Chapter 6 #3
“My, you have quite the appetite.” Bea’s brown eyes were hooded and her freckled complexion flushed from the wine, but her tone was unmistakable.
With an unfamiliar courage that came with drink, words I didn’t expect sprang to my lips. I glanced meaningfully at her thrice-emptied glass and said, “I’ve heard you do as well.”
Her neck turned blotchy with embarrassment.
Shocked by my easy cruelty, my fingers flew to my lips. I couldn’t believe I’d said such a thing, the implications I’d made.
Evalyn snickered and laid her hand on my arm. “What a sly thing you are. You do surprise me, Lizzie.”
I reached for my water glass, feeling triumphant at her praise but slightly ill at ease. I didn’t usually take pleasure in another person’s embarrassment, but it appeared it was what I must do to be a part of Evalyn’s crowd. And for now, that was what I wanted—and needed—most. To gain their trust.
After lunch, Carrie squeezed into the front seat beside me in Evalyn’s sleek, beautiful car. As we eased the car into traffic, Carrie leaned toward me, her breath thick with alcohol.
“You can’t imagine how sorry I am to hear about your brother,” she said. “I’ve urged Evie to hire you. I thought it might help.”
I stared at her blankly a moment. Why should she help me…
unless she’d met Julien when he’d spent time at the McLeans’ home?
Evalyn liked collecting people, bringing them into her fold and holding court.
That was now clear to me, and given how handsome and utterly charming Julien could be, I knew that must have been the case.
I pictured Evalyn inviting him to her parties, to meet her friends, just as she had with me.
Perhaps he’d wiled away many an afternoon in the presence of all these women.
It wasn’t the most proper behavior, but then again, he’d always seemed to get away with many things he shouldn’t, proper or not.
And I knew for certain he’d at least been commissioned as Evalyn’s jeweler, that he’d serviced the Hope Diamond several times. He’d said as much.
“I–I don’t know what to say,” I replied, still stunned by the comment.
“‘Thank you’ is tradition, I think,” she said, flashing her brilliant smile to soften the light sarcasm of her response.
I felt my neck heat. “Right, thank you.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Evalyn said as she narrowly missed a pedestrian waiting on the curb to cross the street.
“How generous you were at lunch,” Carrie lied. “And, darling, keep your eyes on the road, will you? We’d like to get home in one piece.”
As they laughed and continued to prattle on about this and that, I sank deeper into my seat, watching them, studying them as they lobbed one comment after another at each other.
The way they laughed, the phrases they used, the sly insults.
After one particularly intense volley about a diplomat’s wife followed by an exchange of meaningful looks, Evalyn glanced at me with her quizzical brow, and I knew I was onto something.
I must play their game or be played.
* * *
With nightfall and our return to Friendship, the liquor haze began to wear off, and a headache followed.
I didn’t know how society ladies drank alcohol the way they did or even if it was normal practice for others outside of Evalyn’s friends.
As enjoyable as it was while in the midst of it, the sobering side of things was anything but.
“I really must get home to look in on my father,” I said. “Thank you for the drive and the lovely lunch.”
“You simply can’t go yet,” Evalyn purred.
“I need to show you something.” A mischievous grin played across her lips.
She looked like a child then, her pupils dilated, her lids heavy.
She was as drunk as an Irish prizefighter.
She stumbled as she leaned to my ear, her lips brushing the tender skin of my earlobe, and whispered, “I’d like to show you my collection. ”
“Your jewelry collection?” I perked up.
Blue eyes sparkling, she laughed like I’d said the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Of course. What other collection is there?”
I bit my tongue. Her dishes and silverware, her gowns, her beautifully polished furniture, the Limoges, the original breathtaking art that graced the walls of her homes.
There were many collections, and she likely considered none of them of particular value beyond the status they represented.
They’d come too easily, without much thought or care, just as everything had for her.
“I’d be delighted to see it,” I replied with far too much eagerness. “I’ve been wanting to ask you about it, but I wasn’t sure… I didn’t want to—”
“You didn’t think I’d show you the crown jewels all at once, did you?
Why, I didn’t know you from a bump on a log at first.” She looped her arm through mine.
“You had to earn my trust, silly Lizzie. Now I’m absolutely certain you’re the man for the job.
Or the woman.” She giggled at herself as she led me to the dining table.
When Jerry hefted a large box onto the table, my heart skipped a beat. As he unlocked the jewelry box, Evalyn covered my hand with hers.
“I’d like to hire you,” she said. “I’d need the collection cleaned and serviced every two weeks, but I really wish you’d come around more often. I hope you will.”
My shoulders sagged as relief surged through me. “I thought you’d never ask.”
She laughed. “I do like to keep a person guessing. What’s life without a little excitement and tension? Now, go on, open it.”
I opened the lid of the jewelry box, marveling at the sheer number of items from pearls to onyx to rare Burmese rubies of the finest clarity and color.
She’d collected far more than her grand pieces like the Hope Diamond and the Star of India.
I ran my hand over the gold bracelets lined with diamond baguettes, platinum rings featuring a variety of stones, magnificent opals, a pair of teardrop pearl earrings, and several necklaces fashioned in the whimsical art nouveau style.
“Most of these are locked in the safe on a regular basis,” she said, “but a few of the things I wear daily I leave in the drawers of my vanity.”
“You really should keep all of them in a safe,” I scolded her gently. “It isn’t the premeditated thieves you should fear as much as the casual ones. Something my father has always said.”
“I know, I know. It’s silly of me to leave them out where anyone can take them, but opening the safe every day is a chore. I do wear the Hope Diamond nearly all day, every day.”
I glanced longingly at the gleaming blue diamond.
She grinned. “Would you like to hold it?”
I fell silent a moment. This was why I was here, to take care of all of her jewelry collection.
And I didn’t believe in curses. Did I? Yet if I were honest with myself…
My real answer was this: I didn’t know if curses were real.
The Hope Diamond had certainly been in the presence of more than its fair share of tragedies, a tragedy like my own.
To be near the diamond, to be a part of Evalyn’s circle as Julien had been could be very dangerous indeed.
I was playing with fire. But I’d already crossed that line the moment I’d knocked at Evalyn’s front door two weeks ago.
And I’d already lost the most precious thing of all.
Now I only stood to gain. Clients, reputation, and, most important of all, the truth.
When I didn’t reply, Evalyn grew impatient. “Well?” she said, her voice testy.
“Yes,” I whispered at last, as if we were in a sacred place and the diamond a holy relic.
I didn’t know if I believed in the holy, but I believed in beauty in all its forms, that which inspired and intrigued and outlasted us all.
I also believed in the ephemeral, poignant moments in our lives that could change the course of everything, and this felt like one of them.
With a wicked smile, Evalyn unfastened the clasp and placed the Hope Diamond in my outstretched hand.