The Forgotten Duchess

Chapter Forty-One | Lost

"MILLIE, WILL YOU please grab my emerald pendant?"

Millie's eyes met hers in the looking glass before her lady's maid nodded. Vivienne fidgeted in the chair. If she was being honest, she was a bit nervous about dinner tonight with her aunt and uncle. She had only seen them in the morning, and after that, her only interaction was with the servants. Vivienne had no idea what to expect.

Vivienne frowned and spun around in her chair when she heard the loud clacking. Her lady's maid was frantically looking through several boxes. "For goodness sake, what is with all this clatter Millie?"

Millie nervously looked up at Vivienne, her skin a shade paler than normal. "I can't find it," she admitted.

Vivienne's heart skipped a beat, "the pendant?"

The girl nodded and Vivienne got up immediately, rifling alongside her lady's maid. They went box by box, searching every single layer. No corner was unturned. Despite their efforts, there were no traces of the pendant.

"Are you sure you placed in here?"

The lady's maid nodded. "It must be, or it could have fallen out at His Grace's home..." she trailed off.

Vivienne massaged her temples as a headache began to form. The pendant would not have gone missing if she had only kept it on instead of donning the set Lady Torrington gifted her. Now, one of the only things that connected Vivienne to her parents was gone. She wanted to yell and scream but a part of her knew that it would not help anyone in the situation. It was not as though she could march back into the duke's house and demand that a search for her pendant be completed. If it were not there, she would only humiliate herself further.

"How could this happen," she mumbled, sitting on the corner of the bed. "For nineteen years, it has always been by my side," her voice cracked on the last bit. The one time she had let it go from her gaze, it had disappeared.

"I can write the housekeeper a letter," Millie said with determination. "She can ask the maids if they saw anything. If it is in the house, it's bound to be found at some point."

Vivienne did not have the heart to tell her that even if it was still in the duke's home, any one of the servants could pawn it. It was quite valuable. This was all her fault. Agatha always warned her to keep the necklace safe, but she had grown soft in her vigilance.

Millie got up and placed a set of white evening gloves in her hand. "You must head down for dinner now. It won't look very nice for you to be late on the first evening."

Vivienne pulled on the gloves and stood stonily. As she began walking to the door, Millie's words held her back. "I'm sorry your ladyship. I'll do my best to retrieve it, no matter what."

Turning around, she gave her lady's maid a watery smile before heading down for dinner. The earl and countess were already seated at the table, sitting in silence rather than chatting with one another.

"How nice of you to finally join us," Lady Westmorland said sharply as she took in Vivienne's clothing.

"My apologies, dinner is much earlier than it was at the duke's house," she admitted, "I lost track of time."

"That does not surprise me a bit," the countess said haughtily. "One cannot expect a bachelor's residence to provide space for proper decorum."

Vivienne was about to open her mouth to defend the duke, but she thought about it for a brief second before decided to say nothing at all. Defending him would only bring more anger and annoyance from the countess. It was clear that the countess did not hold Vivienne in respect, and she was baffled as to why the lady disliked her.