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Roland had come to sit next to Eleanor, as naturally as if they’d always known each other He put his mouth near her ear and she could feel his breath tickle her neck "If so dervish"

"What’s a whirling dervish?" she said, giggling

"A monster who terrorizes the populations of India, as I understand Or perhaps it was Turkey Honestly, I hardly know, but I’ine"

"We must stop her," Eleanor said "It’s absurd to crush a pearl on such a pretext"

"Just look how she’s h," Roland said "I believe he’s quite taken with her If you take the pearls away, you’ll ruin her chance of e"

"Villiers wouldn’t," Eleanor said

"Oh yes, I expect he would She’s quite beautiful, you know And the odd thing about her is that she’s not a bad person He won’t knohat she’s really like until it’s too late She has enoruilty "And she can be so joyful"

"Pity she’d be such a horror to live with"

The duchess had apparently just realized as about to happen She put down her tea cup with a little click, rose from her chair and snatched the pearls before Lisette could react "A to crush these pearls?" she said in an awful voice

"Exactly," Lisette said, as blissfully unaware as ever "You see, Your Grace, we are wondering how hard it is to crush a pearl The Duke of Villiers thinks that Roland would sree He used to be roly-poly, but he’s not at all plurin, but his broere drawn together and his face looked black with fury Villiers, on the other hand, was laughing openly That’s the first tiht sourly I should have assumed it would be at someone else’s expense

Lisette held out her hand for the pearls, her pretty s It was a quality that Eleanor envied Because Lisette never envisioned opposition to one of her plans, she didn’t flinch until the moment was upon her

"Absolutely not," the duchess announced in a dreadful voice "I have seen your mother in these pearls a hundred times"

Lisette blinked "Mother is dead She doesn’t care what I do to them now"

"Her memory is not dead"

"They’reto treo," Roland murmured

Eleanor couldn’t bear to see it happen She jumped to her feet and hurried to Lisette’s side "We just want to make sure that your pearls remain intact," she said as persuasively as she could

But Lisette’s eyes were taking on that wild spark that Eleanor re on the duchess

"Of course I am!" she snapped back "Your mother was one of my dearest friends"

Eleanor braced herself

Villiers stepped forward and put a hand on Lisette’s arm She froze "Her Grace doesn’t understand" His voice was dark and cool and"WhenHer jewelry Her scarves"

Lisette stood still Even as Eleanor watched, Lisette shed her anger and her eyes turned grief-stricken

"I kno you feel," he finished