The Handmaiden's Necklace Read Online Free PDF

did.
    Rafe stepped back from the doorway, allowing McPhee into his study, then turned and led the man over to his desk and indicated that he should take a seat in one of the dark green leather chairs in front.
    “I’d like to hire you, Jonas.” Rafe sat down behind his massive rosewood desk. The room was two stories high, with book-lined walls and an elegant molded ceiling. A long mahogany table sat in the middle of the room, lit by green glass lamps that hung down from above, and surrounded by a dozen carved, high-backed chairs. “I’d like you to investigate an incident that happened five years ago.”
    “Five years is quite a while, Your Grace.”
    “Yes, it is, and I realize it won’t be easy.” He settled back in his chair. “The incident involved a woman named Danielle Duval and a man named Oliver Randall. Miss Duval is the daughter of the late Viscount Drummond, who passed away some years back. Lady Drummond died just last year. Oliver Randall is the third son of the Marquess of Caverly.”
    “I’ll need to make some notes, Your Grace.”
    Rafe held up a sheet of foolscap. “I have all the information written down for you right here.”
    “Excellent.”
    Rafe set the paper down on his desk. “At one time, Miss Duval and I were betrothed. That ended five years ago.”
    Rafe went on to tell the ugly story of what had happened the evening he found the note Danielle had sent to Oliver. He explained how at midnight he had gone into Danielle’s room and found the two of them together. As the tale unfolded, Rafe did his best to relay the information without revealing any of the emotions he had felt back then.
    “Is there any chance you kept the note?” Jonas asked.
    Rafe had anticipated the question. “Oddly enough, I did, though I can’t begin to tell you why.” Opening the bottom drawer of his desk, he moved the pistol he kept there aside and pulled out a small metal box, then fished out a key he kept on a ring in another drawer to open it. The note inside was yellowed and faded, the creases where it had been folded wearing thin. Still, it had the power to make a knot form in his stomach.
    He handed the note to McPhee. “As I said, I have no idea why I kept it. Perhaps as a reminder never to be so ridiculously trusting again.”
    McPhee took the note from his hand and Rafe handed him the list he had made of places and names, people somehow involved in The Scandal, however remotely.
    “This may take some time,” McPhee said.
    Rafe stood up from his chair. “I’ve waited five years. I don’t suppose a few more weeks will matter.” And yet he was strangely anxious to know what McPhee would find. Perhapshe merely wanted the affair resolved, as it never really had been.
    Perhaps he was thinking of the future, of his upcoming marriage. Perhaps he merely wanted the past dead and buried—once and for all.
     
    With Caro’s help, Danielle packed the last of her belongings into her traveling bags, taking special care with the garments she would need on board the ship during the two-month voyage to America.
    Dani couldn’t wait to leave.
    “It looks as if we are done,” Caro said, always cheerful. “Are you ready to go?”
    “More than ready. How about you?”
    Caro laughed, a joyous sound. “I have been packed and ready for days.”
    “What about Aunt Flora? Is she completely packed?”
    Dani’s robust aunt bustled into the room just then, strands of silver hair, loose from its pins, floating around her pudgy face. “I am ready to leave whenever you are, my dears.”
    Like Dani, Aunt Flora considered Caroline Loon almost a member of the family. At one time, Danielle had suggested Caro no longer needed to work as her lady’s maid, but could continue instead as Dani’s companion.
    Caro had been mortified. “I don’t want your charity, Danielle. I never have. I am happy to work for whatever I receive. Besides, you and Lady Wycombe have always been extremely kind and generous to me.”
    Dani had