Property of a Noblewoman (28 page)

“If I’m not working yet,” she said practically. “If I am, I probably can’t get away.” He loved going to Hong Kong for the jade sales, and would have liked to go with her. “I’ll keep it in mind,” she promised. She had two interviews scheduled in the coming week, and one the week after. And then it would be graduation. She was already deep in her review for the bar exam, and hoped she passed it on the first try, which wasn’t always the case, but it would be embarrassing not to. Phillip had been impressed by how much she studied, and how hard she worked, although it was cutting into their time together, but he knew it wouldn’t be forever. She was taking the bar exam in July. And after that he hoped to take her on vacation. They’d been talking about going sailing in Maine, which sounded wonderful to both of them. She was the first woman he’d ever known who thought so.

The service that Valerie had organized on Mother’s Day, for her mother, was short, poignant, and respectful.

It paid homage to the mother she would have been, if she’d had the chance. Valerie had bought a large plot, with two big trees on it, and the white marble headstone said “Beloved Mother,” and then Marguerite’s name, and the dates just beneath it. She’d asked a minister to say a brief service, and Valerie stood for a long moment at her mother’s gravesite, wishing her peace, and then they all left the cemetery together.

Penny drove back to her family in the city, and the others went to lunch at a nearby restaurant with a cheerful garden. And afterward they went back to the city too. Valerie felt as though they had closed another chapter as they drove home. And the four of them talked about the upcoming sale. Phillip had said there was enormous interest in it, and he was expecting some very high bids on the phones. Some of their most important jewelry clients had already placed absentee bids. Marguerite’s collection of beautiful pieces had already created quite a stir, and the section of the catalog dedicated to her was impressive, discreet, and elegant. The caption above it said “Property of a Noblewoman,” as Phillip had suggested and she’d agreed.

Phillip had very properly advised Christie’s of his relationship to Marguerite, once he discovered he was her grandson. And they had decided to allow him to work at the sale anyway, although he wouldn’t be the auctioneer. He would be taking phone bids. Valerie had invited Jane to go to the auction with her. The anticipation was mounting, and with her mother respectfully acknowledged and buried now, Valerie was ready to move on.

The night of the auction, Valerie arrived a few minutes early at the main auction room with enormously high ceilings and neat rows of chairs. Phillip had reserved a seat for her in the second row, on the aisle, and she could observe the auctioneer at the podium, and the long bank of phones easily from where she sat. She had worn a plain black dress and her mother’s small locket and gold ring. The men who worked for Christie’s were all wearing dark suits and ties, the female employees were wearing black suits or proper dresses, and the women in the audience in the bidders’ seats were expensively dressed and wearing jewels. It was a very elite group. There were also several well-known jewelers in the audience. The cream of New York was there, with an equal mix of European buyers, jewelers, and celebrities.

Marguerite’s pieces were the most important in the sale. And people were perusing the catalog, with the photographs of Marguerite and Umberto looking glamorous, interspersed with the photographs of the jewels. Christie’s had done it just right, to enhance public interest and keep the aura of mystique about her, without cheapening it with sensationalism or anything vulgar. It was top notch. And no one had suspected an event like this when Jane called Phillip for an appraisal and he appeared at the bank to view the contents of the safe deposit box.

Jane got there seconds before the sale began, and took her seat next to Valerie, with an apology for being late. She was afraid it might have already started, but it hadn’t. She was wearing a pale blue silk suit the color of her eyes and looked very pretty as Valerie, with her white hair in a French twist, smiled at her, quiet and distinguished. She felt as though they were paying homage to her mother that night, and in a way they were. She felt a flutter in her stomach, wondering if the sale would do well. It was hard to imagine that it wouldn’t, after the care Christie’s had taken. And she was partly sad too to be parting with items that had obviously been important to her mother, and that she had held on to for so long, but it made no sense to keep them. They weren’t appropriate for Valerie’s life, even if they had been to her mother’s, more than half a century before, in another world. She wondered who would buy them, and cherish them as Marguerite had. Each one had been a gift of love from the man she had married.

Valerie patted Jane’s hand with a smile, as the auctioneer stood at the podium but hadn’t started yet. Valerie glanced at Phillip then, who smiled at his mother, wishing he could sit with her too, to lend his support. Valerie had invited Winnie, but she said that the excitement of the bidding would make her nervous and give her palpitations. She preferred to hear about it the next day, and learn the final results. It was so like Winnie not to be there, and Valerie wondered if it saddened her too to see her sister’s possessions disappear. She had never known the sister who had supposedly died. Her story had turned out to be completely different from the one they were told. But Marguerite was her sister, and Winnie had lost her too.

Tom and Angie Babcock had called Valerie the night before the sale to wish her luck. She had sent them a catalog, and Tom had shown it to Walter. Angie said he had nodded and looked at each photograph carefully, and he had said that she had grown up to be even more beautiful than she was as a young girl. He realized then that she had married, but Tom said he wasn’t upset by it. He had expected her to, she was a very pretty young woman. He was sorry life hadn’t worked out better for her and she’d lost her little girl. It was odd how things happened sometimes, and for his brother Tommy too. Valerie couldn’t help wondering what their life would have been like, or hers, if their parents had let them marry. Marguerite would have been widowed almost immediately, but at least their secret would have been out in the open, and she would have stayed in New York with her daughter. Valerie’s life would have been completely different with her real mother, and her childhood, happier. But tonight was not about Marguerite and Tommy. It was about her and the count who had showered her with jewels and a golden life for more than two decades.

The auctioneer was a tall, serious man with a deep, booming voice, who was well known to their important clients, and Christie’s knew he would handle the auction well. The bidding began at exactly seven-fifteen. The first lot in Marguerite’s collection was number 156, which Phillip had said would take about two hours to get to, so they had time. They had one hundred and fifty-five lots to sell before hers, which went through lot 177. And there were only a dozen lots being sold after hers, mostly loose stones, and two very important diamond rings, which were expected to go for over a million dollars each. Marguerite’s jewelry was in good company that night.

Valerie followed the bidding closely, whispering to Jane from time to time about some particularly impressive or beautiful item. Jane had noticed and commented to her in a whisper that the better pieces were going for about four times the estimate, and one or two went for six times the estimate, which was good for both the sellers and the house. The estimates on Marguerite’s pieces had been set high, with strong reserves, which meant that they could not be sold for less than a certain amount, to preclude their being sold for below their value. The estimates had been the subject of considerable discussion, determined by the makers and the size and value of the stones, all of which were of top quality and sizes that were almost impossible to find nowadays. The pieces in her collection were extremely rare now, more so than Marguerite ever knew or could have hoped when she kept them. If she had sold even one or two, she could have been more comfortable at the end of her life, which tugged at her daughter’s heart, knowing that she had been preserving them for her.

The earlier items in the auction sold one by one, and the auctioneer’s voice droned on. There were a couple of bidding wars, one notably between a well-known jeweler and a private buyer who simply refused to lose the piece. The jeweler dropped out after driving the price up, and the private buyer paid ten times the estimate for it, but seemed thrilled.

And then finally they were at lot 155 at nine thirty-five, and Valerie took a deep breath as the hammer fell for a sapphire cocktail ring by Harry Winston that went for three hundred thousand dollars, just over the estimate, but within range. It was purchased by a jeweler who would sell it for twice that on Madison Avenue. And they were up next. Jane squeezed her hand as the simple Van Cleef diamond pin came up first. Two women held up their paddles with their bidding numbers immediately. As Jane had already noticed, the major jewelers who were known to Christie’s held up no paddle, but made subtle, nearly invisible gestures to signify their bids, and the auctioneer knew their bidding numbers by heart. But the privates used the paddles, with rare exceptions. A few of the celebrities in the audience didn’t use the paddles either. Everyone knew who they were. You had to look closely to see who was in the race. And the jewelers tended to let the privates get in a frenzy first, and then stepped in.

Three other bidders joined them for the diamond pin, as Valerie and Jane watched, fascinated. Some of the bidders were clearly jewelers, but one of the women refused to let go, and at the very end the man sitting next to her, presumably her spouse, discreetly put up a hand, the auctioneer saw it and nodded. The man’s bid was prevailing, and then just before the hammer went down, one of the jewelers jumped in again and the woman who had wanted the piece looked crestfallen, and her husband bid again with a determined expression. And this time the hammer fell and it was hers. She kissed the man who had bought it for her, and was smiling broadly, as the diamond brooch from Cartier came up next. And all the underbidders from the previous piece leaped in heatedly right from the beginning. Christie’s had set the stage well, trying to capitalize on moments such as this.

The bidding on the Cartier brooch went faster and higher and was more furious, and it sold for twice the price of the Van Cleef piece. Valerie realized then that she was holding her breath, and slowly exhaled as they brought up the next piece. An image of it appeared on a large video screen at the same time. Valerie glanced at Phillip, but he was busy on the phones, and had a bank of three of them in front of him, so he could keep people on hold at the last minute as they waited for their lots to come up. There was tangible excitement in the room, and the first two pieces were the least exciting of Marguerite’s jewels and had sold extremely well, better even than Phillip had expected, and when he glanced over at his mother and their eyes met, he nodded and looked pleased.

The Cartier tiger bracelet was sold next. Phillip had explained to her that the bracelets like that one were collectors’ pieces, and that that particular one hadn’t been made by Cartier in forty years, so it was an important piece for connoisseurs. It was a classic example of Cartier’s work. The bidding on it was hot and fast, mostly among jewelers, with some privates, and the hammer fell at just under a million dollars, to a well-known collector of fine jewelry who lived in Hong Kong. He had bought it for his wife, who already owned many examples of Cartier’s tigers. They had been favorites of the Duchess of Windsor too, and appeared in many books.

They moved on to the pearl and diamond choker then, which wasn’t one of Valerie’s favorites but was pretty. Her mother had had such a thin, elegant neck that it had been too small for Valerie when she tried it on. It was very much of a bygone era, but had an antique elegance to it, and it became the object of a bidding duel between two well-known jewelers who sold antique jewelry at enormous prices and could ask anything they wanted. It went for the high estimate, which was a respectable amount for the piece.

Marguerite’s Boucheron pieces sold after that, and went for good, solid prices to individuals who liked them more for the design than for the value of the stones, which were handsome nonetheless, and they brought a good price as well.

They went back to Van Cleef then, with the invisibly set sapphire necklace and earrings. Phillip had predicted it would go high. It was an exceptionally fine example of their famous invisible setting technique, and the necklace was large and flattering on the neck. It went for close to a million dollars, as Valerie watched in fascination. Jane never took her eyes off the podium and the auctioneer, mesmerized by the action. You had to look around the room carefully to see who was bidding. Some of the bids were very subtle with a nod, a facial expression, a single finger, or a barely raised hand.

The long strand of natural pearls came up next and was again hotly battled over by connoisseurs who knew the value of pearls of that size and quality, of a kind that was no longer available in the modern world. Valerie nearly fell out of her seat when they went for two and a half million dollars, which Phillip had told her they might. He was smiling broadly – they had gone to one of his clients on the phone, who was thrilled. She was calling from London. She had stayed up till after three in the morning to bid on them over the phone. But she was successful and delighted, which made it all worthwhile.

The remaining Van Cleef items came up after that, a sapphire ring and bracelet, which sold for top prices to jewelers who knew they had a market for them, one in Los Angeles and the other one from Palm Beach. They were well known to Christie’s, and the auctioneer recognized them immediately.

They moved on to Marguerite’s Italian pieces then, two from Bulgari that sold at very high prices, and some others from unknown jewelers who no longer existed, but the pieces were pretty and did well. The emerald and diamond bracelet from that group was the most impressive and sold for five hundred thousand dollars to an unknown buyer no one recognized, and the diamond bracelet that looked like lace doubled the high estimate and sold to an Italian buyer on the phone, who was not a client of Phillip’s, but whom Christie’s knew well. Most of their buyers in this rarified category preferred pieces by big-name jewelers, which were also a good investment, but sometimes the lesser-known pieces surprised everyone if someone fell in love with them.