Radiance (Diamonds of the First Water #3)

Chapter Thirty-Two

E dward directed the cab driver to the Diamond home, beyond pleased that Radiance had confided in him instead of going to Houndsditch by herself. That morning in his workroom, he could still catch scent of her lilac perfume — a most intoxicating fragrance. He couldn’t deny he’d been happy to have her in his home once again, stroking his cat’s lazy body, wishing he could have her fingers on him as easily.

Brushing aside such wicked thoughts — the woman was practically engaged, after all — he descended the carriage with a request for the driver to await him.

Expecting Radiance’s reaction to his disguise — ill-fitting, secondhand clothing, a false beard, spectacles, and a floppy hat — it was the Diamonds’ butler who first raised an eyebrow, peering down his nose as if he might slam the door.

“It is I, Mr. Lockwood,” Edward said, feeling foolish.

Their butler had no chance to do more than heave a sigh, indicating he had seen it all while in his position, and stepped back to allow him entrance.

Radiance must have been ready and waiting in the drawing room, for he heard her speak a moment later.

“Mr. Lockwood,” she called out to him in greeting before coming into the foyer. She wore a vivid red dress as he’d requested, so he could more easily keep an eye on her. She’d added a matching hat and ruby mantle.

He would vow his heart faltered, then sped up at the sight of her — a delicious-looking treat he wanted to taste more than he wanted his next breath.

“Oh!” Taking a step back, Radiance looked him up and down. With a pretty tilt of her head, she asked, “It is you, isn’t it, sir?”

“Yes. If you are ready, then let us go.” His face was already itching from Mrs. McSabby’s rye paste that held on the beard made of trimmed horse’s mane, oddly coarse but realistic, nonetheless. Hide glue, the alternative, had given him pause in case it didn’t come off with hot water and soap, whereas Mrs. McSabby assured him her concoction would leave little to no damage.

After helping Radiance and the equally astonished maid swiftly into the hansom cab, he let the lady’s barrage of questions fly, explaining that his disguise was necessary.

“I have no idea who this Sully person is, but he might know me on sight as someone with whom the Queen and Prince Consort have consulted. If he is the forger, that could put you in danger.”

And then he began his own interrogation. “Tell me what you know about him.”

Edward was amazed to learn how she’d chanced upon the jeweler outside Mr. Neble’s office, managing to manipulate him into a discussion at her home. He was immensely proud of her.

“You’ve put yourself back in danger,” he said.

“Mr. Sully showed no sign of recognition,” she vowed. “Thus, he cannot have shot at me or pushed me into a wall.”

Edward wasn’t satisfied. “Perhaps I can go in your place, as your humble servant, without your even needing to leave the carriage.”

“Mr. Sully was most particular that I come alone with the payment.”

“I imagine he was.”

She shrugged. “It is no matter. You are here — or at least this version of you. I assume you intend to blend in with the regular buyers and merchants.”

“I shall remain a mere three paces from you.”

Soon, they descended from the carriage on Duke Street, including Sarah, who appeared a little nervous.

“I don’t half feel as if I’m in a mystery,” the maid declared.

“She must stay with you at all times,” Edward ordered. Although not more than a slip of a maid, the two of them together would be less easily targeted should there be any nefarious souls about. And that there were such, he was certain.

“Smell it,” Radiance said. “The aroma from the Orange Market is like sweet perfume. It’s glorious, isn’t it?”

Edward wanted her to stop speaking to him and put a little distance between them. To that end, he nodded and disappeared into the crowd as they’d discussed in the cab.

Radiance and her maid walked along Duke Street toward a tavern with the name of Fogg painted over the doorway. Naturally, at that hour, it was closed. But as instructed, she went to the entrance beside it, crossed the white-painted step, and entered the jewelry mart.

Edward’s heart beat a steady tattoo as he tried to stroll casually when everything inside him wanted to run like a stiff wind. About thirty excruciatingly long seconds after she entered, he approached the same door. It was ever-so-slightly ajar, a welcoming, friendly indication that belied the ruthless dealings he knew went on in these markets.

A gentle push caused the door to swing easily open, and he was in a long hallway, its floor covered by cleanly swept oilcloth. The hall was empty. Edward hurried along the passage to another door, this one neither welcoming nor open. Disconcertingly covered in dark reddish-brown baize, he pushed it, meeting a little resistance that was simply due to its heaviness.

Beyond it was a far shorter hall and a third entirely regular door in one of the walls, looking for all the world as if it would lead him into a respectable parlor or salon. When he tried to turn the handle and enter, however, it didn’t budge. Then he recalled the instructions Radiance had imparted.

He tapped three times. The door swung open by an invisible hand of someone stationed directly behind it, giving him entrance into an expansive room, both long and wide. Despite its size, the jewelry market was cramped, being packed with buyers and sellers, mostly men. The women he did see were obviously of a lower class than his lady by both their garb and manner.

“A penn'orth?” offered a seedy man, situated two feet from the door beside a tub of pickled vegetables, which gave off a distinctively briny aroma. The vendor quickly scooped some onto a saucer and held this out to Edward.

Shaking his head, he scooted around him. Then his heart sank. Through the tobacco smoke that hung in the air, Edward estimated there were at least two hundred souls, wandering up and down the two rows of tables that stretched the length of the room. Worse, the curtains adorning the two large windows at one end, while drawn back to let in the light, were a rich red, thus casting a ruddy glow over the entire place.

Radiance was already lost to him, and he set out to find her.

Plunging into the fray, he couldn’t help noticing the wares covering the broad tables as he hurried past. This jewelry market was the wealthiest and largest one he’d ever seen, not only in Houndsditch but in all Britain. He couldn’t even detect the color of the tablecloths under the piles of gold and silver chains, gold platters and jugs, and heaps of silver spoons.

Naturally, there was jewelry everywhere Edward’s gaze landed — rings in bowls and spread on velvet, bracelets glittering with rare topazes and lapis lazuli accents, crosses studded with pearls and rubies, gem-crusted tiaras, coronets to fit any lady’s head whether she preferred emeralds, sapphires, or both, and lockets adorned with pearlescent opals.

Opals! The latter might have snagged his attention and caused him to stop were he not desperate to lay eyes upon Radiance once more. Compared to her, everything in the room was worthless.

Thus, he pushed farther into the throng. Scanning right and left, listening to the hum that occasionally rose to a din as people haggled over prices, Edward tramped upon some toes just as his own were trod upon.

Suddenly, a ringleted, dark-eyed woman adorned in gold chains across her ample breasts and thick gold hoops in her ears stepped in front of him.

“What are you looking for?” she asked without preamble.

He nearly told her — a red-clad lady .

“Nothing in particular. I will know it when I see it.”

“You are new here,” she said.

He wondered in the crowd how she could tell. Hopefully his beard wasn’t falling off.

“Today seems to be a day for newcomers,” she added.

His ears perked up, and he followed the path of her gaze toward the far end. A skylight in the roof illuminated a snug posting-house bar with glasses stacked tidily at one end and a number of people drinking.

He couldn’t see Radiance but assumed she had gone in the direction the dark beauty indicated.

Radiance didn’t know what she had expected, but it wasn’t the chaos she encountered. As soon as she’d knocked thrice upon the door and been given admittance, Mr. Sully had greeted her, whisked her past an enthusiastic pickle-seller of all people, and deep inside the crowded market.

“I didn’t know you would bring a companion,” he muttered, startling her momentarily into thinking he knew about Edward. Then she realized to whom he referred.

“My lady’s maid is a necessity when I am out in public,” she told him, although she couldn’t think what use Sarah, silently watching, could be at that moment. Perhaps if one of Radiance’s ribbons came untied ...

Surveying her surroundings, she noticed men, both shabbily and finely dressed, all of them smoking cigars, and some gaudy women picking through the contents of the trays on each table as if the jewels were no more costly than raspberries.

There were enough earrings sparkling with diamonds for every lady in Britain. And of course, the favorite of most gentlemen, watches in gold and silver were laid out in neat rows upon nearly every table.

No one seemed to mind when someone passed a pearl to a neighbor or tried on a diamond ring. People walked away from the tables, surging around Radiance in eddies, some going toward the windows where the light was better.

None of the vendors seemed the least bit ruffled when their wares disappeared momentarily. Unlike the jewelry stores in the heart of London, where the clerks kept their eyes on every single customer no matter how finely dressed, these good-natured sellers evidently didn’t fear being robbed.

“This way,” Mr. Sully said, a hand under her elbow, hurrying her along.

But her glance continued to dart hither and yon. While anyone could pick up anything and examine it, no matter how large the gold goblet or how small the ring, there was an order to the proceedings.

Radiance reconsidered her initial impression. People were buying and putting away their purchases in cases and bags in an orderly fashion. These would go to jewelry shops and stores featuring fine furnishings to be sold at quadruple the price.

When she slowed, he tugged her into motion again.

“These other sellers don’t have what you’re looking for.”

She wished Mr. Sully would allow her to see more of the glittering jewelry. But it was what lay beside all these worked pieces that made her suddenly halt — unset gemstones, some uncut. They were heaped in the corners of trays like almonds or cherry pits or contained in wooden and ivory pillboxes. Edward would be like a child in a sweetshop, and she suddenly doubted whether she would ever see him again.

“Come along, my lady. The stall at the end is our destination.”

In a short time, she was at the far end of the long room barely able to see behind her through the smoky haze. With no idea whether Edward was nearby, she had to keep her wits about her.

“Mendelson,” Mr. Sully greeted a man in a dark suit with a curly beard. “This is the lady I told you about.”

The seller looked her up and down. “You are lucky to be here,” he said.

It was an odd way of greeting, but this wasn’t a private ball with social niceties.

“I shall not know until after I leave whether I was lucky or unlucky,” Radiance pointed out, causing the two men to eye one another. “Are you the owner of the jewels for my tiara?” she asked the bearded one.

He hesitated. “Sometimes, it is hard to truly imagine anyone has ownership of a gemstone. They come from the earth. Perhaps no one owns them.”

Mr. Sully coughed and cleared his throat, and then the other man, Mr. Mendelson as she recalled, made a wry face.

“He is the owner.” He hooked a thumb at Mr. Sully. “I am holding on to them because I was going to sell them for him if possible. Indeed, I may have a buyer later today.”

She doubted the coincidence. The man was trying to increase the already exorbitant price.

“If I may take a look, then —” Radiance began as someone bumped into her from behind. It wasn’t the first time she’d been jostled. Looking around, unfortunately, she still didn’t see Edward.

“Not here,” Mr. Mendelson said. “There is a room for private transactions. Come.”

He led the way, and Mr. Sully gestured for her to follow, along with Sarah, before he took up the rear. They went toward a bar stacked with glasses on its glossy, polished surface. Behind it was a goodly supply of liquor.

Given the hour, Radiance was surprised to see men lined up and partaking of some fiery-looking liquid, perhaps brandy. On the bar’s other side, a man dressed all in black leaned against the counter, chatting with customers, sliding glasses of liquor to those who asked and paid, while also surveying the room.

As they drew closer, he nodded to Mr. Mendelson, who went to a door just beside the bar. The stranger’s dark eyes roved over Radiance from head to toe, unsettling her, but he said nothing.

“Who was that?” she asked Mr. Sully once they’d entered a small dark chamber with a square table and four chairs.

“That was Mr. Fogg. He owns the tavern next door and the market.”

Gracious! The man must be as rich as Croesus. Yet he was serving liquor like a common barman.

Gesturing for her to take a seat and extending the same offer to Sarah, Mr. Mendelson drew back the curtains on two windows. The midday sunlight streamed in. Then finally, he drew out a small sack from his pocket. She wondered how he could have hoped to sell the stones if they weren’t on display.

“You wanted something large and unusual, my lady,” Mr. Sully said. “You won’t find any like these elsewhere.”

Mr. Mendelson let two gems roll out of the pouch and onto the table’s green leather inset.

She gasped, knowing at once what she was looking at — Queen Victoria’s two stolen jewels.