Moonheart Read Free Page A

There's no need to play coy with me. I'll give you a good price for it. Say fifteen dollars?"
    I'm not angry, Sara told herself, and I won't get angry. The customer's always' right. It pays to be polite. God, what rubbish! If she never saw Miss Hathaway again it'd be too soon.
    "Well?" Miss Hathaway demanded. "Don't grit your teeth, girl. It's an irritating habit. Have you got a box for it?"
    "I'm afraid it's not for sale," Sara replied evenly. "First off, it's solid gold—"
    "Why so it is! Twenty dollars then, and not a penny more."
    "And secondly, it's mine, and I don't want to sell it."
    "That's hardly a very businesslike attitude."
    One, two, three. Deep breath. "Look," Sara tried. "I don't want to sell it."
    "Well then, you shouldn't have it on display in your store."
    "It wasn't on display. I was sitting at the counter here while I was—" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter what I was doing with it. I'm not selling it and that's final."
    Miss Hathaway glared at her. "Well, that's a fine way to talk. I've got a good mind to report you to the Better Business Bureau. First you have merchandise offered for sale and you refuse to sell it. Then—"
    "That's my right!" Sara cried, her voice rising with her temper. "If I don't want to sell something, I don't have to. I don't care if you go to Parliament Hill and get a bill passed saying I've got to sell it. You still won't get it."
    "And then," Miss Hathaway continued, "you're extremely rude in the bargain."
    "Rude? Me? "
    Sara put a sudden clamp on her temper. She breathed slowly to steady herself and began again.
    "Miss Hathaway," she said as politely as she could, "I'm not going to sell this ring and there's no point in arguing about it." She pried the ring from the woman's hands. "Thank you. And now in future, perhaps you'd care to do your shopping someplace else? I really don't need this sort of aggravation."
    "Aggravation? Why!" For one blessed second Miss Hathaway was speechless. Then: "I demand to see the manager."
    "I am the manager."
    "The owner then."
    "I'm the owner as well," Sara lied.
    She could just imagine Jamie being confronted with an enraged Geraldine Hathaway. He wouldn't speak to her for a week. "Then... then..."
    Sara came around from behind the counter and, taking the woman by the arm, steered her towards the door.
    "We're just closing," she said.
    "It's only two o'clock!"
    "For lunch. Goodbye, Miss Hathaway."
    They got as far as the door before the woman made her final stand.
    "I demand to be treated with some respect!" she cried.
    Sara couldn't hold back any longer. "Out, out, out!" she shouted, opening the door and almost bodily shoving Miss Hathaway through it.
    On the sidewalk, Miss Hathaway opened her umbrella with an angry snap and glared at Sara. "You won't see me in here again," she said loudly, hoping to attract the attention of a passerby. Unfortunately, the drizzle was keeping most people off the streets and the sidewalk was empty.
    "Well, thank God for that," Sara replied and slammed the door shut.
    She locked it, turned the "Open" sign around so that it read "Closed" from outside and stomped back to her stool. She sat there fuming for long moments until the whole scene had repeated itself in her mind. Then she began to giggle. Well! She never thought she'd have the nerve to do that. Wait'll she told Jamie.
    She opened her hand and looked down at the ring that had caused the whole fuss. It was hers, she decided. That was one of the nice things about operating The Merry Dancers. Her rooms at home were as cluttered as the store, filled with odd things that'd caught her fancy. The painting and the pouch's contents would be right at home there. She ran a finger along the frame of the painting. Who had the artist been? She looked at the side of the box once more.
    "Dr. Aled Evans," she murmured, and decided to give Jamie a call to see if he remembered where he'd gotten the box or if he knew who Dr. Evans had been.
    She remembered Jamie saying