Jewels (50 page)

“Did you ever do things like that?” Emanuelle asked. “I did.”

“You only did them with Germans during the war,” Sarah teased her and Emanuelle corrected her firmly.

“That was to get information from them,” she said proudly.

“It’s a wonder you didn’t get us all killed,” Sarah scolded her thirty years later.

“I would have liked to kill all of them,” she said with feeling.

Sarah told her then about Joachim turning up just after Phillip’s wedding. She had never told her that before, and Emanuelle was annoyed.

“I’m surprised he’s still alive. A lot of them were killed when they went back to Berlin. He was pretty decent, as Nazis went, but a Nazi is a Nazi is a Nazi.…”

“He looked so sad, and so old… and I guess I disappointed him bitterly. I think he thought he’d come back, with William gone, and everything would be different. But it could never have been.” Emanuelle nodded. She knew how much Sarah had loved William. She had never looked at another man since he died, and she didn’t think she would again. She had tried discreetly to introduce her to a few friends after a few years had gone by, but it was obvious that she had no interest. She was only interested now in her business and her children.

The party ended at four
A.M.
with the last of the young people falling into the swimming pool as the bands left, and finally winding up in the château kitchen at dawn while Sarah cooked them scrambled eggs and served them coffee. It was fun having them there, she liked having them around, and lately she was glad that she had had some of her children so late in life. So many of her friends were lonely and alone, instead she would have them around her forever. They would drive her crazy probably, but those who knew her well, knew that she enjoyed it.

She went to her own room at eight o’clock, and smiled when she saw Xavier sleeping soundly on Julian’s bed. The television was still on and there was nothing on the screen but snow, and a continuing recording of the “Marseillaise.” She went in and turned it off, took off the Davy Crockett hat and smoothed his hair, and then she went to her own room and slept till noon.

Sarah and Emanuelle had lunch before she went back to Paris. They had a lot to talk about. They were expanding the Paris store again, and lately Nigel had been saying they should think of doing that in London. They still had their royal warrant, and were officially Jewelers to the Crown. In fact, in recent years, they had sold to many heads of state, several kings and queens, and scores of Arabs. Business was excellent, in both stores, and Sarah was excited about Julian coming into the business.

He started, as promised, the following week, and everything went smoothly until they closed in August. He went to Greece then with a bunch of friends, and she took Xavier and Isabelle to Capri. They loved it there. They loved the Marina Grande and the Marina Piccola, and the square, and going to the beach clubs like Canzone del Mare, or some of the more public ones. Isabelle had been studying Italian in school, and with a smattering of Spanish under her belt, too, she considered herself a great linguist

They all had a good time, staying at the Quisisana, and eating ice cream in the square, and Sarah couldn’t restrain herself from checking out the jewelry shops. She found the prices high, but some of their pieces very pretty. There wasn’t much for her to do there, except eat and read and relax, and spend time with the children. And she felt there was no harm in letting Isabelle go down to the beach club by herself in one of the beach taxis everyone took. She met her there later in the morning with Xavier, who always wanted to visit the little donkeys.

And one morning, when Isabelle went on ahead, Sarah and Xavier stopped a little longer on their way to the square, to do some shopping. They reached the Canzone del Mare just in time for lunch, and Sarah looked everywhere for her daughter, but she couldn’t find her. She was beginning to panic until Xavier found her sandals under a chair, and followed her trail into a little cabana. They found her there, with the top of her swimsuit off, with a man twice her age holding her breast, moaning, as she held the ominous bulge in his bikini

For an instant, Sarah only stared, and then without thinking she grabbed Isabelle by the arm and dragged her out of the cabana.

“What in God’s name do you think you’re doing in there?” She raged at her and Isabelle burst into tears, as the man emerged trying to regain his composure as he wrapped himself rather unsuccessfully in a towel. “Do you realize my daughter is sixteen years old?” she said to him in a venomous voice, trying to keep control of herself with difficulty. “I could call the police.” But she knew that the one she should give them was her daughter. She was only trying to frighten him so he didn’t do it again, and she saw that she had hit her mark from his expression. He was a very attractive man, from Rome, and he looked like something of a playboy.

“Signora, mi dispiace
… she said she was twenty-one. I am so sorry,” he apologized profusely and looked regretfully at Isabelle, sobbing hysterically as she stood next to her mother. They went back to the hotel, and Sarah suggested in icy tones that she spend the rest of the afternoon in her room, and then they would talk about it again. But as she went back to the beach with Xavier she knew she had to do more than talk now. Phillip and Julian were right. Isabelle needed to go away to school. But where? That was the question.

“What were they doing in there?” Xavier asked with curiosity as they passed the same cabana again, and Sarah shuddered at what she’d seen.

“Nothing, darling, they were playing silly games.”

She kept a short rein on Isabelle after that, and the rest of the holiday wasn’t quite as much fun. But by the next day, Sarah had made several phone calls. She had found a wonderful school for her, near the Austrian border, close to Cortina. She could ski all winter there, speak both Italian and French, and learn to control herself a little better. It was an all-girl school, and there was no brother school nearby. Sarah had asked very clearly.

She told Isabelle about it on the last day of the vacation, and she went through the roof predictably, but Sarah stood her ground, even when Isabelle cried. It was for her own good. If she didn’t do it, she knew that Isabelle was going to do something very stupid before too long, and maybe even get pregnant.

“I won’t go!” she raged. She even called Julian at the shop in Paris. But he stood behind his mother this time. And after Capri, they went to Rome to buy her what she needed. The school term was starting in a few days, and there was no point taking her back to France to get into more trouble. Sarah and Xavier delivered her there, and she looked mournful as she saw the place. It was very pretty, and she had a big, sunny room of her own. The other girls looked very nice. They were French and English and German and Italian, two Brazilians, an Argentine girl, and one from Tehran. It was an interesting group, and there were only fifty girls in the school. Isabelle’s school in La Marolle had given it the highest recommendation, and the headmaster had congratulated Sarah for her good judgment.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving me here,” she wailed, but Sarah couldn’t be moved. They left her there, and Sarah herself cried all the way to the airport. And then she and Xavier flew to London to visit Phillip. After leaving her son with his nephew and niece for lunch, she went directly to the London store. Everything seemed fine. She had lunch with Phillip, and she was startled to hear him make several nasty remarks about his brother.

“What’s that all about?” Sarah asked candidly. “What’s he done to get you so annoyed?”

“He and his damn stupid ideas about design. I don’t understand why he has to meddle in that sort of thing,” he ranted on at her, and she answered quietly.

“Because I asked him to. He’s very talented with design. Far more than you and I, and he understands important stones and what you can and can’t do with them.” He had recently set a maharaja’s emerald that had been over a hundred carats, and anyone else would have cracked it. But Julian understood exactly what to do with it, and had overseen every single moment it spent in the workroom.

“There’s no harm in his doing that. You’re good at other things.” Sarah reminded him. He was wonderful at dealing with the royals, and keeping them foremost in that market. Stuffy as he was, they loved him.

“I don’t know why you defend him all the time,” Phillip said irritably.

“If it’s any consolation, Phillip,” she said, refusing to rise to the bait, but disappointed at how jealous he still was. He was worse than ever. “I always defend you too. I happen to love both of you.” He didn’t answer her, but he looked slightly mollified as he asked about Isabelle, and told her he’d heard very good things about the school.

“Let’s hope they work a miracle,” Sarah said softly.

And as they walked back to his office, she noticed a very pretty girl leaving the building. She had long, shapely legs, and wore a very short skirt, that looked like something Isabelle would wear, and she gave him a knowing glance that concealed very little. He looked furious with her while trying to pretend not to know her. The girl was new and had no idea that Sarah was his mother. Stupid bitch, he thought to himself, but in an instant, Sarah had seen the look that passed between them, although she didn’t say anything to him. But he felt obliged to explain it to her, which made their situation even more obvious to Sarah.

“It doesn’t matter, Phillip. You’re thirty-three years old, what you do is your affair.” And then she decided to be brazen anyway, “Where does Cecily stand these days?” He looked shocked and actually blushed at the question.

“I beg your pardon. She’s the mother of my children.”

“Is that all?” Sarah eyed him coolly.

“Of course not, I … she … she’s away at the moment. For heaven’s sake, Mother …that was just a joke, that girl flirting with me.”

“Darling, never mind.” But he was still obviously up to his old tricks, sleeping with tarts, the girls with whom he had “fun,” as he used to say, while being married to the other. She was sorry for him that he hadn’t been able to find both in one, but he never complained to her, so she let the matter drop, and he was relieved.

And the next day, she and Xavier flew back to Paris, where Julian met them at the airport. On the short trip Sarah told her son about seeing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London with his father when she first met him.

“Was he very strong?” Xavier asked, always fascinated to hear about his father.

“Very.” She assured him. “And very good, and very smart and very loving. He was a wonderful man, sweetheart, and you’ll be like him one day. You already are, in some ways.” And so was Julian.

They had dinner with Julian in Paris on the way home, and he was happy to see them and hear about Isabelle, and the store in London. She said nothing about her encounter with Phillip, or his comments about Julian. She didn’t want to stoke the fires that already raged between them. Eventually Sarah drove back to the château with the car she had left in Paris. Xavier slept during the trip in the car, and she looked at him from time to time, asleep beside her, thinking how lucky she was to have him. While other women spent occasional Saturdays with their grandchildren at her age, she had this enchanting little boy to share her life with. She remembered how distressed she had been when she first found out she was pregnant, and how reassuring William had been … and her late mother-in-law, who had called William a great blessing. And so he had been to everyone who had known him for his entire life, and now this child was to her … her own very special blessing.

Chapter 26

SABELLE
wrote to them as seldom as she could, and only when her preceptors forced her to, and she complained bitterly about the school when she did write. But the truth was, after the first few weeks, she loved it. She loved the sophistication of the girls she met there, the places they went, and she loved skiing in Cortina. She met even more interesting people there than she did in France, and although the school kept a short rein on her, she managed to make a lot of friends in the racier Roman set, and she was always getting letters and phone calls from men, which the school made every effort to discourage, but couldn’t stop completely.

But by the end of her first year, Sarah saw a marked change in her, and Emanuelle saw it too. Isabelle wasn’t necessarily better behaved, but she was a little more reasonable and a great deal more worldly. She had a better idea of what she could and couldn’t do, and how to behave with men without giving them an open invitation. In some ways Sarah was relieved, and in others she was worried.

“She’s a dangerous girl,” she said to Julian one day, and he couldn’t disagree with her. “She always reminds me of a bomb about to go off. But now it’s a much more complicated one … maybe a Russian one … or a very delicate missile …”

Julian laughed at the description of his sister. “I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to change that.”

“Neither am I. That’s what scares me,” his mother admitted. “And what about you?” She had been waiting for weeks to see him. “I hear you’re doing a little business with one of our best customers.” They both knew who she meant, and he wondered if Emanuelle had told her. “La Comtesse de Brise is a very interesting woman, Julian, and much more dangerous than your sister.”