A Bright Particular Star by Elizabeth Hanbury Page B

I’m not! I didn ’t tell you about the Star because I thoug ht it better you did not know . ”
    He raised his brows . “ Better for whom? ”
    “ You, of course! ”
    “ Well, I want to know . E verything, if you please. ”
    Sighing, she made a hopeless little gesture . “T here ’s not much to tell. The Devereux Star is my inheritance, but sometimes it feels more of a burden than a blessing. How does one put a value on an h eirloom passed from generation to ge nerat ion, yet seems to bring little but unhappiness? ”
    “ Yes, but what is it? ” asked Theo, still be mused .
    “ A sapphire. ”
    “ An extremely valuable sapphire, ” corrected Olivia.
    “T he Star has been in our family since the seventeenth century, ” explained Sophie. “ It was found and brought back to England by an expl orer ancestor of mine . It ’s a gem with a distinctive feature. In certain light and aspects, a six-rayed white star appears in the stone. Such gemstones are rare , so rare they are usually given a name. That is how t his sapphire came to be called t he Devereux Star , after my intrepid G reat great u ncle Jeremiah Devereux and the unusual flaw bringing the white star within it to life. ”
    “ And you have this gem with you? ” exclaimed Theo .
    She nodded.
    “ Where is it now? ”
    “ If I tell you, you ’ ll only be dragged i nto my stupid affairs more and— ”
    “S ophie— ” he began, in a half-ex asperated, half-threatening voice .
    “ Oh, very well ! ”
    Sophie reached up to her hair and took out the cornflower-tipped pin, dislodging several curls in the process , which bounced down around her shoulders .
    Twisting the long pin between her finger s, she said , “S hortly before his death, Papa thought it advisable to disguise the Star. He knew I would be alone in the world and considered it would be safe r somewhere less obvious than its usual setting of the Devereux necklace. He said p eople rarely saw what was under their nose s , so he arranged for a paste copy to be inserted in the necklace and had the real gem re-set. Only my father and I knew of its new location. ” She held out the pin to Theo. “T he real Devereux Star is here. ”
    He took the pin and studied it. At first, he could see nothing unusual. The top resembled a bunch of cornflowers, fashioned from paste and glass beads. The blooms varied in size and were arranged in a haphazard fashion. Each glass-beaded flower was mounted on a painted wire stem, which were bound together at the base and attached to the long metal pin.
    It was an unattractive piece, being too large and too obviously imitation to be worthy of a second glance bu t, when Theo peered at the largest cornflower , he uttered an awed exclamation. At its centre was a smoo th oval stone of brilliant dark blue . As he tilted it from side to side, a six pointed white star appeared as it caught the light. The star seemed to glide back and fo rth over the gem ’s lustrous surface . Theo had never seen its like before. The sapphire was incredibly beautif ul ; it was also cleverly hidden in a tawdry-looking piece of paste jewelry.
    Theo raised his eyes to Sophie ’s . “ It ’s ma gnificent, ” he murmured. “ Your father chose well . N o one would suspect that piece of flummery conceals a fabulous jewel. ”
    Sophie, taking the pin back, felt a thrill of pleasure as their fingers brushed . It was a fleeting moment of sensation, but s he blinked at the intensity of it before pushin g the pin back into her hair, confessing , “S tupid of me to let slip I had it with me , but I was furious with Au nt Eudora and Perry. They have always coveted it. “
    “ But they must have spoken to you since your father ’s death about the Star ’s whereabouts? ”
    “ Oh yes, but they assumed it was with the rest of my mother ’s jewelry in a safe box at the L ondon offices of Papa ’s lawyer, ready to pass into my keeping on my twenty-first birthday . I did not disabuse them, but I