A Death in Diamonds полностью

‘Stephen always likes to say we met in Geneva, but it was in Paris. And not at a diplomatic dinner party. That’s what gave Ginette the idea, la pauvre. Before the war, she wanted to be a milliner, like Marianne, not like me. Marianne was the talented one. She was friends with young Monsieur Dior, they wanted to work together, they both had such plans. She made hats for the Nazi wives during the Occupation and carried messages for the Resistance as she delivered them. And then . . .’

‘And then along came Jean-Pierre Minot.’

‘Yes.’ Lucie swallowed, but her gaze didn’t waver. ‘He was a star of the Gestapo by then. Marianne was taken to the Rue de la Pompe. They say he worked on her hands first. As soon as the war was over, I hurried home for news. I was hoping to find her alive, but of course I did not. I found out exactly what Jean-Pierre Minot had done – what Ginette already knew. He was famous in those days. Any woman in Paris would have killed him, but he’d vanished. After that, Ginette could never look at a hat. But she had such life, ma’am, despite it all. She wanted success. She saw my life in Westminster. She wanted to follow me and marry a rich man who wanted her. I told her that was only in fairy tales but . . .’ Lucie waved a gloved hand.

‘She had your example,’ the Queen suggested.

‘Not only mine. There are others. More than you might think.’

‘I’m learning fast.’

Lucie cracked a smile. ‘Not every duchess was a debutante. And so yes, I tried to help her whenever I could. I didn’t see her much, usually when she needed money. But she came to me that night to tell me she’d seen the man who tortured Marianne in the Rue de la Pompe. She was dressed in white, her hair had changed. She looked quite different – in her face, too. Her eyes, you know?’

The Queen listened quietly.

‘She said she knew him instantly,’ Lucie went on, ‘and she was going to watch him die. I told her not to be ridiculous. To my shame, I didn’t believe her. Not at all. We were talking in my bedroom so the servants wouldn’t hear us. I went to order a tisane from the kitchen to calm her down and talk sense into her, but when I came back, she wasn’t there.’

‘And nor was the tiara.’

Lucie gave a hollow laugh. ‘That was the first thing I saw. I was furious! Imagine! For half a minute, I cared about the diamonds she’d taken for her hair. I didn’t understand her plan. By the time I realised what she’d done, she was halfway there. I was frantic!’

The Queen gave her a freshly laundered handkerchief from her handbag.

‘Ginette was only a girl in the war,’ she suggested. ‘But you were not. You were in your mid-twenties at the time, yes?’

Lucie nodded.

‘My mother mentioned to me that you and your husband knew the Arisaig estate,’ the Queen explained. ‘That’s where SOE agents who went to France were trained in combat. I assumed your husband had been stationed there, but I now realise it was you, wasn’t it?’

Lucie nodded dumbly.

‘You spoke French as your mother tongue. Were you training to be an agent yourself? No?’

‘I helped to train them,’ Lucie said. ‘They needed women as well as men to practise combat with. I was a driver, but I did everything. I learned quickly.’

The Queen nodded to herself. ‘So you knew how to kill a man, but your sister didn’t.’

‘How did you guess Ginette was my sister?’ Lucie asked. ‘Even Stephen didn’t know for a long time. I’m certain he didn’t tell anyone.’

‘That’s why she wouldn’t see him,’ the Queen murmured, as much to herself as to Lucie. He presumably didn’t know of her relationship to his wife at the time he asked for her, but Ginette would have done. The Queen went on, ‘When I realised Minot’s killer was a woman, I doubted anyone but a mother or a sister would have done what you did, and you’re not old enough to be Ginette’s mother. You found out her plans for him, that she wanted to kill him that night. You couldn’t let that happen.’

Lucie’s eyes were wide. ‘She was mad! He was Gestapo! He was good at it! Ginette thought she was grown up, but she was still a child. It’s why I truly didn’t believe her craziness until it was too late.’

‘How did you know where to follow her?’ the Queen asked.

‘She left a note under my pillow. It gave the address, so I’d know where to find her if she didn’t contact me in the morning. For some strange reason she thought I wouldn’t look for her until then. She was dingue, dingue . . . I wasn’t supposed to see the note until I went to bed, but she’d left my pillow crooked.’ Lucie smiled again, fondly, her face blotchy under her makeup, her lipstick smudged, mascara running. ‘Ginette always, how do you say it, faisait à la va-vite.’

‘She was slapdash? I think that’s it.’

‘Yes!’ Lucie nodded. ‘Except about her appearance. So I noticed the pillow straightaway. As soon as I read the note, I realised why she had really come to see me.’

‘Oh? It wasn’t the diamonds, was it? They just happened to be there.’