Green Fire Read Free Page A

emerald eyes trapping hers for an instant. "I didn't exactly apply. I talked my way into the job because I found out you were going to be staying here for a while."
    Rani stared at him, her earlier sense of unease turning into an outright chill. Very carefully she put down her fork. "I'm afraid I don't understand."
    "It's the ring." He nodded at the green stone set in old metal.
    The chill became a faint shivering that she couldn't quite control. Rani's hand closed into a tight fist, and she pushed it into her lap where the ring would be out of sight. "What are you talking about? This ring is junk jewelry. Look, Mr. Cottrell, I don't know what you're up to, but you're starting to make me very nervous. If you've come here to steal my ring, you've made a long trip for nothing. There might be a few dollars in the setting, but the stone itself is practically worthless. Just nicely cut glass. Now, I think you'd better leave."
    He ignored her tense command and took another biscuit. "The value of the ring to me lies in the history behind it, not in the stone. Relax, Rani. I'm not here to steal it. It wouldn't do me any good. It doesn't work that way," he added cryptically.
    "You're not making any sense."
    "I'm writing an article, Rani. In my spare time I do articles on legends and treasures. Objects that have interesting histories like the one behind that ring. A piece on the Clayborne ring is my current project."
    "It's just a ring, not a special piece of jewelry," she said bewilderedly. "What about the handyman-gardening job?"
    "I told you, it's how I'm going to finance the time to write."
    "Have you written a lot of articles, Flint?"
    "A few."
    She felt as though she were sinking into a bottomless sea. "Have they sold?"
    "Some have."
    "I don't understand. How did you know about my ring?"
    Flint shrugged. "It's one of the legends I've tracked on and off through the years. For some reason I've grown very curious about this particular tale. When I decided to do the article, I tried to find out what had happened to the ring. I discovered it had been left to you by your uncle."
    Rani's mouth felt dry. "You seem to know a great deal about me. Far more than I know about you."
    "You'll learn."
    "About you? I hate to break this to you, Mr. Cottrell, but learning more about you isn't exactly high on my list of priorities."
    "You keep a list?" He sounded genuinely interested.
    "It was a figure of speech! Just how much do you know about Uncle Ambrose?"
    "He was a fine craftsman."
    "That's a nice term for it. He made a living creating fake jewelry like this ring. He could make a piece of red glass look like a ruby or cut a bit of crystal so that it shone like a diamond. His work was often good enough to fool anyone but a professional. Supposedly he had an honest business creating paste. There are plenty of people who don't want to wear their genuine valuables in public and prefer to have duplicates made. But the truth of the matter is that my uncle made his real money working with jewel thieves who wanted to leave a piece of paste behind when they stole the real thing. My uncle's stuff was so good that often the switch wasn't discovered for years."
    "You seem to know a fair amount about Ambrose's career," Flint said mildly as he started energetically on the stew.
    Rani's mouth curved wryly. "I learned it the awkward way along with the rest of my family after Uncle Ambrose was killed in a car accident back East a couple of months ago. When his business accounts were examined after the funeral, a great deal of information came to light. Uncle Ambrose kept excellent books. Two sets of them. Several old jewel theft cases were partially cleared up, thanks to Uncle Ambrose's accounts.
    "And after his death you inherited that ring."
    "Along with a whole bunch of other fake jewelry. My uncle's work is actually quite beautiful. The jewelry was forwarded to me by his lawyer, who said Ambrose wanted me to have it. I'm not sure why. It's not as if we were