Page 65 of Hearts of Locke Hill

Her eyes rounded. “Oh—of course, I—”

The corners of his mouth slowly lifted, and his eyes crinkled.

She balked. “Oh! You!” She spun back to her desk and continued to sort through her own items brought from home.

A rich laugh sounded behind her, one she’d not heard in ages. One that curled through the marrow of her bones and made her think of dancing and fishing and the smell of grass in a meadow.

It was wretched.

She reached into the corner of her own box and pulled up a small glass-domed display and walked it regally to the bookshelf. She set it in a space on her upper shelves. A space she’d saved especially.

The rich laughter had stopped.

She pursed her lips, suppressing a smile.

“What is that?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

Her chin lifted. “Oh, just a curiosity. You know, a souvenir, like your grandfather’s elephants.”

She settled the display just so, then stood back to inspect it.

“It looks like a marble,” he said. “Under glass.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” She bit back a grin. She’d found an old ring box and had nestled the pink quartz marble in the velvet cushion. Then she’d affixed the bottom of the box to the base and placed it under glass.

“What does that say?” He squinted at the parchment label tied to the whole thing with a bit of silk ribbon.

“Hmm. Let me see. Ah yes.” She lifted the parchment. “It says …victory.”

She waited.

And waited.

She glanced behind her.

She frowned at Cyril’s befuddled expression as he scratched his head.

“You put a marble under glass as a symbol of victory?”

She lifted her chin. “Yes.”

He gently tapped the glass. “This marble?”

“That’s correct.”

“So did you win it in a game of ringtaw, then?”

“Yes—well, no, but—”

“Which is it?”

“No, I didn’t win it in a game, but—”

“And yet you are displaying it as a symbol of victory. Hmm. Interesting.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “You know very well I didn’t win this marble, Cyril Benjamin Burke.”

He folded his arms, his hand going to his beard. The spark inhis eye could’ve lit a flame. “If you didn’t win it,” he asked, “who did?”