Ally Broadfield | Why All of My Heroines Love Jewelry

If I could get away with it, I would probably wear pajamas all the time, but my
grandmother never left the house unless she was wearing the perfect outfit, had
her hair and makeup in place, and had just the right jewelry to match. She loved
jewelry. From the time I was a little girl, I remember her traveling to Hong
Kong and other exotic-sounding locales and coming home with gorgeous necklaces,
bracelets, and rings (most of which were costume jewelry, but I didn’t know
that). I would put them all on, usually all at once, stick my tiny feet in her
high heels, and totter around, imagining myself in a beautiful ball gown dancing
with the prince.

After my grandmother passed away, the task of sorting through her jewelry fell
to me and my sister. We went through what we thought was the costume jewelry and
divided up the items we each wanted, then set aside the rest to give away. My
sister chose a fake but large diamond on a plain gold chain to give to a
friend’s daughter for dress up. It just so happens that at the time, her then
boyfriend, who is a police officer, was working overtime as a night guard at a
jewelry store. He convinced her to let him take a few of the items, including
the necklace, to the jeweler to have them appraised. As you may have guessed,
the diamond from that necklace turned out to be a real. It was a two carat,
princess cut diamond, and it became the center piece of her engagement ring.
I’ll admit that I was a bit jealous, but I was already married and have an
engagement ring I love, even though the largest diamond is nowhere near that big.

Dividing up the real jewelry was much more difficult, not because it was overly
valuable, but because there were several pieces that held sentimental value for
both of us. My grandmother had a gold ring inset with tiny diamonds that she
wore all the time. A few months before she passed away, she lost that ring while
we were eating dinner at a restaurant. We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find
it. A few weeks later, we ate there again, and as we were settling into the same
both we had shared before, there it was, her ring sparkling from between the
cushions on the bench. I decided to take that ring because every time I see it,
I think of her.

The other items I cherish are a gorgeous, red garnet necklace and butterfly pin
that my great-great grandmother brought with her when she immigrated to the
United States from Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, for a long time I left the
necklace and pin hidden in my jewelry box, thinking they were too special to
risk breaking or losing them. About a year ago, I finally came to the
realization that there was no point in having them if I never wore them, so I
pulled them out of my jewelry box and wore them to a charity auction. I still
believe that they’re too special to wear all the time, but I’m no longer afraid
to wear them on special occasions.

I write historical romance set in Regency England, and naturally, the heroines I
write tend to like jewelry. At that time it was not only a symbol of status, but
was also a form of portable wealth, which was important in a place where there
weren’t any credit cards or ATM machines.

In my new release, HOW TO BEGUILE A DUKE, the heroine’s family is wealthy. In fact, her father is rumored to have been a pirate. She has plenty of jewelry of her own, but what she wants most is to locate a missing family heirloom, a tiara set with pink diamonds that her great-grandmother owned and supposedly hid in their ancestral home. She spends quite a lot of time searching her great-grandmother’s journal for clues about where she hid the tiara, but I’m afraid you’ll have to read the book to find out if she’s successful. If she does find it, I sure hope she wears it.