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wonderful, unforgettable meal, whatever it was.
    A pot of lamb-and-olive ragout simmered on the stove, filling the kitchen with the aromas of fresh rosemary and garlic. I put on a clean white chef’s jacket and checked my lipstick before going to work. I always have to be completely squared away before I can do anything, including cook. My kitchen and my makeup must be in perfect order. I looked wonderful—healthy, calm, relaxed. Except, unfortunately, I saw just the slightest dart about my expression. I didn’t want to look myself in the eye too closely. I was afraid of what I would see. A little too much sparkle, possibly. That little fizz of excitement brought on by the queen’s misfortune? The possibility that I might have the opportunity to touch the Cambridge and Delhi Durbar parure and the Lesser Stars of Africa with my own two hands, see them face-to-face? Hide them in my pockets?
    No!
    I separated three cloves of garlic and crushed them with the side of a knife, separating them from their skins. I dropped the cloves into the mortar and sprinkled them with salt and mushed them around a bit before adding olive oil and pulverizing them completely. I set them aside and then began to assemble the ingredients for a chocolate soufflé.
    Soufflés are a staple of my repertoire. When in doubt, or a small hurry, a cheese soufflé, a fresh green salad, and a bottle of burgundy are always the right solution. And when it’s cold and storming outside, there couldn’t be a finer combination than rich lamb stew, an arugula salad, crispy garlic crostini, a big bottle of Syrah, and a mouth-watering chocolate soufflé with Grand Marnier cream.
    The Lesser Stars of Africa.
    How on earth did he get away with such a robbery? Even if he was her closest aide, the security around the queen and her jewelry is among the tightest on earth.
    The queen’s collection was the finest in the world—dozens of magnificent, irreplaceable pieces that I knew by heart. I could name and describe practically every single one of them in intricate detail, as well as the permutations of each: which brooch came apart and became ear clips or the twinkling centerpiece in a tiara. Which ones hooked together to make a stomacher—a grand, complicated cascade of jewels falling from the center of a monarch’s bust to her waist, a creation seldom seen today at public affairs—as opposed to a corsage, an elaborate piece draped from side to side across the corsage of a low-cut or strapless gown. Often, a jeweled corsage could also double as a necklace.
    For centuries, the royal family has had a staggering stockpile of jewels, but Queen Mary raised the bar when it came to assembling a massive and breathtaking collection of large, and often priceless, stones. The majority of her efforts—in addition to the Romanoff pieces—comprise the current queen’s favorite jewels.
    What a wonderful coincidence that many of the largest diamonds in the world, including the largest diamond ever discovered, the whopping 3,106-carat Cullinan—uncut, it was the size of a large brick—were discovered in English colonies during her husband, King Edward’s, reign. What a terrible waste it would have been if the reigning queen hadn’t cared about the unprecedented, blinding haul that poured through her door, as though Ali Baba’s cave were being delivered to her palace every day. I like to think that the fact that she personally received all 102 cleavings of the Cullinan as a gift from the South African government made her as giddy as she could get. I’m quite sure she dreamed about them and fondled them and loved them more than she loved her children, even more than she loved her dogs.
    The Cullinan cleavings—in the gemstone business, cleaving or cleavage is the term used for rough diamonds that have at some time in their history been cleaved from a larger stone—are all numbered: The 530-carat Cullinan I, the Greater Star of Africa, sits atop the royal scepter like a