As Felise filled a plate and took a seat, Camille unwrapped the bundle. “Here, Papa, here, Giles, these are for you.” She passed a small case to each, and inside each was a folding knife and a hone. As they reverently took out the knives, Camille said, “Renaud tells me these are fine blades, made of the very best bronze. And the handles are mother-of-pearl from the tropical seas of Faery. Too, your birthstones are set in the pearl: a diamond for each of you, since you are both April-born.”
“Ooo,” breathed Giles, as he unclasped the dark-metal blade. Then he looked up at Camille, his eyes glittering. “Are they magic? Enchanted?”
Camille smiled. “Perhaps you could say so, for the more skilled you become through practice, the better will your carvings be.”
Giles beamed. “Oh, Camille, that’s marvelous.” But then his face fell. “-Hoy, now, wait a moment. That’s no real enchantment at all, is it?”
Camille grinned and tousled his hair and said, “No, Giles, but now you and Papa can whittle to your heart’s content, and you won’t have to trade a single knife back and forth.” Giles brightened again and returned her grin.
“Merci, Fille,” said Henri. “This will be used to make a fine echecs set.”
“Just what I was thinking, Papa,” replied Camille. Then she unwrapped six rings, some set with glittering gems, while others held semiprecious stones. Amid murmurs of appreciation as she passed them to the recipients, Camille said, “These are birthstone rings: tourmaline for Joie and Gai; for Felise, saphir; sardoine for Colette; rubis for Lisette; and for you, Maman, heliotrope, also known as bloodstone.”
Even as the others tried on their rings and ooh ed and ahh ed, Aigrette looked disdainfully at the bloodstone- set band and sniffed in dismissal and laid it aside and said, “I expected something finer from a princess, Camille. After all, with your wealth and position…”
Stricken, sudden tears brimming, Camille said, “Oh, Maman, can’t you just merely be happy for once?”
Giles reached over and touched his hand to Camille’s and whispered, “No matter what Maman says, dear Camille, these gifts are quite splendid.”
Felise held up her beringed finger in the rays of light streaming through one of the windows, the blue sapphire glinting, “ Ooh, it catches the sun and transforms it into a star. I shall have to show it to Allard, when he wakes up and comes down.”
“Let us see what our rings will do,” said Gai, glancing at her twin, and they turned the pale green tourmalines into the light.
“Oh look, now and again they glint blue,” said Joie.
In the sunlight, Lisette’s ruby burned with fire.
Colette’s opaque sardonyx ring did not transform the light, though the stone was quite elegant and different from the others, its bands of brown and tan and white clearly beyond the ordinary. “Oh, my,” she said, “how striking. Perhaps I’ll pretend that it came from some mysterious suitor and make Luc jealous.”
Maman, unable to resist, pushed her red-and-green bloodstone across the table and into a sunbeam streaming onto the walnut wood, but her stone was opaque as well, and though the red flecks within the dark green stood out brilliantly, the stone itself did not break the light, and she huffed and returned to her rashers and eggs.
“Where did you get these, Camille?” asked Felise.
“From Alain,” replied Camille. “When we decided that I would come for a visit, the prince asked me what birthdays each of you had and then selected the gifts specifically to match the months I named.”
Aigrette’s eyes widened, and she reached out and took up the bloodstone ring. “These are from the prince himself?”
“Yes, Maman.”
“Well, then.” Aigrette slipped the band onto her finger and held her hand up so that she could see it. Then she resumed eating.
Camille sighed heavily, but Giles said, “Maman, when you believed the gift was from Camille, you thought it quite insignificant; but a gift from the prince himself, well now, that was different. Yet, in between your assumption and the revelation of the truth, the ring itself did not miraculously transform. Tell me, Maman-”
“Don’t talk to me like that!” snapped Aigrette.
Giles fell mute, but he turned to Camille and grinned.
A silence descended ’round the table, but finally Camille looked from sister to sister and asked, “So you have suitors?”
A babble broke out, all sisters talking at once:
“Luc and I are engaged, and-”
“I’m married, Camille, to Allard-”
“I believe that Javert is getting quite serious, though whether to me or Gai, I cannot-”
“Oh, Camille, you should have been here when the men first began to come to call. They would take us out to the wishing well and toss in coins and-”
“They still do,” called Gai, her voice rising above the others. “Just last eve, Philippe tossed in a gold coin and wished for a kiss from me and-”
“-and she gave him much more than just a-” interjected Joie, suddenly breaking off and glancing at Aigrette, even as Gai jabbed an elbow into her twin’s ribs. Amid quiet titters, conversation stilled.
Maman cleared her throat and said, “As to Phillipe, his prospects are quite dismal. Instead I suggest that one of you consider Lord Jaufre-”
“Maman!” cried Gai. “He’s old and fat and always trying to slobber a kiss on me.”
“And all he speaks of are his hounds,” added Joie.
“And he pants and sweats,” added Gai, “and whenever he gets a chance he presses against my bosom.”
“Well,” said Lisette, first glancing at her mother, then looking at the pair, “you let others kiss you, and, I suspect, caress you as well, perhaps even fondle.”
“Lisette!” cried the twins.
“Maman,” interjected Felise, “Lord Jaufre is an old roue. I wouldn’t wish him off on even one of his dogs, much less a sister of mine.”
Aigrette glared down the table. “I will not have you speaking this way of our houseguest; why, Jaufre could come down the stairs at any moment and overhear these slurs.”
“He knocked on my door last night,” said Colette, “and asked me if I was in bed. I didn’t answer. I didn’t let him in, either. After a while he went away.”
“The old seducer,” growled Felise.
Maman rapped a spoon against the table. “Now listen and listen to me well: by one of you marrying Lord Jaufre it will increase our fortune considerably.” She gestured at Camille. “Besides, having another royal personage in the family will raise our status as well.”
“Maman!” cried the twins and Colette. Camille shuddered in revulsion as she remembered her dance with Lord Jaufre, and she could not imagine anyone desiring him as a mate. Lisette also shuddered at the prospect of being wedded to that old roue, but she nodded in agreement with Aigrette.
But then Papa said, “Aigrette, it will not happen, not only because our filles will not have it so, but neither will Lord Jaufre. I think he is here to eat our food and drink our wine and seduce anyone he can, and nothing more.”
Aigrette seethed in fury and through clenched teeth said, “Henri, be silent!”
None said aught for a while, but then Felise asked Camille, “What does Prince Alain look like?”
“Well, he’s a head or so taller than me, and slender, yet quite well built, with black hair and grey eyes and full lips and gentle hands… he plays the harpsichord.”
“Is he handsome?” asked Colette. “My Luc is quite beautiful.”
“Beautiful?” said Joie. “I would not describe him that way.”
“Well, I think it so,” snapped Colette.
Papa smiled at Colette and said, “That’s all that matters, Letty. If you think him beautiful and let him know, it will fill his heart.” Henri then glanced at Aigrette.
Aigrette huffed, and spread butter on a biscuit.
