Enchanted - The Dressing Room Affair [Time Travel Historical Romance Novella] (Entwined Together Forever) Read Online Free PDF Page B

could keep them in boxes, always have them on hand in case… in case…
    Katie put her glass down.
    “You’re right, Chloe.” She filled her lungs, keeping her face carefully anesthetized to avoid another fit of weeping. “She’s not coming back. It’s time. I just don’t think I can do it alone. Will you help me… please?”
    “Of course I will,” Chloe replied, laying her hand on Katie’s arm. “Let me grab a bottle of Shiraz from the fridge and some packing boxes. We can get started right now.” Katie managed a wan smile, touching Chloe’s hand. Chloe left to get the aforementioned supplies.
    Hours passed while they sat on the floor, packing Isabelle’s things away, laughing and crying together. Stories and memories kept popping up with the items they discovered, the retelling of them making it a little easier to say goodbye to Katie’s mother.
    Chloe had suggested creating two piles: Things Katie wanted to keep in memory of her mother, and things she was happy to give away to charity. Katie told Chloe to keep anything that she wanted to personally remember her mother too.
    Chloe was sifting through Isabelle’s bedside table when she discovered an internal drawer – a hidden compartment in the nightstand. She pulled, but the drawer was stuck.
    “What’s this?” Chloe said as she looked up at Katie, who was folding her mother’s favorite cashmere sweater from the wardrobe.
    “What’s what?” Katie replied as she joined her at the bedside table.
    “I found a hidden drawer. Come look! I think it’s jammed though. I can’t get it open . Did you know about this?” Chloe kept pulling at the drawer. 
    “No, I didn’t. I’ve never had a c hance to poke around inside. Mum had that nightstand for years and years. Dad bought it for her as a gift from the Wallis’ Antique Store before I was born,” Katie replied as she knelt down next to Chloe. Katie had a go at trying to pry open the drawer, but it was stuck tight. “Get the screw driver from downstairs, will you?” She gritted her teeth together and gave the handle a few good tugs. “I’ll try to jimmy the drawer open.” 
    Chloe ran downstairs and came back with a screwdriver while Katie wrestled with the drawer. It took Katie a couple more goes, but she finally dislodged whatever it was t hat was jamming the drawer. It popped open. Inside was a beautiful antique bracelet, glittering in the light as though time and dust could never touch it. Chloe and Katie exchanged bewildered glances.
    ~*~   

Chapter 5 : The Bracelet
    ~*~
    Katie fished their sparkling find out of its hiding place.
    “Wow, this is heavy,” Katie whispered, astonished as she inspecte d the rose gold thick banded bracelet. What looked like real jewels encrusted the entire bracelet. Emeralds, diamonds, rubies, and sapphires embedded within the band of the bracelet. As Katie peered closer, she thought she could see some sort of inscription on the inside. “I think there’s something written here.”
    “ Can I have a look?” Chloe asked, amazed. Katie passed the bracelet over to her friend. Chloe’s eyes widened, her hand dropping under the weight of the piece. “Gosh, that is heavy, Kate. I wonder—Wow. It must be real rose gold! That means… That means this is worth a small fortune. I wonder whose it is. Do you think it was your mum’s bracelet?” Chloe squinted, trying to decipher the inscription on the inside.
    Katie blinked herself awake from her stupor, thinking. “I’m not sur e. Mum never mentioned it. She never wore it either. Not in front of me, at least.” Katie looked just as dumbfounded as Chloe did.
    “What are you going to do with it?” Chloe wanted to know. 
    “I’m not sure. For now, I’m going to put it in my jewelry box until I can find out more about its history. It’s obviously an antique of some sort. Mum loved antique everything, especially anything from the 18 th – 19th Century. I’ll bet it was hers.” Katie turned the