It spurred her upright, looking around. They lay on the same shore that they had entered from. She walked up the sandy shore and onto the grass, through the reeds to where their clotheshad been discarded. She found the ring a moment later, glinting amid the grass. A mad thought reached her then.
Keaton raised his head, following the sounds of her shuffling.
“Keaton? This ring that Mr. Thorne wanted... What does it look like?” she asked in a pitched tone, returning to him leisurely.
“Assuming I have it right from touch alone... it has a series of lines around it, carved into the metal which has the softness of gold. There is a large stone. I am told it is a ruby.”
Georgia listened, noting the similarities between the ring she held and the one he had been found clutching.
“Why?” he prompted.
“Do you have any idea what the lines mean?” she asked carefully.
“None. Rutherford could make nothing of them. Not entirely smooth and straight in places, curved or breaking off at angles in others. Possibly a map of a river's course?”
Georgia laughed. “Almost. It is the path through Egypt that my father took on his last expedition.”
She licked her lips, waiting for the reaction. Keaton went very still, then he spun in the water to face her. She stared back at him, forgetting for a moment that he was blind.
“You had better explain,” he began, quietly.
“I think you are the one with the explanation to give. This is my brother's ring. How did you come to have it?”
“Your brother’s ring?” he blurted. “I-I do not know. That is why I hired Thorne. I woke up holding it. Edric told me that there had been a terrible accident with the carriage, and I was thrown clear but suffered a head injury that left me blind and with no memory except...”
“Except…?”
Keaton held up a hand. “This is my brother's ring. That is what you said. But how do you have my ring?”
“Yours?” Georgia exclaimed.
“Yours. I mean, your brother’s. But in my keeping since that night. I could not find it to give to Thorne... did you take it from my bureau?”
“No!” Georgia defended, standing, clutching the ring in her fist, “I did not even know you had it. It fell from the linen I brought to dry myself.”
“From the linen? What?” Keaton exclaimed, raising his head to follow her voice.
He stood, water sluicing from his body. It was distracting to watch that titan rise from the water, especially after the experience she'd had with that body. She closed her eyes as Keaton approached her slowly, flicking his long tresses away from his face.
“It fell from the folds when I dropped the linen onto the ground when we arrived,” she clarified, “it must have been folded up with it in my cupboard.”
Keaton stopped behind her, one hand touching her back with outstretched fingers, noting her proximity.
“Someone put it there,” he muttered.
“Not me.”
Keaton paused, and she rounded on him. He frowned. “I did not say so.”
“You did not need to. I understand how you think,” she replied.
“When you have experienced a day without sight, you will find trust a rare commodity,” he shrugged.
Georgia closed her eyes, then blindly reached for Keaton's hands, placing them over her eyes.
“Very well. Let me purchase some of that commodity. Let me be rich, in fact. My eyes are closed. I will experience a day without sight and then, perhaps, you might trust me.”
He chuckled throatily, and she smiled. His fingers were so tender on her face, spiderweb touches that danced and flitted. She found the touches erotic, even if all he touched were her cheeks and her nose. Touching her in a more intimate area was a guarantee of a wildfire of lust. Innocent touching made her breath catch and her pulse trip, still.
