Radiance (Diamonds of the First Water #3)

Chapter Ten

Q ueen Victoria entered, arriving via the door behind the thrones, with two royal guards following. Radiance immediately dropped into a low curtsy, seeing Mr. Lockwood’s equally deep bow out of the corner of her eye. They awaited permission to straighten and to speak.

“Good day, Mr. Lockwood,” the Queen said. “I understand you have brought with you a new treasure.”

Being addressed, Mr. Lockwood could rise and look upon his Queen. “Your Majesty, I am honored to see you again. May I introduce to you Lady Radiance, a daughter of the Earl Diamond.”

“You may,” Queen Victoria said. “In fact, you just did. Rise, Lady Radiance, so I may see if your name suits your face.”

With her heart pounding so loudly she was certain both Mr. Lockwood and the Queen could hear it, Radiance rose from the deep curtsy for which she’d rehearsed many times during the past twenty-four hours.

Radiance couldn’t help taking the Queen’s measure. When she’d been presented to Her Majesty a few years earlier, she’d been so nervous with her knees knocking together, Radiance could hardly recall any details. And when it was her turn, she had hurried to approach the throne and then back away while not even seeing the Queen’s face — not that she could remember, anyway.

Other times, at the Palace with her parents, she’d been too far back in the throng to see more than an impression of the Queen’s crowned head of light-brown hair and her ermine cloak.

Trying not to stare, Radiance now took in Her Majesty from foot to head as she raised her eyes. A short woman of thirty-three, a wife and mother, Queen Victoria had been their ruler already for fifteen years.

Radiance thought her splendid. Her eyes sparkled with intelligence, her hair shone, and she had a pleasant face.

“Your Majesty, I am honored to be in your presence.”

“I thought you’d left your tongue in the antechamber,” the Queen quipped.

Mr. Lockwood started to laugh. Radiance saw the moment Queen Victoria’s face went from approving to annoyance with the smallest of frowns. He was laughing too long and hard at nothing, probably due to nervousness. It would be considered a mocking insult.

Swiftly, Radiance coughed to get his attention and then tapped her chin. To her relief, he stopped at once and regained his sensible manner.

“Has the Crown Jeweler arrived?” he asked.

The Queen shook her head. “To my knowledge, no. I wanted to speak with you first. As Mr. Hope has probably informed you, we have more than one issue at hand. First, there is the matter of —”

The door behind her opened, and Prince Albert entered.

Radiance dropped into her practiced curtsy again and saw in her peripheral sight that Mr. Lockwood was once more bowing low.

“Please rise,” His Royal Highness said before he addressed his wife. First, he bowed to her and then took the hand she offered. “My love, I hope you don’t mind my tardiness. I was making sure Sir Ellis had brought the model and that the original is nowhere nearby. With a nefarious individual determined to perpetuate such monstrous deception, we must be equally determined not to let anyone get near the Koh-i-Noor.”

“As always, I welcome your thoughtfulness, dearest Husband,” Queen Victoria answered. “I was just about to tell Mr. Lockwood and Lady Radiance about our problem, but I am happy to have you take over.”

With that, Queen Victoria wandered toward the thrones and sat upon the larger one.

Radiance nearly laughed at the way the Queen plopped herself down, as if she were any female enjoying getting off her feet rather than the most important ruler in the world.

Unable to take her gaze from their pretty monarch, Radiance only half listened to Prince Albert discuss something manly and uninteresting about a recent incident at Tattersall’s horse auction. From what she’d gleaned of Mr. Lockwood, he probably wasn’t interested, either.

Then suddenly, the prince switched topics, mentioning the two stones that had already been pilfered, one from a coronet and one from a brooch. He had Radiance and Mr. Lockwood’s full attention.

“We would never have discovered the forgery if Her Majesty hadn’t dropped the brooch —”

“It slipped off,” Queen Victoria corrected.

“Indeed,” Prince Albert said. “Unfortunately — or as it turned out, fortunately — the brooch happened to fall onto a marble floor, and the main stone, a large sapphire, popped out.”

“My husband gave it to me as a wedding gift,” the Queen said, obviously irritated.

The Prince Consort went to her side and patted her hand.

“When we gave the brooch to Mr. Garrard to repair, since it was his shop that made it for me twelve years ago after he became the Crown Jeweler, he came in person at once to say the sapphire was not the original. It wasn’t even a sapphire, but a —”

“A blue spinel,” Mr. Lockwood said.

Radiance began to tap her chin again to stop any further offensiveness such as interrupting royalty. Not heeding her, he continued, “As is the Black Prince's Ruby or the Timur Ruby, both red spinels.”

The royal couple stared at him for a long moment. Radiance wanted to slap a hand to her forehead and another over Mr. Lockwood’s mouth.

“Have I yet expressed my appreciation for your pointing out during the Exhibition that the Timur Ruby was actually a spinel?” the Queen asked.

Radiance cringed at Queen Victoria’s tone, which was anything but appreciative. It must have been a shock to learn that the ruby sent over with the Koh-i-Noor was not a precious stone.

By bringing it up, she feared Mr. Lockwood, despite his best intentions, had put his oar in where it wasn’t wanted. This was proven a correct assessment when the Prince Consort folded his arms, leveling a glare at the enthusiastic geologist.

“While we are grateful for your discerning eye, the so-called Black Prince's Ruby is currently in Her Majesty’s crown, set there by Rundell and Bridge,” Prince Albert stated, “and we shall continue to call the stone thusly.”

Clearly, he wished to drop that avenue of discussion. “Regarding the sapphire, you are correct in thinking it was switched for a spinel.”

“Did Mr. Garrard take responsibility?” Mr. Lockwood asked.

“No,” the Prince Consort said. “He has been our trusted Crown Jeweler for years. The brooch had been cleaned at his shop a mere month earlier. That was now three months ago.”

“Then Your Royal Highness has discovered the culprit?” Mr. Lockwood asked. Radiance thought that a sensible conclusion.

“We thought so, and thus, sent a constable directly,” Prince Albert said. “The man who had worked on the brooch was arrested.”

Radiance felt a measure of relief. But it was short-lived.

“That was not the end of it,” Queen Victoria chimed in. “Not even the beginning of the end.”

“The Queen is correct,” the Prince Consort said, looking fondly at his diminutive wife. “The sapphire has not been recovered. Moreover, the fake gem caused a bit of a ruckus around here. We had an inventory done, and each piece was examined by Mr. Garrard and his employees.”

“Yes, I remember,” Mr. Lockwood said. “I was invited by him to watch two jewelers while they worked, but he didn’t tell me why.”

“What did you observe?” Queen Victoria asked.

“Your Majesty, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. The men dutifully examined and recorded each stone.”

Prince Albert nodded and crossed his arms. “That is true. But you were not here when an emerald popped from a coronet, which had been recently cleaned by a different jeweler, the House of Neble. As feared, it too turned out to be a fake stone.”

The Prince Consort drew the two stones from his trouser pocket and held them out to Mr. Lockwood. He picked up and studied the blue spinel first. Then he looked at the green stone.

Drawing out magnifying spectacles from his pocket, Mr. Lockwood held the stone up to light. “A tourmaline, I believe.”

“That’s what Mr. Garrard said,” Prince Albert confirmed.

“May I ask, Your Majesty,” Radiance began, having finally found her voice, “had the same man who was already under arrest also cleaned the coronet?”

“A good question,” the Prince Consort said. “Unfortunately, the answer is no. Mr. Minton, the forger of the sapphire, was already at Newgate. Thus, we suddenly had a riddle. Moreover, they were not even cleaned at the same time.”

“One might have been altered months earlier, if not years,” Mr. Lockwood said.

“Unlikely,” Radiance put forth her opinion. “While it sounds as though the forger is an excellent jeweler, substituting a stone, especially when done with haste, without altering the setting at all causes problems of durability. Thus, the stone only remains in place for a short period of time until some duress is put upon the piece.”

Prince Albert glanced at the Queen. “She does have a good head,” he remarked, and Radiance felt a surge of happiness clear down to her toes.

“It would seem so,” Queen Victoria agreed.

Radiance could hardly believe she was chatting with the Queen and the Prince Consort, nor that they were praising her.

“In any case,” Prince Albert said, “Minton never worked for the House of Neble, which handled the coronet.”

“I suppose the matter of transportation from Buckingham Palace to the jeweler and back again has been thoroughly investigated,” Mr. Lockwood wondered.

“If the piece is with the royal jewels at the Tower, like the Koh-i-Noor,” Prince Albert explained, “then our Master of the Jewels handles it.”

“Mr. Swifte,” the Queen said. “He’s had the position since before I was born. A very capable custodian.”

Prince Albert cleared his throat. “He retired this year. Now, the post is held by Lieutenant-Colonel Wyndham.”

“I say,” the Queen looked put out for a moment. Then she brightened. “I suppose a military man is a good choice.”

“Indeed,” said the Prince Consort.

Radiance thought their conversation, as if they were any couple sharing news, was charming.

However, Mr. Lockwood was focused on their task. “If the jewelry comes from the Palace,” he prompted, “as the brooch did, then who handles it?”

“The Lord Chamberlain’s office,” Prince Albert said. “Lord Exeter has only been serving the household since the end of February, but he is above suspicion.”

With a nod to Radiance, the Queen added, “However, suspecting the courier is a clever thought. It certainly makes more sense than to think one of the royal jewelers, present or past, has betrayed us. And even stranger to think that it has happened more than once.”

“More than strange, Your Majesty,” Mr. Lockwood said. “I think it unlikely. The jewelers of London, as Mr. Hope recently reminded me, are a relatively small community. There is probably only one forger.”

“Exactly,” the Prince Consort said. “Which is why we asked you to come. The meeting today is regarding the delicate task of cutting the Koh-i-Noor, but under these circumstances, we are naturally wary.”

“May I ask why Your Majesty wishes to recut the Koh-i-Noor?” Radiance asked.

“You may,” the Queen said. Yet instead of answering, she narrowed her eyes. “Have you seen it?”

The full awareness that she was having an audience with the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Ruler of India, daughter of a prince and princess, granddaughter of a king, and one in the long lineage that came before her, weighed upon Radiance’s shoulders.

At that moment, with her heartbeat speeding up, wondering if Queen Victoria was going to bring it out for her to view and perhaps even to hold, Radiance thought she might collapse at Her Majesty’s feet.