Chapter 19: Returned to Owner

Caspian's POV

The night before the border, I did the one thing I knew she would understand.

I went to Leo's spare room.

Three cribs, a rocking chair and a mobile of gold snakes sat around a velvet tray.

On the tray lay six of my wife's gemstones.

I looked at each one in the lamplight.

I wrapped them in white cloth and put them in a cedar box.

Then I went to my desk and found every receipt.

Each stone had a slip of paper from the dealer, and a second slip for the envelope, and a third for the driver.

I attached them to their stones with small gold pins.

At the bottom of the box I laid her own appraisal cards, in her handwriting, so she would know nothing was missing.

I wrote one note.

It said: These are yours. You were never meant to pay for them.

Then I tore it up, because it was a gift, and she would not accept a gift.

I wrote instead: Returned to owner. Receipts enclosed.

She was in the library, sitting cross-legged on the rug with a pile of old law books.

She was reading about silver.

I set the box in front of her.

"What is this?"

"An account."

She opened the lid.

I watched her lift the first stone and find the receipt, and the second, and the third.

By the fifth, her mouth had gone strange.

"Caspian. This is double what I'd charge."

"I know."

"You overpaid by eighty thousand dollars."

"I know that as well."

"I am going to have to give you a refund."

"You are going to have to do nothing of the sort."

"It's an unfair transaction. I can't be a party to it."

"I would like to buy them from you," I said. "At a fair price, which you may set."

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