Inheritance--Victoria by E.V. Darcy

Author:E.V. Darcy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Darcy's Royal Library

‘Cormac,’ Victoria said. Her voice was quiet, and when he peeled one eye open, he knew it was still the dead of night. The fire’s flame had turned the wood to red embers, casting their room deep in the palace into shadows, the light of the cinders only just reaching the bed. ‘Cormac, are you awake?’

‘I am now,’ he groaned, turning onto his back. He expected Victoria to be lying there, staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep despite all the physical exercise they’d shared that night. If she wanted it again…

But no, Victoria knelt on the bed, hidden almost all in shadow, her long hair loose and hanging around her shoulders, hiding some of her face. In her hands lay an open ring box and Cormac felt his chest tighten, his breath stop, and his heart speed up at the sight of the large, blue stone of the ring.

Holy shit! That was one hell of an engagement ring.

‘It’s La Larme Bleue, it means—’

‘The Blue Tear,’ he said automatically. He might not follow the gossip pages like Geri did, but even he knew the stories surrounding one of the most famous jewels in Avalonian history.

‘It was my mother’s,’ she said. Finally, Cormac looked up, noticing for the first time that she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, her gaze was fixed upon the ring in the box, a sad smile playing at her lips. ‘It was the only thing my great-grandmother bequeathed to her on her death bed. My grandfather was livid.’ She smirked at that comment and Cormac couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth after meeting the man earlier that evening.

She turned the ring slightly, and the light caught it just right for him to see the magic within. The tiny flaws in the stone—the reason why the jeweller, Tavernier, had cut it away from Le bleu de France, later the Hope Diamond—made the large offcut look as if it had a swirl of stars, a whole galaxy, trapped within its blue depths. Ironic that they were the very reason it was now counted as one of the most beautiful of all jewels in the world.

‘I know,’ Victoria said with a grin as she finally turned her attention to him and caught his awed expression. ‘I believe I had the same look when I first saw it.’

‘You want to use this as our engagement ring?’ he asked, sitting up properly. He brushed a strand of her long hair behind her ear and tilted her face so he could see her properly in the dim light. He’d been wondering what to do about the ring, if he should go and buy one, if she had one lined up already—as she had with most of the wedding things—but this seemed… perfect. Especially if it would annoy the King!

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘My mother always told me that one day, when I found the man of my dreams, I’d wear this ring to show the world that he was accepted by her and my father, no matter who he was.

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