“Nothing easier, sir! In fact, I’ll come with you, if’n you can wait while I lock up. I could do with wetting me whistle meself.”
From which, Jamie deduced that the mysterious owner of the miniature was currently engaged in wetting his own whistle. He sighed, foreseeing that the purchase of ale was going to be part of the transaction.
The pawnbroker introduced himself as Silas Green, who led him no more than fifty paces to the high street, still lively with traffic and people, and round the corner to the Angel, wherethe tap room was already growing rowdy. Green’s friend, one William Keeley, at once agreed that the miniature was his.
“Ah, shweet Georgie!” he murmured, his speech already somewhat slurred. “Poor girl! So dist— dish— upset when Henry died. Aye, and ’twas right here that he died,” he added, with a sentimental sigh.
“Oh?” Jamie said. “What happened?”
“He was upstairs,” Keeley said. “Shpeshul shell— shelly—”
“Celebration,” Green said impatiently. “Gods, Will, can’t you hold your drink better’n this? Henry missed his step, fell down the stairs and broke his neck, the stupid ox. Got a wife like that, why was he even here? Shoulda bin home with ’is wife. I woulda bin. Lord, I’m thirsty.”
Jamie understood his cue, ordered a round of beer and then, since Green pathetically indicated that he was hungry as well, two bowls of stew. After that, the two men rapidly becoming mellow, it was not difficult to persuade them to part with the miniature, although Jamie winced inwardly at the price.
He pocketed the miniature, ordered another round of drinks for Green, Keeley and the several friends who had gathered round them at the prospect of free beer, and prepared to take his leave.
“By the way,” he said as he buttoned his coat, “how did you come to acquire the miniature from Henry Hastings?”
“Won it at cards,” Keeley said promptly. “Henry was terrible unlucky at cards.”
And they all laughed uproariously, and turned back to their ale.
Jamie left without another word, too disgusted at Henry Hastings to linger among his rackety friends. Besides, he had somewhere else he would much rather be. Much as he disliked Green, he could not help agreeing with him on one point — if a man were married to Georgie, why would he spend all his timeat an inn, drinking and gaming and who knows what else? As he walked briskly back to the cottage, where a lantern burned over the door, light spilled out into the snowy night and as soon as he opened the door, a tempting aroma met his nostrils, he could only repeat the point to himself.
“Ah, there you are!” Georgie said, emerging from the kitchen with a smiling face. “I was wondering whether to send out a search party.”
“No need,” he said, throwing his arms round her and kissing her full on the lips. “I have had a small adventure, but I shall always come home to you.”
“Oh!” she said, and he thought she blushed a little. “And if you greet me so pleasingly, I shall always look forward to it. Although you are a bit snowy, and so am I, now.”
“I beg your pardon. I shall try to remember to remove my coat first in future.”
“No, no. Such enthusiasm is delightful. Do you want to wash before dinner? I have hot water in the kettle.”
He washed in the scullery, and then sat down in the kitchen for dinner. It was just the two of them, her friends tactfully leaving them on their own for once. They had all contributed a dish to the meal, however, and although sometimes the contents were hard to identify, they were all tasty.
“It is very plain fare,” Georgie said, as they lingered over a gooseberry tart. “Not like the duke’s table. No venison, I’m afraid.”
“There is nothing wrong with plain food,” Jamie said, and he thought that if he could come home to Georgie’s smiling face every night, he would be quite happy never to eat venison again. “Do you want to hear about my small adventure?”
“If you wish to tell me about it.”
“I found this in a shop window. You were right, it is an excellent likeness.”
He laid the miniature on the table, and with a gasp of recognition, she picked it up. “But how did it get there? I suppose Henry lost it somewhere and someone found it and sold it.”
That was close enough to the truth that he saw no need to mention cards or Keeley or the Angel, and fortunately she did not enquire as to the nature of the shop.
“Did you have to pay to get it back? Of course you did. How much was it? I’ll repay you.”
“Nonsense! It is a gift for my future wife. I could hardly leave it to languish in a shop like that, to be bought by a stranger. It should be with its pair.”
“No,” she said pensively. “No, it’s yours, just as it was Henry’s, to remind him of me. Not that it was very effective, if he managed to lose it.Youwill keep it safe, won’t you?”
She pressed it into his hand and folded his fingers over it. “I will keep it safe,” he said softly.
“You had better keep this safe, too,” she said, twisting off her wedding ring.
