“There are rats?” Claire squeaked in alarm.
“No,” Joanna said firmly. “There aren’t any rats.”
At least, she hoped not.
Still, a rat or two would be vastly preferable to a crazed jeweler.
“I knew something was wrong with him.” She shook her head. “As soon as he saw the ring, his entire demeanor changed. Almost as if…”
“He recognized it,” Claire whispered. She raised wide, fearful, blue eyes to Joanna. “I found his behavior peculiar as well. But how could he have seen Mother’s ring before? It was in that attic for years and years.”
“I’m not sure. But he seemed to know an awful lot about it.” Uncurling her fingers, Joanna studied the ring with a renewed sense of interest…and wariness. What secrets were embedded within the ruby? Why had their mother kept it hidden for their entire lives? And why had Mr. Bernard tried to steal it from them?
For once, Joanna didn’t have any answers.
It wasn’t a good feeling.
As the oldest, she was accustomed to fixing things. To solving problems. To righting wrongs. But there was no easy solution to be found in any of this.
Only more questions.
Carefully slipping the ring back into its leather carrying pouch, she put the pouch in her purse and slipped her wrist through the leather handles.
“What do we do now?” Claire asked, unknowingly echoing Joanna’s exact thoughts.
“I’m not sure. Take it to another jeweler, I suppose. Someone who doesn’t know anything about us, or our family, or the ring.” Slowly standing, she peeked around the corner of a crate. When she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, she waved her arm to indicate the path was clear.
“Finally.” With a huff, Evie used her parasol to push herself to her feet and then gave a gasp of outrage when dust rose in a billowing cloud of red from her skirts as she spun around in a circle. “Lookat this! I told you we should have gone to a pastry shop. Do you know how hard it is to get stains out of bombazine?”
“God bless you,” Claire said politely.
Joanna rolled her eyes. “We’ve more to worry about than a little dirt on our dresses.”
“Easy for you to say,” Evie scowled. “You never carewhatyou look like.”
“It’s served me well this far.” Not wanting to go back the way they’d come in case Mr. Bernard was still after them, Joanna crossed the street and turned left. Thankfully, Boston was a large, sprawling metropolis, and the chances of crossing paths with a single person out of thousands was incredibly slim. “There should be another jeweler near the commons. If not, we can double back to our carriage and return home.”
For the journey into the city they’d borrowed a square gig from a friend in the village, which Claire had driven. While timid with people, she’d always had an affinity for animals, and had handled the three-hour trip with remarkable ease, particularly given the condition of some of the roads.
“I hope we can find someone reputable to appraise the ring,” Claire said fretfully as the sisters pressed up against the side of a store to make room for two men carrying a large crate between them. “I shouldn’t like to come here again.”
“We could always spend the night,” Evie suggested, her gaze lingering on the display of colorful shawls hanging in the window. “Start fresh in the morning.”
“How are we to afford lodging?” Joanna asked.
Tearing her gaze away from the window, Evie kicked at a pebble with her shoe. “Idespisebeing poor.”
“It is not ideal,” Claire agreed. “Still, we have each other, don’t we?”
“Of course.Andwe still have the ring,” Joanna pointed out. “Which means our plan remains the same as it did before. We just need to find another jeweler.”
“Preferably one I don’t have to beat over the head with a parasol,” said Evie.
Joanna grinned. “Excellent work, by the by. Mr. Bernard quite literally did not know what hit him.”
“Thank you,” said Evie, appearing pleased by the praise.
They rounded a busy corner. Joanna began to search the signs hanging above the various stores, looking for one that could provide them the service they required. “I’m certain Mr. Bernard was nothing more than a stroke of bad luck. I know we can find—oompf!”
