Una looked at the rings and immediately pointed to the cheaper end of the tray.
"That one," she said, indicating a plain band, thin and modest.
Cormac looked at it."No."
"It is perfectly serviceable and—"
"No."He moved her hand along the tray to a pair of matching bands, broader, worked with a simple interlace pattern.Plain at a glance but the craftsmanship was unmistakable up close, the gold warm and deep."These."
"Cormac—"
"These," he said to the jeweler.
The jeweler lifted them out.Cormac took the smaller one, picked up Una's left hand, and slid it onto her finger.
It fit perfectly.She did not ask how he had known the size.
He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles, just below the ring."Now it's perfect," he said.
Una stared at the ring on her finger, warm gold, the interlace catching the light, and felt something settle in her chest.She place the matching band on Cormac’s finger and thought that it suited him, and that she was glad to see it there.
The jeweler was not yet done.He turned the tray and set out a row of further pieces: earbobs, a fine chain with a small pendant, a bracelet of twisted gold, and others set with emeralds and rubies.
Una's eyes studied the pieces she liked before she could stop herself.She looked away.
Cormac had been watching.
"The earbobs," he said quietly to the jeweler."And the gold chain.The emerald bracelet, the ruby ring, the pearl and diamond brooch."
"Cormac!"
"Ye stared at them," he said."I purchased them for ye."
"I was only looking."
"Aye."He nodded to the jeweler."All of them."
Una pressed her lips together.The jeweler wrapped each piece in cloth, placed them in small velvet pouches, and set them aside.Cormac paid a tidy sum and the jeweler thanked him several times on his way out.
When he had gone Una sat in the chair by the fire and looked at the ring on her hand and the small pouches on the table.
She had spent her whole life making beautiful things for other people.She had never expected anyone to do the same for her.
She did not know how to receive it without feeling as though she were living someone else's life.
Cormac crouched in front of her chair and looked up at her."Ye are not going to disappoint me," he said."Ye are not going to be out of place.And ye deserve to wear fine things."
"But it is all too much."
"Not to me."
She smiled and thanked him.He kissed her forehead and stood.
***
SHORTLY AFTER, CORMACand Seumas prepared to leave.Cormac checked something in the writing table drawer, pocketed it, and straightened his plaid.
"My appointment," he said."I should not be more than an hour."
