Page 79 of Cosy & Chill
Roisin didn’t argue. Her skin was ghost-pale against the wine-red of her hair, and she was quieter than they’d ever seen her. Finn had seen fear in Leo’s eyes just an hour before, so recognising it in Roisin’s was easy. She was terrified that after all the years and all the trouble she’d gone to, her amulet wouldn’t be here.
Leo saw it too and understood it just as well.
He never left Roisin’s sight while he carried the bowl of coins downstairs, and instead of wine, he poured her a hefty slug of Bushmills whisky.
“You’ll know when you see your amulet, right?” Finn had been working it out in his head. “If there’s too much silver here, we need to narrow it down. What if we pour out a few coins at a time, put them on the table for you to look at. If your amulet’s not there, we can remove them to a different bowl.”
“It’s not as if we’re short of bowls in this house.” Leo brought a couple more from the kitchen. “Roisin? Will this work?”
Her green eyes looked misty; her lashes wet. “I can’t believe I have humans helping me go home.”
“Well, we can’t help that.”
Leo’s acid comment brought the fire back to her gaze. “That’s not what I meant and ye know it.” She knocked back her whisky and held out the glass for a refill. “Start with a dozen coins at a time. Any we discard need to leave this room. The din in here is shockin’.”
Finn, oblivious to any din, poured a handful of coins onto the coffee table.
Roisin waved her palm over the surface, not touching the silver. The coins shifted a tiny amount. “Nothing,” she said.
Leo swiped them off the table into his bowl, then took the bowl to the kitchen. When he returned, Finn poured more coins onto the coffee table for Roisin to check.
They continued this game for half an hour.
Until Finn poured the next lot of coins and Roisin snatched one out of the air.
She didn’t scream. She didn’t curse. She didn’t jump up and dance around the room. In fact, Roisin didn’t move at all. She clutched the coin to her chest, and her lips moved silently over and over, in thanks or invocation.
Neither Finn nor Leo dared to disturb her.
They moved the remaining coins to the kitchen, re-uniting them with the rest of the hoard.
“What are we going to do with all this?”
“Don’t look at me. I’ve never found treasure before.”
“Well, strictly speaking, we didn’t either.” He poked his head into the living room. “Roisin! What happens to all these coins now?”
She joined them a few moments later, still clutching the amulet. “I told ye when we met that I only wanted a single coin from this hoard. Ye can keep the rest and do with it as ye please.”
Roisin’s gaze swept the room, focussed on things neither Leo nor Finn could see. She struggled to stay still, too, shifting from foot to foot and moving the amulet from one fist to the other. A big, excited smile bloomed on her face, and Finn knew that she was getting ready to say goodbye.
“Do you… Do you have to leave immediately?” Finn’s voice wavered as they both stared at Roisin. Her smile was unlike any they’d ever seen on her face, and it proclaimed her heritage. This was the woman who swore in the middle of the night while she moved furniture, the woman who could paint a room with a flick of her finger. The woman… who wasn’t human.
“I’ve not been home in twelve hundred years,” she pointed out.
“I’ve been away from home for two years, and have no wish to go back,” Leo butted in. “We do understand. We just wish…”
“We wanted you to find your amulet, but we didn’t… We didn’t plan for it happening today.”
“Exactly. You were supposed to celebrate with us, because the time you’ve spent here also matters. You’ve helped us. I’m sure you’ve helped others over the years. Before you go, we’d love to hear your story.”
Finn picked one of the coins from the bowl and held it up. “We may need to know how this came to be here if we don’t want to get in trouble with the law.”
“Why should ye get into trouble? This is treasure.”
“There are rules how to handle finding treasure and besides… The house doesn’t belong to us. It’s the owners who are responsible.”
“They won’t mind.”
