Free The Fiance Thief by Tracy South Page A

in a low voice. Alec kicked her in the ankle, and looked at the pawnbroker. Apparently a real sufferer of the same hearing ailment Alec had faked, he was oblivious to the bickering going on around him, once more checking the stone.
    “You were going to tell me why you weren’t keeping the ring?”
    “Yes,” Alec said, but before he could continue, Claire had pressed in front of him, leaning on the counter. Thinking she had forgotten exactly how low-cut her dress was, Alec took her shoulders in his hands, pulling her back next to him and putting his arm around her cozily. She pushed her hair behind her ear, a sure sign that he wasmaking her nervous. He gave her shoulders a squeeze and waited to hear what she said next.
    “My fiancé doesn’t want to tell you why we’re trading in this ring, because he’s embarrassed.” Before Alec could object, he felt her sharp elbow digging ever so slightly into his ribs. “See, this ring belonged to his great-aunt, whom he adored, and she wanted him to have it. Since he thought his aunt and uncle had a happy marriage, he took it from her. Well, once both of them had passed away, the true story came out. Her husband…”
    “His great-uncle?”
    “Yes. Her husband had been his own grandmother’s first sweetheart, and he had bought this ring for his grandmother, until his great-aunt…”
    “Her sister?”
    “Yes, very good. Until her sister had spread terrible lies about her and taken her boyfriend away. Now, all the principals in this story have passed on, and so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t feel all right about using this ring, but it just seems kind of cursed, somehow. You know?”
    Alec stared at Claire admiringly. Why had he ever thought she wouldn’t make a good liar? She looked pretty pleased with herself, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling. Then the man said, “And you think a ring that somebody traded in here is a better omen for your marriage?”
    Claire’s mouth tightened, and she stood up straight, shaking Alec’s arm off of her. “Just give us a ring.”
    “All right, all right.” He pointed to a glass case. “Anything on that second row, we’ll call it an even trade.”
    Having expected Claire to grab a ring and go, Alec was annoyed to see her lingering over the various choices. “I’m not crazy about any of these,” she said.
    “You don’t have to be crazy about any of them,” he said. “It’s not going to matter in the long run.”
    “That’s not a very optimistic way to look at a new marriage,” the owner said.
    “What I meant was, we’re in a bit of a hurry today. Pick one, Claire.”
    She had been bent near the glass case, examining the rings. Now she stood up with a dreamy look in her eyes. “You know what? I don’t want a diamond. I agree with Anne of Green Gables, who waited all her life to see one, only to find it cold and ugly.”
    He’d already figured out that when Claire drifted into her childhood literary references, it spelled trouble for him. He tried to reason with her. “Engaged women wear diamonds, not something else.”
    She drifted to the next case and pointed to a ring there. “Look at this beautiful sapphire.” Pressed, he would have admitted that it was indeed beautiful. A blue stone, marquise-cut, placed in a simple gold band. “I’m disillusioned by diamonds. I want this,” Claire said.
    “This is ridiculous. People will think I was too cheap to spring for the real thing.”
    “A little while ago, you didn’t mind people thinking you were too cheap to spring for a ring at all.” She pointed to it. “We’ll take that one,” she told Charlie.
    “I might owe you five bucks or so,” Charlie said, handing Claire the sapphire. When she slipped it on, it fit perfectly.
    Alec started to say they’d call it an even trade, but Claire pointed to a manual Underwood typewriter on a nearby shelf. “Throw in that and it’s a deal.”
    Charlie shrugged his approval, and Alec retrieved the