BOOK 1: SERENDIPITY / CH. 12: THE RING

MONDAY EVENING

“Sarah, would you do me the honour of letting me cook for you again?”

“Of course, John, but you must let me cook sometime! Shall we start walking?”

“OK, you cook tomorrow and I'll cook tonight. That is uh, assuming you want to spend the evenings together as well as being together at work.”

“Well, it's not like we're sharing an office, John. We hardly saw each other all afternoon after the meeting.”

“So that's what, three hours?”

“Oh, more like two and a half, I guess.” Sarah laughed. “And we did see each other at tea-break, didn't we. So why did I miss you so much?”

“I think it's called being in love. Either that or a nasty contagious mental problem. I say contagious because I missed you too.”

“John, you've been married, does it stay like this? It's almost incapacitating!”

“It fades, or maybe you become able to cope with separation better. But I'm no expert. I was only married for a year.”

Without entering that relaxed/focussed state, or any contact, Sarah couldn't be certain but she thought she'd just triggered a sadness in John. “I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It's all right, love,” and he held her hand and she was aware of memories of joy and excitement she'd triggered, along with the great loss that accompanied them. Precious things that John could, and did treasure.

“It would feel wrong to forget those days, no matter the loss. Sally was my beloved wife, but she was taken from me, and now you are entering my heart as she did. I don't think I'll confuse the two of you, but I don't expect that I'll forget her.”

“I don't want you to forget her, as long as you can give me space in your heart too.”

“She retains a little corner which I expect will be hers for a while still, but my heart is otherwise full of love for you.”

“You say the nicest things, John. Thank you for letting yourself love me. I'd be very lonely feeling like this if you didn't love me back.”

“Sarah, I've been meaning to ask you. Do you have any relatives who might know anything, or did your father have any close colleagues he might have worked with on the technology?”

“Sorry, John, I'm a product of the population decline. No cousins, no relations at all on my father's side. There might be a second cousin or something equally distant on my mother's side, but I don't remember her talking about cousins. And I know she was an only child, and my grandparents were all old when my parents married, and died before I was ten. As for close colleagues, I can't think of anyone, really. He had some employees who did trading with him or administered other bits of the holding company; but at the shop my dad was the jeweller, the others were just shop keepers.

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“Of course! Smith's jewellers, in the High Street. I didn't think about it.”

“You knew it?”

“I bought Sally's rings there. Unless he bought in bottom of the range stuff like I was able to afford back then, I guess your father made both the engagement ring and the wedding ring. Which brings me an embarrassing question. Would you want Sally's engagement ring, or should I get you something that is all yours?”

“I hadn't thought about it, John. I don't know. It was the symbol of your love for her. Would you giving it to me mean that now I have all your love, or would it mean that my hand will always carry her ring, a reminder of your lost love? Would a new ring be a better symbol of our new love?”

“If it stayed in the house, but not on your finger, then I'm sure it might easily stay Sally's ring. I don't think that would be good for our relationship. So if you don't want it, then I'll sell it.”

“Then John, if it's all right with you, I'll take a look at it before I decide. If it was really bottom of the range stuff, and if it was my Dad's work, then there'd have to be some problem with it, like a damaged stone. But sometimes my Dad sold apprentice work in that bracket as long as the workmanship wasn't too bad. He'd just sell it at a price to recoup the cost of materials really, so the apprentice could say they'd sold some of their work. He even let me try making one once. He said it was good enough to sell, but I expect he just melted it down secretly. I mean, selling someone a nine year old's first attempt at setting a stone? Surely that'd be the proud father taking things a bit too far, don't you think?”

“It could be, but maybe he did sell it. And yes, of course. I don't want to give you a stone that'd embarrass you.” John had a few synapses that were trying to tell him something. Sarah's story of apprentice-made rings certainly rang a bell, and he did remember there'd been something special about the ring he'd bought Sally. But it couldn't have been the one Sarah had made, surely. That would be too much of a coincidence. They arrived at the house and John went straight to his room to get the ring in its box. “Here you are, one ring for your evaluation and appraisal.”

“That's odd. John, are you sure this is the original box?”

“Yes, why?”

“Well, I know my Dad had this system to help him remember rings. Special rings went into boxes like this. Very special ones.”

“Well, your story about apprentice rings certainly rang a bell, and I remember there being something special about this one. And the timing fits, roughly a year and a month before the attack. Go on, look at it.”

“I don't know if I dare, John. It's too scary, such a coincidence. Describe it to me instead.”

“I can't Sarah, if I get it wrong then I'll mislead you. But I do remember that it was somehow special to the man in the shop. Here, let me.” And he lifted the top of the box. “Sarah! Open your eyes, you're being silly!”

“It is. John, it is, I remember not quite making these two prongs perfectly symmetrical like I'd wanted them, but Daddy said it looked like it was part of the design.”

“He was right, it does.”

“Oh John, how?”

“Timing my love, timing and the S motif, and your father — I presume it was him - extolling the virtues of the young lady who'd made this with only a little help, and maybe one day she'd be famous. And that it was really a very good stone for the price, and wouldn't my intended be happier with this ring than any other that was in my price range. He was right. Sally was thrilled with it.”

“John, if you're sure you don't mind giving me this ring one day, I'd be thrilled to wear it too.”

John knelt and said, “Then my beloved Sarah, you would make me the happiest man for miles around if you wore this ring as a token of the strength and purity of our love. Will you marry me?”

“I will, John.”

“Then I return this ring to its creator, thanking her for the pleasure it gave Sally, but now knowing it has been your ring all along.”