Parisian Affair (41 page)

'This is my friend, the Honorable Marcus
Setville-Penhurst,' Princess Karima said, indicating him with a
wave.

'So pleased to meet you,' Marcus boomed in
his plumiest old Etonian voice, shaking both of their hands
vigorously.

Princess Karima noticed that Allegra wasn't
wearing the ring, but wasn't surprised. She assumed she would have
put it in her room safe in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Suite at
the Ritz.

'Please,' she said, 'now that you're here,
won't you have a seat?' She indicated chairs grouped near the
chaises she and Marcus had occupied. Then she turned to Mimi.
'Mimi, please bring a bottle of the Louis Roederer Cristal.'

'Out, madame,' Mimi said, then turned and
left.

'Oh, you mustn't go to any trouble,' Allegra
said. 'We'll only be a minute. Really.'

'It's the least I can do,' Princess Karima
said graciously, seating herself on the chaise longue again. 'You
paid a great deal of money to get to wear my ring, and by doing so
you've made an enormous contribution to my charitable foundation.
Your money will help so many of the less fortunate.'

Allegra and Todd had taken chairs facing the
chaises, and Marcus, fascinated with Karima's show of hospitality,
spread out on his chaise longue again.

'I have to confess that I didn't buy the ring
for myself,' Allegra said.

'Oh?' Princess Karima said. 'Who did you buy
it for?'

'I'm sorry, but I'm not permitted to say,'
Allegra replied.

Princess Karima looked thoughtful for a
moment, then said, 'It's a pity I won't get to know who it is who's
helping my foundation, Ms. Sheridan. Nor will I know who the woman
is who will wear the ring.'

'I don't think it will remain a mystery for
long,' Todd said. 'We be- live the owner is waiting until he gives
it to his companion.'

'Ah, so he's saving it for a surprise,'
Marcus said amiably.

'I think so,' Todd said.

'American, I suppose,' Marcus said.

'He is, yes,' Allegra said.

Mimi shuffled into the conservatory with a
silver tray laden with tulip- shaped glasses and a bottle of
chilled champagne. She set it down on a table and began pouring the
wine. When she finished, she handed one glass to Allegra, then to
each of the others, before turning and leaving the room.

'A toast,' Marcus said, raising his glass.
'To Ms. Sheridan for placing the successful bid at Dufour.'

'Yes,' Princess Karima chimed in. 'To your
success,' she said, lifting her glass.

They all sipped the champagne.

'It's too bad the ring is not for you, Ms.
Sheridan,' Princess Karima said. 'You are a very beautiful young
woman, and it would look perfect with your coloring.'

'Thank you,' Allegra said. 'I've always
thought that you are one of the world's most beautiful and stylish
women.'

Karima laughed. 'You're very kind,' she said,
'but you're speaking of a woman who no longer exists. That Princess
Karima is now considerably older and hopefully wiser.' She shifted
her gaze to Todd. 'It's a pity, Mr. Hall, that you didn't buy the
ring for your fiancée.' Her eyes were full of mischief.

'It was a little beyond my budget,' Todd said
with a laugh.

'I daresay it was beyond most everyone's
budget,' Marcus allowed.

'But if I'd had the money, I certainly
wouldn't have hesitated to get it for Ally,' Todd said. He reached
over and took her hand in his, smiling.

'How lucky you are, Ms. Sheridan,' Princess
Karima said. 'To have such a handsome young man in love with
you.'

'I—I, yes,' Allegra said. She'd never been
one of those girls who'd followed Princess Karima's life in the
society press, but she had to admit the woman was not only stylish
and a great beauty but also formidable. The thought of taking her
on as an opponent was frightening.

'Do you work in America?' Marcus asked.

Allegra nodded. 'I'm a jewelry designer,' she
replied.

'How interesting,' Princess Karima said. 'Do
you work on your own?'

'Yes,' Allegra said. 'So far at least.'

Princess Karima shifted her gaze to Todd.
'And you, Mr. Hall. Do you have some sort of occupation?'

'I'm a landscape designer,' Todd lied. 'And I
have to tell you that I'm stunned by what I can see of your
gardens.'

'Oh, it's far too early to see them at their
best,' Princess Karima said. 'They will be lovely in late spring
and early summer.'

'But the bones are fantastic,' Todd said
enthusiastically. 'The layout is exquisite.'

'Yes,' Marcus said. 'I've always thought the
same thing. They're so perfectly laid out that they're beautiful
even in the midst of winter. Karima is responsible for that.'

'You mean that you designed them yourself?'
Todd asked.

Princess Karima nodded. 'Yes, with a little
help.'

'Unbelievable,' Todd said. 'They look as if a
world-class landscape designer had done them.'

'You flatter me, Mr. Hall,' she said. Then
after a pause, she asked, 'Would you like to see them?' Her dark
eyes questioned him.

'I would love to,' he said, 'if it's not too
much trouble.'

'Come along everyone,' Karima said, rising to
her feet. 'Let me get a coat, and we'll all take a stroll so you
can see more.'

She swept out of the room, and Allegra, Todd,
and Marcus got up.

'Karima takes her gardens very seriously,'
Marcus said. 'They give her great enjoyment.'

'And peace,' she said, reentering the
conservatory in a dramatic floor- length sable coat with a hood.
'They are a wonderful place to sit and contemplate life.'

She smiled and went to one of the French
doors, which Marcus opened. Princess Karima went out onto the
terrace, followed by Allegra, Todd, and finally Marcus.

'Let's go around and start in the knot
garden, shall we?' the princess said, leading the way.

They had walked for several minutes, when
Allegra abruptly stopped. 'I'm sorry,' she began. 'Is it all right
if I run back to the bathroom, then catch up with you? I'm afraid I
can't wait.'

The others stopped and looked at her. 'Of
course,' the princess said after a beat. 'Go through the
conservatory and the dining room. You'll reach a hallway. Turn to
your right and go down the hall. You'll see one on your left.'

'Thank you,' Allegra said. She turned and
rushed back along the well- tended gravel path toward the terrace.
When she reached the conservatory doors, she looked back. They were
around the corner of the huge house, out of sight.

She hurried through the conservatory and
dining room, then down the hallway. The expensive scent the
princess wore lingered in the air and unnerved Allegra slightly. It
was almost as if she were present, watching Allegra's every step.
On her right, the first door she came to was ajar. Looking in, she
saw that it was a moderately sized room and obviously used as an
office. A large desk was positioned in front of a window. Behind it
was a chair that faced the doorway.

Allegra looked up and down the hallway, then
went into the room and walked around the desk. She peered down at
the neat stacks aligned on its gleaming surface. Among them were
piles of expensively engraved invitations, magazines, catalogues,
bills, personal correspondence, and—

What's this?
she wondered.

Leaning down for a closer look at a
letter-size stack, she saw that at the top of it was a copy of a
wire transfer from a Paris bank to a bank in Geneva. For several
million euros.
Must be her foundation
, she thought. Quickly
thumbing through part of the small stack, she saw that there were
innumerable like transfers, all of them for millions of euros and
all from Paris to Geneva.

My God, she thought, realizing that the
breathtaking amounts added up to over a hundred million euros,
she's really serious about this charitable foundation. Whatever
it is.

She thumbed through several more of the wire
transfers, but suddenly stopped. She felt a chill run up her spine,
and the hairs on her arms stood up. Why she had such a reaction,
Allegra couldn't really say, but what she saw presented a
conundrum. The lower half of the stack was made up of similar wire
transfers, but they were all from the bank in Geneva to a bank in
an Arab state. It seemed extremely odd to Allegra that these huge
sums of money were being transferred first to Switzerland, then to
an Arab country.

Why not send the money directly to the second
bank? she wondered.
Why go through Switzerland?
A quick
second look showed her that the amounts were identical in every
case. Fifteen million, for example, would be sent to Switzerland,
then fifteen million wired to the Arab bank.

Allegra looked over at the open doorway, then
back down at the desk. A black alligator address book beckoned to
her. She opened it and flipped through, but nothing leaped off the
pages at her. It was like anyone's address book, complete with
scratched-out addresses and telephone numbers and new ones written
in their place. Then just as she was about to replace it, a piece
of notepaper fell out. On it were three names: Ali, Hassan, and
Nessim. Each was followed by a telephone number. She took a pencil
from a silver holder and jotted down the bank account numbers of
the Swiss and Arab banks first, then the three names with their
corresponding phone numbers. That done, she folded the piece of
paper and put it in her pocket. Giving the desk one final sweeping
glance, she didn't see anything else that appeared to be of
interest.

She went back to the doorway, peeked out, and
looked both ways. No one. Out into the hallway she went, then
realized that she actually needed to go to the bathroom.
Maybe
it's my nerves
, she thought. She found it where Princess Karima
told her it would be, quickly made use of it, then hurried back out
to the conservatory.

She was startled by the elderly maid, who was
emptying ashtrays into a silver silent butler. The old woman looked
up at her with suspicious, narrowed eyes. 'Mademoiselle?' she
asked.

'I was just using the loo,' Allegra said with
a smile.

The old woman continued to stare at her but
didn't say anything, and Allegra rushed on outside with the
irrational feeling that the maid knew she had been snooping.
She
gives me the creeps
, she thought, anxious to be with Todd
again. When she caught up with Todd and the others, they were
walking through a formal parterre. Its walks were pea gravel, and
the beds, all lined with small formally clipped boxwood, were
planted with hundreds of rosebushes.

'There you are,' Marcus said cheerfully.

'Are you okay?' Todd asked. 'We were
beginning to worry about you.'

'I'm fine,' Allegra said with a smile. 'Now
at any rate.'

'You found everything you need?' the princess
asked.

'Yes, thank you,' Allegra said.

They walked on, the princess telling Todd
about the various roses that would eventually be blooming, and he
in turn asking her questions about them. After strolls through
several garden 'rooms,' the greenhouses, and a small portion of the
park, they returned to the conservatory, where Marcus refilled
their champagne glasses.

'You've been awfully generous with your
time,' Todd told the princess, 'and it's been a wonderful
experience for me.'

'I'm glad you've enjoyed it,' she replied
graciously, lighting a cigarette.

'I wondered if you would mind clearing up
something for me?' Allegra asked.

'What's that?' Princess Karima asked, blowing
a stream of smoke into the light-filled room.

'After I placed the successful bid on your
ring at Dufour, I went to pick it up, and they gave me a ring that
wasn't yours.'

'What?' Princess Karima exclaimed, sitting up
in her chaise longue.

'Yes,' Allegra said with a nod. 'They told me
that they had made duplicates for photographic purposes and to save
on insurance costs and so on. Your pieces were so valuable they
didn't want to let them out of the auction house. They didn't want
to take any chances.'

'Oh, I see,' Princess Karima said.

'I think it's awfully odd that they gave me
the duplicate, don't you?' Allegra said.

'It's preposterous,' Marcus burst in.
'Absolutely outrageous.'

'It was merely a mistake,' Princess Karima
said with a shrug. 'They are so busy, you know. Mistakes are
made.'

'But a mistake like this?' Allegra said. 'If
I weren't a gem expert and hadn't examined your ring prior to the
auction, I could have easily left there with the wrong ring.'

'I have no idea what could have happened, Ms.
Sheridan,' Princess Karima said. 'If you have questions, ask the
people at Dufour, not me.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Allegra said. 'I didn't mean
to imply that you had anything to do with their deception or—'

'Deception!' the princess exclaimed. 'That's
hardly likely, Ms. Sheridan.'

'Oh, I think it is,' Allegra said. 'I think
they were deliberately trying to pawn off a ring on me that wasn't
the one I'd bid on. I'm wondering why they would try to keep
yours.'

'This is nonsense,' the princess said as if
she had a bad taste in her mouth. 'Absolute nonsense. You don't
know what you're talking about.' She smashed her cigarette out in
an ashtray. 'It was merely a mistake.' Then she added in an
emphatic voice, 'Which they corrected.'

'Only after I confronted them about it,'
Allegra persisted, 'and Monsieur Ramtane Tadjer from Jules Levant
came to my rescue.'

'Ramtane. . .,' the princess began, her voice
drifting off. Then, 'He knew about this?'

Allegra nodded. 'He saw what was happening,
and he looked at the ring with his loupe, too. He knew at once that
I'd been given the wrong one.'

'He's the owner of Jules Levant,' the
princess said to Marcus.