“I’m ashamed to say I would,” she said, looking sheepish.
“Don’t look so guilty,” he teased her. “You can afford it. If you find one you love, buy it.” She was interested in a beautiful black alligator Birkin, the red leather one on the cover, and a deep navy blue one. They were the size she liked and incredibly chic for her new Paris life with him. She hadn’t bought new clothes in several years, and didn’t need much in St. Paul de Vence, but he had been shopping with her and enjoying it since she got to Paris.
They went to the H?tel Drouot that afternoon, amid the hustle-bustle of antique dealers running in and out and to look at the exhibitions, take notes, and decide what they would bid on at the auctions the next day. And it wasn’t all antiques. It was everything from vintage clothes to gardening equipment, military uniforms and insignia, contemporary furniture, Persian rugs, wine, old books, taxidermy, and anything one could imagine. If there was something you wanted to buy, you could find it at Drouot, and the auctions were exciting. Sometimes Gabriel bid on the phone, especially in art auctions, but he liked the thrill of the treasure hunt and introduced Maylis to its delights, as they went from room to room, through the exhibits for all fifteen auctions, until they reached the one with the Hermès bags. They were a feast for the eye, with beautiful handbags on display. She looked at several intently. Maylis said she didn’t like the ones with the diamond clasps, and they were ridiculously expensive anyway.
“Well, that’s fortunate,” he teased her about the bags with diamond clasps, “since they’re five times the price of the others.”
“That’s absurd,” she said dismissively, but she found the three bags she wanted to bid on, and they agreed to come back the next day and attend the auction. The exhibition room would be dismantled then, folding chairs set up with a podium for the auctioneer, a long table with several phones for phone bids, and the auction would take place in the same room. And the day after, the same fifteen rooms would be flooded with new treasures on exhibit, and every other day, there were fifteen auctions. It was one of Gabriel’s favorite things to do, and he was proud of the spoils of war he had gotten there. He warned Maylis that it became an addiction, and she could easily believe it, and was excited about bidding on the three bags the next day. She was only planning to buy one, and they weren’t cheap. But all three were in perfect condition, looked like they hadn’t been worn, and were in their original orange Hermès boxes. And only the black alligator was liable to be truly expensive.
They arrived right after the auction began the next day. The items she was interested in were due to come up a little later, and they settled into their seats to watch the bidding, which was lively. They had started with some smaller items, and older, less exciting handbags. The alligator Birkins were the pièces de résistance of the auction, so they saved them for later to keep people in the room.
The navy blue leather bag came up first, half an hour later. It was very chic, and the bidding went higher than Maylis had expected. She raised her hand timidly at first, and then got braver as Gabriel watched her, smiling, and she was the underbidder, and didn’t get it. She whispered to him that she was saving herself for the red leather or black alligator, which she thought she’d use more, and he nodded approval. And as she spoke to him, she noticed a familiar face across the aisle. It was a young woman in a peacoat with her hair in a braid. She was simply dressed but looked chic, and Maylis couldn’t place her at first as she stared at her. She didn’t bid on anything while Maylis watched her, but was observing the sale intently. And then a few minutes later, Maylis realized who she was, and she whispered to Gabriel and nodded in her direction.
“That’s Stanislas’s mistress. I’m surprised she buys her bags here. He’d buy her anything she wanted.”
“Everybody loves a bargain,” he whispered, although the prices in the sale they were watching were anything but cheap. And several times when the prices went sky high, particularly the bags with diamond clasps, she saw Natasha smile and look pleased. But she never bid on any of them, and she wrote down the hammer price of every item in the catalog she was holding. Maylis commented on it to Gabriel, and he glanced at her too. Natasha didn’t notice them, she was too intent on the sale.
“She’s not buying,” Gabriel whispered to her then. “I think she’s selling.”
“Really?” Maylis looked surprised. “How amazing.”
“You’d be surprised how often you see people you know here, doing both.”
“She certainly doesn’t need to sell anything,” Maylis commented.
“Maybe he doesn’t give her enough pocket money,” Gabriel whispered back. “I’ve heard that a lot of the Russian girls sell the gifts that they get. They get a fortune for them. Some man they scarcely know gives them an alligator Birkin, and they turn around and sell it. It’s found money for them.”
“But she’s not a hooker, for heaven’s sake, she’s his mistress. And the way I’ve seen her dressed, he must be very generous with her. She wears couture from head to foot.” Gabriel glanced over at her, and she looked like any schoolgirl in jeans to him. She looked about sixteen. “Maybe not today,” Maylis commented, “but her clothes were the latest haute couture when she came to the restaurant. She must be incognito today, and trying to be discreet.”
The next item in the auction was one of the big guns, another alligator Birkin with a diamond clasp, and it went for twice what the others had, as two women battled over it, and when the hammer came down at a shocking price, Natasha was smiling from ear to ear. It confirmed Gabriel’s guess about why she was there, and Maylis agreed. She was definitely selling. And then the red bag Maylis wanted came up, and she got it, and looked at Gabriel, delighted. It had been a good deal.
“I told you you’d get hooked!” he chuckled as he watched her.
And when the black alligator bag came up, she bid timidly and dropped out early. The hammer was about to go down at a much higher price, when Gabriel stunned her and put up his hand. The black alligator bag went to him, as Maylis stared at him with her mouth open. He had paid a fortune for it.