“I never liked the way Charles always used his salad fork for the main course,” Evie said with a sniff. “You couldn’t possibly marry someone who did not use their silverware in the correct order. What would people say?”
It wasn’t a perfect apology. It wasn’t even really an apology at all. But the intent was there, and that was all that mattered.
“Not to mention his choice in fashion,” Joanna said.
Evie blinked. “Are you referring to his salmon trousers?”
“Are they salmon? I thought they were pink.”
“Salmon,” Evie confirmed. “And imported straight from Paris.”
“You don’t say.”
“Have we managed to reach a compromise?” Ruth asked with a cool, measured stare at her oldest granddaughters.
Joanna glanced at Evie, who gave a small, nearly imperceptible nod.
“Yes,” she said, “I believe we have.”
“Good,” said Ruth matter-of-factly. “I realize all of you girls are concerned, and you’ve every right to be. The truth of the matter is that our situationisprecarious. Butno oneis going to marry someone they do not want to. Nor will they be pressured into doing so by any member of this family. Is that understood?”
“Then what would you have us do?” Claire asked softly.
Ruth hesitated. She seemed to be battling back and forth with something, before she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “You can sell the ring.”
All three sisters gave an audible gasp and looked at each other.
After a moment of stunned silence, Joanna was the first to speak.
“You mean…Mother’s ring?” she said disbelievingly.
Ruth lifted an eyebrow. “Is there another priceless ruby ring I am unaware of in your possession?”
“No,” said Evie. “It’s just that…”
“It’sMother’sring,” Claire finished.
Found in a box in the attic seven weeks after their father passed when they were packing up their belongings, the ring in question was an enormous heart-shaped ruby with glittering diamonds on either side. They knew it had belonged to their mother because her name had been inscribed on the inside of the gold band.
Anne, my love ~JW
The identity of “JW”, where the ring had come from, and why it had been hidden all these years…well, that remained a mystery.
When Joanna had first discovered the ring, tucked away with a lock of their mother’s hair (red, just like her own), she and her sisters had discussed selling it. But still reeling from the loss of their father, they hadn’t been able to part with something that had belonged to their mother.
Even if it was something they knew nothing about.
Late at night, with nothing else to fill her mind, Joanna had closed her eyes and wondered…but she’d never allowed, nor wanted, her mind to travel down a road where her mother had been given a piece of jewelry worth a large fortune from a man whose initials did not match her husband’s.
Thus the ring’s very existence had been largely—and purposefully—ignored.
Until now.
“The ring is worth an immense amount. I’ve never seen a stone of its equal in all my years.” Ruth walked to the window. “You would need to take it to a jeweler in Boston. I have one I can recommend. No merchant here in Somerville would be able to give you even half its value. But if you went into the city, and held out for a higher price, the money earned would be more than enough to see us comfortably through the next few years.”
An unpleasant feeling pooled in Joanna’s belly. Not quite guilt, not quite excitement, but an uncomfortable combination of the two that tasted sour on the back of her tongue. Like the time she’d bitten into a blackberry that wasn’t yet ripe.
“I’m not sure…” she said with a glance at Evie, who appeared equally uneasy.
