Page 113 of The Clifftop Cottage

Then something gleamed beneath it.

Gold.

Leah leaned closer.

Gabriel reached inside again and drew out a small medallion on a thin chain.

He turned it in the light.

“Initials,” he said quietly. “C. G. and I. G.”

“The same initials as the stone.” Erica looked from the medallion to Gabriel. “It has to be Charles Grigor.”

Leah frowned. “Charles Grigor... as in the Grigor family? The ones with the statue in the next town?”

Erica nodded slowly.

Gabriel set the medallion gently on the grass.

Inside the box, in a small hollow beneath the letters, lay two tiny curls of hair.

One dark.

One red.

They were tied together with thread so fine Leah almost missed it. She frowned. “Wait … why would someone keep that?”

Erica crouched closer and touched the bundle of letters carefully. “I think … there was more to the story.”

Maisie leaned forward eagerly. “Are you going to read them?”

Erica hesitated. “I’m not sure that’s ours to do.”

Gabriel nodded slightly.

Leah looked between them. “So what are you saying? That there was a forbidden romance or something?”

Erica gave a small, tired smile. “Something like that.”

“Maybe some wealthy landowner took advantage of her?” Gabriel suggested quietly.

Erica frowned. “I think there was love. Don’t you?”

Maisie’s voice came quietly. “But if they loved each other … why didn’t they get married?”

Erica looked at her. “Sometimes people didn’t get to choose.”

There was a pause.

Then Maisie said softly, “Do Mummy and Daddy get to choose?”

Leah stilled. That again. She had been over this many times. She knelt beside her daughter and brushed a muddy strand of hair from her cheek. “Maisie …”

Maisie shrugged a little. “You and Daddy shout sometimes.”

Leah felt that one land squarely in her chest.

“But you both still love me,” Maisie added quickly. “I’m still yours.”