Page 78 of Cosy & Chill
“I can see—”
A scream split the air, so loud and so piercing, Finn couldn’t tell where it came from. They jolted off the sofa, heads turning this way and that.
“Upstairs.”
They took the stairs three at a time, not bothering to turn on the lights. When they reached the top-floor landing, they didn’t need light. A wavering blue glow came from the door of Leo’s workroom, bright enough to read by.
“Roisin?”
“Yes. Don’t—I’m here. I’m in here.” Her voice, thick and rough, was barely recognisable.
Finn met Leo’s gaze, saw his own thoughts reflected there. Together, they moved to the door and pushed it wide.
Roisin knelt on the floor, her back to them.
“Roisin? Are you okay?”
“Don’t come in!” The words were a snarl. She spun, dark red hair flying, and glared at the two of them.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Stay out!”
She shifted a tiny bit more, and Finn saw a jagged hole in the wall beside the fireplace.
Cracks running through the plaster almost to the ceiling.
Wooden shelves, splintered and broken.
And silver coins scattered everywhere.
“You found the treasure.” Leo took two steps forward, and Roisin was up and in his face in heartbeats.
“I said… stay out!”
Finn stepped between them, shielding Leo. “Roisin, that’s enough!” She was one step away from violence, and Finn wasn’t having it. “We’re not after that damned treasure. We never have been.”
“We heard you scream and came to check that you were okay. We won’t come in if you don’t want us to, but if you need a hand, we’ll—”
Roisin deflated. Finn had no other word to describe it. She sank to the floor, coming to rest in between heaps of coins. They covered the wooden boards in discoloured drifts, copper and silver disks, oddly misshapen.
“I called,” Roisin half-whispered, hands sifting the coins like sand on a beach. “I called as I’ve called every day since you moved in. Suddenly the wall burst open and the hoard poured out. I had no idea there’d be so much of it.”
“What about your… coin… key? Is it here?”
“I don’t know. There’s so much silver. So much noise.” She clutched both hands to her head as if trying to cover her ears. “I just… I can’t tell.”
Finn traded a glance with Leo. They saw mounds of coin, but whatever bothered Roisin didn’t affect their senses. “Can we help?” he asked again. “We can separate out the copper coins, maybe, and the black pieces that are unrecognisable. Will that make it easier?”
Roisin didn’t answer. The woman who had opinions on anything and made decisions faster than lightning sat in a wash of coins, unable to move one way or another. Finn thought he understood. If he’d spent twelve hundred years searching for something… “I’ll get a few bowls,” he said. “Between the three of us, we can at least pick them all up.”
They set to work sorting copper from silver, while Roisin stared at the mess the hoard had made of Leo’s beautifully designed workroom.
Slowly, the heaps of coins diminished. They moved the furniture around and Leo shook out the rugs to make sure they didn’t miss any.
“Leave the copper here,” Roisin said. “We should take the silver somewhere else. Somewhere quieter.”
“Downstairs by the fire? We have wine and if you tell us what to look for, maybe we can help you sort?”
