Sean said, and stepped fully into the jeweler’s shop. Dammit, he hadn’t intended for her to come here. Indeed, he had been entirely uninformed about this store’s presence. Glancing about, he couldn’t immediately see Clarette, and for reasons completely unknown to him, that made his heart race rather oddly in his too constricted chest. “I’m looking for a woman.” The man behind the counter was as lean as a hickory stick and only half as charming. “You and most of the pinks in Londonderry,” he said, and barely sparing a glance from his narrow spectacles, went back to polishing a ring he’d lifted from beneath the counter. “This is a particular woman,” Sean said, and kept his tone light with some difficulty. “She entered just a bit ago looking for a gift for her husband.” “So you’re looking for another man’s wife, are you?” asked the other, but Sean’s nerves were surprisingly frayed and he found he had no wish to trade either barbs or witticisms. “Where is she?”
