Dear Mary Parker,
You will not believe the story I am to tell you. The account can be verified and evidence exists to support the facts. I tell you in the greatest secrecy so please burn this letter once you read it.
James Stringer is Lady Susan Vernon's biological Son.
As you may recall, James made an offer of marriage to me last Christmas at Landsdowne which I accepted wholeheartedly only to be thwarted by my mother and Sir Edgar. They have not changed their minds but still invite James to family events because he is so beloved to my siblings. (and myself)
James asked me to pose for him for a portrait and I have been visiting his studio everyday. Our love is still strong and we want to elope.
Lady Worcester invited James to dinner last night with the hope of helping us make our escape to Scotland. She was concerned about the social consequences and had a plan for how we might be able to return to England as man and wife and still have security and prospects.
Anyway, after our intimate little dinner, we all gathered in the parlor. James knelt before me and presented me with a very shabby gray velvet box. Susan gasped when he took it out. He opened it and presented me with the most beautiful emerald ring with the inscription, "I love you." It was his mothers.
It was then that things took a strange twist. Susan came to see the ring, turned white, began to sweat and fainted to the floor. The smelling salts revived her and after a glass of brandy she told us her story.
She fell in love with a boy when she was fifteen and they foolishly consummated their union in a hay loft behind the boarding school where she was attending. Upon discovery the girl was disowned by her very religious family and turned out.
She made her way to her Aunt's for protection and after the baby was born, Susan was sent to Belgium for finishing school at the expense of her single relative of means, Thomas Bertram. The baby was given to a Mason and his wife, the Stringers, who had been working on her Aunt's house and had just lost their child. Shortly after adopting the boy, the mother fell ill and died. The father then took the baby and moved away never to be found.
The teenaged father of the child never knew what really happened. His love just disappeared without a trace. Susan confessed that she never though she would see him again but she did, a few weeks ago at Peacham House. The bachelor Lord Landsdowne was the boy Lady Susan had a son with. That romantic boy is Lord Edgar Peacham. James is my step-father's biological son and heir to Landsdowne!
We aren't sure how to break this news yet. The emerald ring was his gift to her so he might remember it. I wear it all of the time and never take it off.
James had always been told that his mother had died in childbirth. He is still digesting the truth and getting to know Lady Susan as his actual mother. I see a resemblance now.
She never thought she would see her son again but is now so relieved and attentive. We are all amazed. It was the ring she sent with the baby to cover any unseen expenses. She thought the family would have sold it but they did not. Old Stringer made sure James had it before he died saying it was his mothers.
Needless to say, James and I are on our way to Scotland now and when we return to England will live with Lady Worcester until we settle everything with Sir Edgar. Susan is my mother-in-law! Lord Edgar is my father-in-law!
It is best to keep this information secret for now. Society will explode if the truth is exposed. I just could not keep it in. I trust you completely.
Much love to you,
Charlotte Heywood-Stringer
(We are "double-barreling" our names)