A Season Beyond a Kiss

A Season Beyond a Kiss by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Page A

Book: A Season Beyond a Kiss by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Read Free Book Online
Authors: Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Historical
Ads: Link
indicating the box.
    “Lovely piece, isn’t it? Not overly ornate as some tend to be. English, of course. Probably made in the last century, the sort a nobleman might keep on hand for important papers and the like.”
    “When you purchased it, was there anything inside the coffer?” Raelynn asked softly.
    “Why, no, it was quite empty.” He looked at her quizzically. “Are you perhaps familiar with this particular piece, madam?”
    Slowly she reached out a hand and caressed the lid. “Very familiar. Once upon a time it belonged to my father.”
    “The coffer is so unique, I can’t imagine there being a duplicate here in Charleston,” Jeff offered in a museful tone.
    Raelynn swallowed with some difficulty and indicated an indentation in the brass covering a corner. “You see this? I was just five years old when this particular dent occurred. My father was holding me on his lap when my mother called me. I started to get down, but I slipped and nearly cracked my head against the raised hearth. My father caught me in the nick of time, but in doing so, he accidentally knocked the chest from the table with his elbow. I was so proud that he had saved me from getting hurt that I boasted of his deed to my friends and showed them the ding that had resulted. They thought he might have gotten angry about it, but he overheard their comments and reassured them that what had really mattered most to him was the fact that his little darling hadn’t gotten hurt.” Hurriedly blinking against threatening tears, Raelynn sought to collect her poise, but her throat tightened to the degree that she was forced to fall silent.
    The proprietor of the shop discreetly busied himself rearranging small china figurines on a sideboard as Jeff laid an arm about his wife’s shoulders. She glanced up, her eyes shadowed by her painful loss, and found the emerald orbs tender with sympathy. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, accepted a clean handkerchief from him, and hurriedly dabbed at the moisture welling over her lashes. Regaining some measure of composure, she managed a faint smile.
    “I’m all right,” she reassured him softly. “Truly I am. Indeed, I have much to be thankful for.” Smiling into his eyes, she left no doubt that as her husband, she had every hope that he would prove her greatest blessing.
    Jeff lifted her hand to his lips and gently kissed her fingertips in silent tribute. Tucking her hand within his arm, he faced the shopkeeper, who, upon turning, offered a kindly smile to Raelynn before meeting her husband’s gaze.
    “Sir, I’d like to buy the coffer for my wife,” Jeffrey announced, “but I’d also be interested in hearing how you came by it. Do you have any memory of the one who sold it to you?”
    The man stroked a finger musefully across his chin as he tried to think back. “I believe that particular piece was brought in here by a man who had just arrived from England. He kept referring to himself as Ol’ Coop. He said the coffer belonged to his sister before her death and that he needed as much as I could spare to care for his niece. Am I to assume, young lady, that you’re his niece?”
    Raelynn had no wish to claim kinship to a man who had allowed her mother to die while he had selfishly indulged his own propensities to drink and gamble. “He said he was my uncle, sir, but I have reservations about the truth of that possibility. If anything, he was a despicable swindler who preyed on us for profit.”
    “Had I any notion the box was not rightly his at the time, madam, I would never have purchased it. I don’t normally barter with thieves, but when he said he had a niece to care for, I was in hopes he was a benevolent sort. Now I must believe that I was mistaken. I humbly beg your pardon.”
    “It has been my conviction, sir, that in his lifetime, Cooper Frye has managed to dupe a lot of people,” Raelynn stated softly. “You weren’t the first, nor do I think that you’ll be the

Similar Books

My Heart Remembers

Kim Vogel Sawyer

A Secret Rage

Charlaine Harris

Last to Die

Tess Gerritsen

The Angel

Mark Dawson