Radiance (Diamonds of the First Water #3)

Chapter Twenty

E dward felt like a dunce. Everything had slipped his mind when he’d been brought a magnificent find, opals from Australia, gifted by a fellow geologist who knew of his great interest. He had devoted the better part of the past two days to studying them, dissecting a few, and even trying to set one on fire.

“Fascinating,” he wrote in his notes. “A silica-based mineral that is non-crystalline. Rather the opal is made up of gelatinous blobs less than a micron in diameter.” And he hadn’t finished examining them yet.

“I haven’t heard back,” he confessed. Dare he tell her? He had to, although he hated to lose her good favor.

Striding over to his coat, he slid his hand into the pocket and withdrew the single sheet. “Because I haven’t yet sent the letter we worked on together.”

Even wearing a gaping expression, she was a stunning beauty.

“How could you forget to send it?”

“I had opals ... ,” he began.

“But the Queen,” she countered. “And Mr. Hope and poor Mr. Minton.”

Edward hung his head, feeling like a naughty child. In truth, he was simply a distracted one. He had ever been thusly. When something caught his attention, everything else seemed to lose any importance. He’d often thought he should employ a secretary, but he kept forgetting to look in the paper.

Why, he even needed a helpful person to remind him to look for another helpful person! He didn’t say that, as he had an idea Lady Radiance wouldn’t find the humor in it.

Embarrassed, wishing he’d at least sent off the damn missive, even if he had subsequently forgotten to heed the answer, he grabbed for a slice of stale bread and bit into it.

Another bad idea. It was monstrously dry. While he chewed manfully, the beautiful woman before him seemed to be reddening with annoyance.

It took him another few moments to swallow before he poured himself a cupful of coffee. Cold and bitter as expected, but it did the trick of washing the last crumbs down his sorry gullet.

Then he spied the milk in its miniature pitcher. “Mrs. McSabby is always trying to get me to put milk in my coffee, the way she takes her tea. I argued with her for months, and then came to find out it’s the Austrian method, and even farther away, how they prepare it in the Orient, too. Although my housekeeper has never been in a coffeehouse in her life, she was spot on. And I have come to appreciate her dubious wisdom.”

Radiance said nothing as he poured all the milk into the inky black coffee.

“Probably putting in the sugar is a fool’s errand,” he remarked into the silence while Radiance glared at him. He put in a single teaspoon, anyway.

“The sugar crystals won’t melt, as you know, and the coffee will be crunchy.” He smiled, trying to soothe her with some levity. Then he took a sip. “Crunchy cold coffee. Could there be anything worse?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “Waiting for two days for an important message that never came, only to find out it never will.”

“Ah, well, I suppose that is worse.” What could he do besides apologize? “I am terribly sorry.”

Noticing her hands were balled into sweet feminine fists at her sides, he set the cup down. Radiance was adorable. She also had every right to be furious with him.

“Since you have been waiting and since I’ve made a muck of it, why don’t we go to the House of Neble directly. We shall skip the letter altogether and take our chances. Would that satisfy you, my lady?”

She relaxed her hands. “But you said he doesn’t see anyone, and Mr. Garrard implied the same.”

While it was the truth, Edward hoped Neble’s reticence didn’t apply to the nobility, after all.

“Let us try. If he refuses to see us, then I’ll send the letter, and we’ll add something about your father particularly wanting to patronize his establishment.”

That earned him a tight smile.

“We can but try,” she said. “Your coat.”

“The deuce!” he exclaimed and hurried into it. “You should have said something.”

She held up her hand. “I was not offended.”

With a backward glance at his opals, Edward could scarcely believe how dreadfully slipshod he’ d been recently. And it wasn’t only Radiance whom he’d let down. The Queen needed his help. And he’d been selfishly categorizing his latest interest while those who depended on him awaited his better self.

Once again, he took a seat in the Earl Diamond’s carriage with Radiance and the silently reading Sarah. They passed through the jewelry neighborhood of Hatton Garden to the eastern-most section and stopped at Neble’s establishment on Saffron Hill.

“You may remain here,” Radiance said to her maid.

Edward didn’t protest but simply pushed open the door to the shop, stepped aside, and let the lady precede him.

Not bright and busy as a jewelry store on Bond Street, nor steeped in dark wood and history like Garrard’s, Neble’s was tucked away, small, and — dare he say it ? — dingy.

Nevertheless, a clerk in a starched apron approached when they entered.

“May I help you?” the man asked.

“My name is Lockwood. This is Lady Radiance Diamond. We were hoping to ... ,” but he trailed off when the clerk gawked at Radiance, probably because of her name. In any case, he had plainly stopped listening.

Edward coughed to regain the man’s attention. “We wish to speak to Mr. Neble.”

Without hesitation, the clerk responded, “I am sorry, sir, but that is impossible.”

Radiance spoke before Edward had a chance to argue. “Is Mr. Neble here?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Then how can it be impossible to see him?” she asked.

The clerk shot Edward a look as if it were his fault that he’d brought a difficult female to the shop.

“Because he is working. He remains in his workroom most all hours of the day and sometimes into the night, too. That is why he hires people like me to meet with customers.”

“What if the customer wishes to order something specially designed by Mr. Neble?” Edward asked.

The clerk shrugged. “I am well versed in all types of jewelry. You can show me something here in the store and tell me how you want it altered. Then I impart your wishes to Mr. Neble. Or I can sketch what you wish if you can describe it.”

“There’s no need for that,” Radiance said. “Please give this to Mr. Neble.” She reached into her reticule and handed the clerk a folded piece of paper.

Unfolding it, the man spared a quick glance before frowning.

Radiance put her gloved finger on the drawing. “Tell him I have the central stone in that armlet. I want to know if he can recut it to make it sparkle.”

“It seems to be a large stone,” the clerk remarked. “In need of cutting — or polishing as we call it. What type of stone is it, please?”

Edward was looking at the sketch upside down but recognized it at once. Surprised, he glanced at Radiance. Her expression was a study in boredom.

“It is a diamond, of course. But I do not wish to discuss this with you. I intend to discuss it with Mr. Neble.”

“As I told you, my lady, you cannot,” the man said again.

“Take him the drawing,” Radiance insisted. “We shall await his response.”

“Very well, but I tell you, it will do you no good.”

“We’ll see. Won’t we?” She looked past the clerk. The discussion was finished.

Edward thought her marvelous.

When they were alone, listening to the clerk’s footsteps on the stairs, he whispered, “That was the Koh-i-Noor.”

“Indeed, it was.”

“You are an excellent artist. And your plan is a good one, trying to lure Neble out of his den.”

Her smile was genuine this time. “Thank you. I am hoping he shan’t be able to resist.”

In a very brief time, the clerk returned. Alone. Edward wondered if even the Queen herself could get the man out of his workshop.

“Mr. Neble will see you upstairs,” the man said, his tone subdued.

“Isn’t that accommodating of him?” Radiance remarked evenly.

Without hesitation, not waiting for the clerk to lead her, she simply headed to the stairs. Edward watched the sway of her full, flounced skirt, a mesmerizing movement, and had to prod himself to follow.

With a backward glance at the clerk, who’d also been watching her attractive swinging way of walking, Edward hurried after her.

He had never met Mr. Neble before, but his reputation as a goldsmith was legendary. However, his demeanor as a recluse was becoming more so. The clerk caught up to them halfway along the passage and led them to his employer’s office.

He knocked, waited, heard the beckoning call of “enter” before opening the door.

“Sir, these are the people I told you about. Lady Radiance, Mr. Lockwood, this is Mr. Neble.”

“Come in,” the older gentleman said. Then he demanded, “Who is manning my shop?”

The clerk scurried back the way they had come.

Edward followed Radiance, expecting a dark and gloomy room to match the dinginess of the downstairs and the purported mood of the master jeweler. Instead, there were more lamps than would normally be found in a space thrice its modest size. The window curtains were open, too, letting in the watery London sun. He nearly had to squint at the room’s brightness.

Before him, seated at a large worktable was a hunched older man who’d retained a full head of hair, which was exceedingly white. Perhaps it looked so snowy because of the lamps, both those on the table beside Mr. Neble as well as those hanging above him and the rest that stood on the floor around him.

The jeweler was wearing not one but two pairs of spectacles and still held Radiance’s drawing in his hands close to his face. He didn’t rise, despite the entrance of a lady, which made him seem a low individual until he spoke.

“Forgive me for not standing.” He addressed Radiance. “My knees are not good at all. By the time I rose for courtesy’s sake, the sun would have set.” He actually chuckled to himself.

Thus far, he was not at all what Edward expected.

“Please, take a seat.” Mr. Neble waved his hand that held the paper toward the vacant space on the other side of his table, as if chairs were there.

Edward looked around. Sure enough, a few small, ladder-back chairs were lined up against the wall behind them, on either side of the closed door.

“I rarely have visitors, so it seemed best to push them out of the way,” Mr. Neble explained. “With such an arrangement, my canes don’t get caught upon them when I walk.”

Radiance hadn’t yet said a word. Edward admired the way she purposefully waited and watched and didn’t blurt out silly things, nor had she taken offense at not having a chair awaiting her.

Quickly, he drew two of them across the room. As he and Radiance seated themselves, Edward looked at the man’s worktable. It reminded him of his own, except there were also instruments for working with gold and silver and an abundance of magnifying spectacles.

“It was good of you to see us,” Radiance finally spoke.

“I wanted to see the Queen,” Mr. Neble said. “It’s been many years since I have looked upon your face, Your Majesty, but you appear quite unlike yourself.”

Edward exchanged a glance with Radiance. Was he speaking seriously, a confused old man, or in jest?

Again, Mr. Neble chuckled, seeming less and less like the reclusive, crotchety curmudgeon Edward had expected.

“But you are obviously not Queen Victoria, so why did you send me a drawing of the Koh-i-Noor as if it was in your possession?”