Skin and Other Stories

'Pour us each a drink,' he said. 'I've got a bit of news for you.'

'Oh darling, it's not something awful, is it?'

'No,' he said. 'It's something funny. I think you'll like it.'

'You've been made Head of Surgery!'

'It's funnier than that,' he said. 'Go on, make a good stiff drink for each of us and sit down and I'll tell you.'

'It's a bit early for drinks,' she said, but she got the ice-tray from the fridge and started making his whisky and soda. While she was doing this, she kept glancing up at him nervously. She said, 'I don't think I've ever seen you quite like this before. You are wildly excited about something and you are pretending to be very calm. You're all red in the face. Are you sure it's good news?'

'I think it is,' he said, 'but I'll let you judge that for yourself.' He sat down at the kitchen table and watched her as she put the glass of whisky in front of him.

'All right,' she said. 'Come on. Let's have it.'

'Get a drink for yourself first,' he said.

'My goodness, what is this?' she said, but she poured some gin into a glass and was reaching for the ice-tray when he said, 'More than that. Give yourself a good stiff one.'

'Now I am worried,' she said, but she did as she was told and then added ice and filled the glass up with tonic. 'Now then,' she said, sitting down beside him at the table, 'get it off your chest.'

Robert began telling his story. He started with the Prince in the consulting-room and he spun it out long and well so that it took a good ten minutes before he came to the diamond.

'It must be quite a whopper,' she said, 'to make you go all red in the face and funny-looking.'

He reached into his pocket and took out the little black pouch and put it on the table. 'There it is,' he said. 'What do you think?'

She loosened the silk cord and tipped the stone into her hand. 'Oh, my God!' she cried. 'It's absolutely stunning!'

'It is, isn't it.'

'It's amazing.'

'I haven't told you the whole story yet,' he said, and while his wife rolled the diamond from the palm of one hand to the other, he went on to tell her about his visit to Harry Gold in The High. When he came to the point where the jeweller began to talk about value, he stopped and said, 'So what do you think he said it was worth?'

'Something pretty big,' she said. 'It's bound to be. I mean just look at it!'

'Go on then, make a guess. How much?'

'Ten thousand pounds?' she said. 'I really don't have any idea.'

'Try again.'

'You mean, it's more?'

'Yes, it's quite a lot more.'

'Twenty thousand pounds!'

'Would you be thrilled if it was worth as much as that?'

'Of course I would, darling. Is it really worth twenty thousand pounds?'

'Yes,' he said. 'And the rest.'

'Now don't be a beast, Robert. Just tell me what Mr Gold said.'

'Take another drink of gin.'