Georgia hesitated as she listened to the heavily accented, deep male voice at the other end of the line. She’d started to think the Swiss jeweller wasn’t going to call her back, as it had been days since she’d left a message for him.
‘Yes, this is she.’
‘I understand that you have information on the missing royal sapphire?’
She cleared her throat. ‘May I ask who I’m speaking with?’
‘I’m sorry, I was so excited to receive your message that I’ve lost my manners. My name is Luca, Luca Kaufmann.’ He paused. ‘You called me and left a message, but I was away on summer holiday. I’ve only just received it.’
Georgia took a deep breath, about to speak, but he beat her to it.
‘How soon can we meet?’
7
GENEVA, 1951
It was one thing to know her husband was being unfaithful, and another entirely to confront him about it.
Delphine looked at her appearance in the mirror, turning her face from side to side as she studied her complexion. She was only twenty-seven years old, and as far as she could see there was little that had changed about her face from when she’d married her husband almost nine years earlier. Other than puffiness around her eyes from the tears she’d cried into her pillow the night before, her skin was still smooth and plump, her lips full, her hair thick and lustrous. She tilted her head forward to inspect her parting line, pleased to see there were no early grey hairs showing.
As a girl, she’d been lauded for being the prettiest in the neighbourhood, and later complimented for her beauty as a teenager attending events with her parents. She’d often see boys looking at her; even men closer to her father’s age would run their eyes over her admiringly, leaving her red-cheeked and embarrassed by the heat in their gaze, not quite certain why they looked at her in such a way. But she’d been promised to Giovanni since childhood, their families making the decision to unite when she was still young enough to be playing make-believe with her dolls. So, no matter how many boys smiled at her or asked her to dance, she always knew that she would marry a man already chosen for her; that she was to rebuke any advances made by anyone who wasn’t Giovanni. She was not to have a hand laid on her before marriage.
This meant that her experience with boys, and indeed men, was limited to her family, to her father and cousins, until she came of age. And then, on her eighteenth birthday, her engagement had been announced, followed by an extravagant party in her native Switzerland. One year later, two days after she turned nineteen, she was married in Rome, and then barely ten months later she’d welcomed her first child, her son Tommaso.
Delphine hadn’t known what to expect from marriage—her husband was kind to her and made certain she had everything she needed. She’d grown up in a household where her parents never slept in the same room, so she hadn’t thought it unusual for her and Giovanni to have separate wings in their large home, and when her children came along she’d forgotten all about how lonely she’d felt in those early months of her marriage. His chaste kisses had been warm, but not particularly loving, almost as if she were a sister he was fond of, and when they’d consummated their marriage it was an act she’d have described as uncomfortable and deeply embarrassing. It had only happened a few times, enough for her to get pregnant, and then she’d wondered if it was something that would ever happen again, or if perhaps it wasn’t for pleasure at all, which is what she’d heard her older sister whispering about with her friends when Delphine had been just a girl.
But now, as she stood in her new bedroom, surrounded by all the things she’d chosen to bring with her from Italy, that yawning, painful loneliness was starting to creep back in, the ache almost bone-deep. And she knew in her heart that therewas something very wrong with a husband not seeking out his wife’s love in the marital bed. Regardless of whether they shared the bed each night for the purpose of sleeping, it was unusual that he didn’t come to her to seek out comfort, to want to touch her body.
Delphine gave herself one last, long look, before dabbing her new Eau d'Hermès perfume to her wrists and neck and hoping Giovanni would like the scent. She walked downstairs, still getting used to the smaller size of their flat compared to their rather palatial home in Rome. Today was the day she was going to put her marriage back in order. She would make her husband forget all about whatever other women he was spending time with, and find a way to make him fall in love with her. Perhaps the fault hadn’t been entirely his; perhaps she should have spent more time trying to understand how to keep a man content, but that ended today.
‘Buongiorno,’ she said, as she walked into the breakfast room.
‘Good morning,’ her husband replied, giving her a quick smile before turning his attention back to his paper.
She kissed both her children on the tops of their heads, lingering a little longer at her son’s chair and placing a hand to his shoulder. He was sad to have left Italy, but with Martina and their cook coming along with them, the children were at least eating the same food they were used to. She expected any diversion from their usual milk and bread wouldn’t be favoured, just as she very much doubted they’d be willing to deviate from their favourite spaghetti for dinner.
‘I thought you’d be taking your breakfast in bed today,’ Giovanni said, without looking up from what he was reading.
‘Quite to the contrary,’ Delphine said, hoping her enthusiasm would be contagious. ‘It’s such a treat to have you here with us. I was hoping we might explore Geneva together as a family,perhaps take the children to the lake where I spent so much of my childhood summers?’
Giovanni looked up then, but she saw that instead of the smile she was hoping for, she received a hovering frown instead. Clearly, he had other plans. It was like their last breakfast in Italy all over again, when he’d announced their move.
‘That sounds like a very pleasant idea, Delphine. Children, what do you say about cancelling your lessons today and having a day adventuring with your mother? It is your first proper day in Geneva, after all, and I’ve heard the Bois de la Bâtie animal park is wonderful.’
She fixed her smile as the children cheered, hoping she’d misheard. ‘You mean with your motherandfather, don’t you, my darling? I was hoping we could be together as a family.’
Giovanni made a noise that was halfway between a sigh and a grunt, before downing his coffee. ‘I’m afraid I have business to attend to. It’s why we’ve moved here, after all. But you have fun, and tell me about it tonight.’ He winked at the children. ‘I can’t wait to hear about all the smelly little piglets and other animals you see.’
The children laughed as he copied the sound of a pig snorting, which only made Delphine’s feelings more difficult for her to understand. She couldn’t deny he was a kind father; he made the children smile and was never short-tempered with them, but other than when he was in residence for breakfast, they never saw him.
Delphine watched him go, moving towards her seat in the hope that he’d smell her perfume as she intercepted him and look down at her; that he’d actuallyseehis wife for once. Instead, she received the forehead kiss that had become so customary in her marriage. He liked her to be placid, and nothing more.
‘Can we expect you home for dinner tonight?’ Delphine asked, keeping her voice light, not wanting him to think she was nagging.
‘You can,’ he replied. ‘I leave for London on Monday, so I shall be enjoying dinner with you every night until then.’
‘London?’ she asked, her voice quavering. ‘So soon?’
