Miss Quinn's Quandary by Shirley Marks

Author:Shirley Marks [Marks, Shirley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Larissa regarded him with a pointed look. “What is obvious to me is that you need a healthy dose of modesty.”

“If it sat on a plate with a fork, I’d have to fight you for it,” he retorted in fun.

Beyond the Music Room lay the first of two reception rooms. Larissa carried a glimmer of a hope she might find a morsel to eat and scanned the melee for a circulating servant with a loaded tray in hand.

“If I cannot find at least something to drink, I shall probably faint,” Larissa admitted.

Sir Randall sidled up to her, running his hands up her arms and holding her upright. “Then I shall make sure you remain steady.”

She tried to wrench out of his hold. “I’d prefer you let me fall to the floor and allow the guests to tread upon me.”

“I shan’t allow any such thing to happen, my sweet.” He bent to whisper in her ear, “Besides, my uncle would have me thrashed within an inch of my life if any harm should befall you.”

“Your concern is overwhelming,” Larissa remarked. “You may unhand me.”

Sir Randall scowled. “I wouldn’t hear of it. Can’t have you toppling over in the midst of the guests. It would make a most dreadful scene. Things are muddled enough as they are, don’t you agree?”

Larissa remained silent, but the stormy expression on her face told him she was not pleased. She needed a diversion to keep her mind off her stomach.

“Look there, the duchess is approaching to lead the group to see her diamond,” Sir Randall pointed out.

“If there isn’t anything to eat, I suppose we might as well see it,” Larissa sighed. She took Sir Randall’s arm and fell in line with the others.

Lady Norfolk led five couples upstairs, down the hall, and into a room. Within a glass box the Briolette diamond hung on a sizable gold chain.

The diamond was very large, elongated in shape, about the length of Randall’s pinkie finger, and completely faceted.

“The diamond is over ninety carats in size and once belonged to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who acquired it while married to her first husband, Louis VII of France,” the Duchess of Norfolk explained. “She gave it to her son, Richard the Lionheart, who used it to pay his release from the Emperor of Austria.”

Randall could see the onlookers’ heads move from side to side trying to glimpse this sizable chunk of history. He also noticed most of them, at one time or another, staring at him and Larissa, sizing them up as well.

The duchess continued, “It disappeared then resurfaced in the 1500s when Henri II of France presented it to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. I am proud to say I have recently purchased it and brought it back to England, its original home.”

The guests gave a round of polite applause before descending the staircase and returning to the Great Room.

“Not to distract from the piece de resistance of the evening,” Randall whispered to Larissa, “but I could not help but notice there was more attention paid to us than to Her Grace of Norfolk’s necklace.

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