The Forgotten Duchess

Chapter Forty-Three | Key

"Lennox," James said simply.

Rundell's head jerked back, "as in the Duke of Lennox?"

"The very one."

"How did a duke like you come across a pendant like this?" Rundell mused to himself, but the words were heard by James. He was seconds away from taking the pendant back from the man. Jeweller to the crown or not, he had no use to James if he could not open the pendant.

"Ah, well that's quite clever, I must admit."

"What?"

Rundell turned over the pendant and brought it close to James eyes, "Do you see this small ridge over here?"

James nodded, "What of it?"

"It isn't normal in this type of pendant. This small hole here is for a tool to be inserted. The reason why the others could not pry it open was because they did not make use of the tool. Without it, the sides will not release smoothly."

James felt the small hole. Rundell was correct, the design really was quite clever.

"And that is not all, the tool used is quite specific, one that we keep here. It is quite possible that the additional panel was added by Bridge," the jeweller admitted.

James' heart leapt, "Is Bridge here then, he could take a look?"

Rundell shook his head, "He's looking at a new shipment of materials we were set to receive. Nevertheless, I can open it."

Rundell retreated to the back of the store and selected a tool. He brought it over and James watched with bated breath. In a few small counterclockwise turns, the man was able to accomplish what many others on Bond Street had failed at. The back slid open, and James leaned in, to see what was inside.

It was a key.

Slowly, as if he were cradling a child, James lifted the key. It was bronze, the rust quite apparent. He ran his fingers over it, confused as to why an object like that would be in Vivienne's pendant.

"May I, Your Grace?"

James blinked once before he passed it onto the jeweller. "A very peculiar item indeed. I'm no locksmith but my general knowledge does remind me the shaping indicates that it was crafted in Britain. There is a small engravement here."

"Where?" James asked bewildered. When he had ran his fingers over the item, he had felt nothing.

Rundell passed on the key back to James who held it up to the light. The man was right. There were three letters etched in, "It says OAF. That makes no sense as to why a word like that would be painstakingly engraved."

"If I were to guess, it is probably someone's initials. Although I must say, those three letters are an odd combination."

James' heart stopped. He knew those initials; the jeweller had removed the haze from his memories. He had seen them written on several documents belonging to his father, Osmond Ackley Fulton, his name before he had inherited the Lennox dukedom. He could recall his mother calling his father Osmond. James remembered commenting once as a child that his father had very peculiar initials. His father had laughed and said that J.A.F was not much better, and that a name did not make a man, but rather his actions did. 

If this were prior to discovering that Vivienne had been his betrothed, James would have said that it was all a coincidence. A mere alignment of some possibilities.  However, there was already a pre-established connection between the previous earl and duke. His father could have hidden something in his friend's hands if he was in danger or vice versa. They must have predicted that James would meet his betrothed one way or another and one of them would take a closer look at the necklace.