That Infamous Pearl Read Online Free

to stay
away from Brayleigh?"
    Rowena considered the
question. She wrinkled her nose. "I cannot promise that before you tell
me," she said thoughtfully. "But if I think your reasons are good, of
course I will stay away from him. I'm not a fool, Aunt Louisa."
    "Your father
allowed you to become far too impertinent," pronounced Lady Belmont. "It
will be the undoing of you yet, Rowena. He should have allowed me to bring you
out when you were eighteen and gotten you decently married instead of keeping
you locked up at Wroxton with him until he died. He could have ruined your
chances of finding a suitable husband, addling your head with all those books
that he was forever studying."
    "The story, Aunt
Louisa?" prodded Rowena, refusing to be diverted.
    "Very well."
Louisa wiped her mouth and dropped her napkin on the table. "It has to do
with your brother."
    Rowena put down her
toast and looked at Lady Belmont, her eyes wide with astonishment. "Malcolm?
But Malcolm has been dead for twelve years."
    Lady Belmont squirmed
in her seat. She gave her husband an anguished glance, but he kept his head
down, ignoring both his wife and his niece.
    "Malcolm isn't
dead, Rowena. I believe he is alive and living on the Continent."
    The delicate pink in
Rowena's cheeks faded. "Alive? Why has no one told me?"
    "We all thought
it best to let you believe he died," said Lady Belmont. "After all,
he can never come home, and it is best if he is not discussed. It was such a
terrible scandal."
    "Does all of
Society know he is alive?" asked Rowena. "What an idiot I must look."
    "Oh, it is often
presumed he is dead," said Lady Belmont reassuringly. "Though there
are stories that he is occasionally seen in Venice or Rome. But he can never
return to England. That is why when your papa died your cousin Felix became the
next Earl of Wroxton. Malcolm is the rightful heir, of course, but the world
has a short memory, until someone like Brayleigh insists on dredging up the
past."
    Rowena gave her aunt
a puzzled look. "Forgive me, Aunt, but you aren't shedding any light on
the issue. Why was I told Malcolm is dead, and what does Brayleigh have to do
with it? Did they fight a duel?"
    "Nothing so
ordinary, child. Why, a duel would have quickly been forgotten. No, it's much
worse." Lady Belmont's voice sank to a whisper.
    "Then you must
tell me, Aunt," said Rowena tartly. "I will try not to faint."
    "This is not
something to make light of," complained Lady Belmont. "Sometimes I
think you have no sensibility at all, Rowena. The whole difficulty came about
because of a pearl."
    "A pearl?"
    "Precisely. A very
valuable pearl from India or some such outlandish place. It is the size of a
walnut, and has been in your father's family for generations. It even has a
name; the Pearl of - well, I cannot remember, as it is all just nonsense. The
legend is that a distant ancestor cut it from the crown of a French king in the
Hundred Year's War. Your grandfather willed it to Malcolm. It never looked like
much to me, but I gather it was quite ancient and very valuable. And so of
course Brayleigh had to have it." Lady Belmont shook her head.
    "For his
collection," said Rowena.
    "Precisely."
Lady Belmont waved her hands in the air. "That man is mad about rare
objects. I sometimes think it is quite unnatural. What does he do with all of
it, after all? How many musty old paintings and statues can one actually use?"
    "I suppose that
depends on how large one's house is," murmured Rowena.
    "Well, Brayleigh
Park is a huge pile of stone, to be sure," mused Lady Belmont. "And
yet, a masterpiece in every room? One would think something a bit more modern
might alleviate some of the gloom."
    "Aunt Louisa,
you are straying from the point. Did Lord Brayleigh buy the pearl from Malcolm?"
    "Oh, Malcolm
absolutely refused to sell it," Lady Belmont assured her. "He was
fond of your grandfather, and the pearl had belonged to the family for
generations. He took to carrying it about with him in a small