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Diamonds Are Forever
 
 
“Kitty O’Hallorhan,” said Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, looking into those familiar grey eyes flecked with amber, “you don’t look a day over thirty-five, and you’re lovely.” Her silver and black hair shone in the sunlight filtering down past the buildings on Belfast’s Royal Avenue. Her tailored grey suit, with its slim, knee-length skirt, accentuated her figure. God, but she was looking well.
She shook her head. “You’re an old flatterer, Fingal, a soft-soaper. You know I’ll not see fifty again, but thank you.”
“I’ll always see you as twenty-two, the way you were when we were youngsters, always, and that’s because,” he hesitated, “I love you.”
“Thank you, Fingal,” she said. “Thank you for loving me, and thank you for telling me. I do love you so much.”
He bloody well nearly bear-hugged and kissed her there and then. Instead, he continued walking with Kitty at his side and thought about how on the drive here from her flat they’d discussed the progress of Donal Donnelly, one of Fingal’s patients, who was being nursed by Kitty, a senior sister on the brain surgery ward of the Royal Victoria Hospital. It had made O’Reilly happy to discuss a patient with her. He was looking forward to these kinds of professional conversations when she became his wife, on July 3, 1965, and that was only a little more than two months away. He gave a hop and a skip, grinning as he did.
“Fingal,” Kitty said with a smile, “will you stop acting the lig?”
“I’m happy,” he said, guiding her through the midmorning crowds of shoppers, office messengers, and delivery men. Traffic growled, and he heard the ting of the conductor’s bell as a red double-decker bus pulled away from a stop. The air was heavy with exhaust fumes. A flock of starlings wheeled and jinked in unison across the sky. He pointed to a glass door on which SHARMAN D NEILL. JEWELLERS AND WATCHMAKERS was etched in gilt letters. Watches, barometers, brass telescopes, and jewellery were displayed on velvet mounts in the window. “This is it,” he said.
The lighting was subdued, the carpet thick. Glass jewellery cases were arranged around three walls. A door at the back led, O’Reilly presumed, to offices or storerooms. The air had only a trace of mustiness. Two staff members wearing short black jackets, pinstriped trousers, and highly polished black shoes stood waiting. The place exuded the confidence of a business that had catered to the upper classes for decades. Young men, O’Reilly thought, probably felt intimidated here, and their immediate concerns would be whether their budget might stretch. He was worried himself.
He and Kitty were the only customers.
An assistant glided across to them. He wore rimless spectacles.
“Sir? Modom?” His voice was reverential, his accent affected. “May I be of assistance?”
“Rings,” O’Reilly said, surprising himself by lowering his voice.
“Certainly, sir.” The man glanced at Kitty’s gloved left hand. “Would that be dress or engagement?”
O’Reilly cleared his throat. His collar seemed to be tighter. “Engagement, please.”
“How lovely. May I wish sir and modom every happiness?”
“Thank you,” Kitty said.
O’Reilly wanted to tell the man to mind his own damned business and get on with selling them a flaming ring. He wanted to get this transaction completed. And it had been ages since, to his housekeeper Kinky Kincaid’s amazement, he had refused the mixed grill she’d offered to cook and simply grabbed a quick cup of coffee and a slice of toast this morning in his hurry to get to Kitty’s flat. Now he wanted his lunch.
The shop assistant moved behind a glass display case. “If I might enquire, would we be looking for a solitaire, a cluster, a trinity or bezel setting, a specific precious stone … perhaps modom’s birthstone? Something,” his lip curled, “semiprecious?”
Jasus, O’Reilly thought, in 1939 when I bought Deirdre her little ring it was just a gold band with one tiny diamond. Back then men bought the ring before they proposed, but today O’Reilly had brought Kitty to pick hers. He smiled at his soon-to-be wife and knew for certain that Deirdre O’Reilly, née Mawhinney, his young bride of six months who had died in the Belfast Blitz of 1941, would approve of Kitty, be glad for him and his newfound happiness. “Kitty?” he asked.
She smiled at him. “If it’s all right with you, Fingal, I’d like something simple.”
“It’s your choice.”
“It can be bewildering,” the shop assistant said. “Might I suggest a nice cluster with a central half-carat blue diamond?”
O’Reilly heard the condescension in the man’s voice. “Kitty?”
“No, thank you. I’ve really got my mind set on a well-cut solitaire, S12 clarity, I or J colour grade—”
O’Reilly’s mouth fell open.
“—of slightly less than half a carat.” She turned to him. “Blue diamonds are the most expensive. Prices rocket at the half- and full-carat mark. It takes a hell of an eye to tell the difference between a smaller stone and I don’t want to bankrupt you, dear.”
O’Reilly grinned. He’d ask her later where she’d learnt her gemology.
“Modom … modom knows her diamonds.” There was awe in the shop assistant’s voice.
Kitty inclined her head and said, “And I’m not fussed about the setting as long as it’s platinum, the ring is gold, and the stone is good quality.”
The man leant sideways and grabbed a set of sizing rings from the top of the case. “If I may?”
“Certainly.” Kitty removed her left kid glove and gave him her hand. After using two rings the assistant said, “Size A and a half.” He smiled. “I believe I have exactly what we need. If you’ll excuse me?”
The second he’d left, O’Reilly asked, “Where in the hell did you—”
“Dublin’s National College of Art and Design, remember? I was there before I started nursing, and I took a course on jewellery design.”
He hugged her. “Do you know,” he said, “I’d completely forgotten you’d been there. It is a year or two back.” A year or two? More like thirty, he thought, but said, “And thank you for thinking of my wallet too.”
“Fingal O’Reilly,” she said, “not being extravagant on a ring doesn’t mean you love me any less. You can’t measure love in carats or colour. Pounds and shillings.”
His throat felt tight and he swallowed. “Thank you, Kitty. Thank you for that.” And he wasn’t sure if he was thanking her for her understanding of how much he loved her, her solid business sense, or both. He heard a discreet cough and let Kitty go.
“I think this may be what modom requires.”
O’Reilly watched as a ring was slipped on Kitty’s finger. It fitted perfectly. He...