“Oh, my God, Trick. Look at this.” She hefted a solid gold charger, running her fingers over the delicately engraved rim. “It’s beautiful.”
“He’ll probably melt it down.”
“No,” she breathed, dropping to kneel before the chest. “He wouldn’t.” She set the charger on the floor and reached for a silver pitcher in the shape of a swan. “Oh, I just knew I wanted to see this.” One by one, she removed pieces, each more impressive than the last. Plates, bowls, goblets, cutlery, serving utensils, platters. “Hamish was right. The first Charles truly did live like a king on his coronation journey.”
He smiled as she delved deeper, her lovely, scantily clad bottom rising as she leaned into the chest. Helpless to resist, he gave her a little pinch.
Laughing, she slapped his hand away. “Oh, what is this?” She drew out an ivory casket inlaid with scrolled gold wire.
He shrugged. “Small items?”
“In a beautiful box like this? And locked?”
Taking it from her, he made short work of that and put it back in her hands.
With a sigh of anticipation, she raised the lid. “Jewels!” She lifted an exquisite sapphire and diamond necklace. “My heavens, it looks like pirate’s booty! How did jewels get in here?” Replacing the necklace, she slipped a gaudy emerald ring on her finger. “I don’t understand this,” she said, staring at it. Obviously made for a man, it dangled loose. “I thought Hamish and his friends only packed the kitchen.”
“Supposedly.” He ran a hand back through his hair, still surprised to find the front so short. “I guess somewhere along the way, someone filched this and slipped it inside.”
“Rhona or Gregor, I’m guessing. I wonder if Hamish knows?” She dug around some more and drew out another necklace. “Goodness, will you look at the size of these pearls?”
The largest round pearls Trick had ever seen, with one enormous teardrop-shaped pearl dangling from the center. “Fit for royalty, all right.”
She dropped it back into the casket. “Oh, Trick, look at this.” Her voice turned wistful. “Amber.”
“When did you grow to like amber?” he teased.
She blushed and pulled the jewel out, only to find it was a clasp attached to a gleaming string of smaller, pure white pearls. “Oh, it’s lovely,” she sighed, dropping the strand over her head.
It was so long, he reached to double it, settling the second half around her neck. “Don’t you own any pearls?”
“Father sold all the family jewels to help finance the Civil War.” Her fingertips danced on the lustrous strand. “Of course, Jason has bought me things over the years. And Colin and Ford. They all know I love jewelry. But pearls are terribly expensive.”
And immensely popular. All the court ladies wore pearls, and most of the men, come to that. “You look beautiful in pearls,leannan.”
She blushed and took them off. “For the price this trinket could bring, I expect we could feed the orphans for a year.”
“A decade, probably.” He smiled.
She dropped them back into the box. “Help me put this all away, will you? I still need Jane to do my hair, and if we don’t get to Whitehall soon, we’ll miss the presentations.”
Sixty-Four
“THE DUKEand Duchess of Amberley!”
Trick shot the puffed-up court usher an annoyed glare. “I abhor this sort of thing,” he muttered under his breath as he and Kendra made their way down the aisle to where King Charles and Queen Catharine sat on the dais, dressed in crimson velvet with a swagged canopy overhead to match. “I really hate this.”
“Oh, hush,” Kendra chided. “A little pomp and circumstance never hurt anybody. And there will be dancing afterwards—”
“I cannot wait.”
His tone was dry enough that under different circumstances she might be tempted to slap him. As it was, she flashed Queen Catharine a brilliant smile and dropped into a deep curtsy, pressing a kiss to the back of the woman’s slim proffered hand. “Your Majesty.”
“Lady Kendra,” Catharine said in gracious Portuguese-accented syllables, “or have I heard it’s the Duchess of Amberley now?”
“You’ve heard correctly,” she said, then leaned closer to her husband. “As long as he behaves himself,” she added for his ears only.
Suppressing a laugh, he rose and traded sides with her. King Charles smiled as she kissed his hand. “It’s glad I was to hear that two of my favorite families are united.”
