CHAPTER 72
She went about her duties quickly. She hadn’t even cleaned the glass yet today because of that idiot Mr. Runington, and now she hurried along with it to get to Kallias.
Mr. Wilson had sent the pumpernickel back with her—it must indeed have been his least favorite—and she thought she’d share some with Kallias.
She had also gotten some eggs in town, and she quickly got about getting her pan and cooking them.
She doubted he’d like them and she did not feel like describing how her kind ate others’ unfertilized eggs.
Not tonight. She’d eat this alone and take the bread for them to share.
But as she waited for the eggs to cook, she saw the necklace of sea glass she had been working on. It was so close, so near to completion that suddenly she felt compelled to sit down and finish it.
Maybe it was the talks of Kallias leaving, maybe it was the foreboding dread of seeing Mr. Runington again, maybe it was Kallias’s expression, or maybe it was her earlier thoughts of marriage, but it suddenly felt as though she had to finish it now or she could never give it to him.
She worked quickly, until it was finally done—a necklace of sparkling white, blue, and green sea glass.
It was the colors of Kallias, and she could see him in them, how the sea had worn them down but left them all the more rounded and gentle and nuanced and gorgeous, how the sea had brought them both to her.
She hoped he would like it.
And then as soon as it was done, she rushed out, forgetting the bread completely in her excitement, and there he was, waiting for her under the moonlight.