The Royal Windsor Secret – A Life in Jewels

The Royal Windsor Secret – A Life in Jewels
By Christine Wells, author of The Royal Windsor Secret

It was a tough job researching the most exquisite jewellery in the world for my novel, The Royal Windsor Secret, but someone had to do it! If only an author could justify the purchase of some of these wonderful pieces for research purposes, but sadly, it’s not possible to get a tax write-off for a Cartier panther bracelet or a vintage Chanel cuff.

Jewels became a recurring theme in The Royal Windsor Secret with the kind of miraculous serendipity that makes writing novels so addictive. At the book’s inception, I dreamed of writing about two women along different timelines. As the story unfolded, I realized that three significant female characters in this story have a deep, significant connection to jewellery—a connection I scarcely realized existed until it kept appearing on the page. The motif arose again and again until I decided that jewels must be intrinsic to the theme of the book.

Three women dominate The Royal Windsor Secret—the fictional character of Cleo Davenport, who longs to become a jewellery designer at a famous firm like Cartier. Then there is the very real Wallis Simpson, whose jewellery collection was legendary, and for whom Cartier designed several love tokens—gifts from her famous husband, the Duke of Windsor, a man who would have been King of England had he not abdicated the throne to marry Wallis, the love of his life. Then there is Marguerite Fahmy, also a real person, who was one of the Duke of Windsor’s first lovers, and the woman Cleo comes to believe might be her mother.

Marguerite was a French courtesan in the dying years of the Belle Époque, when the power and influence of the demimondaines of Paris was beginning to wane. However, like the courtesans of years gone by, Marguerite was not paid in tawdry cash, but in jewels—“gifts” made to her by wealthy lovers. The diminutive but fierce Marguerite slept with a revolver beneath her pillow to protect her jewels from thieves. For her, jewels represented her hard-won security. Pregnant at fifteen, she was forced to walk the streets until she clawed her way out of the gutter and rose to unimagined heights.

By the time she met the Duke of Windsor (or the Prince of Wales as he was then) during World War I, Marguerite had her own apartment in a fashionable part of Paris, a chauffeured car and several fine horses, as well. Eventually she married a wealthy Egyptian, which raised her social status, but it seems she never forgot the hardship she’d lived through in her early years. She still clung to her jewels for dear life.

Wallis Simpson, later Duchess of Windsor, is known for being a style icon who possessed one of the most significant jewellery collections in the world. Wallis patronised famous houses like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, but also avant garde jewellers such as Fulco di Verdura, who designed the famous Chanel Maltese cross cuffs and Suzanne Belperron, who inspired the character of Cleo Davenport in The Royal Windsor Secret.

Jewels certainly were the Windsors’ love language: the duke gave Wallis a Cartier diamond bracelet with jewelled crucifix charms on it—each one commemorating a significant event in their courtship; she gave him a gold cigarette case engraved with a map, with all of the places they’d been together marked out in brilliant-cut diamonds and cabochon gems. The engagement ring Wallis wore was a 19.77 carat emerald with diamond baguette accents. The ring was engraved with a heartfelt message from the duke, who referred to them as a couple as “W.E.”, using the initials of their Christian names.

In contrast to these two real women, in The Royal Windsor Secret, Cleo Davenport is more interested in the art of jewellery design than in the jewels themselves. Rather than look for a husband or lover to give her jewels, Cleo vows to make her own. 

Following the innovative style of Belperron and Verdura, Cleo incorporates semi-precious stones and other materials into her designs. She seeks inspiration and direction from Jeanne Toussaint, creative director at Cartier, and Pierre Lemarchand, a Cartier designer famous for the naturalism of his pieces. Lemarchand was particularly known for his animal and bird jewels. He spent hours studying the anatomy of different species and was often to be found sketching animals at the Vincennes zoo in Paris.

Lemarchand designed the famous “Tutti frutti” flamingo brooch that Wallis Simpson so often wore, as well as a very special jewel that was made in subversive, silent protest against the Nazi Occupation of France during World War II. The latter ornament saw both Lemarchand and Toussaint hauled in for questioning. It is said that the intervention of Coco Chanel saved them from worse consequences. 

In The Royal Windsor Secret, jewels are a symbol of enduring love, of fleeting, shallow affections, of investment and precarious security, of portable wealth and creative endeavour. They mark eras in history, from a small, rebellious bird brooch made in occupied Paris, to the tiaras commissioned by women attending a king’s coronation, to the crown jewels themselves. But one thing is certain: no matter how much time passes, jewels will never lose their allure, nor their fascination. 

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THE ROYAL WINSOR SECRET

Could she be the secret daughter of the Prince of Wales? In this dazzling novel by the author of Sisters of the Resistance, a young woman seeks to discover the truth about her mysterious past. Perfect for readers of Shana Abe, Bryn Turnbull, and Marie Benedict. 

Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.”

But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut. But Cleo’s life can’t be confined to a ballroom. She longs for independence and a career as a jewelry designer for Cartier, but she cannot move forward until she finds out about her past.

Determined to unlock the truth, Cleo travels from London, back to Cairo, and then Paris, where her investigations take a shocking turn into the world of the Parisian demi-monde, and a high-class courtesan whose scandalous affair with the young Prince of Wales threatened to bring down the British monarchy long before anyone had heard of Wallis Simpson.

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Christine Wells writes historical fiction featuring strong, fascinating women. From early childhood, she drank in her father’s tales of kings and queens and epic struggles for power across the globe, and has been a keen student of history ever since. She began her first novel while working as a corporate lawyer, and has gone on to write about periods ranging from Georgian England to World War II France. She loves dogs, the beach and antiquing on Instagram and lives with her family in Brisbane, Australia.

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Category: On Writing