Page 55 of Royally Wed
She wasn’tjealous. She was simply curious. Too curious to let it go.
She pushed back from the table and stood, rousing a snoring Willow from her slumber. Amelia stepped over her and walked the length of the table, looking for a small box somewhere among all the gleaming tableware, candlesticks, and goblets. But there was just too much. She’d never find something as small as a pocket watch hidden in thatpile.
She checked the spreadsheet again. One of the columns contained a list of letter and number combinations. Coordinates? Probably. But Amelia had no idea how the giftshad been organized on the table.
She told herself to forget about the whole thing. It was a pocket watch. What did it matter? She had enough to worry about without adding a random piece of man-jewelry to the mix. Still, shefound herself marching over to the call button instead of resuming her seat at the table.
James appeared within minutes. “Can I help you, Your Royal Highness?”
“Yes, please.” She glanced at the table. “Can you help me find something?”
“I can certainly try. What is it you’re looking for?”
Amelia gestured toward the spreadsheet. “One of the gifts on this list. I’d like to see it, and I’m notsure how to locate it.”
James nodded. “I’ve helped organize some the items. I can probably find it for you, assuming it’s been put in its proper place.”
“Great.” Amelia wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. She felt awkward all of a sudden, which was ridiculous. These were her gifts, after all. It was a perfectly normal request.
Except she had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t supposed tosee this particular gift, and James had already witnessed a few too many of her private moments recently.
“It’s silly, really.” She let out a laugh that sounded every bit as forced as it was. “There’s a pocket watch listed on the inventory, and I think it might be a mistake. I’d like to check and see.”
She pointed to the line on the spreadsheet.
“Ah, I see. That gift should be located in sectionG-fifteen, which is at the far end of the table.” He motionedfor her to step ahead of him and escorted her to the other side of the massive room.
Amelia held her breath as he scanned the tabletop. He found a small box in the section marked G-fifteen straightaway.
“Here you go, Your Royal Highness.” He handed it to her. “Would you like help with anything else?”
“No, James. Thank you very much.”She clutched the box to her chest and waited for him to leave.
She didn’t want to open it in front of him. Asking for his help locating it had been humiliating enough. She’d seen the tiny furrow in his brow when he read Lady Wentworth’s name on the spreadsheet. If the box in her hand contained anything incriminating, she wanted to be alone when she discovered it.
A little dramatic, don’t youthink? It’s a pocket watch, not a time bomb.
She lifted the lid. A blue velvet pouch was nestled inside the box on a bed of tissue paper. Amelia opened it and slid the watch into the palm of her hand.
It was heavier than she’d expected, gold and worn down to a smooth shine around the edges. Vintage. Probably some kind of heirloom, which would have been enough of an indication that the gift wasintended to be an intimate gesture. But just in case Amelia needed a more obvious clue, the engraving on the face of the watch’s cover featured two intertwined initials.
W and H.
The style of script was an exact duplicate of the engraving on the locket she’d seen hanging from Lady Wentworth’sneck.
Amelia ran the pad of her thumb over the swirling letters. W and H. Wilhelmina and Holden.
Not Wilhelmina and Henry, as she’d originally thought.
Oh my God.
Were Wilhelmina and Holden lovers? This definitely didn’t seem like a gift from one “old friend” to another.
Amelia stared at it, waiting to feel something. Anger... jealousy... anything. She should feel one of those things, shouldn’t she? She didn’t, though. She didn’t feel a thing, actually. A cold nothingness crawledover her skin, a familiar numbness that worried her far more than if she’d been enraged. At the very least, she should be shocked. But instead, she felt herself slipping back into the dull, unfeeling state she’d been in before Asher Reed had set foot on English soil. Before she’d heard him play his cello in the darkened Abbey. Before he’d kissed her.
A shiver ran up her spine. She was cold allof a sudden. As cold as ice, and she wondered how long the numbness would last this time. How long would she go through the motions, refusing to feel? Refusing to live?
She was vaguely aware of James returning to her side and uttering something, but she couldn’t focus on what he was saying. He sounded like he was very far away, as if she were lying on the bottom of a pool of dark, still waterand he was above the surface.
