Read Online The Blue Diamond by Joan Smith - Free Book Online

Was Harvey pestering the girl with amatory advances? It began to look like it. She had that helpless, vulnerable air that incited men to chivalry. Even Kruger, the daughter intimated, was interested in Mademoiselle Feydeau.
    It was not to be expected the Palgraves would miss such a choice affair as the Tsar’s ball, Googie’s convalescence notwithstanding. She was there, her brain seething with items to be purchased as the polonaise snaked through the various halls of the palace. One area was hung in silk, to imitate an Arabian tent. The glass houses were blooming with flowers amassed from many continents. Rare artworks from France and Italy glowed on the walls. There were marble galleries and mahogany rooms, the walls lined with manuscripts. Between the dance and the decor and the wine, it was difficult to keep an even head.
    Moncrief ran Harvey to ground midway in a hanging staircase in the library that led to a gallery of rare tomes. Palgrave found it a good vantage point from which to spot a certain lady he had in his eye. “Any luck finding that blue diamond we spoke of?” Moncrief asked him.
    “The Tavernier? No, no luck at all. The French girl knew nothing of it.”
    “A second visit was no more prosperous than a first?”
    “By Jove, Tatt, are you having me followed? How did you know I went back?”
    “Everyone knows everything in Vienna. I could tell you what you had for lunch. Not setting up a flirtation with the girl I trust?”
    “With that innocent lamb? Not a bit of it. She ain’t my type. Say, ain’t that old Talleyrand there in the blue velvet jacket? Wouldn’t mind making his acquaintance, Tatt. Can you do the honors? Googie tells me his niece is the Duchesse de Sagan’s sister. Ought to be some good company at the palais.”
    The good company he had in mind was likely the niece, but it would keep him out of mischief. The introduction was made, and a bizarre sight it was, to see the craftiest man in the room make hay of the most foolish. At the back of Moncrief’s mind, a question lurked, hampering his enjoyment of the rencontre. If Harvey was not after Mademoiselle’s favors (and innocent young girls were not his usual choice), why had he returned a second time to the apartment?
    Amidst the throng, Lady Palgrave spotted Moncrief and threaded her way towards him. She was blazing with jewels, but not, thank God, the Star of Burma. She was in diamonds and sapphires. “I see Harvey has met Prince Talleyrand, as he was determined to do. I am surprised you would arrange it for him. You were against his buying the blue diamond I thought?”
    “Oh my God! Is that what he’s up to!" Moncrief exclaimed, aghast.
    “Not trying to buy it from the Prince!” Googie assured him. “Certainly he has not got it. He is on the side of the Bourbons this year. He would not know who Boney gave it to. It is only that Miss Feydeau told Harvey whoever has the diamond might try to sell it back to Louis through Talleyrand. He might be able to find out who has it, you see.”
    He did not think Napoleon’s wife would be likely to be dealing with Prince Talleyrand, the representative of the King of France. Whatever Mademoiselle had told Harvey, it was not what she had told himself. “Feydeau suggested he speak to Talleyrand?”
    “Lud, I don’t know. I think he hit upon the idea of speaking to Talleyrand by himself. Why don’t you ask him, Tatt? Or better yet, ask la Feydeau? All the gentlemen seem anxious to have any excuse to be running back to her. She must be wonderfully pretty.”
    “She is.”
    “And available,” she added with a toss of her short curls,
    “Not so available as most,” he answered, in a fit of pique, and stalked off to detach his cousin from Talleyrand. There were enough people present that the troublesome topic of blue diamonds had not yet arisen.
    Moncrief got him away and gave his ears a good scorching. “I tell you quite frankly, Palgrave, if you make trouble over this diamond,