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

to the new visitors in town, it was difficult to judge when they were being cunning, and when merely scatterbrained, or downright foolish.
    “Have you been back to see Mademoiselle Feydeau?” he finally asked point-blank, and got an uncompromising “No” from Harvey, accompanied by a guilty flush.
    His wife chose that moment to begin a series of unrelated remarks of a purely social nature, but whether this was fortuitous or considered was not known. “We have taken your advice, Tatt, and enrolled at Austrian Headquarters with Sagan. The Tsar is a pet. He does not mind in the least that we have opted for Sagan. He never fails to dance with me at the larger parties. Unfortunately he favors the dreary polonaise—such a bore. Will you have a glass of wine?” she asked, all in the same breath.
    As her pet monkey had just had the decanter in his hands, Moncrief declined. He watched unperturbed as the monkey drew out the stopper and poured the liquid onto the floor. “Bad boy!” Googie said, cuffing it on the ear. “Isn’t he sweet, Moncrief? The Danish King gave him to me. I can’t imagine why.”
    “Happy to be rid of him, I expect.”
    “Do you go to the Princess Bagration’s festival, or the Duchesse’s little spite supper, as they are calling it? So childish of her really.”
    “I will be at Bagration’s do. When will you have a party of your own, Lady Palgrave? I had thought you would be showing them all the way.”
    “Oh lud, there are so many parties every night I don’t know when I can fit one in. I had a little levée the other morning—only a hundred and fifty came. Everyone beats me to everything. But Harvey has found me a charming little chateau in the Wienerwald where I might contrive to have some fête champêtre sort of do when it warms up.”
    “Spring is a long way off.”
    “We have wangled an invitation to dinner chez Talleyrand. His chef, Carême, is counted the best at the Congress. We hope to lure him back to London with us.”
    “Your own man will have his nose out of joint. Bélanger sits idle, does he?”
    “Oh no, he is planning menus, and trying dishes. First I must get busy and fix this place up a little. I swear those window hangings have been there since the Turks invaded. Centuries old. I wouldn’t be caught dead having a party in such a shambles of a place.” She glanced at the dark puddle where her monkey had added to the shambles, but she made no move to remove the decanter from the animal’s hands, nor to have it taken out of the room.
    “Ordered the blue velvet drapery material yesterday,” Harvey mentioned. He sat in a corner, with a gray cat on his knee.
    “Did you, my pet? The right shade of blue?” his spouse queried, then suddenly looked conscious. She rattled on with a tale of a new blue gauze gown she was having made up.
    It sounded very like her normal, mindless chatter, except for the quick guilty glance the couple exchanged. “Is the drapery material to match the gown, or the blue diamond?” Moncrief asked.
    “How you do keep harping on that subject!” Googie complained. “The blue diamond is not for sale.”
    Moncrief did not believe a blue gown was being ordered to show off the Star of Burma. They had plans afoot to secure the Blue Tavernier certainly. Their party was being delayed to launch the jewel, or they were husbanding their resources against its acquisition. They had bought no new horses or carriages, no furs or other lavish items since their arrival. They had not redesigned the mansion, or squandered their customary fortune at cards or betting, or any form of gambling. One did not even hear that Harvey had set up a ladybird in some extravagant nest. Only the chateau was mentioned. This was so unnatural a way for them to carry on that it was as damning as an outright admission of their intentions.
    His thought of calling again on Mademoiselle Feydeau seemed unlikely of achieving anything. She had lied to him once; she was not likely to