Free Legacy of Silence by Belva Plain Page B

nothing.”
    “You mean that Mama paid too much?”
    “I mean that your mother was robbed. The diamonds aren’t worth a lot more than top-quality costume jewelry. The only thing that has any real value is the ruby, although it’s not first class, by any means.”
    “It’s not possible,” Caroline murmured. “Not possible for people to be so cruel.”
    The others just stood there stunned, and Lore, reading their expressions and needing no further explanation, put her face in her hands.
    “Oh, it’s possible,” Vinnie answered. “You of all people should know by now about cruelty. They lied and stole, whoever they were. When people are desperate—” He shook his head. “It stinks. They knew what she needed it for.”
    Jake ventured a suggestion. “Don’t misunderstand, but shouldn’t they maybe get a second opinion? Not that I doubt—”
    “No offense taken, Jake. And it would be a good idea to get an appraisal on the ruby. That at least is genuine. I’ll give them the name of a guy in the market who’s pretty straight. He’s a friend of mine. Not that he’ll do you any favors. Business is business.”
    The future loomed near and dark and complicated.Lore and Caroline were given a list of instructions in duplicate: how to telephone Annie at work or at home, how to take the subway, and how to reach the jewelers’ street. It was like setting out into a desert or a jungle.
    The sun blazed. Never had they felt such wet, suffocating, airless heat. Everyone hurried. Never had they seen so many people crowded on the sidewalks, jostling each other, pouring across the streets the moment the light changed, and sometimes before, so that brakes shrieked inches away and barely in time.
    “A madhouse,” said Lore.
    On the first day, they went to six places, where Vinnie’s report was each time confirmed. The ruby was really not bad, not bad at all, but flawed. Of course, it was a rare treasure that did not have some flaws; everyone knew that. But this one, where you had an expert eye—and so on, and so on.
    “The best offer came from Vinnie’s friend,” Caroline told the Sandlers, concealing her discouragement as Father would do. “He offered four hundred dollars more than the others. I think he did it because Vinnie told him our story, and he felt sorry for us,” she finished, wondering whether “our story” included her own very personal part of it.
    “So what’s the total?” asked Jake.
    “Twelve hundred.”
    The ring lay on the table among the coffee cups. It means very little to me, Caroline thought again. But Mama had called it
heart’s blood, a lover’s gem
. Andslipping it onto her finger, she held her hand up toward the light.
    “They all said this one was not bad. If they admitted that much, then it must be pretty good, but I don’t really know.”
    Jake smiled. “You know plenty. There’s a shrewd brain in that little head of yours. Personally, I think you should keep it. Someday we’ll be out of this depression and values will rise again.”
    “Lore can tell you I never cared about jewelry.”
    “What can I tell?” asked Lore.
    “That I’m not interested in jewelry.”
    She didn’t care much about anything anymore. Every morning now she woke up with an immediate, vague sense of dread, of something hovering and fearful; it took only two seconds to recognize reality.
    “All the more reason why you should sell it. We need the money,” Lore said.
    “Better to keep something back for a rainy day,” Jake argued. “Then if a rainy day never comes, please God you’ll have it.”
    “He’s right,” agreed Annie. “Don’t rush into things. Especially now.” She stroked Caroline’s bent head. “It looks so beautiful on your hand. Hide it away. Keep it. That’s my advice.”
    The glare from the overhead bulb, the bickering voices, and the stifling heat in the apartment were exhausting. No fortune-teller, no prophet of doom, Caroline thought, could have predicted anything more