Through The Leaded Glass Read Free

plank. Sawdust and leather tickled her nose
as she headed toward the bow where a thin, bald man shuffled some
items on a gnarled wood table. He turned at her approach, smoothing
a silver shirt down over purple pants and did the bowing bit
everyone here was so fond of.
    “ Good day, m’ lady.” A smile lit
his lined face as he tied a purple bandana over his head. “I am
Master Griff. What can I get for you?”
    Another “m’ lady.” Kate stifled a snort. And
what was with all the purple? Official faire colors? “Hello, Master
Griff.”
    His weathered skin, with the deep creases at
his mouth, looked as if he really had spent time on the open sea.
The glasses he wore could only be called spectacles, but the
astonishing green eyes that twinkled behind those spectacles were
completely out of character, glittering as if they held the
knowledge of the ages.
    “ I’ll bet you want a special item
and I have just the thing.” His gaze raked her from head to toe,
stopping on her new ring. “Yes, just the thing.”
    He took a shield from one of the bins behind
him. A dented, tarnished shield, faintly etched around the
perimeter with cloudy glass jewels barely fastened to the surface.
The leather straps on the back had seen better days.
    “ I was thinking of something in
better condition,” Kate said. Did she look like she had Sucker written across her forehead?
    “ I’m sure you were. But—” He jerked
his head and lowered his voice, reeling her in as if he were about
to share the secrets of the universe with her. “Then you wouldn’t
have something special. You’d have just another common shield. This
has some character. It has—” His gaze darted around the dim
interior of the ship as he whispered—”a history.”
    Of course it did. “Really.”
    He leaned in closer, his voice lower. “This
was a nobleman’s ceremonial shield. The etchings were inlaid with
gold and it was covered in sapphires and rubies.” He slid the
shield across the table, dust bunnies leaping like lemmings over
the edge.
    “ Legend says that on the day the
nobleman was to propose to his second wife, the family betrothal
ring was stolen.” He ran a finger along the shield’s rough edge,
his watch band scraping on the metal.
    Oh sure, he got to wear his
watch.
    “ The ring was the family’s good
luck charm, and from the moment it went missing, it was the
beginning of the end for the poor man.” Master Griff rubbed his
chin. “There was a jousting tournament that day. The man competed.
He’d always led a charmed life...”
    “ And?” Kate leaned her hip against
the table and crossed her arms, her new ring snagging on a loose
thread.
    “ Well, the nobleman didn’t believe
all that nonsense about the ring being a good luck charm, so even
though it’d been stolen, he went ahead with the joust. ‘Course he’d
never lost before, so he wasn’t worried at all.”
    “ Let me guess. He lost.”
    Master Griff’s smile disappeared. “Yes. To his
sworn enemy. And not only was he defeated, but gravely injured as
well.”
    “ Then what?” Despite herself, Kate
wanted to know where this was leading. The guy was good.
    “ His injuries ended his jousting
career and his ability to defend the king.”
    “ But why lose everything just
because he couldn’t joust anymore? If he was a nobleman, he
should’ve had lands and other means of income.”
    “ Ah.” Master Griff wagged his
finger in her face. “I said he didn’t believe the legend,
but his people and the lady he planned to marry did. When the ring
went missing, she knew the good fortune was over and distanced
herself from him.” He sighed. “When that happened, others saw the
beginning of the end and abandoned him as well.”
    “ Like rats leaving a sinking
ship.”
    Master Griff nodded. “And so, with rumors
abounding, they shunned him and his people. The coffers ran dry,
supplies low, and, as a final blow, his young son was found
murdered within the castle walls. The man