Tressa's Treasures (The King's Jewel Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

excellent opals."
    "That's what I would do," I said.
    He placed a hand over his heart as if wounded. "And destroy such a beautiful piece?"
    "It does no good, trapped there in the case. Opals bring emotional stability to those who wear them." They can also normalize blood sugars over time with the right amount of fae essence, but I didn't say that.
    "How very New Age of you," he said with a smile. It was my turn to laugh.
    "More like old world, I would say."
    We both leaned in, almost touching, as he pontificated on a large, uncut taaffeite on one of the lower shelves.
    I took a reluctant step away from him when I heard voices coming toward the door of the study, realizing we were much too close to each other.
    "Ah, here is my granddaughter now," my grandmother said as she entered the room. She spoke to a lanky black man who looked at me through small, round wire-rimmed glasses.
    Shamus helped Mamó to a well-worn, brown leather winged chair: part of an intimate seating arrangement surrounding the cold fireplace, before quietly leaving the room. Mamó sat with such dignity, she might have been holding court at the palace.
    The lanky man held out his hand. His smile broadened to reveal exceptionally white teeth.
    "Hi. I'm Matt Johnson."
    I shook his hand.
    "I'm Tressa Danann."
    "Do you guys know each other?" Matt asked. His inquisitive look suggested that he thought he had interrupted something. To my embarrassment, I blushed.
    "Not really. He was in my shop today with his daughter," I said, looking at the man beside me. I didn’t even know his name.
    "I haven’t introduced myself," I said, surprised at my lack of manners.
    "Alexander Mannus," Sophia's father said.
    "Tressa. Pleased to meet you." I shook his hand as well.
    His grip was weaker than I anticipated. I looked down as he pulled his hand away and saw a wide, white line of a scar scrolling through his palm and up his arm, disappearing into his shirtsleeve.
    Introductions finished, we joined my grandmother in the comfortable leather furniture.
    "So hey, you work at that store?" Matt asked. "The one with all the excitement this afternoon?"
    "You heard about our little incident?"
    "I was there, though not for long. Xander asked me to pick up Sophia."
    "And where is the child now?" my grandmother asked.
    "She's with my folks. They live over in Tobyhanna," Matt answered. Then he turned to me and asked, "You weren't the one who got hurt, I hope?"
    "No, it was the young lady who works for me."
    Alexander raised an eyebrow, and belatedly I realized I had made a critical mistake. I hadn't thought to re-bandage my leg. Why would I have, not knowing who our dinner guests would be?
    My grandmother changed the subject, saving me from further questions. "Why don't you tell us how you came to know each other?" she asked the men.
    Matt happily complied. Mamó and I learned that the two men had been in the military together. I knew nothing about the inner workings of the armed forces and therefore I didn't understand all of what Matt said, but from what I gathered, Alexander had been his superior officer and they had fought together somewhere in the Middle East.
    Matt prattled on, however I wasn't listening anymore. All my attention was on Alexander, though I tried my best to hide it.
    I remembered the thick scar that coiled around his palm and up his arm. How had he gotten it? Fighting in the gulf , most likely.
    My attention jerked back to the conversation as Matt's words echoed my thoughts.
    "Xander came back to the states to recuperate. When he was discharged, he started prospecting, of all things."
    "Not such an odd thing for a geologist," Alexander interjected.
    Matt nodded his head and kept going.
    "Anyway, I started working with him after he made his big find. I help him with his prospecting, but I'm also his lapidary." He turned to me and grinned. "I'm sure you'll agree, Tressa, when I say the stones are only as good as how well they are cut and polished."
    Shamus interrupted