{"product_id":"2940016235028","title":"The Blood-red Cross","description":"In the month of November in the year 1899 I found myself a guest in the\u003cbr\u003ehouse of one of my oldest friends--George Rowland. His beautiful place in\u003cbr\u003eYorkshire was an ideal holiday resort. It went by the name of Rowland's\u003cbr\u003eFolly, and had been built on the site of a former dwelling in the reign\u003cbr\u003eof the first George. The house was now replete with every modern luxury.\u003cbr\u003eIt, however, very nearly cost its first owner, if not the whole of his\u003cbr\u003efortune, yet the most precious heirloom of the family. This was a pearl\u003cbr\u003enecklace of almost fabulous value. It had been secured as booty by a\u003cbr\u003ecertain Geoffrey Rowland at the time of the Battle of Agincourt, had\u003cbr\u003eoriginally been the property of one of the Dukes of Genoa, and had even\u003cbr\u003efor a short time been in the keeping of the Pope. From the moment that\u003cbr\u003eGeoffrey Rowland took possession of the necklace there had been several\u003cbr\u003eattempts made to deprive him of it. Sword, fire, water, poison, had all\u003cbr\u003ebeen used, but ineffectually. The necklace with its eighty pearls,\u003cbr\u003esmooth, symmetrical, pear-shaped, of a translucent white colour and with\u003cbr\u003ea subdued iridescent sheen, was still in the possession of the family,\u003cbr\u003eand was likely to remain there, as George Rowland told me, until the end\u003cbr\u003eof time. Each bride wore the necklace on her wedding-day, after which it\u003cbr\u003ewas put into the strong-room and, as a rule, never seen again until the\u003cbr\u003enext bridal occasion. The pearls were roughly estimated as worth from two\u003cbr\u003eto three thousand pounds each, but the historical value of the necklace\u003cbr\u003eput the price almost beyond the dreams of avarice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was reported that in the autumn of that same year an American\u003cbr\u003emillionaire had offered to buy it from the family at their own price, but\u003cbr\u003eas no terms would be listened to the negotiations fell through.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074370027760,"sku":"2940016235028","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016235028_p0.jpg?v=1763631368","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016235028","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}