Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

There it was.

“Thank you for that, Mother.” I glared at her.

Mum beamed at me. “You’re welcome.” She moved the photo book from her lap onto Adelaide’s and stood up. “I’m going to feed the cats. What time are we leaving for the fair?”

“Olympia requested hot dogs, so about five, I’d imagine.”

“Perfect. Do you know where she is?”

“Boris said she’d smuggled a cat into her room again,” I replied dryly.

“Ah.” She shuffled out of the room sheepishly. “I’ll take care of that right now.”

“Mhmm.” I watched as she walked through the kitchen and disappeared from my view, then turned to Adelaide. “Sorry about her,” I said.

She laughed. “Are you kidding? I’ve had the best time. Were you that wild your entire childhood?”

“Yes.” I sat down next to her where Mum had just been and tilted the album so I could look. There was a photo of me, Dad, and Poppy the Labrador, and I smiled. “I haven’t looked at these since he died.”

“You don’t have to now,” she said softly.

“It’s weird, seeing him. There’s a big bloody portrait of him in one of the hallways, but the photos are strange.” I flipped the page. There was one of Mum and Dad at some event in a room I recognised as the banquet hall at Buckingham Palace, and Mum was wearing a tiara, so it had to be a state banquet of some kind.

“That tiara is gorgeous,” Adelaide said, looking at the same photo.

“It’s the family tiara. Kept in a vault in London. She wore it when they got married, too, even though she could have worn the Bath Scroll Tiara.” I paused. “Actually, I think she wore the Bath Scroll Tiara during the ceremony, then wore the Winthrop Loop Tiara at the reception. She obviously wore ours from then on, as Aunt Sophie wore the Bath Tiara.”

“It’s beautiful.” Adelaide brushed her fingertips across the photo. “Are there any others? Closer, maybe?”

“Not in this one, I don’t think…” I closed the album and passed it to her, then got up. I knew there were a ton more albums in the trunk by the door, so I opened it and rifled through until I found the battered leather one I was after. “There should be some in here.”

Adelaide set the album to the side and gave her full attention to the one I sat down with. “Where did it come from? Do you know?”

“The tiara?”

“Yes.”

“I do know.” I opened the album and flicked to the page I was looking for. It gave a perfect view of the tiara—of the diamonds set in the platinum and the pearls that sat eloquently on top of each loop. Every loop had a smaller one inside, and there was another, smaller pearl in the middle of each one. “It’s actually part of a demi-parure, with earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. They’ve all had to be reworked somewhat over time, but everyone has done their best to keep them as true to the originals as possible. Here you go. That’s the necklace.”

Adelaide tilted her head and pulled the album closer. “Is that the bracelet?” She pointed at a picture beneath it of a bracelet that had three rows of diamonds that met at a pearl clasp.

“Yes. I’m not sure there’s a picture of the earrings, actually, but they’re rather similar to the tiara with the loop and the pearl set inside.”

“Are you going to tell me where it came from, or do I have to beat you with a photo album?”

I glanced at her, fighting back a laugh. “It was actually given to Princess Mary when she married Robert Bentley, the First Duke of Worcester.”

“They built this place, yes?”

“Not entirely. It was always intended to be Princess Mary’s marital estate, and it was mostly built by her father, Prince Edward.” I flipped the page. “Robert came from money himself, which is why he was able to insist the estate be named after him, and not Winthrop, which was her maiden name.”

“I did always wonder about that. Was he noble?”

I shook my head. “Just extremely rich and very well connected. His father was relatively high in the royal household, so when the King presented Robert as an option for the princess, Prince Edward wasn’t particularly able to refuse the marriage.”

“Fascinating. So this was a gift from Prince Edward to Mary?”

“No, believe it or not. This came from the King and Queen. They loved Mary dearly, and if you believe the legends, treated her better than their own children. Either way, her wedding was quite the spectacle, and the King granted Robert the dukedom. Prince Edward’s gift was the estate. At some point we gained both an earldom and a marquessate through marriages, but I’d have to look up the exact dates of that.”

“It’s a beautiful set. You still have it all?” She couldn’t take her eyes off the photos.