Sorry for taking so long, but I´m really busy at the moment and often didn´t feel like translating either. But there will always be an update of course. ^^


Seek and you shall find

With a cup of tea, Maria and I were sitting together and told each other about everything that had happened after our last correspondence. I had already written about Ray´s death but now I also told her about the letters and what Connor was searching in Boston. Maria listened to me attentively while she patched a hole in the side seam of a justaucorps. But when I mentioned the blue stone, she paused and looked at me with wide eyes.
"A blue gem? Made of glass?", she asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
"I don´t know which material it is made of. None I know. I just guess that it´s something like glass."
Maria pursed her lips thoughtfully for a moment before she put her work aside and heaved herself up from the chair. One hand laid on her belly, she stepped to a shelf on the wall where she was keeping work materials like needles and cotton. She took a small box and came back to the table we were sitting at.
"There´s a shop nearby, led by Mrs. Turing. She´s selling every different kind of stuff. Furniture, decoration, dresses, jewelry…I think if you dig around enough in her shop, it is a true treasure chest and you can leave a lot of money there." Maria smirked and opened the box. "I was there only a few days ago and looked for old fabric patterns or something like that. I found a whole box full of these stones." Maria took out a bracelet, weaved of leather with a dark green stone dangling on it and she laid it on my hand. The stone had not only another color, it was also much smaller than the one Connor had taken from Ray. But it was also quite flat and when I ran my fingertip over it, it felt likewise smooth.
"I only took this for now because I wanted to see how it can be used for accessories", Maria kept explaining. "They had so many different colors. Is it like the stone you mentioned?"
"It´s quite similar", I answered and raised the stone into the light. It broke inside of it and small, green spots of light danced along the walls. But this fact alone didn´t make it special. "Did you once see that it shone somehow? On its own?"
Maria raised an eyebrow with my question and slowly shook her head.
"Well, it could be a simple gem. They are not rare after all."
"Yes, but", Maria raised an index finger. "Mrs Turing buys her goods everywhere and from everyone. She doesn´t even know where the things she´s selling are coming from. If Ray stole his stone, it could have belonged to the others which ended up at Mrs Turing´s. Maybe she can tell you something about it."
It sounded like a logical suggestion although it had to be a great coincidence and luck if Mrs Turing was really selling "magical" stones. But it was probably no wrong approach for a researches.
"Would you come to the store with me?", I asked Maria and she agreed immediately.


Mrs Turing´s shop was only one block away from Maria´s tailor shop. Already from outside you could see that this quite small shop couldn´t be assigned to a particular business branch. Every kind of stuff was exhibited in the window and when we entered the shop, I was amazed of how crammed it was. The shelves were overflowing with every kind of rubbish and even the room itself was so full that there were only a few narrow passages left. I couldn´t see any system in it. Dummies were standing next to baskets with pipes. Chairs were standing next to pots. Toys next to porcelain vases. Maria was right saying that you could spend some time here and could leave some money here, too. I had to confess that I had already detected one or two things, shortly after coming in. So I stopped in front of a shelf next to the entrance and almost reverently, I took out a doll that was sitting there. It was made of porcelain, had curly, red hair and was wearing a dark blue and lavishly decorated hat on her head, whose color was fitting perfectly to the elegant dress made of heavy velvet, whose cut reminded me of the French fashion on court. It was beautiful and also reminded me of a doll I had owned as a child.
My father had brought her from France when I had been five years old and I had loved her idolatrously. Had held tea parties with her, had read out to her and had brushed her blonde curls. I had always called her my best friend, until I had eventually visited my grandparents and had illicitly let one of the dogs into my room. Charlotte, the dolls name, had fallen victim to a devious attack and had been literally shaken to death. The tender, porcelain body hadn´t survived it and I had been terribly sad. Now I could only smirk about this memory and I chuckled as Emily reached out her hands for the doll, full of excitement.
"I think you´re too small and wild for such dolls", I said, put the porcelain beauty back into the shelf and stroked soothingly over Emily´s head, who really seemed to be disappointed about my decision. But I doubted that she knew what to do with such a doll in her age, let alone that the doll would survive for long.

I went on, let my gaze roam over all the things standing around and almost forgot why I was here at all. But then, out of nowhere, a slim, old lady appeared in front of me, smiling at me widely.
"Good day, Ma'am. Are you looking for something particular? Can I help you?"
If I wasn´t wrong, this was Mrs Turing. I nodded, likewise smiling. "Yes. I´m looking for…"
"Something for your little birdie?" Mrs Turing took a step towards me and beamed at Emily, who was cocking her head curiously. "What a sweet little girl. Is the father a Spaniard?"
"No, he…"
"So he is Italian. I knew it. Definitly Latin. I´m sure there´s much temperament in your home." Mrs Turing shortly caressed Emily´s cheek, while I was holding back a correction of her background and at the same time, tried to hide my confusion about Mrs Turin´s flood of words. Obviously she was a very talkative woman. She already led me through the shop and kept talking. "Unfortunately I don´t have many toys and it´s difficult to find something for the little ones anyway. I have some pewter figures, but she would swallow them sooner than you could react."
"Actually I´m not searching something for my daughter. I´m looking for…"
"Something for your spouse?" Mrs Turing turned around to me with shining eyes and clapped her hands, before pursing her lips and looking through her shop. I had hardly the chance to tell her about her new misunderstanding when she had already hasted to a shelf and showed me a pipe made of light cherry wood, decorated with beautiful drawings.
"A very fine work", she said proudly. "It should be to his liking, don´t you think?"
I smiled a bit forced and carefully pushed her hand with the pipe away. "My husband doesn´t smoke, but thank you. I…"
"Oh well. In this case, I have something else for you!" It seemed like Mrs Turing wasn´t noticing my objections. She had already walked on and I followed her, a bit helpless, only to get a silver flask pushed into my hand shortly afterwards.
"But this has to be something for him, hasn´t it?"
"It´s very precious, yes. But I think my husband has no use for it either. I´m rather looking for…"
"Something special. I understand." Mrs Turing put the flask back into the shelf and disappeared inside the depths of her shop again. I slowly became a bit annoyed, but I tried to hold it back while following the old lady. Now she took a small box out of a shelf and winked at me, when she put it onto a table and opened it. Inside was a golden pocket watch with beautiful engravings and a shining white dial. It´s previous owner must have handled it with great care and I couldn´t stop myself from admiring it. But Mrs Turing misinterpreted it.
"See, I knew that this could be something for your spouse. A beautiful piece that can be displayed perfectly. Furthermore, he won´t be able to find an excuse for being too late for dinner." Mrs Turing uttered a keen laugh which I couldn´t return. Everything she had shown to me was beautiful and if the situation had been different, I probably would have looked for a proper gift for Connor. But I was here for another reason and so I closed the lid of the box and pushed it back to Mrs Turing.
"I appreciate your efforts, Ma'am", I started but was interrupted once more.
"Don´t tell me he has no use for it either!" The old lady had wide eyes and I sighed inwardly while she kept talking. "He doesn´t smoke, he doesn´t drink and he isn´t late either. Tell me where did you find this specimen? He can´t be without any vices."
"He isn´t", I said with a forced smile. But I wouldn´t explain Connor´s "vices" to her. Otherwise she would either sent me out of her shop hysterically, or she would show me a whole arsenal of weapons…which wouldn´t surprise me in this shop. I was just glad that I had asked Maria for a skirt before coming here. Like this, I had been able to cover my pants and holster and Mrs Turing didn´t think I was the wife of an Italian criminal. Now she was only thinking that I was the wife of an Italian dream lover with only a few vices. I left her to this thought. She wasn´t so wrong after all.

Mrs Turing uttered a quiet sigh and in a rush of theatricality, put a hand on her heart. "Believe me, I´m relieved to hear that. What should become of us women, if there was nothing to criticize upon our men?" Oh yes, that would be really terrible.
I suppressed this rush of my sarcastic streak and only nodded, while concentrating on the really important things, before the lady could show me more things of which she thought they could be to my...a flawless Italian.
"I´m looking for gems", I said. "But no jewels but stones made of glass. My friend…" I pointed vaguely into the shop, where Maria had to be somewhere between all this stuff. "told me she saw and bought some here. Could you show them to me?"
Mrs Turing´s smile vanished noticeably and her already wrinkled forehead got even deeper wrinkles. I got the uneasy feeling that hit a weak spot with my question. Maybe I should have bought the clock or at least the pipe…
"Well", Mrs Turing pursed her lips. "I know what you´re talking about and I also recognized your friend. I´m only wondering that she didn´t mention that I don´t like to take the stones out. They already caused enough trouble."
"How so?"
Mrs Turing looked at me with serious eyes and finally silently indicated to me to follow her. She led me through the shop once again, to a counter where she pulled out a box. "These stones" She opened the box and pushed it to me. "was sold to me by a young lady, about a year ago. They don´t worth much but all in all, I could give her a good bargain because it was obvious that she needed the money. I thought the stones could be interesting for tinker. Maybe for goldsmiths, but instead I was visited by soldiers, a few days later and they demanded to see the stones. They claimed they were stolen goods and had to be checked. I wanted them to take them with them, but their general only seemed to be interested in one stone."
During her explanations, I had taken some stones out of the box to have a closer look at them. They were all quite similar to Maria´s stone. They had very different colors and forms, but they were all polished and smooth. Apparently not very special, but when Mrs Turing mentioned the soldiers and their general, who had been interested in only one stone, I pricked up my ears.
"Can you remember how the stone looked like? Which color it had and which form?"
"Oh, please." Mrs Turing raised an eyebrow and gave me a sour look. "It´s almost a year ago and I´m not one of the youngest anymore. I can´t memorize everything but I do remember that this general chose the only stone that was damaged."
"Damaged?"
"Yes, damaged. Like I said." Mrs Turing snorted. "But don´t asked me how. I really don´t know it. But what now? Do you want one of them or not?"
It was noticeable that the old lady didn't want to continue this conversation. Maybe because she was really angry about these troubles, how she called them, or because she actually knew that she was still trading with stolen goods. I didn´t care anyway. I grabbed an oval, blue stone that was very close to the appearance of Ray´s stone and pushed the money for it into Mrs Turing´s hand. But not without asking another question.
"You don´t know the name of the general, don´t you?"
She thoughtfully cocked her head and finally nodded slowly.
"Caghan…no…Cunningham…no…"
"Callaghan?"
"Yes, that´s it. Callaghan!"
I nodded slowly and twisted the newly bought stone between my fingers. Peter Callaghan. Like I thought.
"Thank you, Mrs Turing. You were a great help."


I spent the rest of the afternoon with Maria but rejected her invitation for dinner. I wanted to be back in the tavern before it got dark and so the dining area was illuminated by the light of the setting sun, when I sat there and shared a bowl of potato soup with Emily. Connor hadn´t returned yet and he had informed me through Stephane that I shouldn´t wait for him before going to bed. A quite unnecessary hint because I had the certain feeling that I already knew more than Connor could have learned today and so I couldn´t wait for his return, although I knew that I had to expect his disfavor. I had promised I wouldn´t do any solo attempts after all, although I found my visit at Mrs Turing´s harmless. Attacking a Templar camp would have been a solo attempt, but probably this argument wouldn´t count. So I had only my charm left…and the little gift I had bought. Not to bribe Connor. Of course not. So I waited. A pillow in my back, a blanket over my legs and Emily in my arms, I was lying half upright in bed and looked out of the window. Watched how the moon rose above the roofs. Two or three hours certainly passed in which I dozed off from time to time, only to be woken up by Emily´s light movements. The little one was babbling quietly in her sleep, kicked her legs and arms and I smirked with the thought that she was probably assimilating all the exiting events of today. But eventually my arms became numb and carefully I bedded Emily in the mattress, covered her with the blanket and stood up to go to the window. My arms crossed in front of my chest, I looked outside into the starlit summer night. Only a few people were on the street in front of the tavern, mostly drunk who were on their way home or into the bed of a prostitute. But probably rather into a dark side alley where they could sleep off their intoxication before their everyday lives claimed them again. I only asked myself, what their wives at home were thinking, if they were married. Were they worried or did they know what their men were doing? Maybe they were standing and waiting at the window like I did, with the difference that I could be quite sure that Connor wasn´t staggering and whoring around somewhere.
But the alternative, "staggering around because of bloodlust" isn´t quite tempting either.
I squinched up my face about this thought and shook my head. Why did I always think about something like that?

I sighed quietly and looked up to the moon but a muffled sound at the door made me wince. It had sounded as if someone had thrown themselves against the door to intrude violently. In a jerk I jumped to the chair where I had put my holster and pulled out the weapon, but then I heard a familiar voice behind the door, saying my name…or rather growling it. My heart was still beating in fear, when I opened the bolt and Connor was standing in front of me shortly afterwards. Due to the sparse light on the hallway, he was only a shadow.
"Why did you lock the door? Stephane was downstairs the whole time, nothing could have happened to you", he asked grumbling and I had to hold back a grin as he was rubbing his forehead.
"Out of habit. Did you run against it?"
"I expected it to open", was the only answer and I still suppressed my amusement while I closed the door behind Connor and he began to take off his hood and weapons.
"What had you done if I wouldn´t have been awake?", I asked, still grinning, sat down on the foot of the bed and watched the moonlit shadow in front me, that was tidily taking off its clothes.
"I would have come through the window, but I saw you standing there. As well as some other men on the street."
Oops. Someone was really acidified. "I had no light turned on."
"It is almost full moon, Lillian and there is no cloud in the sky. The moon shone on you well enough so that you could see your silhouette and especially your shirt. At least it was not visible that it is quite…short." With this last sentence, his head had turned into my direction and I could see his eyes shine in the moonlight as he looked at me. Now I looked down at me myself. Well. I had forgotten to pack in my nightgown and was used to sleep in my shift in this case. But because I had worn pants today, it had stayed home, too and I had nothing else left but to sleep only in my shirt that was barely reaching the middle of my thighs. Now while sitting, it had slipped even higher. But the pants were really to uncomfortable.
"Does it bother you?", I asked smirking and was actually talking about my shirt´s shortness. But Connor, who was just slipping out of his shirt and now attended to his shoes, understood it differently and snorted quietly.
"Of course it bothers me, when drunken men are gawping at you and philosophize, if you would still be so…attractive while being naked and between the sheets. I think I will spare you their exact choice of words."
Now barefooted, he went to the window and glanced outside, probably to check if the men were still there. At the same time, he was a beautiful sight in the moonlight himself. Standing there, one arm propped against the frame and his head slightly leaned to the side so that his grim expression appeared harder, but not deterrent at all. A light shine was on his black hair and on his skin and in front of the moonlight, the contours of his strong shoulders and arms were clearly visible. What would a woman think, if she was standing down on the street and saw Connor like this? Maybe the same the men had thought about me. If she uttered these thoughts in my presence, I would probably be angry, too.

The blank floorboards under my naked feet cracked quietly, as I walked to Connor to wrap my arms around his waist and to lay my lips between his shoulder blades. I breathed one kiss after another on his warm skin, caressed the scars and moved my hands over Connor´s belly. His initial and basic tension vanished with every gently touch, until Connor turned around and embraced me, too.
"I am the only one who is allowed to imagine you naked and moonlit between the sheets."
He didn´t say it seductively or somehow obscenely. He said it objectively and with utter conviction. As an unshakable fact and I almost laughed. Sometimes this man was just…cute in his way of thinking. But I would never utter this thought in his presence. So I only smirked and let my hands slide into Connor´s nape, to pull him a bit down to me.
"Yes, you are", I whispered and briefly touched his lips with mine. "But I could say the same thing about you."
A confirming hum was the answer, when we already shared a deep kiss. I would have been totally lost in the feelings Connor´s closeness was causing inside of me, if I hadn´t felt the second leather ribbon in his nape. I let my fingers slide along the ribbon, until they touched the cold stone on Connor´s chest. I pulled away from the kiss and looked at the piece that wasn´t visible in the darkness.
"You´re wearing it", I said unnecessarily and put a finger at the hard material. I hadn´t been mistaken about its coldness. Even when I wrapped my hand around it, it wasn´t noticeable that Connor´s body had warmed it up somehow. In the contrary. When I touched the spot on Connor´s chest that had been touched by the stone, it was a cold mark between the warmth. As if it had been touched by snow. Never before I had noticed this characteristic about the stone and now it made my hackles rose.