabbing her hand and squeezing her fingers with his own.

She seemed to swallow with effort. “We’ve found it, Nick. We’ve found the key.”

“Key? But Jules, this is locked.” Nick dropped her hand and pulled at the lid, demonstrating for her once again. The poor woman had probably spent too much time in this tower, for she was acting strange.

She gave him a look as if to say that he was the one acting strange, and he set down the box, lifting his hands in surrender.

Nick watched as Giulia lifted the box, examining it thoroughly. Then he was wholly surprised to see her lift the chain she always wore around her neck and pull a pendant out of her bodice. The pendant was an elephant, identical to the one on the top of the box. His jaw went slack, but he did his best to close it quickly. “You think…” he started, quieting as she nodded.

Giulia placed the box on the floor before her, kneeling directly in front of it. She unclasped the chain around her neck, holding the elephant by its tail. Bringing it to the front of the jeweled box, she inserted the pendant into the slit on the front, trunk first, before wiggling it for a moment and then turning it to the right in a quarter turn. A satisfying click bounced off of the stone walls and Nick found himself holding his breath as he watched Giulia slowly lift the lid.

Giulia and Nick sat in silence as they looked at the contents of the box. He could not be certain, but it appeared to be filled with folded missives. He watched as Giulia sifted through the paper and confirmed that it was, indeed, full of letters.

“Most of these appear to be from my father,” Giulia said in confusion, lifting some from the box and combing through them. “They are rather old. Oh, they are letters to his mother.” She quietly gasped. “Here are a few she had written to him.”

Nick watched as Giulia continued to sift through the letters that filled the box.

She glanced up with a puzzled expression. “But why would they be in this box in this tower if she wrote them to him?”

“Did she post them?”

Giulia turned one of the folded letters over. “No, it appears that she never even addressed them, she simply wrote them. And it looks like she stopped eighteen years ago.” She lifted her gaze. “Or maybe she stopped putting them in this box.”

Nick noted the sorrow in Giulia’s expression as she tried to make sense of the treasure. He yearned to pull her in and comfort her. But he couldn’t. This was her story and her trial, and she needed to process it on her own. Didn’t she?

“Oh, Nick!” Giulia surprised him with the force of her words. “You see what this means?” Suddenly her tone became more solemn, more calm, as her watery, brown eyes sought his. “Father did trust me with the key.”

Nick smiled encouragingly as Giulia grinned at him and then went back to sifting through the letters. Her face displayed a wealth of various emotions with each passing missive. She laughed, she smiled, she frowned. He could have sat there all day and watched her. Then, when she froze, he followed suit.

Giulia sat too still and too quiet for far too long. Nick placed a hand on her shoulder, and she startled. Had she forgotten he was there?

“I am sorry,” she said quietly. “This was the last letter.”

He glanced over, noting that it was from Giulia’s grandmother. “To your father?” he asked.

She nodded. “She wrote this to him but never sent it, same as the others. She must have locked the box at that point, too.” Giulia raised the letter in indication, then explained as she skimmed the words again. “She wrote that she thought he had made a mistake in marrying Lily. He was disgracing his family by stealing his brother’s betrothed and would no longer be welcome at Halstead. She also told him how much she loved him and wished things had gone differently.” Giulia sought Nick’s gaze. “Of course, she describes in this letter how she could not possibly say such a thing, for it would be terribly un-Pepper-like of her to admit vulnerability.” Giulia laughed. “I have to assume she left that part out of the actual note that she sent.”

“How do you know that she sent anything at all?”

“Because she sent him this,” Giulia said, lifting the elephant pendant. “And then he must have waited until he was in India to give it to me so I would not question its origin. Apparently…” She stopped, clearing her throat. “Apparently my grandfather gave this box to my grandmother when they were newly married. It was a gift given to him by a Raja when he visited India with his own father and was said to bring good luck. That is what my father told me as well. It has been my good luck charm ever since.”

She brought the elephant to her lips and kissed it once before securing the chain around her neck and hiding it in her bodice. “It is funny,” Giulia said, her unfocused eyes in a slight daze, “my father told me not to flash it about because of thieves and robbers. He wanted to protect the necklace and, in turn, protect me. I kept it hidden away until the point that it became habitual. But that must have been his intention all along.”

“Most likely,” Nick agreed.

Giulia piled the letters back into the box and closed the lid with a click. “Shall we take this to the earl?” she asked as she rose.

Nick stopped her with a hand on her arm before rising as well. “It can wait. We have the ball this evening and the last thing Robert needs is to dig up all of this old history again before facing Graton’s genteel set.”

“True.” She nodded in agreement before crouching down and looking at the hiding place. “There were no vermin?”

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