Royal Holiday - Jasmine Guillory Page 0,61
the top. She started to ask George who it was, but she could tell from the excitement on his face that they were almost there.
“This is a real treat you have ahead of you,” George said. “All by yourselves in here, when it’s usually a mob scene. Just remember, the alarms are all on!”
He chuckled at his joke, and Vivian did, too, even though she had no idea what he was talking about. Just before she followed George through the door, Malcolm leaned down and whispered into her ear.
“I’ll be behind you, so you don’t have to monitor the look on your face on my account, I promise.”
She smiled and stepped inside. She was confused at first. The room was dark, much darker than the rest of the museum. There was no sculpture and no tapestries, just . . .
Oh. My. God.
Jewels.
Everywhere she looked, there were jewels.
She turned in a circle. The room was dark, but there were lights on all of the display cases, and the sparkle was almost blinding. White and red and blue and pink and green and gold, all gleaming out at her.
She looked at Malcolm. He was staring at her and biting his lip.
“You said you hoped to see a tiara in real life.”
He’d planned this whole trip, just because she’d said that.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she said. “You’re making me feel like royalty.”
A huge smile spread across his face.
“That was the goal,” he said. He took her hand. “Come on, George is dying to show you this one.”
They walked over to meet George at a small display case halfway into the room.
“There are maybe only five people in the entire United Kingdom I’d do this for,” he said, “and Malcolm is one of them.”
He carefully put white gloves on and ducked behind the case. Vivian heard a whole series of locks turn. When he came back, the tiara was in his hands.
“This is Queen Victoria’s sapphire and diamond coronet,” George said. “Her husband Albert designed it for her in 1840. It’s been sold a number of times, and almost left England a few years ago, but we managed to get our hands on it, and my goodness were we thrilled about that. We haven’t had it in our collection very long, and I’m so happy whenever I look at it. Isn’t it a beauty?”
It was a tiny tiara—it almost looked like it had been made for a child—but the jewels in it were huge. The diamonds and sapphires all hit the light and sparkled and shimmered at her.
Vivian tore her eyes away from the tiara and looked at him.
“It’s stunning. Tiny but incredible.”
He beamed at her.
“I’m sorry that I can’t allow you to touch it, but . . .”
Vivian shook her head and clasped her hands behind her back.
“Oh my goodness, you have nothing to apologize for. Just letting me look at it like this . . . wow. Thank you so much, George!”
Though . . . she did wish she could try it on.
George smiled at her again, before he put the tiara back in the case and locked it once more. Vivian read the caption about the tiara out loud.
“ ‘It remains an enduring symbol of their love.’ Wow, it has a beautiful story, too.”
George beamed at her.
“Doesn’t it? That’s one of the many things I love about it.” He looked around and sighed. “Unfortunately, I’ve got some work to do, so I can’t take anything else out of the case, but I’ll leave you two here to peruse the rest of the jewelry exhibit. I’ll be back in about an hour. I wish I could stay to tell you about everything!” He nodded over to the corner. “Don’t mind Lewis over there; he’s used to all the oohs and aahs in this room.”
Vivian glanced into the corner; she hadn’t even noticed the security guard, but of course he’d be there.
George waved at them and disappeared, and she turned to Malcolm.
“I can’t believe that happened,” she said.
He grinned at her.
“Me neither. Getting in after hours was relatively easy, but when I asked him if there was any way he’d be able to take it out of the case, he hemmed and hawed a lot. I had no idea if he was going to do it until I saw him put the gloves on.”
She leaned up and kissed him, security guard be damned.
“I’m so giddy about that, I feel like a little girl going through her princess phase, but I don’t