"You," Dario said, "have been around our pale little smuggler far too long. What would your father say about-" He caught himself, but too late, and Jess saw the amusement drain out of Khalila's expression, and her light turn to ashes. Dario reached out and took her hand and, in a very genuine motion of apology, pressed it to his lips. "Forgive me, my rose. I wasn't thinking."
"No more than I was," she said, and swallowed, and raised her chin as she reclaimed her hand. "From the cell where my father sits now, I imagine he would understand the necessity of doing whatever must be done. What are we stealing, then?"
She put him to shame, Jess thought; he was wincing like a child at the thought of losing his mother's affection, and Khalila was enduring so much worse, and still willing to go on. "My mother has a walnut jewel box in her room. Last I remember, she had a very large ruby in a necklace, an equally large emerald, and a diamond pendant big enough to choke on. Those are the three I'll need."
"From your mother?" She seemed less comfortable with that. "But-"
"It's only three pieces," he assured her. "And believe me, she has more. Many more."
"I'm happy enough to do it," Dario said. "I think your whole family should be behind bars, but as they're not, I'm happy to lift from the pockets of your father."
Khalila gave him an exasperated glance. "It's his mother!"
"And I very much doubt Jess's father allows her to own anything outright. I know the type; he's very much like my own father. Except my father is an arrogant, blue-blooded noble, of course, and not some jumped-up housebreaker."
"Is this you trying to say we're friends?" Jess asked. "Because I wonder how you think that sounds."
///
Khalila put a finger to Dario's lips to shush his reply. "Stealing is wrong, of course. A sin. And your mother has been quite kind to me," Khalila said, and then took in a deep breath, as if ready to plunge into deep waters. "But I'll take care of keeping her occupied in conversation. You and Dario can, I hope, carry off this daring adventure by yourselves?"
"Of course," Dario said instantly.
"If he doesn't arse it up," Jess said at the same time, and almost laughed at the glare Dario gave him. That was vintage, straight out of the Ptolemy House, in their more innocent postulant days. "We'll meet after lunch. Once Khalila draws my mother off, we'll do this quickly. Right?"
"Right," Dario said.
"Wrong." They all turned. Wolfe stood in the doorway. He was sweaty and disheveled, straight from the workshop. "I was on my way to clean up for lunch. I met your mother in the halls."
He pitched something toward them. Jess effortlessly caught it out of the air with sheer reflex before Dario even raised a hand to intercept. When he opened his palm, he was looking at a leather pouch, snugged tight with a drawstring. Jess opened it and spilled out three loose stones: two diamonds the size of pigeon eggs, and a ruby as dark as claret that blazed bright in a stray ray of sun. He looked up at the Scholar, not quite sure how to even phrase the question.
"I overheard Thomas asking you for these. Not everything needs to be a crime," Wolfe said. "As Khalila said, your mother's been kind enough. I don't know what troubles you have in your household, but one thing I do know: mothers love their sons, however flawed that love might be. And a few gems is a small price to pay."
"She gave them to you."
He shrugged. "She'd have given them to you, if you'd asked. But I knew you wouldn't."
Jess felt a wave of shame so strong he nearly gagged on it, and felt his face go hot, then cold, as a flush took hold and receded. He clenched the stones so hard in his fist that they cut. When he tipped them back into the pouch and tossed everything to Wolfe, his blood was still on them. "She gave these to you for reasons you don't understand," he said. "And it isn't out of generosity. Don't presume to know my family. Sir."
Wolfe caught the pouch without even looking at it. Nimble and focused. "I know you," he said. "Don't forget that, Jess. It might save you, in the end."
Khalila and Dario were watching in silence, and it continued while Wolfe walked away, leaving Jess with that flush again rising in his face and a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. My mother doesn't just give things. He's wrong.
"Are you all right?" Khalila asked him. "Jess?"