COLIN ENTERED their carriage to find Kendra seated inside, her arms crossed. “What took you so long?”
He sat opposite her and looked out the window. The door of the jewelry shop had closed, so he couldn’t see the girl with the amethyst-colored eyes and the long, thick, ribbon-entwined plait.
“I ordered a signet ring,” he said.
“You what?”
Colin could have asked himself that question. But in all his twenty-one years he’d never met anyone like the girl who had made that exquisite locket. He’d wanted his sister to own it, and he’d wanted something she’d made for him, too. “I need a signet ring, for a seal.”
Kendra shot him a look of patent disbelief. “You couldn’t even afford this locket.” She shook her bright head. “Something happened in that shop.”
“Nothing happened,” he said, although he knew very well something had. And he knew the girl—Amethyst—had felt it, too. An instantaneous pull of attraction. He smiled to himself. He was glad he’d met her, though nothing would ever come of it.
But he wasn’t about to admit as much to his little sister.
Unfortunately, Kendra was observant as anything, a fact that could be deucedly inconvenient at times. “I just thought it was a beautiful piece of jewelry,” he told her, “and I wanted you to have it.”
“Od’s fish, Colin, you’re the one always lecturing us about saving funds…”
He turned off her voice in his head, instead remembering the little hitch in Amethyst’s breath when he’d accidentally-on-purpose brushed her hand.
“…planning for the future…”
She was completely off limits, of course. A sheltered young woman of the merchant class, for certain she was nothing like the promiscuous ladies of the court.
“And then you ordered a ring. You never wear jewelry!”
Which would suit him just fine, in truth—he wasn’t that sort of fellow anyhow. But well-suited though they might be, Colin Chase, Earl of Greystone, had no intention of marrying beneath himself.
“I cannot believe you bought this locket in the first place.”
Besides, he was already betrothed to the perfect girl.
“I do love it, though.”
As they passed Goldsmith & Sons, he glanced out the window. He would never go back there. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d set foot in a jewelry shop, and…
No, he had no reason to ever return.
“Thank you, Colin. I truly do love it.”
He blinked and looked at Kendra. She was sighing, gazing down at the locket and touching it possessively.
What had she been saying?
Oh, she loved it.
“I’m glad. Shall we go buy our brother that telescope he’s been prattling on about?”
“Are you sure? Ford will be thrilled.” Kendra bounced on the seat, then settled her skirts about her as though she’d just remembered she was a grown-up sixteen. “Can it be from me, too? Much as I hate to encourage his scientific obsession, he is my twin, and I like to make him happy.”
Colin gave his sister a tolerant smile, hoping the gentleman she married would have more energy than he did. “Yes, it can be from you, too. Now, where do you suppose we might find such a contraption?”