Something From Tiffany’s (37 page)

‘Well, because of our size, we can carry only a select range in this store, but all jewellery is available to order. Maybe you’ll recognise it from our catalogue?’ The woman reached under the counter and brought out a copy of Tiffany’s famed
Blue Book
. Rachel felt an automatic shiver of delight at the instantly recognisable robin’s-egg blue on the elegant catalogue cover. ‘Was it three-stone or solitaire? Or perhaps a diamond band?’

‘Solitaire,’ Rachel told her, and her breath caught a little at the beautiful photographic array of diamond rings of every shape, setting and design in the catalogue. The photographs were so vivid and the diamonds looked so real she almost expected them to sparkle on the page in the same way they did in real life.

The woman turned to the solitaire section and Rachel almost immediately recognised her own platinum marquise design. ‘That’s the one,’ she said, pointing to the picture.

‘Classic marquise,’ the assistant clarified with a nod. ‘Yes, that’s a very popular one. It’s gorgeous.’

Looking at the photograph Rachel felt sick to her stomach yet again, to think she had lost such a stunningly beautiful item. But perhaps with luck (and a thus far unknown amount of cash) she just might be able to recover the situation.

‘And you definitely don’t have this one in stock at the moment?’ she asked.

The assistant looked rueful. ‘I’m afraid not. We’d be happy to order it for you, and can have it instore and ready for collection by the end of the week. Although we do require a deposit for special orders. Two thousand for this one.’

‘Two thousand?’ All of a sudden, Rachel’s heart lifted and her face broke into a huge smile.

It wasn’t as though she had that amount of money lying around in loose change anywhere, but the ring was nowhere
near
as expensive as she’d imagined. Yes, replacing it would mean sacrificing the majority of her share of the income from Stromboli for the next few months, but it would be worth it. She shook her head. Trust Gary to surprise her
again
by managing to choose an amazingly beautiful diamond ring that looked like it cost an absolute fortune, but in reality was actually rather reasonable.

‘For the deposit, yes,’ the assistant continued, taking out an order book. ‘I can take it today, if you’d like. Or maybe you’d prefer to wait for your fiancé and let him be the one to injure the credit card,’ she joked easily.

Now, Rachel felt nauseous. ‘Two thousand? For the deposit?’ she repeated in a whisper, all thoughts of replacing the ring suddenly going right out of the window. Her face went pale.

‘Yes, ten per cent of the overall price is standard for booking deposits.’

Rachel’s head grew light and she began to see stars in front of her eyes. It didn’t take a genius to work out that if two thousand was ten per cent of the overall price, then Gary had spent twenty thousand –
twenty thousand
– on the ring.

And she had lost it.

Oh Christ . . . oh Christ . . . oh Christ. Her head spinning, Rachel held on to the edge of the glass display case. She was so dizzy she was sure her legs would give way beneath her.

‘Are you OK?’ the woman asked, seemingly unaware that she’d as good as felled her latest customer.

‘I’m fine,’ Rachel managed. She tried to compose herself as best she could. ‘And . . . actually, I think you’re right; it’s probably best to wait for my fiancé to do the honours.’

The woman chuckled. ‘Wise decision. Pop in any time you like, both of you. We’d be delighted to look after you, and of course we provide a glass of bubby to all our happy couples to really get the celebrations going. Would be a shame to miss out on that!’ she added with a wink.

‘Yes. A shame.’ Desperate to get out of there before she did something stupid, like collapse in a heap on the ground, Rachel bade the Tiffany’s sales assistant a quick goodbye. She stumbled her way through the store and back out onto Grafton Street as fast as her woozy legs would carry her.

Twenty thousand! The ring had cost twenty thousand euro, and she’d gone and lost it. What was she going to do? And why had Gary spent so much? She felt inexplicably angry at him.

As it was she’d have
died
if she’d known she was walking around with something that valuable on her. And to think that she’d been wearing that ring while blithely kneading dough and getting it covered in flour and eggs and all sorts.

It was
far
too much to spend on her. It was far too much to spend on anyone or indeed anything that didn’t at the very least have four wheels or a roof on it!

There was no
way
she could tell him she’d lost it now, Rachel knew that for certain. Especially when she knew that times were tough in the building trade and she’d suspected for a while that Gary was just about keeping the business afloat. He was much too proud to admit it, of course; but Rachel wasn’t stupid, and reading between the lines she’d figured things were bad when he was so anxious to return from New York quickly in order to get back to work. She sighed, everything suddenly becoming a hell of a lot clearer. No wonder he’d been so reluctant to participate in her enthusiasm for the wedding preparations; no doubt all he could think about was how much more he’d need to shell out for that too!

But what had possessed him to spend so much on the ring? He knew she wasn’t one of those high-maintenance types who expected the best of everything. And really this was a very long way from the chocolate red rose he’d given her on Valentine’s Day.

And to think that he’d never said a word, never even let on that he’d spent so much. That was unusual, actually. Much as she loved him, she knew Gary did have a tendency to brag about things like that.

She looked blankly around her at all the people rushing past on the street, trying to figure out what to do. Maybe she could try to replace the ring with some kind of cheaper version so that Gary wouldn’t notice the difference? But it was Tiffany’s, so of course he’d notice.

Rachel’s head spun, not knowing what she should do now. Was there a chance she’d got it wrong back there and picked out a ring she only
thought
looked like hers? But in all honesty there was no mistaking it; Rachel knew deep down that the solitaire she’d just learned had a twenty-thousand price tag was exactly the one she’d been wearing on her finger up to a fortnight ago. It was just so hard to believe or even imagine Gary spending so much money on a single item.

‘I had no idea you could even spend that much on a single transaction with a credit card,’ she said afterwards to Terri and Justin, who both seemed just as shocked as she was upon hearing how much her engagement ring had cost. At least, that’s how she assumed Gary had paid for it; he couldn’t realistically have taken that much in cash with him on their trip.

‘Are you sure?’ Terri asked, looking decidedly shell-shocked, and Rachel was somewhat gratified to think that at least
now
Terri’d understand why she was so frantic about losing it. ‘Christ, that’s a hell of a lot to spend on a rock.’

‘I know. What should I do? There’s no way I can afford to replace it myself now and Gary will hit the roof when I tell him I’ve lost it. He might even call off the wedding.’ She bit her lip in an effort to quell impending tears.

Terri put a comforting hand on her arm. ‘Ah, no. I’m sure he wouldn’t do that.’

‘What about insurance?’ Justin suggested, looking thoughtful.

‘No good. I didn’t have a chance to get it insured before I lost it,’ Rachel replied mournfully.

‘Well, what about Gary’s credit-card insurance? I know my Visa card has some kind of purchase protection included; maybe his does too.’

‘Yes, that sounds . . . interesting,’ Terri said quietly.

‘It is,’ Rachel said, heartened. ‘How would I find out about that, Justin?’

‘You’ll need to get your hands on Gary’s statement,’ he told her. ‘There’s a monthly fee charged on the card, so if that’s listed on the statement and he bought the ring with the same card, there’s a good chance it’s covered.’ He draped an arm around her shoulder. ‘So maybe you’re worrying for nothing, sweetheart.’

Rachel wanted to hug him. Justin was right; if the ring was automatically covered by Gary’s credit-card insurance then chances were he wouldn’t get too upset about her losing it, since it could be replaced.

‘Yes, I’m sure you’re worrying for nothing,’ Terri repeated, and Rachel immediately began to feel better.

‘Of course now you’ll have to find some way of getting the statement without alerting Gary,’ Justin pointed out. ‘And I don’t know about you but Bernard would leave me for sure if he knew how much I rack up on mine! Or on second thoughts,’ he grinned, ‘maybe he’d be proud, who knows?’

‘Well, we’ll need to share stuff like that soon enough,’ Rachel replied, wondering how she might go about purloining Gary’s credit-card statement without him knowing what she was up to.

And notwithstanding the insurance, there was a second advantage to checking it too. On the off chance that she’d been mistaken about the ring in question today at the store, she could check the Tiffany’s transaction on the statement; that way she’d know for certain if her future husband had indeed spent the best part of a year’s salary on it.

Yes, a peek at Gary’s credit-card bill should draw a line under all of this, one way or another.

Now all Rachel had to do was figure out the best way to get hold of it.

Chapter 35

Vanessa was still walking on air. There was so much to do, so much to plan and she was already itching to get started on those plans.

Not to mention so much to celebrate, which she, Ethan and Daisy would be doing in spades soon. Her mum and dad were over the moon about the engagement and she was really looking forward to going home at the first opportunity and showing off her gorgeous Tiffany diamond.

She glanced down at her newly resized ring, still finding it hard to believe that Ethan had actually proposed. She was delighted she’d got to the bottom of Ethan and Daisy’s little secret and also relieved that there was a reasonable explanation as to why he’d been acting so strangely in New York.

After the New York trip, she’d truly believed that something wasn’t right, that perhaps Ethan had gone off into one of his dreary fugs about Jane. In truth, and despite her best attempts to hide it, Vanessa couldn’t help but always feel threatened by Jane’s memory, and for this reason she had never been entirely sure of Ethan’s feelings for her, or if there was a serious future for them. Vanessa knew that she’d never replace the love of his life, but now that she was sure he was committed to her, she would try her utmost to be a good stepmother to Daisy and a good wife to him.

At least the future didn’t include the prospect of other children, and Vanessa felt comforted that this had been headed off at the pass from the outset, as the truth was that she had no real desire to procreate, and no interest in all the hassles and inconveniences that went hand in hand with babies. A ready-made family would do just fine.

Yes, Vanessa was confident that Ethan was absolutely the right man for her, the perfect person with whom to share the rest of her life, and she was pleased he’d finally come to realise that too.

And to think that he’d gone to such great lengths, first in New York and then in Dublin, just for a specific ring!

It was a beautiful ring, of that there was no doubt, but at the same time she couldn’t quite understand why it had to be that and no other. But of course Ethan was like that: very exacting and, despite his mildness, hugely determined when he set his mind to something.

There was also another reason Vanessa was looking forward to their visit to Dublin. Ethan’s comment about researching old Irish estates hadn’t been lost on her, and if she was getting married at home, she was going to do it in style. Especially given that all her publishing friends and colleagues would be attending, and maybe some from New York too.

So now that Ethan had popped the question, she was determined to get the wedding plans moving. There was little point in waiting around and she hated those silly types who got engaged for the sake of it, and didn’t take the trouble to actually set a wedding date. Because getting married was ultimately what being engaged was all about, wasn’t it?

She’d have to check with Ethan, but she was already thinking of August. It was traditionally a rather quiet time in publishing, and of course he’d be on holidays from the university and Daisy from school.

The visit to Dublin later in the month would be the perfect opportunity to scout out locations for the reception as well as suitable florists, caterers and all that. But nothing wrong with getting started in the meantime.

Picking up the telephone, Vanessa smoothed out a piece of paper she’d brought to the office that morning, and dialled the number.

A friendly male voice replied. ‘Stromboli Bistro. Justin speaking. How can I help you?’

‘Oh hello. I understand you have a catering service?’

‘That’s correct, yes.’

‘As well as a sideline in quirky wedding proposals, apparently,’ she added, laughing lightly.