A Lady's Guide to Courtship

XIV. A Lady's Guide to a Carriage Ride

Dearest Lady Weis,

Men are fools! Truly, we are where matters of the heart are concerned.

You simply have to be patient. But do not be patient for long for if you start to lose yourself along the way, he is not worth the wait.

Mayhap, once you are done mending a broken heart, you will have the courage to find someone less foolish.

But again, men are utter fools!

Yours,

William

*****

"What is that?" asked Maxwell, glaring at the table.

Nicholas leaned over, eyes narrowed. "Why are you showing us this, Wakefield?"

"You very well know we mine thousands of this," Ralph said, reaching for the sapphire stone to look at it closely. "We do not buy them if you are thinking of selling it."

Wakefield rolled his eyes. He reached for the stone but before he could snatch it out of Ralph's hand, Maxwell had grabbed it and was now studying it with narrowed, expert eyes. He passed it on to Nicholas who did the same.

Benedict, the eldest of the Everards, oversaw the mines, but it was Nicholas and Maxwell who worked closely with the stones their family mined, overseeing the quality and jewellery designs before they were to be made.

An Everard jewellery was everyone's dream and these two men carried the burden of the ton's expectations. Of all the Everards, Wakefield knew that Maxwell and Nicholas were the best people to provide him with knowledge about the stone.

"I am not selling it," he said, watching as Nicholas gave the stone back to Maxwell. "I want you to tell me about it."

"It is sapphire," Maxwell replied, looking at him as if he was a boy who did not know that he was a boy.

He drew in a patient breath. "I know it is a bloody sapphire. Now, tell me what you can about it. Specific details if you can. Where could it possibly have come from?"

Maxwell's deep green eyes flicked toward him but the man did not say another word. His eyes returned to the stone. "Considering its medium dark tone, I say it is quite valuable."

Wakefield nodded. So she could be gentry for someone who could afford a mask adorned with such valuable stones. "What else?" he urged.

Maxwell shrugged and replaced the stone on the table. "It is quite common."

"Common?"

"We give it to our mistresses, wives and even relatives," Maxwell uttered in a dry, impatient voice. "I say it is very common."

Nicholas was studying him with narrowed eyes. "This belongs to that woman, does it not? Lady Weis?"

"Her name is not Lady Weis. If it is, I would have already found her," he snapped, snatching the stone from the table to put it back in the small velvet pouch. "This came from her mask."

The three Everard men cocked their brows with amusement.

"I was also wondering if you have noticed someone in the ball wearing a mask adorned with the same sapphire stone I showed you."

"It was a bloody masked ball, Wakefield," Nicholas uttered. "We barely look at the masks. We were more interested with the gowns, see? The masks covered half the faces of those in attendance. Why would we bother look at what was being hidden when those women made certain they revealed something more below their heads?"