In a Precious Vow: A False Identity Steamy Regency Romance (Diamond Dynasty Book 5) by Sara Adrien

Author:Sara Adrien [Adrien, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heart Publishing
Published: 2024-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Peter followed her, taking two stairs at a time. His breath caught in his throat. Unlike climbing Bass Rock earlier that day, it was trouble not the exertion that pierced his lungs.

The stains grew larger higher up. When she reached a bedchamber with a double bed, with one side covered under a dark green quilt, Peter reckoned it was her father’s room. A widower’s bed was half made, covering the side for Aurelia’s mother that had long gone cold. The drawers of his dresser were open, and his starched cravats hung over the rims. “He didn’t leave of his own accord.” Aurelia showed Peter a cravat stained with blood, her hands shaking as she patted the blood stains. They were dry already.

“Right. Someone took him.” Peter drove his hands through his hair.

“You said he left with the English and another man this morning, so he must have come home and then left again.” Peter had recognized the sketches in the study as his copies of Ben’s letters from India. They were signs Ben had found and attempted to decipher while searching for Izaac Pearler’s treasure.

Aurelia dashed down the hall and entered a bedroom with lavender curtains and flicked on a single five-armed brass lamp on the ceiling. The room showed no signs of being searched as far as Peter could tell. A girl-sized bed with white linen sheets had the patina of well-used furniture. A writing desk in the same wood grain as the bed posts stood against the window. Peter caught Aurelia’s reflection in the black window pane as she searched the desk drawer, her face filled with fear.

“It must be here. Oh, I hope they didn’t take it,” she mumbled. Her breaths came out in short, ragged gasps, each one punctuating the silence with its desperation.

Peter would have dwelled on the fact that they were alone in her room bedchamber, but the situation called for a different sort of alertness. Her father had likely gone missing—he’d certainly left against his will—and there were signs of a robbery.

“Is anything missing, Aurelia? Have they stolen something of value?” He hoped desperately that it wasn’t his sketch that linked Professor Seligman to Nagy. It was bad enough that he’d fallen in love with his daughter, but if it had been his stupid effort to crack a code for the Klonimus’ treasure hunt that had sent Nagy’s lackeys searching for Professor Seligman—or worse—how could he ever live this down? Ruining Aurelia would have been bad enough, but ruining her life and her father’s was too high a price to pay for his mistake.

Aurelia frantically opened drawers and shut them again. She’d opened an armoire and rushed through the room, seemingly aimless.

“What were they after?” she mumbled, disoriented in her own bedchamber like a caged animal. “The Jewish problem… Werner said it so many times. But nothing that’s Jewish, not my father’s Siddur, prayer book, nor my mother’s candlesticks, not even their ketubah, marriage contract, were touched.”

Peter’s head followed her until he noticed a bookshelf with several volumes with well-worn spines.

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