Jacqueline — Volume 1

A diamond bracelet turns up in the street—or so the Marquise de Versannes claims—and the grown-ups’ whispers make the young girls at Madame de Nailles’s reception strain to hear every word. Jacqueline is the one who asks the question no one can answer: if the Marquise didn’t find it, did she steal it?

In 19th-century Paris, Tuesday afternoons bring a gathering of schoolgirls, sweets, and society talk—much of it meant for adult ears. Jacqueline, striking and composed beyond her years, watches Hubert Marien watch her, while the scandal in the next room awakens a different curiosity: how can anyone know what is true when whispers and appearances rule the room? As the girls piece together the story of the glittering bracelet, their innocent questions brush against the secrets and judgments of the grown-up world. What else lies beneath the polished surface of Parisian society?

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