Page 35 of The Secret of the Three Fates
Ruan grumbled something in Cornish again, casting a mutinous look to Mr. Owen as he unfastened the top two buttons of his shirt and withdrew the silver chain I’d seen earlier tonight and removed it, laying the strange ring on the table before us.
I ran my finger over the warm metal. Golden and thick, with enamel banding in red and black with little iridescent bits of abalone made to look like tears. It was a very unusual piece. Lovely, yes, but unusual. I picked it up in two fingers.
“Be careful!” Mr. Owen hissed, snatching the ring away.
Ruan laid his hand over Mr. Owen’s, gently unfurling the old man’s fingers. “She’s safe—whatever you think it to be—I won’t let it harm her.” He plucked it from Mr. Owen’s palm and set it in my own.
Mr. Owen winced, eyes wide, but did not argue.
Another benefit to having a Pellar. I held the ring up to the light, turning it this way and that.
“After all the death it’s brought. How can you know it won’t take her too?” Mr. Owen snapped at Ruan, his eyes wet with tears.
“It’s only a ring—” I began softly.
Ruan took it from my palm and placed it in his own. “Would it make you feel better if I held it?”
“Aye, lad… that it would.” Mr. Owen wiped at his tears and touched my cheek with the back of his hand. “I can’t lose you, Ruby. I won’t let them take you. I’ve lost too much. I won’t lose you too.”
My heart tugged at his words. “You’re not going to lose me. I’m cross with you for keeping your secrets—but I’m not going anywhere.”
Mr. Owen winced. “You cannot promise that. You may not intend to go, but that does not mean that someone cannot take you from me.”
My eyes dropped back to the ring. His secrecy suddenly made a great deal more sense. The great misguided fool thought he was protecting me. “That’s why you brought Ruan. You think this ring has something sinister about it…”
“Aye, my lamb. Anyone who has had it in their keeping has died. Everyone except him.”
I furrowed my brow, not understanding. “And it can’t hurt Ruan…”
“He’s a Pellar. Curses and the devil are powerless over him.”
I doubted this tiny chunk of metal was capable of killinganyone, but Mr. Owen was unraveling before my eyes. I could not hold his secrets against him now. Not truly.
“It was his son Ben’s,” Ruan said softly at my ear. His breath lifting my damp hair. “He gave it to me the very night he died on that hospital ship. Made me swear I’d tell no one I had it and to take the thing home to his father. He was delirious with fever at the time.”
“Is that how you met Mr. Owen?”
Mr. Owen let out a cynical laugh. “Gods no.”
Ruan let out a noncommittal grunt. Whateverthatwas supposed to mean.
My mind raced trying to catch up with this newfound information. “And Andrew Lennox was there too… on the ship.”
Ruan nodded again. No wonder he believed Andrew had a hand in his cousin’s death. Why else would Ben have trusted a family heirloom to a stranger rather than one’s own flesh and blood?
I ran my forefinger over the ring, which rested innocently in Ruan’s open palm. His expression remained stone except for those extraordinary eyes of his that burnt with something I didn’t recognize.
“There’s a hinge here.”
“Aye. It’s a mourning piece. Show her how it works, Kivell. See what sense you can make of it that I cannot.”
Ruan placed his thumbnail beneath the enamel lip and popped open the top design of the ring to reveal a braided piece of golden hair.
“Who had it before your son?”
Mr. Owen frowned. “Mariah. It was hers. Lucy asked me to bring the ring to her. Said it would bring her closer to Ben’s spirit as he’d had it in his dying days. But now… Now I cannot help but wonder if it holds some other answer.”
First Mariah, then Ben. No wonder Mr. Owen was beginning to question the ring.
