Chapter 31
Thirty-One
Amy
AMY LOVED presents. Giving them, receiving them, watching others give and receive—she loved all of it. For close to two hours, she’d been basking in the pleasure of watching her loved ones exchange gifts…with no end in sight.
She sipped from her cup of mulled wine, feeling pleasantly relaxed while her niece Elspeth opened yet another present, this one from her mother.
“Oh, my heavens!” Elspeth held up a bow-shaped galant, its gold and jewels flashing in the firelight. “This is lovely!”
“Your Aunty Amy made it,” Kendra told her daughter. Toying with the stones on her amber bracelet, she looked to Amy. “I hope you don’t mind that I’m passing it along?”
“Of course I don’t mind!” Warmth flooded Amy’s being, and not just from the wine.
She remembered making the delicate brooch—well before she’d met Kendra—setting rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds in it, seated at her jeweler’s bench at Goldsmith the piece was perfect for a young lady, and she was thrilled to see it stay within the family.
Sipping more mulled wine, she looked around the chamber, so pleased to see other pieces she’d made over the years.
Violet was wearing her wedding ring, a large rectangular amethyst with a row of small diamonds flanking each side. When Ford asked Amy to make it, she had been delighted—then even more delighted to see how much Violet loved it.
Complementing her brilliant aquamarine gown, Caithren was wearing the emerald stomacher brooch that Amy had given her as a wedding present.
Set with a large oval stone surrounded by diamonds and pearls, it was the first thing Amy made in the workshop Colin built for her at Greystone the year after they’d wed.
Seeing it made her remember that and smile.
The jewels in this chamber told the story of her life.
Kendra was wearing the amethyst, diamond, and pearl locket that Colin bought for her birthday so many years before, which Amy had made as well. That had been Colin’s first and last visit to Amy’s shop—the day the two of them met. So much had happened since then!
The emerald ring on Kendra’s hand reminded Amy of her first Christmas as a Chase—and what a magical Christmas that had been. She’d been delighted to celebrate with her new husband’s family, and even more delighted to reveal that she was carrying her first child.
On that long-ago Christmas Eve, when Amy gave Kendra that ring, she’d been her only sister-in-law.
Now she had three, and she loved them all dearly.
Although she’d been raised as an only child, she now found it difficult to imagine life without Kendra, Caithren, and Violet, the sisters of her heart.
Tonight Colin was wearing the cameo cravat pin she gave him before they wed, when she thought she was moving to France and would never see him again.
The girl she’d carved into the coral looked very like she had back then: a pert profile with long wavy hair, wearing a little gold wire necklace with a tiny diamond pendant.
He also wore the signet ring she’d made for him—well, the second one she’d made, since the first had been taken by a highwayman.
He rarely wore any other jewelry, and this occasion was no exception.
Whoever thought she would marry an earl? She still adored him, after all these years. She’d hated being at odds with him—she was so happy the two of them were once again in harmony.
“Why does this always take forever?” Jason asked, pulling out the pocket watch Amy’s father made long ago.
It had an enamelled face and an open-work lid set with one enormous oval sapphire and eight smaller ones.
Following the Great Fire, Amy had given it to Jason as a thank-you gift for letting her stay at his home.
How proud Papa would have been to see a marquess owning his watch, Amy thought now. He’d been a good man, but not a humble one.
Jason flipped the watch open. “It’s ten o’clock already, and I swear we’re but halfway through.”
“There are a lot of us now,” Cait reminded him.
“And soon there will be more,” Colin added. “Your new little one, plus Jewel will bring Henry.”
And maybe Jewel will also bring a little one, Amy thought with a secret smile. A grandchild—she could hardly contain her excitement at the mere possibility.
“For now I’ve brought these.” Jewel began handing out rectangular packages, all wrapped in bright fabrics and tied with pretty ribbons. “You may open my gifts all at once, since they’re nearly the same. That will save time and make Uncle Jason happy.”
Kendra’s daughter Diana accepted her present with a soft smile. She’d always looked up to Jewel, her eldest, most grown-up cousin. “Not yet!” Diana admonished her two younger brothers, who were already untying the ribbons on their gifts. “You have to wait till we all have them!”
When they each had a package, Diana counted—“One, two, three, go!”—and ribbons and fabric went flying.
“A glass box!” she exclaimed. “So pretty! I will treasure it always.”
A smile transformed Jewel’s face, which Amy thought had looked much too serious lately. “I haven’t made leaded-glass boxes since I was a child. I’m so glad you like yours, Diana.”
“I shall keep my new galant in it,” her older sister, Elspeth, declared. “How did you remember that pink is my favorite color?”
Amy’s box featured purple flowers, Cait’s had green ones, and the blooms on Kendra’s were blue. “She remembered everyone’s favorite color,” Amy said with a proud grin. Rather than flowers, the men’s and boys’ boxes featured geometrical designs, also in their favorite colors.
When everyone was finished oohing and aahing over their stained-glass boxes, Amy’s son Aidan approached her with a gift. “For you, Mama.”
The package was small and wrapped in paper, not fabric. She untied the slim ribbon and slowly unfolded the paper, revealing a little wooden box. As she opened the lid, she sucked in a breath. “Aidan, these are exquisite!”
The parure of jewels sparkled: a pendant and matching earrings, intended to be worn together.
Each piece featured a large oval amethyst surrounded by two dozen round, pear, and marquise-shaped diamonds, arranged in a complicated pattern that managed to look classic and yet thoroughly modern all at once.
For a moment she could only gaze at them. She’d never seen anything like them before. The three matched jewels were gorgeous and unique, in the same way Aidan’s talent was unique.
Amy’s great-grandpapa had been a master jeweler—her father had always claimed no family member would ever surpass the man’s genius and workmanship. Your talent came from him, you know, she remembered Papa telling her. Through the generations. A gift—and an obligation.
Aidan had inherited that gift. Had he also inherited the obligation?
No.
She quite suddenly knew, with naught but the slimmest thread of guilt-induced doubt: the correct answer was no.
Her papa had been wrong, for a gift was a thing given freely, out of love and generosity. It ought never to be a burden. If she wanted Aidan to find joy in his glorious gift, she had to unburden him.
“I love these,” she told him. “I absolutely adore them, and I shall treasure them forever.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” She watched his jaw set, watched his eyes—so like her own—fill with hostility. “Because they are the last jewels I will ever make.”
She let that statement sit there for a moment.
He was clearly expecting a battle.
She was so tired of being defensive.
She’d vowed to her father that Goldsmith & Sons wouldn’t die. The Goldsmith curse, she’d once called that, so long ago, before any of her children were born. And what had wise Aunt Elizabeth said to her back then?
For God’s sake, child, how can you let a promise to a dead man stand in the way of your happiness?
Amy’s gaze flicked to her husband. Colin’s expression was neither encouraging nor disheartening. He would support her decision either way. After all their months of disagreement, that, in itself, felt like a victory.
Slowly, she sucked in a breath and blew it back out.
“I believe you’re a born jeweler,” she finally told Aidan gravely. “At only fifteen, a master already, your workmanship unparalleled. There’s no telling how far such genius might take you. But it’s your life, your choice. Do with it what you wish.”
A collective gasp sounded in the room.
Ignoring it, she smiled and reached to give her son the hug he so deserved.
And when her daughter slipped away nearly unnoticed, she didn’t give that a second thought.