Beyond the Spring Breeze novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Brooch

My mother's jewelry box sat on my dresser where it had always been.

I opened it at six the next morning, before anyone was awake.

The tissue paper lay folded in the bottom.

The brooch was gone.

So was the thin gold watch she wore on her wedding day.

I stood very still, holding the empty tissue.

Then I put it down and washed my face, braided my hair, and rode into town.

The pawn shop on Church Street was a narrow room with a bell on the door and a glass counter full of wedding bands.

Ellis was already there, sitting on a stool by the register, drinking coffee from a thermos cup.

He raised it to me.

"This is my cousin," he said. "Thea Kittredge."

The man behind the counter was fifty, bald, with half-glasses and a gray cardigan.

"I know who she is," he said, not unkindly. "I fixed her father's wristwatch once."

"Did Dean Mallory come in yesterday?"

"He did."

"Did you buy anything from him?"

"I did not."

"Did he leave anything?"

The man sighed and ducked under the counter and came up with a velvet box.

He opened it on the glass.

There lay my mother's seed-pearl brooch, with its little gold sails.

"He wanted four hundred," the man said. "I said it was worth two and I wanted a bill of sale. He said he'd bring the paper today. He took the watch to a shop in Cambridge, I'd guess. I don't know who bought it."

I touched the brooch.

The pearls were cool and rough under my finger, and the sight of them cut me deeper than the photograph had.

"It's mine," I said. "My mother's."

"I thought as much." He closed the lid. "Here's what I'm going to do, young lady. I can't give you stolen property. But I can say I saw it brought in. If you'll wait in the back, I'll let him bring his paper."

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