Lord Deverill's Heir by Catherine Coulter (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗

“He wouldn’t have believed me, not for an instant. Had I been here I wouldn’t have believed me either.”

“Paste,” Lady Ann said. She took the emeralds from him and held them up in the sunlight. “Paste. All this misery over a paste necklace of next to no value at all. Obviously Magdalaine’s parents knew they were paste when they gave them to her to bring back to your father, Arabella. Remember, they were supposedly part of her dowry? And they gave their daughter a worthless necklace to give to her husband. Surely they couldn’t have believed the late earl wouldn’t have noticed. Ah, but the violence was escalating in France.” Lady Ann shook her head as she stared at the emeralds. “Paste. It boggles the mind.”

“And that damned necklace has stayed snug in the Dance of Death panel all these years,” Dr. Branyon said. “Waiting to be found. I wish the damned thing had never existed in the first place.” Suddenly a tear rolled down Arabella’s cheek. “Don’t, love,” the earl said, and gently drew her into his arms. “Don’t cry. Will you trust me?” She nodded, gulping back the tears, but still they fell, one after the other.

“Good, I want all of you to hear this. You know that I searched Gervaise’s room that afternoon of the Talgarth ball. I found a letter to Gervaise from his uncle, Thomas de Trécassis, Magdalaine’s brother.

Obviously he had no idea that the necklace was worthless. It was in that letter that I learned exactly where the necklace was. But that’s not what’s really important. What’s really important is another letter, one that fell out of Arabella’s slipper when I was undressing her after she’d been shot.”

“No, Justin, no.”

“Please, trust me. There’s nothing for you to fear. Trust me.” She didn’t want to, but he was holding her hand, he was looking at her intently, willing her to believe in him. Finally, she nodded.

“Paul,” the earl said, “please read this letter. It is from Magdalaine to her lover, Charles, the skeleton Arabella found in the old abbey ruins.” Dr. Branyon took the creased and yellowed piece of foolscap. He smoothed it out as best he could. He walked to the window so that the sunlight poured in on it. He was silent for a goodly amount of time, sometimes frowning, sometimes puzzling over words he couldn’t make out. Finally, he raised his head. “This is incredible, really incredible. Bella, my dear, you have been terrified to tell anyone of what you had found?”

“He was my father. I loved him. I told Justin because I thought I might die. But this paints him as a vicious murderer. Please, promise me that it will not go beyond this room.”

“It won’t,” the earl said. “But it is time, Arabella, for us all to know the truth. Paul, can you tell us?”

“Yes, I can see that it is time. Magdalaine returned from France only to fetch Elsbeth. Then she and her lover would have probably fled to the Colonies. She must have brought the emerald necklace with her.

“Your father must have caught them. His wife had betrayed him, had stolen their child, and was fleeing with her lover. He would have been enraged.

Yes, it would appear likely that he did shoot this Charles. But there is no dishonor in that.

“But listen to me, Bella, your father did not murder Magdalaine. She killed herself. I was here. I was with her all during her final hours. I won’t lie to you and tell you that your father loved her and was devastated that she had tried to leave him, for at the end he didn’t. She had betrayed him. He did not kill Magdalaine, although from reading this letter I can imagine how you drew such a conclusion. No, she killed herself. I swear it to you. She must have hidden the emeralds and written their hiding place to her brother before your father knew her intentions.

She believed they would be her birthright to her son, Gervaise.” He paused, then drew a deep breath. “No, he bore no love for her but he did not kill her.”

Her tears stopped, though she still didn’t look up. Justin saw the flash of pain in her eyes and knew her shoulder was hurting her. He said nothing. He would let her gain her own control.

She said then, “I have had this incredible burden of doubt and uncertainty lifted from my heart. All along you knew, sir, yet it never occurred to me to ask you.”

“Had you asked, Bella, I am not certain I would have told you the truth.

It was a long time ago. She was my patient. But now, to clear all this mystery away, well, I am certain she wouldn’t have minded.” Lady Ann said, “But how did you know, Justin? No, don’t try to deny it.

Never would you have taken such a chance without knowing the answer first. Tell us, how could you be so certain that the earl did not kill her?”

He shrugged, saying simply, “He told me several years ago, not any of the details, of course, merely that his first wife had taken her own life. I could not be certain that you would believe me, so I asked Dr. Branyon to tell you.”

Dr. Branyon said, “I think it time you destroyed this letter, Justin. No one need know anything. As for all our neighbors, I have already begun spreading it about that Gervaise was a desperate young man who had somehow discovered the existence of the emeralds. Indeed, to further dampen rumors and gossip, Ann and I have both told certain people that the gun went off by accident. As for Gervaise, we have simply said that he was shot trying to escape with the necklace.”

“I had not even thought of doing that,” the earl said. “Thank you both.” Dr. Branyon smiled down at Arabella. “Now, young lady, you need to rest.

No, do not gainsay me, for I have a formidable