Page 151 of Cozen

“Fuck him,” Pearl muttered. “I will go watch it without the review, then. I am getting damn tired of that man—what do I pay him for if he can’t write reviews without all that embellished nonsense? Complete garbage. I am going to fire him, and then sell the newspaper. Watch me.”

Cozen burst out with a laugh, but quickly clapped her hand over her mouth to stop more from bubbling out. Across the table, Fourth cocked an eyebrow at her.

Pearl only smiled.

“Sorry,” Cozen said. “It’s been a long day.”

“I bet,” Pearl replied.

And a long night.

She didn’t bother to explain that bit, though.

“I have something for you,” Cozen said.

Instantly, Pearl’s gaze lit up. Her dark brown eyes were warm with excitement and anticipation as her smile grew impossibly wider. It was as though fifty years dropped from the woman’s age just like that.

Amazing, really.

Cozen smiled, too.

It was hard not to.

“Do you have something for me?” Pearl asked. “Really?”

Nodding, Cozen put her clutch to the table, and opened it up. She pulled out the tissue she had grabbed to wrap the Astor Queen’s ruby ring in to keep it safe, and hidden during her travel to their home.

Silently, Cozen passed the tissue over.

For a long while, Pearl simply held the tissue in her hands, and stared down at it. Fourth set the newspaper aside, and leaned back in the dining chair as his gaze drifted between his great-grandmother, and Cozen.

“Down to the wire, weren’t you?” he asked.

Cozen shrugged. “I got the job done.”

“Barely.”

“Never barely, Fourth. I never even need to use a backup plan … but this time, the backup was there whether I needed it or not. It never usually works out that way, but life has a way of surprising me.”

“Hmm.”

“Or maybe it’s just luck,” Cozen added, shooting Fourth a look. “Someone once told me I was the luckiest woman they had ever met. So lucky, that he never wanted to let me get very far out of his sight for fear the luck he got from being near me would wear off.”

“And who is this someone?”

Cozen didn’t answer.

Her attention was on Pearl.

“Leave her be, Fourth,” Pearl murmured softly.

The old woman carefully unwrapped the ruby from the tissue, and lifted it high in the air as she peered at it. She turned it over, and inspected the cursive A on the underside of the gem, and then twisted it around and around in her fingers.

For a brief second, she even slipped the ring down her forefinger before she quickly took it off, and set it on top of the tissue paper on the table.

Pearl looked at Cozen, and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Never mention it,” Cozen replied in kind.