Property of a Noblewoman

by Danielle Steel

  She told them about Marguerite’s safe deposit box then, and the jewelry, Phillip doing the appraisal, by sheer coincidence, and Fiona’s admission to her of what had really happened so long ago. “I would never have known about your uncle, my father, if I hadn’t gone to see her, and she hadn’t told me. She was surprised I never figured it out, but my grandparents hid it well. Even my birth certificate was falsified and showed them as my parents. They went to great lengths to conceal the truth from me. I wonder if they had any contact with your grandparents after I was born, or if they never spoke again. Apparently none of them wanted my parents to get married, and they were certainly very young. And it would have been a terrible scandal among the people they knew in those days.”

  “I never heard a word of it,” Tom admitted over coffee and dessert. “My father even denied it when I asked him about you. It must have really shocked him to have it surface after so many years. Nobody ever mentioned Tommy having a child.”

  “You’d think someone would have been curious about me, but I guess it was just too upsetting to face it, so no one did. I would have liked to meet your grandparents.” But meeting Walter would be enough. She hoped he would be well enough to see her during her brief stay. Tom had said during dinner that he was having a rough spell – he didn’t tell her that his father was refusing to see her and behaving like an angry child. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings after the effort she’d made to come out and meet them. He was glad she had. They shared many common interests, and were as openminded as she was, despite their conservative appearance. They were bright and fun and interested in the world, in sharp contrast to Winnie, whom she’d grown up with and was so shut down, and negative about so many things. Angie and Tom really seemed to enjoy life, just as Valerie did.

  She stayed at their house later than she’d planned, and got back to the hotel after midnight, after promising to come back and see them again the next day. Angie had offered to take her to the local antique shops the next morning, and Tom wanted to show her his architectural office, which he was very proud of, and they took her out to lunch afterward. He obviously had a very successful practice and had built many of the houses in Montecito that they drove by. And during lunch, Tom asked her what was going to happen to her mother’s jewels. She had told them about the Christie’s auction in May, and explained that she was currently waiting for results of the DNA test, which would confirm her as Marguerite’s heir.

  “It’s more of a formality.”

  “I’d love to see the jewelry,” Angie commented, and Valerie promised to send her the catalog of the sale.

  They had organized a dinner with their children that evening, and even their son from Los Angeles came. They had gone all out, and Valerie was touched by the warm reception she got from everyone. It was remarkable considering that she was the long-lost illegitimate cousin and niece that no one had even known about. And now they all acted as though they had been waiting for a lifetime to meet her. Except for her uncle Walter, who was continuing to refuse to leave his room. All his grandchildren asked where he was when they arrived.

  “Grampa’s not feeling well. He’s resting in his room,” Tom said simply. Two of them went to see him, and Tom’s oldest son came out and commented to his father.

  “Wow, Gramp is in one hell of a foul mood. What happened?” He had never seen him that way before.

  “It’s a long story.” He didn’t want to explain now, in case Valerie overheard him and was hurt by her uncle’s refusal to meet her. He had lost hope of his father becoming reasonable by then.

  Valerie thought Angie and Tom’s children were wonderful. The conversation was lively and fun at dinner, and she was sorry Phillip hadn’t come. But she hoped to come back again, and promised to bring him next time. She wanted them to meet him too.

  They were talking and laughing after dinner, as Tom served champagne to everyone, and he was just toasting his new-found cousin when they were suddenly aware of another presence, and all heads turned to see Walter wheel himself into the room with a stern expression.

  “What’s all the noise out here? You people could wake the dead.” He was a dignified-looking, very old man, and he wore a proper suit, with a white shirt and tie, and had put on his shoes, and Tom knew it had cost enormous effort to do so by himself, and he was proud of him, as he handed him a glass of champagne.

  “You look terrific, Dad,” he said gently, as Valerie smiled at him from across the room, and then walked toward him respectfully, and extended her hand. His disapproval of her was plain on his face, but it didn’t deter her. She had been waiting to meet him.

  “It’s a great honor to meet you, sir,” she said softly, and he hesitated for a long moment. Then he shook her hand as his eyes bored into hers. He wanted to dislike her as much as he had hoped to, but he found he couldn’t, and tears filled his eyes as he looked at her, and then he finally spoke.

  “You look so much like your dad, even at your age.” And then he smiled. She took out the photograph of Phillip to show him then, and he stared at it hungrily. “I guess that’s how Tommy would have looked at his age.” She sat down next to him, and they talked for a long time, as he slowly mellowed in the face of her gentleness and grace. “Your mother was a very pretty girl,” he admitted. “And I know she loved him. He loved her too. I always worried about what would happen between them, it was a flame that was just too bright, and I was afraid they’d get burned. I was at Princeton when it all happened, and when I came home, all hell had broken loose, and she was already gone. And then Pearl Harbor, and we were both drafted. I shipped out before he did. He was desperate about you. He didn’t want Marguerite to give you up. He wanted to marry her when he came back, but he never did. And I never knew what happened to you after that. They told my parents that you’d been given up, and that was the end of it. My mother didn’t believe them and thought there was something suspicious about it, but I think they didn’t want to know. I think because Tommy died, they wanted to find you after you were born, but it was all too difficult then, it was easier to just let it go. We never spoke of it again. And then we heard that your mother died, and the whole story died with her. It was a chapter that was closed.” He stared at her in amazement. “And now here you are.” He looked at her sternly for a long moment. “You took a long time to show up.”

  “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know any of it either. They never told me anything. I just found out a few weeks ago. Too late to meet my mother, sadly. She died last year, before I knew. We never saw each other again after she left, I was only a few months old.”

  “She was a beautiful girl,” he said again. Valerie didn’t tell him that she had married Umberto. He didn’t need to know. And it was a lot for him to absorb. It brought up all his sadness at losing his brother, although he seemed very interested in her son, and wanted to know more about him. And she told him she was an artist, and he had Valerie wheel him into his room so he could show her some of her father’s paintings, and they were very good.

  Walter was tired then, and said he was going to rest for a while. The young people were making too much noise, and it had been a big evening for him.

  “Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked her, with anxious eyes.

  “If you’d like to. I’m not going back to New York till tomorrow night. And I’ll be back again.”

  “Bring your son next time. I want to meet him. He looks like a fine boy.”

  “He is. I think you’d like him.” He nodded, as he gazed at her.

  “I’m sorry they made such a botch of it for you,” he said gruffly. “You’re a good woman. She probably was too. It sounds like she had a hard life if she never saw you again, and they said she was dead. I hope she was all right in the end.”

  “I hope so too,” Valerie said softly, and he nodded and patted her hand. And before she left his room, she leaned down and gently kissed his cheek, and she saw that there were tears in his eyes, but he was smiling when she left.

  She w
ent back to the others, and they talked for a while. Angie and Tom’s youngest daughter played the piano, and they all sang. And it was late again when she left.

  Valerie invited them all to brunch at the Biltmore the next day, and afterward she went to visit with Walter. He showed her all of Tommy’s drawings and paintings, and photographs of them as children and young boys. He told her stories about her father that made her laugh, and by the end of the day she felt as though she had met her father as well as her uncle and cousins. He gave her a photograph of Tommy to take with her. And when she kissed Walter goodbye, she promised to come back soon. She wanted to see him again and didn’t want to wait too long at his age.

  “He loved meeting you,” her cousin Tom told her before she left. He didn’t tell her how resistant Walter had been before she had arrived, and how she had totally captivated him. He was her biggest fan by the end of her stay. He had come alive again talking to her. “I’m sorry you didn’t know him when he was younger. He was a terrific guy.”

  “He still is,” she assured him, and they all hugged each other and promised to stay in touch. She thanked them for everything, and as she drove back to the airport in L.A., she was so happy she’d come to meet them. It had been one of the most important weekends of her life. She had a real family now, one where she was welcome and belonged. She could hardly wait to see them all again.

  Chapter 19

  THE RESULTS OF the DNA test came at the end of April, and were no surprise. Marguerite Wallace Pearson di San Pignelli was Valerie’s mother. Valerie hadn’t doubted it, but hearing it was like an affirmation of who she was, and gave her back the identity that had been stolen from her at birth.

  She called Winnie after they told her, just to let her know, and Winnie sounded shaken and tearful.

  “I know it’s stupid,” she said, sniffing, “but I feel like I just lost the only sister I had.”

  “I can be as big a pain in the ass as your niece, as I was as your sister. And I don’t care what you call me. Nothing’s changed.” But a lot had changed, and they both knew it. Valerie had gained an important piece of her history, a part she had never even known was lost. In spite of her mother’s coldness to her, she had been a happy person and had made peace with not being loved as a child and had overcome it, in great part thanks to Lawrence. But the lack of love she’d endured as a child was unnatural, and now she knew she had been deeply loved by her real mother. It completed her, and added a part of her that she hadn’t known was missing. It filled her with a profound and satisfying sense of peace. It was like coming home after a long journey. She wasn’t an outcast anymore, or a misfit. She had had a real mother and father, and knew who they were, even if they were no longer alive. For some strange reason, it gave her more confidence in herself. And it made Winnie feel more vulnerable somehow, and more alone. She was the only one left of her generation, even if she and Valerie were only four years apart. And all their parents’ lies had been exposed, in spite of Winnie’s futile attempts to protect them.

  Penny called Valerie after the results came in, and said that there would be a hearing in surrogate’s court, to confirm that Marguerite was her mother, and Valerie was her heir. She said that she would have to pay inheritance taxes on the value of the jewelry, and had nine months to pay it. She was going to use the proceeds from the Christie’s auction to pay the taxes, and keep the rest. Penny asked her if she still wanted to sell the jewelry now that she knew for certain that Marguerite was her mother, and Valerie discussed it with Phillip. She said that she couldn’t imagine wearing any of it, although it was spectacularly beautiful, but it was all much too showy for her. She preferred to sell it and invest the money wisely, and let someone else enjoy the jewelry, which wasn’t suited to her life. All she wanted to keep was the box with her mother’s crest ring, the locket with her baby picture in it, and the wedding ring from Umberto. She wanted to sell the rest.

  Penny had her mother sign a release that she wished to make no claim on the estate, and that would be filed with the surrogate’s court as well. And Phillip notified Christie’s that the Pignelli jewels were no longer being sold to benefit the state, but a rightful heir had been located, and the sale would proceed as planned. They were going to add an insert to the catalog, notifying buyers of the change. It made no difference to them, but it was a technicality they had to observe.

  The hearing in surrogate’s court was set for two weeks before the auction. Penny would be there, and Phillip with Valerie. Harriet would be the clerk for the case, and Jane had promised to come, although she would be leaving her position as clerk at the court two weeks before the hearing to finish her classes at Columbia. And she was already busily preparing for graduation. Her parents were flying to New York for it, and she wanted Phillip to meet them.

  And after the results of the DNA test came in, Phillip invited Jane to dinner to meet his mother. They had been dating for six weeks by then, and were seeing a lot of each other, almost every night. It wasn’t by any particular plan or agreement, it just seemed to work out that way, and they went sailing every weekend. And Sweet Sallie was not a wedge between them, but a bond, and something they enjoyed doing together.

  Phillip invited both women to dinner at La Grenouille. He wanted it to be special and festive, and to make it a celebratory evening when his mother met Jane. He didn’t admit it to either woman, but he was nervous about it. What if they hated each other, or considered each other rivals for his attention? Anything was possible, and he thought women were unpredictable that way, and just when you wanted them to like each other, they didn’t. Even Valerie, who was normally sensible. She had always preferred the women he liked least, and disliked the ones he was crazy about, although there hadn’t been many of those, and Valerie usually had valid reasons for her opinions, and proved to be right in the end. So the evening was important to him.

  He picked Valerie up at her home, and Jane met them at the restaurant, feeling slightly daunted by the elegant surroundings, and the fact that she was meeting his mother, which scared her. She wasn’t sure what to expect from his description, and she knew how close they were, and how much he respected what she thought.

  Jane felt shy at first, but Valerie made an effort to put her at ease, and by the end of the first course, the two women were getting along famously, and Valerie told them about her visit to the Babcocks in Santa Barbara, and how much fun it had been. And they talked about Jane’s plans after graduation, and when she passed the bar exam. The evening sped by, and afterward they dropped Valerie off at home. Phillip walked her into the building, and she gave him an emphatic thumbs-up. By the time they got back to Jane’s apartment, Phillip was exhausted, and realized that he had been tense all night, wanting it to go well.

  “I love her!” Jane said enthusiastically, as Phillip collapsed on her IKEA couch. He had enjoyed the dinner, but there had been a knot in his stomach all night, hoping for the best, and fearing the worst. “She’s like talking to someone our age, only better,” Jane said, and he laughed. It was an apt description of his mother.

  “She’s very lively and youthful. I forget how old she is sometimes.” And she certainly didn’t look anything close to her age.

  “If I’d met her without you, I’d still want to be friends with her,” Jane explained. “She’s such a real person.”

  “I feel that way too,” he confessed. “I’d like her even if she weren’t my mother.” It was a high compliment from a man his age.

  “She doesn’t seem possessive. I thought she’d hate me.”

  “She loved you,” he reassured her. It had been a perfect evening for all three of them, and a superb dinner. And the sommelier had chosen excellent wines for them. “At least that’s behind us. You’ve met her. Now that’s done,” he said, looking relieved, and Jane laughed at him.

  “You look like you went over Niagara Falls in a barrel tonight.”

  “I think I did. I never know how women are going to react to each other, especially my mother
.” But she had been easy and fun, and great company, and she and Jane had enjoyed several good laughs at his expense, particularly about his passion for his boat.

  They talked for a while longer, and then went to bed. He’d been staying at her apartment a lot lately. She had mentioned it to Alex, who had been impressed, and had referred to him as “a keeper.” Jane was beginning to think so too, although it was early days yet. They were still in the honeymoon phase, but it was showing no sign of abating. Things just kept getting better and better.

  He wrapped his arms around her when they went to bed, and he’d been so stressed all night that instead of making love to her, as he usually did, he mumbled a few words, hugged her closer, and fell asleep, as Jane lay smiling next to him. Even without making love, it had been a very good night. And if she had passed muster with his mother, as he said, it had been a great one.

  The day of the confirmation hearing of Valerie as Marguerite’s daughter and sole heir, it was pouring rain. She and Phillip arrived in a cab. Penny got there a few minutes later looking drenched, and Jane shortly after. Winnie came, as a gesture of respect for her newly discovered niece, although she had no part in the proceedings. And Harriet Fine was there with all the records and files and evidence to present to the court. She was pleased to see Jane, and realized for the first time that something was going on between Phillip and Jane.

  “So that’s the way it is,” she said with a wry smile, and Jane blushed. But she was no longer clerking there, and she had left Harriet on good terms. And Harriet was in a much better mood than she had been in for a while. Her mother was doing better, and was staying with her again. She knew it wouldn’t last forever, but for now things had improved, and she was happy to have her home.

  The confirmation hearing was brief and perfunctory. Harriet presented the file to the court. Penny represented Valerie, who solemnly swore that all the evidence and her statements were true and correct and she was in fact Marguerite di San Pignelli’s heir. Winnie cried when the judge confirmed it, and Valerie was beaming afterward.