The Duke's new obsession

CHAPTER 6: The Silver Locket

The walk back to my chambers was silent, the only sound the soft rustle of my green velvet against the marble. Valdemar’s words sat heavy in my chest. The only man powerful enough to keep you. It didn't sound like a threat; it sounded like a weary fact.

"My Lady, you look exhausted," Bella said as I entered, already moving to turn down the bed. "The Duke's housekeeper brought up some tea. She said it helps with the 'mountain transition.'"

"The people here are very efficient, aren't they?" I murmured, sitting at the vanity.

As Bella began to unpin my hair, my eyes fell on a small wooden box sitting near my jewelry case. It wasn't one of mine. It was made of dark birchwood, inlaid with a silver wolf—the Valdemar crest.

"Where did this come from?" I asked, my fingers hovering over the lid.

"A servant brought it while you were wandering," Bella said. "He said it was found in the carriage. He thought it belonged to you."

I opened the lid. Inside, resting on a bed of black velvet, was a silver locket. It was old, the metal tarnished around the edges. When I snapped it open, there was no photo inside—only a dried, pressed petal of a flower that didn't grow in the North. A Hibiscus. A flower from my home in the South.

My heart gave a strange, erratic thud. I didn't own this locket. But why would the Duke have a dried flower from the South?

"Is everything alright, My Lady?" Bella asked, noticing my silence.

"Yes," I lied, snapping the locket shut and sliding it into my drawer. "Just a bit of travel fatigue. Go to sleep, Bella. It’s been a long day."

I lay in the massive bed, watching the shadows of the fire dance on the ceiling. The North was cold, and the Duke was colder, but as I drifted off, I didn't feel like a prisoner. I felt like a puzzle piece that had finally been slotted into place.

I fell asleep to the scent of pine and cedar, and for the first time in years, the dream of the locked room didn't come. Instead, I dreamed of a boy with flint-grey eyes, standing in a garden of Hibiscus, reaching out a hand I was too small