Alone In Paris by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782138716
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2016-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

They drove on for some way before the Duke spoke again.

Then he asked her,

“What is your favourite stone?”

Una, who had obviously been thinking of something else, seemed to start at his voice.

“Stone?”

“I mean jewel,” the Duke explained. “All women love jewellery. I don’t suppose that you are an exception.”

Una thought for a moment and then she said,

“I think turquoises are – very beautiful and I expect you know that in the East they are considered to be lucky.”

“I have heard that,” the Duke said.

“Mama said the Tibetans who mine stones in the mountains always wear a piece of turquoise to keep away the ‘Evil Eye’.”

She gave a little laugh.

“I don’t suppose that you are afraid of the ‘Evil Eye’, but in the books I have read it was a very real menace in Medieval times.”

The Duke realised that once again she was moving away from the subject he wished to discuss.

“So if you had the choice, you would rather own a turquoise than any other gem?”

“I expect I should feel very lucky if I had one,” Una replied, “but, as I was born in July, I believe my birthstone is a ruby.”

The Duke smiled to himself.

This was getting better. Now she was beginning to show her interest in the expensive jewels that he was quite certain she would end up demanding.

“At the same time,” Una went on, “I think that rubies are rather sinister and perhaps the best and most lovely jewel of all is a pearl.”

“Pearls can be very expensive,” the Duke said.

“I am sure that all jewels are,” she replied, “which is why I am very unlikely ever to own any.”

She gave a little sigh.

“Mama said that what she minded selling more than anything else, when she and Papa came to France, was the diamond crescent which her mother had left her in her will.”

The Duke knew that diamond crescents and diamond stars were very fashionable amongst English women, but he had always thought that the jewellery that could be bought in Paris was the finest in the world.

His mother had worn a tiara set by Oscar Massin, which he suddenly thought would look extremely attractive on Una, young though she was.

Massin was a Master craftsman, who created jewelled flowers such as sprays of eglantine, lilies-of-the-valley and ears of corn.

His lilies-of-the-valley, the Duke told himself, might have been fashioned especially for Una.

Although it was absurd to imagine that she would ever wear anything from the Wolstanton collection, he thought perhaps he would buy her a brooch made of diamond lilies-of-the-valley.

Also, if she insisted, he would add a pearl necklace that would encircle her small round neck and enhance the beauty of her skin.

Aloud he said,

“What you are really saying is that you would rather own pearls than anything else.”

“I know what I would rather have more – than all the jewels in the world,” Una replied.

“What is that?” he asked curiously.

“Horses like the ones you are driving now, which are the equal, I am sure, of those you possess yourself.

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