71. THE AUCTION
THE AUCTION
The newspaper headlines exploded the next day:
Up in Smoke!
Diamonds on Fire!
Benham Auction House in Ruins!
Diamond Tears: What Caused the Fire at the Most Dazzling Auction of the Decade.
What the public talked the most about in regards to the famous Mawr Auction wasn’t the tragic loss of the world’s most exquisite jewelry craftsmanship.
Not even how the wealthy trampled each other to save their skins while Elias Bayne, the dashing captain, and the cleaning help at the auction house risked their own lives, guiding the mad crowd to safety.
Most talked about how several wealthy people jeopardized their well-being in attempts to claim their prizes in the fire.
Miraculously, there were no casualties.
Everything was, of course, insured by the auction.
But it wasn’t a matter of money but the vanity with which the wealthy quarreled about the trophies and embarrassment when they lost them to a fire.
The word diamond was derived from the Greek word adámas , meaning unbreakable. Not many knew that fire was its biggest enemy.
Those present at the auction, the last ones to leave the burning building, told stories of the brilliant flashes of colors and the hypnotic blue flames flickering here and there through the blaze—as the thousands of diamonds seared under the high temperatures.
Most of the purest diamonds combusted, turning into carbon dioxide, disappearing like they’d never existed at all. Many turned into white, caked ugly stones, later re-polished, for which the rare art pieces had to be dismantled, turning into handfuls of much bleaker loose gems.
None of the art pieces survived in their glorious forms.
They said the marchioness wept at the street curb over her Cupid’s Spear .
The banker’s daughter refused to marry the French importer on account of losing her Europa’s Abductor in the fire, and he came begging to Drasko Mawr to recreate it.
Many vowed to never wear diamonds again, a vow soon to be broken.
But the biggest story was that of the Duchess of Trent.
When the auction room burst into flames, she gaped, mesmerized, at the Crimson Tear, the flames reflected in its blood-shaded glow.
While everyone rushed out of the room, the Duchess of Trent ran against the crowd, toward her treasure.
Her dress caught on fire. So did her wig.
The duke only yelled at her but hurriedly left the room, pushing past the others to safety.
The auction clerk who witnessed it all reported that the Duchess of Trent stepped into the flames as she made her way to the Crimson Tear.
She clutched the diamond, finally, in her gloved hand that suddenly caught on fire.
She screamed but did not let go. Tears of joy burst from her eyes at the sight of her prize.
She stood among the flames, her skirt ablaze, a ghastly smile on her face as she held the Crimson Tear, oblivious of being burned alive.
The clerk dragged her out of the room, and she stood on a smoky street outside the collapsing building, still smiling, her charred wig and dress smoking, her eyes on the bloody sparkle of the Crimson Tear as if she were hypnotized by its sinister shine.
For the rest of her life, the Duchess of Trent would wear gloves to cover her fire-crippled hands. She would wear wigs to hide her singed scalp. But she would proudly tell the story of how the Crimson Tear had withstood the biggest fire of the nineties to be with its proud owner.
And of course, they talked about the Diamond King rushing into the blazing building.
For his diamonds , they first thought.
Until he reemerged among the flames like a majestic Phoenix, his partially burned clothes smoking, as he carried his wife in his arms. They said it was some Hindu magic that made him immortal and as strong as a diamond.
Franz Wollendorf gloated about the epic failure of the Mawr Auction, never speaking a word about his own part in the arson.
But not for long.
Since the Mawr artworks ceased to exist, the wealthy from all over the world started requesting custom orders of the pieces from the Mawr catalog, making the Mawr diamonds more in demand than ever.
Shortly, Drasko would agree to a business merger, not with the Wollendorfs but with his long-term partners in India, keeping his ownership in the land that was the start of it all.
And Grace?
Grace would keep on playing. For Drasko, for their friends, for her servants. And of course, for Eva and Bron.