I remember when White used to come over. She would enter My Diamond's chambers, towering but hunched over. Despite the exhaustion, she looked fabulous as ever, parts of her outfit escaping her black and white patterned cape. After My Diamond admired her, they would sit together in the salon where White fell into her chair like a rag doll, spilling over the sides as if her body had no structure, and complained as My Diamond listened over cups of tea.
The house Pearls and I used to serve them from platters groups of us would wheel over. She afforded me a clear view of the bags beneath her eyes from my lowly place on the ground, her tens of colonies having layered perpetual dents into her brows. We heard as she told Pink about each of them, putting a hand out for My Diamond to hold. It overflowed with decorative rings.
Her Pearl would accompany her, the smaller version of White, her gem as round as her Diamond's was shimmery. We would speak, but nothing more than short greetings and small talk before she went silent. Neither White nor Pink sent us away during their visits, maybe because we hardly intruded and, to my knowledge, they never became that intimate with one another. The most I had ever seen was White kiss My Diamond's cheeks. She did this towering slightly over her—as she did with the others—and tended to touch both the left and right side of Pink's face.
My Diamond would always kiss her back many more times, embracing her, which caused White to smile.
"Oh, Pink," she would say. Her voice came out more softly than I would have imagined, and higher than I had expected.
Sometimes they would lie down together. White always closed her old, tired eyes while Pink cuddled close to her, combing her fingers through that bush of ancient, grey hair. The motion lulled White to sleep, and for hours on end, neither moved.
They never saw it fit to hide such moments from us. In retrospect, I suppose it was extremely innocent, compared to the things two gems can do with one another.
I used to wonder how that felt.
Inside Morganite's office, her communicator rang. Even from the library, I could see the yellow glow cast onto the floor and hurried to answer it.
The moment my finger slid across the call button, Yellow Diamond's face appeared in the glass before me. The cold background of outer space told me she phoned from her control room, and as usual, she cut right to business.
"Pearl, I'm glad I caught you. I called to ask if you've seen anything worth reporting. You've been there a while now."
"Oh, well," I placed my chin against my hand and released a breath. "I apologize, My Diamond. I haven't seen much of anything yet. Lady Morganite's Jasper has come over once, but she only held her still during a vision."
"She doesn't have you come to work with her?"
"No, My Diamond. I've only cleaned her chambers up to this point."
I could feel the back of my neck produce a bead of sweat, but an unmoving face is something I've learned to keep.
"I see. Jasper has only come once?"
"Yes, Madame."
Yellow Diamond paused for a moment, maintaining every fiber of sternness as she exhaled through her nose. "Be sure she's comfortable with you, and continue keeping an eye on her. I'll call back in the future."
"Yes, My Diamond. I certainly will."
She disappeared as quickly as her light intruded Morganite's office. Once every trace of yellow had disappeared, I wiped my brow and returned to my book.
If Yellow thought I would give up reading so easily, she was delusional. That's the problem with the Diamonds. They expect unconditional loyalty, but what would I gain from turning in Morganite? Likely nothing, and even if I did, I can almost guarantee it wouldn't be worth it. They would lock her up, perhaps shatter her, and send me back to Blue Diamond, where I could make her cry by existing.
I don't think so.
Since my conversation with Morganite, I began reading in the open. In the main room within sight of the front door, I sat on the fainting couch, book in hand, drinking tea like a spoiled noble.
The first few times she came home from work, I shut my book and jolted upright, as if I could pretend I wasn't just reading. She would grin at me but never laughed, even though I could see the amusement in the color of her cheeks. We might talk a while before sharing the couch as I continued to read, drinking tea and relaxing before she returned to work again.
About ten days after Yellow Diamond had called, she came back, holding a book and another box of macarons. At that point, I had stopped jumping every time the doors opened and glanced to her instead. My fingers had pressed the bookmark against the middle of a paragraph, exactly mid sentence when she arrived.
"Greetings, Lady Morganite."
"Hello, Pearl." She came further inside and set her items on the table, directly across from my place on the couch and took a spot by my side. "I wanted to apologize for earlier."
I didn't reply right away. "Apologize for what, Madame?"
"Well," she sat back and set her hands flat upon her legs. "I didn't want you to think that I was threatening you. I admit, I was worried when I knew for certain why you had come here. It was hard to say where your loyalties lay exactly, but…" she sighed. "I'd like things to be friendly between us. I don't see the point in living like we're both about to stab one another in the back."
"I agree," I said. What she had set upon the table caught my eye before we looked at one another again. "I don't intend on turning you in, My Lady. I miss Blue Diamond's Pearl, but I'd rather not go back."
"Thank you," Morganite released a breath. "I saw that Yellow Diamond called."
"She did."
"I assume it wasn't just to chat about your day."
"No, Madame."
She shook her head. "Was it any different under Pink? It's a pointless thought, but sometimes I imagine what could have been." The air grew silent and we stopped looking at one another. "You knew her personally. Even Jasper didn't get to meet her. She's told me everything she knows, in one way or another, but I'm still not satisfied."
A long pause stretched on, and I gasped through the tightening of my throat. "She was different." I took longer than I would have liked. "I used to read to her."
"It's okay," Morganite left her hand on my knee for a few seconds. "I can see it's hard to talk about. Maybe later." She might have touched me just to get a glance and stood up after that. "Well, the book and the cookies are for you, Pearl. Thank you for keeping me out of trouble."
She had left A Tale of Two Courts, which was written after I began living with Blue Diamond. I hadn't had a chance to read it yet.
"Thank you, Madame." My fingers smoothed over its hard, glossy cover, leaving a mark.
"Of course. I hope you enjoy it."
She left to go to her office, and I flipped through the book without reading any words. It produced a pleasant scent, and the dark black print complemented the crème colored pages. I admired it several minutes before returning to the book I had left off on, its plain design jarring next to the beauty awaiting me on the table.
Even if Morganite was bribing me, I could learn to live with that.
