Gift of Gold

made a mental note to see what he could do about the lousy heating system. He was supposed to be a handyperson, after all.
    And if he didn’t get the system fixed, it was going to be one long, chilly winter here by the lake.
    Of course, the winter would be far more comfortable if he moved in with his boss, Jonas told himself. He fingered the earring in his pocket as he stood by the stove waiting for the water to boil. From the kitchen window he could see the light in Verity’s bedroom window. She was up early, as usual.
    A slow smile of satisfaction and anticipation edged his mouth. The gold circlet in his pocket felt warm to the touch, and the faint pulse of the earring’s vibrations was full of promise. Just like Verity.
     
    Verity spent Monday morning taking inventory and planning menus for the week ahead. She would have to arrange for a delivery of rice and a few other staples, she noted. The supply of buckwheat was almost gone; her buckwheat crepes had proven quite popular. She sat at the desk in her tiny office and sipped coffee while she made lists, checked accounts, and paid bills.
    The work was fairly routine and she found herself thinking about other things while she wrote out checks and made notes. Mostly what she thought about was Jonas Quarrel.
    Verity still didn’t understand quite what had happened last night in the spa pool. True, she was twenty-eight years old and still a virgin, but she was far from naive. She had been kissed before and had derived moderate pleasure from the process.
    But what she had been discovering last night could hardly be described as moderate. It couldn’t even be described as purely physical. Something more had been involved, something that went beyond the physical. On one level she felt vaguely alarmed, but on another, more immediate level, Verity was dangerously intrigued. She wondered how far things would have gone if Laura Griswald hadn’t walked into the spa room.
    She was very much afraid she knew the answer to that question, and her insides tightened at the knowledge.
    Everything had felt so right when Jonas held her in his arms. After all these years of waiting and wondering, things had finally felt
right.
    But they had felt right with the wrong man.
It wasn’t fair. Her father had warned her once that life was not always fair, she reflected. It was more of a crapshoot, he had explained. A game without any rules except those an individual made for himself.
    Perhaps it was just as well that Laura had interrupted matters, Verity decided as she put away the large check register. She needed time to think before she became any more involved with Jonas Quarrel. The last thing she wanted in her life was another drifter, even if he did know the secret of stirring her senses.
    She frowned thoughtfully, wondering if Jonas had gained any wrong impressions from what had happened last night. Then she told herself there was nothing to worry about. In all the ways that counted, she was the one in charge around here. If worst came to worst, she could always fire him.
    As she comforted herself with that thought, the phone rang. Verity smiled wryly as she reached for the receiver. It didn’t take much intuition to guess who would be calling.
    “Hello, Laura,” Verity said without any preamble. “The answers are, I don’t know, no, and I doubt it.”
    “How did you know what I was going to ask?” Laura demanded ruefully.
    “You want to know where Jonas Quarrel came from, if he’s already my lover, and if he isn’t, will he be.”
    “I’ll take comfort in the ‘I doubt it’ answer. There’s still hope,” Laura shot back. “You really did hire him?”
    “He showed up looking for a job on Friday afternoon. He arrived just as I was about to pick up the phone and yell for help.”
    “Well, he’s interesting, I’ll grant you that. But as much as I’d like to see you involved in a love affair, it’s my duty to advise caution. These days a woman can’t be too careful. Did you check his references?”
    “You know me, Laura, I always check references.”
    “Well? What did you learn?”
    “To summarize: He’s an expert on Renaissance history and he’s got a lot of experience washing dishes, tending bar, and bouncing drunks. He’s drifted most of the way around the world earning a living with those job skills.”
    “You don’t have a bar and you don’t get many drunks at the No Bull,” Laura pointed out. “Nor are you in the business of teaching