Aunt Sophie's Diamonds

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Book: Aunt Sophie's Diamonds Read Online Free PDF
Author: Joan Smith
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Regency
ever met in real life. He had stepped straight out of the pages of the lurid marble-covered novels of her young years, and she knew him at once for the villain, hiding his shame beneath a fashionable facade.
    "I didn't know there were diamonds in the case,” she said simply.
    "Less and less can I credit you to be your mama's daughter,” he said, his eyes widening a shade. He regarded the quaint creature before him. Utterly unlike the common, encroaching mama in appearance. Less bright, less brittle—a soft-edged water color, set against a hard-edged painting.
    "I am thought to resemble my papa,” she replied.
    "I was slightly acquainted with Henry Milmont. I was only a young fellow when he died—it must have been a decade ago, n'est-ce pas?"
    "Nine years, actually."
    "And in all those years no one told you you had a rich aunt with whom you ought to be on terms? You have been badly treated, my dear."
    "Certainly I knew I had an Aunt Sophie. Mama often spoke of her."
    "And never of the diamonds? Strange, in my conversations with your mama, they were an inseparable pair—Sophie and the diamonds."
    "Do you know my mother well?” Claudia asked. Strange that he seemed to, yet mama had said they were not friends.
    "I believe I know her fairly well,” he said, with a speculative glance at Marcia, who was observing them eagerly. She was uneasy to see Hillary in close conversation with Claudia—an artless girl who might go giving away her age or say something indiscreet. She arose and went to join them.
    "Now you have met my daughter, Sir Hillary, you must congratulate me on her."
    "It is Henry who wants congratulating, darling. She doesn't take after you in the least."
    "No, she is a Milmont through and through."
    "She has been telling me what a naughty mother you are, you know, and I think you have some explaining to do."
    "What nonsense has she been telling you?” she snapped, throwing a suspicious look at her daughter.
    "No, mama, Sir Hillary is fooling. I didn't say anything..."
    He looked and wondered at the expression on their faces.
    "Now what have I inadvertently stumbled into?” he asked aloud. “Marcia, my dear, have you taken a lover, after all these years of celibacy?"
    "How dare you, sir! And in front of my daughter, too."
    "But you assured me she is pure Milmont. She won't have a notion what we're talking about. Henry never had. Not a lover then. Well, in that case, I admit the whole affair is beginning to bore me. What I meant, by the by, is only that you forgot to tell Claudia about the diamonds. She tells me she hadn't realized there were diamonds in the case."
    "I hope I have not raised Claudia to be a grasping sort of girl."
    "Whoever raised her for you seems to have led her away from that path. Henry's folks, wasn't it?"
    Her bosom swelled with frustration. “Because of her health, it was necessary for Claudia to stay in the country."
    "It proves to have effected a miraculous cure,” he said, smiling. “Quite a remarkable bloom on those cheeks. No rouge either,” he said, peering a little more closely at Claudia, then comparing with a glance at her mother. “Do you know, Marcia darling, I think you ought to try a sojourn in the country."
    "When I want your advice, I will be sure to ask for it, Sir Hillary."
    "And I will be sure to give it, to the best of my poor ability. But what must your daughter think of us, squabbling as though we were husband and wife—and in a house of death, too. I'll tell you what we'll do. Let us have Luane and Gabriel take your little daughter to see the diamonds and other jewels—the case of reproductions, that is to say, and you and I can get down to fighting in good earnest. I mean to pull a crow with you over the shameful manner in which you have neglected Claudia's education. I mean the diamonds you forgot to tell her about, darling. Don't blanch so—it highlights the rouge dreadfully. Have you neglected her education in other areas as well, you appalling woman?
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