The Jewels of Tessa Kent
Read The Jewels of Tessa Kent Online
Authors: Judith Krantz
secrets comes at a very high price.…
TESSA KENT
—Her life is filled with fame, fortune, and passion—but the stunningly beautiful actress is denied the one thing she wants most: the love of her daughter, Maggie.
MAGGIE HORVATH
—She traded her birthright and a multimillion-dollar inheritance for her independence. But her rise to power at legendary auction house Scott & Scott comes with a cost of its own.
AGNES HORVATH
—A fiercely overprotective stage mother, she refused to let a teenage pregnancy stand in the way of her daughter’s chance for stardom.
MIMI PETERSON
—She’s the last person alive who knows a famous woman’s shocking secret … one that is now in danger of being revealed.
RODDY FENSTERWALD
—The revered film director discovers an ingenue who takes Hollywood—and his older, playboy friend’s heart—by storm.
LUKE BLAKE
—Forced to share his famous wife with a world of admirers, the billionaire lavishes her with love and priceless jewels … treasures that come to mean everything.
BARNEY WEBSTER
—Sexy, charming, and rich, he’s the most eligible bachelor to hit Manhattan—until the true love he’s denied for years makes a daring move.
MADISON WEBSTER
—Forced to raise another woman’s child, she feels her hatred of the girl grow with each passing day. But will her jealousy cost her her own son?
POLLY GUILDENSTERN
—The entrepreneurial jewelry designer’s life changes forever when she’s introduced to her mysterious new roommate’s privileged world.
ANDY McCLOUD
—Why is the ambitious and overqualified hunk working as a temp at Scott & Scott? The answer shocks the woman he loves.
LIZ SINCLAIR
—Half-owner of Scott & Scott, she’s thrilled when the biggest coup of her career drops into her lap. But it comes with shocking conditions.
SAM CONWAY
—Every actress wants to play the lead character in the movie based on his hot bestseller. But only one will walk away with the role—and his heart.
SCRUPLES
PRINCESS DAISY
MISTRAL’S DAUGHTER
I’LL TAKE MANHATTAN
TILL WE MEET AGAIN
DAZZLE
SCRUPLES TWO
LOVERS
SPRING COLLECTION
This edition contains the complete text
of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED
.
THE JEWELS OF TESSA KENT
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
Crown Publishers, Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Crown hardcover edition published November 1998
Bantam paperback edition / November 1999
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1998 by Judith Krantz.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-12971
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Crown Publishers, Inc.,
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eISBN: 978-0-307-80133-3
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
v3.1
For Andrea Louise Van de Kamp, Chairman of Sotheby’s West Coast Operations, Senior Vice President of Sotheby’s, and Chairman and CEO of the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
Even if Andrea hadn’t suggested I write a novel based on the auction business and given me an opportunity to do my research at Sotheby’s, I would have dedicated this novel to her because she is the most vibrant, life-enhancing and utterly solid friend one could have. A multitude claim her and rejoice in her.
Great cities are defined by their great people, and no one defines Los Angeles as well as Andrea. Her vast and genuine enthusiasms, her wonderfully inclusive laugh, her extraordinary generosity and her immense charm are legend. Only Andrea could work as effectively as she does at her demanding jobs without ever losing her focus, her sense of humor—or a battle.
While I researched
The Jewels of Tessa Kent
, I needed a good deal of expert advice on the auction business, on medical issues, and on certain details of the Catholic Church. I’m wholeheartedly grateful to every one of the generous people who allowed me to question them and gave me such valuable answers.
Diana Phillips, Senior Vice President Sotheby’s, Director of Public Relations.
Mallory May, Assistant Vice President Press Office, Sotheby’s, North America.
John D. Block, Vice Chairman Sotheby’s, North America, and Director of International Jewelry, North America.
Tracy Sherman, Vice President, Jewelry Department, Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills.
Carol Elkens, Assistant Vice President, Jewelry Department, Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills.
Elise B. Misiorowski, G. G. Gemological Institute of America.
Dr. Melani P. Shaum, M.D.
Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D.
Dr. Norman Schulman, M.D.
Sister Karen M. Kennelly, CSJ, President, Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles.
Lynn Marie Blocker Krantz
Professor Patricia Byrne, Trinity College, Connecticut.
David W. Moreno, Tiffany & Co., Beverly Hills.
Q
uickly, Tessa Kent stepped out of the bank and crossed the strip of New York pavement. The door of her parked limo was held open by the driver. She slid inside, grateful that she’d left a coat on the seat when she’d entered the bank much earlier in the day. It had been a morning of indecisive weather, early fall weather, but now the afternoon sun had disappeared behind clouds that promised rain before nightfall on this mid-September day in 1993.
“Where to, Miss Kent?” Ralph, the driver, asked.
“Wait right here for a while, Ralph, there’s something I want to see,” she answered impulsively, surprising herself, and pulled the coat over her shoulders.
All through the endless afternoon at the bank, she’d kept going by promising herself that the instant she was able to leave, she’d return as quickly as possible to her apartment at the Carlyle, take a long, lavishly perfumed bath, put on her oldest, softest, most familiar peignoir, have a great fruitwood fire—the first of the year—lit in the generous fireplace of her bedroom, and stretch out on the pile of pillows flung down on the carpet. She intended to put the past three days firmly behind her,
sipping a distinctly alcoholic drink and looking straight into the flames until she was so dazzled by them that her mind would unclench and a pleasant emptiness would take over.