“Pearls?”Barbara repeated.“What’s this about?”she asked, joining them to learn more.
Vittoria looked to Diana, but the young matron made a motion that she should answer.Obviously uncomfortable at being the center of attention, Vittoria dropped her gaze to the floor.“Well, it all started when Cleopatra inherited a pair of enormous pearls from the Kings of the East,” she began.“She was hosting Marcus Antonius at her palazzo in Alexandria and was quite put off by how he was indulged with all the lavish arrangements.When he asked what could possibly be better, she, well, she made a wager.”Here Vittoria stopped and directed a pleading glance in Diana’s direction.
Diana took up the story, quoting from Pliny the Elder’s account in volume two ofThe Natural History.“‘To this she made answer, that on a single entertainment she would expend ten millions of sesterces’—a Roman coin,” she interjected.“‘Antony looked upon it as a thing quite impossible; and a wager was the result.On the following day, she had an entertainment set before Antony.Upon this, Antony joked her, and enquired what was the amount expended upon it; to which she made answer that the banquet was only a trifling appendage and that she alone would consume at the meal to the value of that amount.The servants placed before her a single vessel, which was filled with vinegar, the sharpness of which is able to dissolve pearls’.”
“Oh, dear,” Barbara breathed, already concluding what had happened to one of the large pearls.
“‘Antony was waiting to see what she was going to do’,” Diana went on.“‘Taking one of them from out of her ear, she threw it into the vinegar, and directly it was melted, swallowed it.Lucius Plancus, who had been named umpire in the wager, placed his hand upon the other at the very instant that she was making preparations to dissolve it and declared that Antony had lost—an omen which was fully confirmed’.”Diana allowed a long sigh.“Such an important historical loss merely to prove a point,” she lamented.
Randy offered his arm, and she joined him to take a turn about the round room, following Barbara and Will as they did the same.
“But that was just one of the pearls,” Vittoria said, her words directed to David, Helen, and Tom.“After Cleopatra’s suicide, Octavian brought the other pearl to Rome, where it was divided and reshaped for the statue of Venus made for this very temple.”
“Oh, where might she be?”Helen asked with excitement, her gaze darting about in search of a statue of Venus.The few steps she took landed her nearly in the middle of the room, the light from the oculus bathing her in the midday sun.
“Gone,” Vittoria replied sadly.“All the Roman statues were removed when it was made into a church, and although some might have ended up in other temples, the fate of Venus and her pearl earrings is unknown.”
Visibly bothered, Helen sighed as Tom wrapped his arm behind her waist and pulled her to his side.“Another lost treasure,” she murmured sadly.
“We may not know what happened to Venus,” he agreed, “but I do have an idea of what to buy for you when we are next at a jewelry shop.”
Helen gave him a watery grin.“Pearls?”
“Pearls for my pearl,” he whispered.“Which is exactly what you look like standing here in this gorgeous light.”
“Oh, thank you, darling,” she whispered.She lifted herself onto her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.
Although she thought to turn away before she could pay witness to Helen’s kiss, Vittoria found she could not.She watched the couple’s intimate exchange, unaware she made a faint whimpering sound at seeing the chaste kiss.
From where he stood next to her, David was watching with curiosity.Suppressing a grin, he leaned closer to Vittoria.“Was it the promise of pearls or Helen’s reaction to his words that has you staring so?”he whispered.
Inhaling sharply, she turned and regarded him with a look of shock.“Neither,” she finally said, giving her head a quick shake.
David furrowed his brows.“Then what, pray tell, has you vexed?”
Vittoria looked as if she might cry.“After whatDonnaForster has told me, I fear my expectations are too high,” she whispered.
Glancing around to discover the others were well away from where they stood, David ushered her to the edge of the room near the entrance and faced her.“What expectations?”he asked gently.For once, she wasn’t displaying her usual sneer in his company.
“To have a husband who would regard me asSignoreForster doesDonnaHelen,” she replied.“He loves her,” she added, almost in disbelief.
David allowed a slight chuckle.“He does indeed.He has for a couple of years.Even so, it still took him some time to realize they were perfect for one another.”
When Vittoria didn’t appear convinced, he added, “Now Randy—DonForster—claims he didn’t fall in love with Diana at first sight, butIthink he did.”
“Why?”Vittoria asked, her curiosity evident.
“Because Diana didn’t want to have anything to do with him.She would have been happy spending her life as a spinster,” he explained.
Scoffing, Vittoria shook her head.“But she...she obviouslyadoreshim,” she argued, her gaze darting to where the couple in question was studying one of the statues in a niche.Even as she watched, Randy lifted a hand to place it at the back of his wife’s waist.
“Oh, she does now,” David agreed.“Because Randy proved himself able to accept a woman who is far more clever than he is.”
Furrowing a dark brow, Vittoria appeared as if she didn’t believe him.“Would you,mio don?”she asked.“Accept a woman who is more clever than you?”
David blinked.“I...I suppose it depends,” he stammered.
Vittoria angled her head, lifting her chin as if she was daring him to continue.
