The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries 3)

“He’s not wrong,” I noted.

“Oh, and that he’d rather shit in his own hands and clap than marry her.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

EVA

A laugh bubbled up, and I choked on my water. A tickle lodged itself in my throat, and it only moved when my sister leaned over and smacked me on the back.

“Thank you,” I rasped out, having another drink of water in the hope it would get rid of the niggling ache that my coughing fit had left behind.

“Are you all right, darling?” Matthew asked, his eyes twinkling.

I glared at him. “Did you have to say it like that? Right as I was drinking?”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I was only repeating what Fred said.”

Addy patted my knee. “Did she lose it?”

“Lost her bloody mind,” Matthew confirmed. “He said she started screaming at him, saying he was shit in bed anyway, that he was getting the ring back over her dead body and she didn’t care that it was a family heirloom.”

“Can he not get it back?” I asked.

“That ring wasn’t the family heirloom,” Adelaide said, looking between us. “His mum doesn’t have the ring from the Coventry parure, either.”

“How the heck do you know that?”

She shrugged. “After seeing the Winthrop demi-parure, I fell down a jewellery rabbit hole. I started researching all the current dukedom and earldom family jewels, and the Coventrys have a full parure. It’s bloody gorgeous, too.”

“That much is true, I know that,” Matthew said. “Mum always lusted after the ruby bracelet. I think it was rubies, though.”

“It is,” Adelaide confirmed. “But Fred’s mum doesn’t have the ring, and Charlotte most certainly did not.”

“His grandmother does,” Eleanor added, sliding past Matthew in the doorway. “When Alistair proposed to May, his father was still alive, and the ring belonged to his grandmother, so he couldn’t use it. He used another ring from the family safe instead.”

“Makes sense,” I said. “But now Alistair is the Earl. Why didn’t Fred use the Coventry ring?”

“Magdalene said no,” Eleanor replied simply. “She offered the ring to May once Alistair became the Earl, but May refused, saying she was happy to wear the jewels without it. Although, I do believe she has worn it as part of the parure for some state events, but it’s merely a loan. When the subject of Frederick proposing to Charlotte came up, Magdalene refused to allow him to use the ring before he’d even considered asking.”

Wow.

That… was not normal. Jewellery was an heirloom to be passed down, from generation to generation, and preferably through the male line where a historic set was concerned. Best to keep it within the hereditary line unless there was no other option.

My engagement ring had once been Ffion’s, as it had been her mother-in-law’s before her. She’d passed before Ffion had married Matthew’s grandfather, Gerwyn, and the then-Earl had given him permission to propose with the family ring. The only reason Eleanor didn’t have this ring was simply because both Ffion and Gerwyn were alive at the time she married into the family.

That Magdalene never gave permission for Fred to use the family ring was strange.

“Alistair fully backed her up,” Eleanor continued, crossing one leg over the other. “He decided that Mags would retain ownership of the ring until he deemed otherwise.”

“Did he let him use another ring?” I asked.

“Did who let who use another ring?” Ffion shuffled up to the door and swatted Matthew so he’d move out of the way. “Did something interesting happen?”

Matthew explained what we were talking about, including the jewellery discussion.

“About time he broke up with that hussy,” Ffion said after a few minutes of catching up. “Alistair would never let him use any family heirlooms for that gold-digging little—”

“Ffion,” Eleanor warned, eyeing her.

“—bitch,” Ffion finished, not giving a damn about the stink eye that was being shot her way.

I swallowed down a laugh.

The woman drove me potty, but gosh. I was starting to really love her.

For now, anyway.

“We have gotten hugely off-track, I realise,” I said, turning to Matthew. “What did he say after Charlotte mentioned the ring?”

He shrugged, still standing in the doorway. “He told her that it wasn’t an heirloom, and she may as well keep it, since it was as cheap as she is.”

Well, well, well.

Frederick was spicy when he was angry.

“I knew I liked that boy,” Ffion said, opening a box of chocolates that she’d magicked from somewhere about her person.

Matthew frowned. “Last time we spoke about him, you said he was a blithering idiot with the taste of a lump of rock.”

“We’re allowed to change our mind, Matthew.” She sniffed.

Words to live by, as far as I was concerned.

“Anyway,” he said, looking away from his grandmother. “The point is, it’s well and truly over this time, and he got the ring back.”

Addy’s eyebrows shot up. “He did?”

“Yes. When he said it was cheap, she threw it at him and left.” He rubbed his jaw. “It wasn’t cheap. He just figured it was the only way he was getting it back.”