Chapter FiveThey drove on for some way before the Duke spoke again.
Then he asked her,
“What is your favourite stone?”
Una, who had obviously been thinking of something else, seemed to start at his voice.
“Stone?”
“I mean jewel,” the Duke explained. “All women love jewellery. I don’t suppose that you are an exception.”
Una thought for a moment and then she said,
“I think turquoises are – very beautiful and I expect you know that in the East they are considered to be lucky.”
“I have heard that,” the Duke said.
“Mama said the Tibetans who mine stones in the mountains always wear a piece of turquoise to keep away the ‘Evil Eye’.”
She gave a little laugh.
“I don’t suppose that you are afraid of the ‘Evil Eye’, but in the books I have read it was a very real menace in Medieval times.
