“His Lordship asked if you would wear these.”
She opened the box and Lalitha saw that it contained a necklace of tiny diamond stars exquisitely set and so delicate that they might have been fashioned by fairy fingers.
Nattie fastened the necklace and then there were several stars to match to be arranged in her hair.
The diamonds seemed to pick up the new lights, which had become more prominent day after day.
Now her hair no longer felt limp and lank, but waved with a buoyancy when it fell over her shoulders and had a thickness and a sheen that had never been there before.
It was due, Lalitha knew, to the peach lotion that Nattie applied every night on the herb-woman’s instructions and she had learnt as well that hair quicker than anything else revealed the health of the body.
There w
