I turned back slowly, not wanting to see her look at me the same way everyone else did. But she wasn’t looking at me. She was staring at the ring, a furrow in her brow.
“You made this.” It was no longer an accusation.
It wasn’t a question, either, but I still answered. “I did.”
She looked up at me. Her gaze didn’t drift over my shoulder or lose focus as she looked through me. She looked directly at me, not smiling, but intent. “It is stunning.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, not sure how to handle this. It was what I wanted, but what did it mean that she could still accept my abilities when no one else could? I said the only thing that came to mind. “It’s yours.”
In an instant, she thrust the ring toward me. “I can’t accept this.”
I stepped back, wrapping one hand around my other wrist behind my back. “It’s your gold, Miss Devale. I can’t accept it.”
“Mina,” she corrected absently, still trying to shove the ring at me. She moved closer. “The gold I gave you is worth nothing compared to this. I will owe you several times more if I accept this, Master Smythson.”
For a moment, I wondered what kind of life Mina lived, that she could dismiss gold so easily. Even without the ring in the mix, she had still given me a fortune. And if she was right and the jewelry I made could be sold for even more, then the remnants of that original necklace would see me through months of uncertainty.
But I couldn’t leave until I knew that those months wouldn’t extend indefinitely. I had to understand why Mina once more looked at me as if I had talent. “According to the villagers, I haven’t earned the title of Master. Just Alan will do.”
She pinched the ring between thumb and forefinger and waved it at me. “Well, not-a-master-Alan, do you know what people would pay for a ring of this quality in the city? Not to mention that everyone who sees it will want their own, giving you even more clients? You’ve transformed the gold I gave you into something exceedingly more valuable.”
“If I lived in Haiwella, you might be right. But I’m not in the city.”
“You should go. People will respect a craftsman like you there.”
“Why should the city be any different from Skorsa?”
Mina’s brow furrowed, then abruptly smoothed. “Fashions are different in the city. A skilled jeweler could convince the nobility to buy just about anything and start a new trend.”
“Like that collar-necklace?” I asked, trying to figure out what was going on. Mina was willing to argue that I had talent, but not refute the opinions of the villagers?
She laughed. “With your skill, people will accept odder jewelry than that necklace. You could design shoes of gold that would take the court by storm.”
Her laughter made me forget my confusion for a moment. Here, now, I could simply joke with someone. That the someone in question was Mina made the opportunity impossible to ignore. “Not shoes. Gold is too soft to walk on. I think I’d design gold bonnets.”
Her eyes sparkled, more green than brown currently, and I changed out the sapphire for peridot in my mental image of the silver and gold necklace.
Humor suffused her voice. “It sounds uncomfortable enough to be the height of fashion.”
“You might as well lower your hand,” I said, noticing that she still had the ring extended toward me. “I’m not taking it back, Mina.”
“Why not? You can’t give something like this away. At least let me pay you for it.”
“You already did. The ring used only a fraction of the gold you already paid—overpaid, really—for the necklace. I made it for you.”
The design had certainly come to me when I thought of Mina. I had seen that ring on her slender finger in my mind and known I had to make it.
“You made it for me?” A delicate blush spread over her cheeks. “I... thank you. But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve compensation.”
“Listen, if you weren’t here, I wouldn’t be able to give the ring to anyone, let alone sell it. At least this way it will be appreciated.”
She crossed her arms. “It is hardly the villagers’ fault that you are a disappointment.”
For a single heartbeat, her words didn’t make sense. Then they did. I spun around.
“Wait. Alan!”
I didn’t wait. I took the steps two at a time. This was why I didn’t talk to anyone. Why try over and over, when it accomplished nothing? I didn’t need to seek out insults.
