What Was Hidden in Silver
Chapter 02 - What Was Hidden in Silver
The base of Sofia’s thimble unscrewed after Elena warmed it between her hands.
Inside lay a strip of paper rolled tighter than thread.
The ink had faded, but the words were legible:
East archive. Portrait of Saint Orla. Ask Gabriel what he carried.
Below the message was a date—the night the White Rose Brooch disappeared.
Elena showed the paper to Julian.
He recognized the name Gabriel immediately. Gabriel Voss had been his father’s private secretary for nearly three decades. After King Edmund died, Gabriel vanished from public life and moved to a monastery on the northern coast.
Julian wanted to contact him at once.
Elena hesitated.
For twenty-five years, Queen Adelaide had controlled every official version of Sofia’s story. If Gabriel possessed evidence, approaching him openly could place him in danger.
They traveled north without announcing the visit. At the monastery, they found Gabriel in a small room overlooking the sea, his hands stiff with age but his memory painfully clear.
He began crying when Elena introduced herself.
“I promised your mother I would find you,” he said. “The Queen made certain I could not.”
Gabriel explained that Sofia had not entered Adelaide’s dressing room to steal jewelry. She had been summoned to repair a torn gown before a private meeting. While working behind a screen, she overheard Adelaide and a minister discussing money diverted from the Royal Children’s Hospital Fund.
Sofia saw Adelaide hand the minister a ledger.
When the men discovered her, Adelaide removed the White Rose Brooch from her own gown and placed it inside Sofia’s sewing case. Palace security found it minutes later.
But Gabriel had seen Adelaide wearing the brooch after Sofia supposedly left the room.
The object in the sewing case had been a replica.
King Edmund eventually suspected the accusation was false. He ordered Gabriel to investigate quietly. Before the inquiry was complete, Edmund suffered the stroke that left him unable to speak. Adelaide assumed control of the household, dismissed Sofia and destroyed most of the records.
“Most?” Julian asked.
Gabriel nodded.
King Edmund had hidden a signed statement in the east archive behind the portrait of Saint Orla. Gabriel carried the original hospital ledger out of the palace that same night.
“Where is it now?” Elena asked.
May you like
Gabriel looked toward the monastery chapel.
“Somewhere the Queen could not enter without kneeling.”
