“Thank you, dearest,” Rowena managed to say and then Hermione had gone.
She felt guilty when she thought of the turquoise pendant hidden at the back of the drawer in her bedroom, but she could not speak of it nor could she bear to look at it again.
She considered whether she would return it to the Marquis and then she felt that it would be undignified.
They had often laughed as a family about people who broke off an engagement and sent back each other’s letters and presents.
“Thomas Seaton spent a fortune courting Betty,” Hermione had related of one broken engagement in the village, “but it all went on chocolates! She can hardly give those back, can she?”
‘One day perhaps I will sell the pendant,’ Rowena reflected, ‘and buy something for Hermione or for Mark.’
For the moment she coul
