Page 12 of Share with Me

Chapter Five

“Did you enjoy the orchestra, Grandma?” Ivan asked, hands on Grandma Yun’s shoulders.

“Yes, dear.” She reached back to tap one of his hands. “You always do such a marvelous job, Ivan. I enjoyed it tremendously and I’m sure Brinley here did too.”

Brinley.

Ivan was acutely aware that Brinley, sitting next to Grandma Yun, was not paying any attention to him as her fingers pecked away at her iPhone.

She gasped.

“Are you okay?” Ivan asked.

“I will be. Soon.” Brinley looked across the table. “Mom. Dad. Guess what?”

Ned and Rose Brooks stopped talking.

“Helen says an art thief told Interpol that he saw what looked like the Damaris in a private collection in Vienna.”

“Vienna. Of all places.” Ned shook his head. “How many times have we been there?”

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Brinley’s eyes brightened. Under the chandeliers, Ivan thought there were specks of gold in them. He was too close for comfort, but she was smiling and beautiful and—

“Have you ever played a Strad?” Brinley asked him.

“No. I’ve heard of your Damaris.”

“Then you know that one of my paternal ancestors, Jeremiah Brooks, bought that straight from Stradivari’s shop in Italy.”

Ivan nodded. “A wedding gift for Damaris Brooks in 1698. Wasn’t there another?”

“She reciprocated twenty years later with a Strad for him, a 1714 model. The two violins were passed on as a pair down the generations until 1893 when there was a bitter fallout among the brothers. The 1698 Strad was taken by one of the brothers and sold to an anonymous buyer. It was never seen again until now. See here.”

Brinley handed her iPhone to Ivan. He caught a breeze of light perfume, so light he wouldn’t have noticed had her wrist not been this close to him.

He stared at the Strad. Wow. It had some sort of intricate carvings on the side. And the initials DLSB.

“LS?” Ivan asked.

“La Salle. Damaris La Salle Brooks.” Brinley seemed excited. “The La Salles were indigo planters living next door to the Brooks, who planted rice. The two plantations merged after the marriage, but just so you know, they did marry for love.”

“That’s always good,” Yun said.

“So where’s the other Strad?” Ivan was interested now. All he had was someone else’s Vuillaume.

“It’s safe.” Brinley said no more and Ivan decided not to pry though he wanted to know where it was kept.

“And is it called the Jeremiah Brooks Strad?”

“No, actually it’s the Lord Sterling Strad because Damaris bought it from a Lord Sylvester Sterling. She was too frail to travel to Italy at that time.”

Ivan handed Brinley’s iPhone back to her. Their fingers touched. It was accidental. He tried not to read too much into it. “You know a lot about your family history.”

“She’s our family historian,” Ned said from across the table. “I often wondered why she’s in marketing instead.”

Brinley frowned. “Oh, am I sitting in your chair?”

“No, Miss Brooks. I’m not at this table.” He pointed to a table farther away marked SISO.

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