The Jewels of Tessa Kent (47 page)

No one could turn down a dying woman.

W
hen Tessa woke up, after a few hours of fitful sleep, later that morning she knew, even before she opened her eyes, that the confrontation with Maggie she had been so convinced about in the middle of the night was a lousy idea.

If she presented herself as a dying woman, as a case for pity, no real relationship could be established between them, much less any honesty. It was hard enough, if an incurable disease struck one loving partner and not the other, to maintain the former balance between them. And she and Maggie were not, had never been, partners. Sisters, unequal sisters, but adults together, never. There must be another way to reach Maggie, a way that didn’t involve anything to do with her health.

Maggie’s work at S & S—that was the only path left to her, Tessa realized as she ate breakfast. She’d known Liz Sinclair socially and casually for years. They had many of the same acquaintances from the days when Luke was alive, and there wasn’t anyone important in the auction business she didn’t know.

Why? How? What reason could she give Liz Sinclair
to explain that she had to talk to Maggie Horvath, had to see Maggie Horvath?

Suddenly Tessa knew what to do. She had Liz Sinclair on the phone in minutes.

“Tessa Kent, what a lovely surprise! I couldn’t imagine how you’d managed to disappear from sight in the last year, although I did hear something about a devastating professor, hmm? How are you, Tessa? It’s been so long, Hamilton was just saying—”

“Liz, I haven’t time to be polite. Just assume we’ve had ten minutes of charming small talk. I intend to auction my jewels, everything but my green diamond and a few strings of pearls.”

“Tessa!”

“For charity, of course. That goes without saying. S and S has the auction … no Liz, don’t interrupt, there’s no need to compete with another auction house, no need to give me a guarantee, it’s yours on one single condition. I don’t want to work with Lee Maine on the publicity. She’s tremendously good, I know, but I want to work exclusively with Maggie Horvath. Why? Liz, I know that Maggie’s made it a point of pride never to trade on it, but she’s my younger sister. I was born Teresa Horvath.”

“What! Good grief, Tessa, I had no idea …”

“I know you didn’t. Maggie and I have actually been, well, I suppose one could call it, at arm’s length, for the past few years. Actually an estrangement. We haven’t spoken, can you imagine? Silly family stuff. I want to end that. Now. Quickly.”

“But, but … sell
all
your jewels! Tessa, are you sure? You could never duplicate …”

“Liz, what a tender-hearted woman you turn out to be,” Tessa said, impatiently. “Hamilton would be shocked if he heard you. Of course I’m sure. They’re only … things. Very lovely things, but they don’t have hearts.”

“Well, no, of course not, Tessa—” Liz said, still almost dumbstruck by this turn of fortune.

“I expect you to make it the biggest single-owner auction since the Duchess of Windsor’s,” Tessa continued. “My jewels are easily equal in quality to anything she had, and there are a great many more of them.
And I’m alive, Liz
. Not a dead duchess. I can publicize the sale from here to Saudi Arabia and I will. But it all depends on your delivering Maggie to work on the publicity with me. She won’t want to do it, I’m pretty sure of that. And if she refuses, I won’t sell the jewels, not anywhere. It’s either S and S or no one. And it has to be quick, within six months, no more. I know that’s short notice, less than you need for your usual preparation, but that’s the way it has to be,” Tessa said firmly. If she allowed more time, how much would she have left in which to be with Maggie, be with her as a proper mother! S & S could do it in six months if they pulled out all the stops.

“Good God Almighty, Tessa, I’m stunned. I may faint.”

“I tend to doubt that, Liz. As soon as you’ve set up a meeting with the director of your jewelry department, you and Hamilton and I can get started. But Maggie has to be there, right from the start.”

“I understand. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve talked to Maggie.”

“Thank you, Liz. Use all your powers of persuasion. It’s vitally important.”

“Never fear. I’ll make it happen or die trying.”

“We’ll both do that, Liz.”

“Maggie, Mrs. Sinclair wants you to go up and see her right away,” one of the assistants said, after she’d answered the interoffice phone.

“She say why?”

“No, just get moving.”

“Miz Liz,” Maggie said cheerfully upon entering Liz’s office. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, sit down, Maggie, and have some tea.”

“No tea, thanks. What’s going on?”

“It’s complicated, Maggie. It concerns the future of the house.”

“How’s that?”

“You know we’re not the top dogs and never will be.”

“S and S is still a mighty big business.”

“How come you didn’t take that offer from Sotheby’s?”

“You knew about that?”

“In the auction world everybody gets to know everything, sooner or later.”

“I simply decided I liked it better here than I could anywhere else. I’m happy as a lark. I truly love working with Lee and you and Hamilton—you’ve all been wonderful to me since my days as a temp, so why should I change all that, even for more money? Although, Liz, if you’ve called me up here to offer me a raise, I accept.”

“I’m offering you a chance to help me with a great opportunity, one I never dreamed we’d have.”

“An opportunity? What kind?” Maggie asked eagerly.

“Something’s come up, something that would do more for S and S than anything else that could happen, ever. We’ve been offered a historic sale, a fantastic sale of one of the finest, most famous private collections in the world, almost certainly the finest in this country.”

“Oh Liz, great news! What’s the sale?”

“It’s a single-owner sale that will get us more publicity than either you or I can imagine. It’s a sale, Maggie, that will make S and S a true worldwide household word for the first time since it was founded. There’s no question that it will put us on a par, as far as status goes, with Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Smaller, yes, but
just as good
. That would mean everything to Hamilton, and to all of us. This sale will open the door to dozens, hundreds of other great sales in the future. People will think of us who’ve never even considered
consigning their property to S and S. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this sale will change our future forever.”

“But you still haven’t told me what it is—are you trying to make me beg? And what about Lee? Why are you telling me first?”

“Because you have it in your power to make sure that this sale takes place. You also have it in your power to prevent the sale, to keep it from ever happening.”

“Oh, Liz! For heaven’s sake! How could that ever be?”

“Maggie, the sale … it’s … the jewels of Tessa Kent.”

“You … you …” Maggie stopped and looked away, shaking her head in total negation.

“Maggie, I know she’s your sister. She called this morning and told me. I know the two of you have problems, but Maggie, dear Maggie, you see the only reason she’s willing to auction her jewels is to get a chance to be reconciled with you. She wants you, not Lee, to handle the press. How terrible can that be, Maggie? It’s a job you’re thoroughly capable of doing. Tessa said she’d never sell her jewels unless you were in charge of the publicity.”

“
No, Liz, no, she can’t get at me through you.
”

“Maggie, the older I get the more I realize that happiness depends on people, not things. You can’t get through life without family and a few good friends. Much as I adore my husband, my life has been deeply enriched by my daughters and Hamilton and Minnie more than I can tell you.”

“No, Liz.”

“Whatever the problem is with you and Tessa, believe me, as the two of you get older, you’ll
need
each other. The ancient hurts and hostilities will come to seem unimportant, even absurd. In time you’ll forget the details. But the two of you—sisters—will have something priceless together in the years to come, someone to talk to who remembers the same family
things you do, who came from the same parents and grandparents, who understands you from the earliest days, who speaks your language the way no friend ever can …”

“Liz, I do realize what family sentiment means,” Maggie said, forcing herself to sound patient and reasonable. “But what went wrong between us isn’t something any auction can change.”

“You don’t know, you can’t be sure of that! Tessa’s willing to help with the publicity on this in every way, travel with the jewels to previews and exhibitions, pose for any pictures, do any television—Tessa Kent, one of the rare, truly great stars, Tessa Kent who so rarely gives an interview, the very famously private Tessa Kent. Oh, Maggie, just think what that would mean to us! Her only stipulation is that the auction has to take place no later than six months from now. Of course we really need a year to do it right, but what could I say? She intends to give the proceeds to charity, maybe that has something to do with it. I didn’t find out what the rush was, I was too excited, but it will mean a mountain of immediate work, a triple-time rush, I’ll get you all the extra help you need—”

“She said six months? Exactly that and no more?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can’t expect me to give you an answer in six minutes,” Maggie said, red-faced with suppressed words, as she took her leave.

“Polly, I have to talk to you,” Maggie yelled through the door. She’d left the office right after she’d talked to Liz and hurried home to take counsel with Polly. This wasn’t something Barney and she could discuss. He didn’t know anything about Tessa and her.

“Keep your hair on. I’m coming.” Polly unlatched her door and watched calmly as Maggie dashed in like a furious ball of dark tumbleweed, turning around and around for a place to light.

“Oh, do sit down, for mercy’s sake. What’s the matter? Had a fight with your very own Barney? Already?”

“Of course not. It’s Tessa, can you believe it, after all these years?”

“Did she try to get in touch with you again?”

“ ‘In touch’? Oh yes, you could say that. She’s blackmailing me the strongest way she knows how. She’s offered S and S an auction of her jewels—but only on condition that I run the press on it, meaning we’d be in constant daily contact for six months. Liz has just been at me, singing siren songs, playing hearts and flowers, telling me that the future of the house depends on me, and me alone. Pure blackmail. That, Miss Polly, is why I’m in a state.”

“Mercy.”

“How well expressed, how finely spoken. Mercy, indeed. Tessa’s probably got the greatest collection in the world except for a few Saudi ladies who can’t wear them in public, the several wives of the Sultan of Brunei, and Queen Elizabeth.”

“She must really be desperate to make up with you, Maggie,” Polly said, in her most serious, thoughtful voice.

“Guilt, pure guilt. Although why it struck her now I can’t imagine.”

“I can’t either. But something’s better than nothing. At least she feels bad enough to sacrifice her jewels.”

“And I’m supposed to make her feel better about all those years of rejection by helping her make a terrific success of the auction? Hah—at least it’s for charity.”

“Something tells me that she wants to feel better by getting closer to you. I’m sure she can’t be eager to part with her jewels. She could just give the money to charity if that were all it was, she has enough. People don’t usually sell their jewels unless they need money or they’re dead, do they?”

“They’re absurdly important to her, she’s fixated on them, that’s something I’m sure of. We used to play with
them, dress up in them … talk about them endlessly …”

“Why are you still so opposed to trying for some sort of, oh, I don’t know, I hate to say ‘relationship’ but I can’t think of another word to replace it.”

“Oh, not now Polly, not when I’m so happy,” Maggie cried fervently. “I’ve put her out of my mind, forgotten about her. Why reopen old wounds?”

“Is that fair?”

“I don’t give a flying fuck if it’s fair or not. That woman has no right to expect
me
to be
fair
. How can you even ask me that sickeningly sanctimonious question, Miss Priss? ‘Fair’ my ass!”

“So you still want to punish her? The way you do when you regularly send her letters back without reading them? Nothing’s changed in five years. You haven’t let it. Talk about carrying a grudge, you’re the champ.”

“You do say what’s on your mind, don’t you?”

“That’s what it is, isn’t it? Pure punishment?”

“Right. And it’s the least I can do.”

“First you turn down money, then you send back letters, now you won’t work on a big exciting auction—wouldn’t that be good for your career?”

“Damn right it would. Of course what motivates Liz is the world-beating, slam-bang auction that’s going to make such a difference for S and S.”

“Will it?”

“Of course it will. It’ll dwarf anything else this year.”

“And you said no?”