She gasped. “I had no idea that was there. Gran’s never mentioned anything like this.”
He carefully reached into the compartment and pulled out a yellowed envelope. “Look at this,” he said, his voice filled with excitement. “It’s an old letter.”
She leaned in, her curiosity piqued. The envelope was addressed simply to “V” in faded, elegant handwriting. She glanced at Brent, seeing her own mix of surprise and intrigue mirrored in his expression.
“V as in Vera?” She asked.
“I don’t know. Should we open it?” He turned the envelope over in his hands.
She bit her lip, torn between her curiosity and Gran’s warning that they should leave the past in the past. “I’m not sure.”
“It’s been here a long time. You can tell by the weathered paper. I think we should open it. We might find out something that will help us with our research on Prince Lawrence.”
She didn’t know how to stop him and didn’t know if she wanted to stop him. It surely wouldn’t hurt to open the envelope after all this time, would it?
Still hearing Gran’s words in her head, she nodded to him. He opened the envelope and pulled out two pages. “Look, it is addressed to Vera.”
She peered over his shoulder. “What does it say?”
“Let’s move under the light.”
They walked under the light, and she read over his shoulder. When they were done reading, she looked at Brent. “This pretty much confirms that Lawrence and Vera were having an affair, doesn’t it? He tells her he loves her. He talks about their secret meeting place.”
“And that last line. That he’ll send word to her when it’s the right time for her to see the letter. And if she’s reading it, she’ll know where he’ll meet up with her. He asked her to run away with him. But I guess he never did send word, since the letter is still hidden here.”
Gran called from the kitchen. “Felicity? Did you find those pinwheels?”
“Not yet. Still looking,” she called out. She turned to Brent. “Let’s find those pinwheels.”
“Then we can show Darlene the letter.”
“I… I don’t know if we should.”
He looked at her with a confused expression. “Why not?”
“Just… give me time to talk to her first. Can you do that?”
“If that’s what you want.” He handed her the letter, and she tucked it in her pocket.
They resumed their search as her mind whirled with questions. She guessed Lawrence hid the letter on one of his visits. That was the only logical explanation. But why was it still there? Why had he never sent word to Vera to find the letter?
“Found the pinwheels.” Brent interrupted her thoughts and held out a box with pinwheels poking out of the top.
“Great, let’s bring them to Gran.”
They headed to the kitchen, and she was surprised to see Dale sitting at the table, sipping coffee with Gran.
Brent set the box with the pinwheels on the table and stretched out a hand to Dale. “Morning.”
“Good morning. I had a bit of a breakthrough with my research. Found out a bit more about the scandal I remembered reading about.”
“You did? What did you find?” Brent sat down across from Dale. Felicity stood near Gran, noticing the cautious look on her grandmother’s face.
“On one of the prince’s visits, he had a pendant with him. It went missing, or possibly it was stolen. But I found a photo of the pendant and compared it to the one Tori found hidden in Vera’s dressing table at the theater. It’s the very same pendant.”
She looked over at Brent, sure the same thought was going through his mind. This further confirmed that Lawrence and Vera were having an affair.
“Really?”
