Gift of Gold

through me.”
    Five stunned faces turned toward him. No one moved. Verity came to a halt in front of
Bloodlust
and looked at Caitlin who hadn’t taken her eyes off of her. “You don’t need this painting any longer, Caitlin.”
    “What are you going to do?” Caitlin asked in a dull voice.
    “I’m going to get it out of your life. Permanently.” Verity lifted the small blade and began slashing the canvas into ribbons.
    There were a few screams of protest from the crowd of horrified bidders, but no one dared to try stopping her. There were advantages to having someone like Jonas in one’s employ, Verity thought wryly.
    Methodically she completed her task, taking her time and doing a thorough job. When
Bloodlust
had been reduced to a pile of tatters, she turned to Tavi.
    “Burn it.”
    Tavi nodded and quickly knelt to pick up the pieces of the destroyed painting. She scooped up everything and hurried out of the room.
    “Goddammit,” the man called Rossander said fiercely. “Godammit to hell. You just destroyed a fortune, lady.
A fortune.
I ought to—”
    “That’s enough,” Jonas said from the doorway. Rossander, who had started to take a step toward Verity, came to a sputtering halt.
    Verity ignored both of them. She was watching Caitlin.
“
Bloodlust
is not going to be the last Caitlin Evanger painting after all, is it, Caitlin? The past is behind you. Now you can start living your present and your future.”
    Caitlin’s masklike face slowly began to crumble. A silvery moisture appeared in her eyes. Verity stepped forward and took Caitlin into her arms, holding the tall woman while the tears streamed down her face. And then Verity, too, was crying. No one moved. A few minutes later, Tavi reappeared in the doorway.
    She went to where Verity and Caitlin stood, put her arms around both of them, and cried, too. She touched Verity gently. Verity looked at her and saw that Tavi was smiling a little through the dampness.
    “Thank you,” Tavi said softly. “I think it’s going to be all right now.”
    Verity nodded her understanding.
    “Auction’s over,” Jonas quietly told the five confounded and irate bidders. “It’s time to leave.”
    Nobody argued with him.
     
    Three days later Verity left her kitchen in search of Jonas. She had really had it this time. The man had disappeared with a six-pack out of the No Bull’s refrigerator right after he’d finished washing the noon dishes. He knew perfectly well she expected him to give her a hand cleaning out the cupboards this afternoon. She had distinctly told him so this morning. He was supposed to be a handyperson in addition to being a dishwasher.
    Verity made her way up the path toward her father’s cabin with steely determination. She knew exactly where to find both men.
    She was not disappointed. They were lounging on the porch, drinking beer and reading. Her father was immersed in a fishing magazine and Jonas, bare to the waist, was scanning Sequence Springs’s one daily newspaper. Neither man looked up as Verity came to a halt at the bottom of the steps, her hands on her jeaned hips and fire in her eyes.
    “Well, well, well, what have we here?” she demanded. “Practicing for early retirement, are we? I’ve got jobs for both of you and you know it. Dad, you said you’d clean out the freezer this week. So far you haven’t gotten close enough to risk frostbite. And as for you, Jonas, you were supposed to help me clean out cupboards this afternoon.”
    Jonas didn’t look up from his newspaper. “I forgot.”
    Verity was outraged. “The hell you did. Just like you forgot to send out those letters to the museums, the ones I distinctly remember telling you to write yesterday?”
    “I’ll get to them one of these days,” he assured her, turning the page. “I’m in no hurry. I’ve already got a good job. Why should I want to leave it to go do consulting work for some museum?”
    “How about for the very good reason that consulting work would be in your field of expertise?” she snapped. “Not to mention the additional fact that it pays a heck of a lot better.”
    “Dishwashing is my field of expertise and I can live on what I’m making now.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    This was not the first time they’d had this argument. In fact, they’d had a lot of arguments since returning from Caitlin Evanger’s house three days ago. Verity knew in her heart that she had been responsible for starting every one of those