“Mrs. Tate, you know you don’t have to tip me. The store pays me to do this.”
“Danny, we go through this every time. Take it and make an old woman happy. An education costs a lot of money nowadays.”
“But Mrs. Tate —”
“No ’buts.’ It’s yours.” Elizabeth grasped his hand, placed the money inside, and closed his fingers over top. “There now, was that so difficult?” she said, appearing quite pleased with herself.
After Dan left, Gerdie put the groceries away while Elizabeth showed Garnet the rest of the main floor. To the right of the front hall, French doors opened into a formal dining room with an elegant crystal chandelier that hung over the centre of an elaborately carved cherry-wood table. Against one wall stood a large wooden sideboard with upper glass panels displaying silverware, crystal glasses, and china, and on the opposite wall hung a wide oil painting of Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper.
At the end of the hall to the left, beyond the living room, Elizabeth opened another door. “Reginald’s library,” she said.
Despite the light fixture at the top of the high ceiling, the room was dim and rather dreary with its reddish brown walls and green velvet drapes over the windows. A dark wooden desk with a high-backed brown leather chair stood in the centre of the floor, facing the door, and volumes of books lined the entire wall behind it, on either side of the fireplace. As Garnet became accustomed to the dark surroundings, she noticed an interesting carving in the centre of the mahogany mantel of a young man playing the harp, and above, on the mantelpiece, a hand-painted clock with silver hands.
“Except for a few changes, it’s nearly the way Reginald left it,” Elizabeth said. “I actually don’t come in here very often. Something about this room has always made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because Reginald used to spend so much time in here.” Elizabeth looked up at the mirror above the mantelpiece. “There used to be a different mirror here. It was so tarnished you could hardly see yourself in it. I changed it years ago when I was trying to keep the house nice for Albert’s return.”
As Garnet looked at the mirror, the reflection of another face unexpectedly caught her attention. She turned her head and was drawn to a life-sized portrait that hung on the wall behind her. She went to stand before it.
In front of a midnight-blue background sat a beautiful young woman painted in tones so luminous she appeared almost lifelike. Light somehow seemed to emanate from the woman herself so that her skin glowed, and Garnet had to resist the urge to reach up and touch the canvas. Her hair was pulled back from her face, allowing coppery curls to spill onto her white shoulders. Her expression was serene, with lips parted like a rosebud about to open. In the crook of her right arm she held a spray of waxen white lilies. Her elegant gown, the same colour as her round, violet eyes, was adorned with just a fringe of beadwork and lace under the scooped neckline. And resting under her creamy white neck was a blue sapphire, the size of a small egg, with alternating diamonds and sapphires travelling up the length of the chain. Dangling from her earlobes were smaller sapphires surrounded by diamonds, and on her left hand, a ring — the same one Garnet had noticed Elizabeth wearing the day before.
Elizabeth’s came to stand next to Garnet. “Sofia Tate. Albert’s mother. A shame I never met the woman. She died when Albert was just a baby. He looked a lot like her with the red curls. A lovely portrait, I think. Perhaps even a little intriguing. Somehow, she seems to be watching.”
Garnet felt a chill run down her spine. She could almost feel her watching. Her eyes rested on the sapphire pendant. “Are those the jewels you mentioned?”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, but not the ring. It’s not part of the original set. Albert gave it to me for our engagement but I never saw the necklace or earrings. Do you see this tiny sparkle?” she asked, pointing to the pendant in the picture.
Garnet nodded.
“I have always thought this detail to be interesting. The artist captured the reflection of light on the sapphire as a miniature shining star. I once read that a sapphire refuses to shine if worn by the wicked or impure. It is a symbol of truth, sincerity, and faithfulness, and its rays represent faith, hope, and destiny. They used to believe that the sapphire not only had healing powers, but that it would attract divine favour and protect the wearer from harm.”
Garnet was silent for a moment as she thought about Elizabeth’s words, then asked, “Why did you call the jewels ’royal’?”
“Well, that is a long story,” Elizabeth replied. “Perhaps we should sit in the living room where it’s more comfortable.”
Garnet curled her feet under her legs and settled back onto the burgundy sofa. As she brushed away a bit of yellow-brown fur, she was reminded of the cat.
“Where’s Ginger?” she asked. “I haven’t seen her today.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Locked in the upstairs bedroom. Gerdie doesn’t care for poor Ginger, and Ginger seems to know this and bothers her even more by rubbing her body around Gerdie’s ankles relentlessly. Gerdie tripped over her one day, so now when she comes, we put her upstairs in one of the bedrooms or outside.”
Elizabeth eased her plump body into the armchair and pulled her green and white skirt over her knees. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes. The jewels. Albert once told me a little of his family history and I will try and retell it as best as I can. In 1895,” she began, “when Sofia’s father, Johann Schelling, was twenty-one years old, he set out from Germany and travelled to Russia to apprentice with his uncle, a talented clockmaker and jeweller. His uncle’s work was of the finest quality, attracting wealthy customers from all around, but mainly the Russian nobility. Johann seemed to have inherited this talent for the craft and was determined to learn all he could from his uncle.
“Johann had been there for several months when one day, Sofia’s mother, Marie, entered the shop with her father, Count Mikhail Ivanov, who came to have his watch repaired. The moment Johann’s and Marie’s eyes met, there was a spark between them. But it was the following week, when Marie returned to the shop with her father to collect the watch, that Johann and Marie realized their destiny. They were left alone for a few minutes while Johann’s uncle showed the count some works in progress in the back of the shop, and knew they were in love. But it seemed their love was doomed. Marie was already engaged to be married, and Johann was of the wrong class.”
Garnet frowned. “Wasn’t she in love with the guy she was supposed to marry?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “It seems not. The man she was to marry was chosen by her father. It was an arranged marriage, you see, to the wealthy Count Vladimir Uvorov, who was twenty years older than her. The problem was that Count Mikhail Ivanov had spent a lot of money — more than he actually had — and his debts were piling up. Count Uvorov would help him financially if he could marry his daughter. It was, therefore, Marie’s duty to marry the man to help her father out. Although Marie had told her father that she did not wish to marry this man, her father would not listen, and she had no one to turn to for help. Her mother, the Countess Elena Ivanov, a distant relative to the Russian Imperial family, had died the year before and her selfish brother, Aleksei, agreed with his father. After all, he stood to inherit the title of count, the estate, and all of his father’s belongings, so his sister’s marriage would be in his best interests.”
“Poor Marie!” Garnet exclaimed.
“Poor Marie, indeed. But those were the times,” Elizabeth explained. “Anyway, the wedding to Count Uvorov was two weeks away and Marie knew she didn’t have much time. The following day she met Johann in secret and, over the next few, invented numerous excuses to go to the city — she needed final dress fittings for the wedding, she needed a few more items for her trousseau.... She just had to see Johann again. But it did not take long before the Count Mikhail Ivanov discovered their meetings. He forbade her to ever see Johann again and the coachmen were not allowed to take her anywhere unless she was accompanied by himself or her brother.
“Marie