The Blue Diamond by Joan Smith Read Free Book Online

lady herself swept from a doorway into the gracious entrance hall. She continued speaking in German. "You wished to see me, Lord Moncrief?” she asked in a voice tinged with disdain.
    He looked with interest to refresh his impressions of Miss Kruger, for he had not been much in her company for several weeks. She was taller than he remembered, and thinner. The neck, as Googie mentioned, was regal—long, arched, holding a proud little head. The hair was black, a carefully tousled load of curls that was much favored this season. The eyes were large, liquid, black, the nose straight. A patrician nose—indeed the word described her whole appearance. Every line of the girl’s body spelled aristocracy, privilege, while her manner added the word “spoiled.” Her delicately arched brows were lifted in impatience, but this detail escaped Moncrief’s notice. Of more interest to him was that the haughty beauty had been crying. Lingering traces of red were at her eyes’ rims, and the orbs still glittered.
    “On a matter of business, Ma’am,” he answered.
    She showed him into an elegantly furnished saloon and took a seat, without putting herself to the bother of making polite chitchat. “Yes, what is it?” she asked bluntly, when he was seated.
    “I have come to inquire where I might find a Mademoiselle Feydeau, whom I understand to be a friend of yours."
    “Why do you wish to see her?” she asked, very much on her high ropes.
    He explained his relationship to Palgrave. She examined him closely in a way he considered little short of impertinent. The exact way in which he had regarded her a moment earlier, in fact. “But surely Palgrave is not under your guardianship,” she objected.
    “Not guardianship in a legal sense, but as a younger relative, he looks to me for guidance.”
    “He asked you to come here?”
    “No. The family expect me to keep an eye on his dealings.” He was finding the girl less easy to deal with than he had expected. Even less easy than the father would have been. A man would understand these affairs. In defense, he adopted a high tone. “You have some objection to my meeting Mademoiselle Feydeau?” he asked, with a bold stare.
    “It is nothing to me. I am not a close friend of the woman. I only met her a month ago, when she rented the back apartment from us. There is an apartment at the back of the house, where my father’s sister used to live when she was alive. We rented it to Mademoiselle a while ago. With the Congress crowding the city so, we have let out a few rooms, like so many families have done.”
    It was true most homes were crowded, but the better families were giving their rooms freely to friends and relatives, not renting them to unknown females of suspicious backgrounds. This he noted mentally, but when he spoke, he said, “May I know how it comes you were borrowing a piece of jewelry from a woman whom you know so slightly?”
    “She offered it, milord, and I accepted at her insistence. Is there anything else?”
    “You attended Clancarty’s do for the purpose of meeting the Palgraves, I understand?”
    “Clancarty asked us there to meet them, and Papa was already promised to the Countess von Rossner. To avoid hurting the feelings of our English friends, he sent me in his stead. Are there any more questions?”
    “Mademoiselle Feydeau knew whom you were to meet there?”
    “I doubt I mentioned any names to her. She would not know them. What is it you suggest? That she used me to offer the brooch to Palgrave? It was not the case I assure you. How it came about is that the coiffeur did not come to do my hair as he was supposed to. I happened to know Mademoiselle had such a man with her, and went to borrow a moment of his time. Mademoiselle, when she saw me wearing a red velvet gown, said it required a red jewel. I told her I had none, and she offered the brooch. I refused—it is extremely ugly, but when she made an issue of it, I took it to get away without wasting more