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have
    something as fine… Nay, finer even than that , her perverse
    spirit of ambition preened.
     
     
They entered the private apartments and found Sabine, Amethyst and
    Emerald in the Green Drawing Room, chatting and sewing. A servant
    was lighting the logs in the great fireplace as they stepped in.
     
     
After exchanging warm greetings, Margaret took three small boxes
    from the velvet sack she held and gave them out. "One for each of
    you. One for each of my jewels."
     
     
Amethyst's gift was a gold brooch inlaid with a round-cut amethyst,
    Emerald's was an emerald-cut emerald in a gold bracelet, and Topaz's
    was a teardrop-shaped topaz suspended from a gold chain. Sabine
    received a pearl choker of stunning beauty.
     
     
"They're just magnificent, Margaret," Sabine exclaimed. "But pray
    tell us, what is the news?"
     
     
"I have just been created Countess of Salisbury by His Majesty the
    King, ratified by Parliament. He bestowed upon me the family lands
    of the earldom of Salisbury, as well as property in Hampshire,
    Wiltshire, and Essex!"
     
     
Her words gushed forth hurriedly, and she beamed like a child with a
    new toy.
     
     
Sabine squealed in delight, for now she and her sister-in-law were
    both wealthy, titled noblewomen.
     
     
Amethyst and Emerald glowed like the jewels they beheld as they
    hugged their beloved aunt and congratulated her on her good fortune.
     
     
Only Topaz scowled as if she had tasted something foul.
     
     
"How kind of His Majesty the King," she snickered. "No matter how
    many benevolences he conjures up, he cannot undo what his father
    did. He reversed the attainder against our father ten years after
    his death! Is that going to bring him back? Lands and titles mean
    nothing to him. They are no sacrifice. Let him give up something
    that would hurt him to give up and then you can say how kind and
    generous he is!"
     
     
"Like what?" Sabine asked wearily, wondering why she even bothered
    to argue with her daughter anymore on this matter.
     
     
"Like the crown, perhaps," she retorted. With that she twirled away
    to meet her fiancé, leaving the four women sighing after her
    and shaking her heads.
     
     
"She gets more bitter with every passing year and new honor
    conferred, not less so," Margaret observed ruefully.
     
     
"Mayhap marriage will steady her down," her mother prayed. "Once a
    child comes, well, perhaps she will be content with all she does
    have, instead of wishing for all she feels she has lost."
     
     
Amethyst nodded, but deep down, she wondered if her marriage might
    make Topaz even more discontent that she already was…
     
     

 
CHAPTER SIX
     
     
It was the evening before her wedding, and the three sisters were in
    Topaz's bedroom, appropriately named the Blue Boudoir, as it was
    decorated in an array of blues. The silk wall hangings were a
    delicate French blue, a light lapis satin covered the furniture, and
    the velvet draperies around the carved bedframe were the color of
    bluebirds on a summer's day.
     
     
The two younger sisters sat on the bed watching Topaz smear an oily
    concoction on her face.
     
     
"What is that?" Emerald asked, wrinkling her nose.
     
     
"Lanolin, oil from lambs."
     
     
"Are you going to do that every night after you're married, also?"
    asked Emerald.
     
     
"Why, of course. Just because I've landed a husband doesn't mean I'm
    not going to keep myself looking young."
     
     
"God's truth, Topaz, you're only eighteen!" Amethyst exclaimed.
     
     
"We'll be old hags before we know it, children," she replied,
    applying more of the odiferous oil to her throat.
     
     
"But I'm sure Lord Gilford finds you just as beautiful. You need not
    make your face all slippery and slimy for him."
     
     
Topaz looked at her sister in the mirror and laughed. "I do it not
    for him, nor for any other man, dear sister. I do it for myself.
    Once I am old and Matthew is gone and my looks are withered away by
    the ravages of time, I'll