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21
ISABELLA
As I’d feared, the jeweler looks suspicious when he sees the ring. Niall’s bruised face and swollen eye don’t help matters.
“Did you steal this?” His gaze cuts towards me, taking in the bruises on my jaw and how tired I must look. “You don’t look like the kind of folks to have a diamond like this.”
I can see Niall’s jaw tense, and I know he’s reaching the end of his patience. “No,” he says, his voice gravelly, and I cut in quickly.
“It was meant to be my engagement ring.” I give the jeweler a sweet smile, approaching the counter to stand next to Niall. He gives me a warning look, but I ignore him. This, I think I can handle. “A family heirloom. But my family hasn’t been very kind about my husband here.” I nod towards Niall. “He and my father had an argument. He changed his mind about letting us get married. So we left. The ring was my mother’s, handed down to me—it belongs to me. But looking at it just hurts now. So I thought we could sell it and get something we chose together, instead. Use the rest to start our new life together.” I slide my arm into Niall’s, leaning into him. I feel him stiffen for a moment before he relaxes into my touch—for the jeweler’s benefit, I’m sure. I just hope the man didn’t notice how Niall flinched at first, or if he did, chalks it up to the beating he’s clearly taken.
I didn’t need to worry, though. I could see the old man’s face softening as I told my story earnestly—not difficult to do, since part of it is the truth at least—and he nods as I finish.
“One day, your father will see things differently,” he says gruffly. “And you’ll wish you had this then. Especially if it was from your—I’m guessing late—mother.”
“She wasn’t a kind woman,” I say quickly, feeling bad for that lie. My real mother is prickly, to be sure, but I know she loves me in her way, just as my father does, even if I’ve been a disappointment to them both in different ways. “Really, sir, I’m happy to be rid of it. We don’t have much, and my new life with the man I love is all that matters.”
“Well—” the man seems to waffle briefly, and then he nods as if he’s come to a decision. “Let me look it over a bit more closely, and I’ll give you a price.”
Niall lets out a breath as the man walks away. “You handled that well,” he says quietly, and I try not to be hurt by the surprise in his voice. It makes me wonder how he sees me, as someone so sheltered that I can’t function in the outside world.I was the one who pickedyouup at a bar,I want to say, but I don’t. The moment between us feels so fragile that I’m terrified of shattering it.
After a few minutes, the jeweler comes back and names a price that makes Niall’s eyes widen a little. It sounds a bit too low for the size and quality of the ring, but I honestly don’t care, and I don’t think Niall does either. I don’t want it on my hand, especially not after Niall and I are married, and it won’t serve us well anywhere else, either.
“We’ll take it,” Niall says, and I nod my agreement when the jeweler glances at me. “As for rings, we just need something simple. A thin gold band for her and something a bit wider for me, but still just plain gold.”
“Well, I surely have that. You don’t want anything else? A small diamond to go with it, maybe?” He looks at Niall keenly, who shakes his head.
“I just want something simple, too,” I add in, wanting to help. “I don’t need anything fancy.”
“Well, alright then.” The jeweler looks a bit disappointed, but he gets the bands for us, slipping them into two small velvet boxes and handing them to Niall, along with the difference in the price for the ring. “You two take care now.”
“Will do.” Niall nods to the man, and we leave, standing out on the sidewalk in the rapidly cooling night as Niall glances down the street.
“What now?”
“Well—” He rubs a hand over his mouth. “We should head to the church. But I can’t help feeling—”
“What?” A shiver of nervousness runs through me, and I’m not entirely sure why. If Niall is having second thoughts about marrying me, it would simplify things a lot, especially once we get to the States. But I don’t feel happy at the idea. In fact, it makes me feel worse than before.
“It’s not right, you getting married in that.” He waves a hand at my outfit. “Me, I think it’s fitting in a way for me to not get married in a suit, being the kind of man I am—but you ought to have a white dress. It’s not as if we can find a traditional wedding dress here—but you should have something better than that.”
“I don’t need that,” I tell him quickly. “Really, I—”
“I know. But you might regret it one day. Come on.” And then, to my surprise, Niall reaches down, his hand resting gently against the small of my back. “Let’s find you something decent to get married in. It was your ring we got the money from, anyway.”
I have to blink back tears. After all of this, Niall is still trying to be kind. We walk down the sidewalk to a clothing shop not far from the restaurant where I bought dinner earlier and slip inside to the chime of a bell.
“We’re about to close,” the girl at the counter says, narrowing her eyes at us. “I’m just getting ready to finish up for the day—”
“We won’t stay long,” Niall promises. “We just need a white dress nice enough to go to the church in, if you catch my meaning.”
The girl glances at me, and her face softens. “Well, that’s romantic,” she says, pushing away from the counter. “Wish I had a man that looked like you hurrying me to the altar.”
“Do you have anything that might work?” I ask hesitantly. “I’m really not that picky about it—”
“Maybe.” The girl walks around the counter and past a rack of clothes towards the back. “We have a few fancy dresses here. They don’t sell well. But I think I saw something—”
She comes back a moment later, holding up a dress on a hanger in front of her, and I nearly gasp.
