When I woke the next morning, Sarah was still sleeping, one hand resting lightly on her stomach. I put my hand on hers, and she stirred, opening her eyes. "OK?" I asked softly.
She nodded, and I shifted a little closer. "Sarah -- darling -- even before this, well, everything we've shared... We love you."
Beth had opened her eyes, and she nodded, adding her hand to mine on Sarah's stomach.
I took a deep breath. "I love you, Sarah."
I glanced at Beth, then back to Sarah's face. "Whatever the future holds, ours is with you."
Sarah was crying now, brushing tears from her cheeks with her fingers. "Love you too."
Beth kissed her wet cheek, and looked thoughtful. "What can we do that sort of celebrates all this -- as a promise to Sarah, and to the little one that's coming?"
I looked at Sarah's hand, still under mine and Beth's. "There's one thing I know we can do."
"Hmm?" she queried.
"Well, a ring for a certain finger."
Sarah's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Sure."
Beth hesitated before she spoke again. "Sarah, darling, we've not talked properly yet about telling people -- will it be OK if nobody knows what the ring means to start with?"
Sarah nodded. "That's fine."
Beth sat up decisively. "So -- let's get ready, and we can go looking."
She looked thoughtful. "That place where we got our rings is too far, really. And it's Sunday, so things in town will be closed."
"I know," I offered. "That craft village place -- there's a jeweller who works there. You'd definitely have something unique then, Sarah."
"Right then," said Beth. "Showers, quick breakfast, and we'll get going."
A couple of hours later we were pulling into the car park at the craft centre, and Beth pointed. "There's the jewellery place, look."
We stood looking in the window at the pieces on display, and Sarah pointed. "Something like that would be lovely."
The design of the ring was simple, a silver band set with alternating squares of semi-precious stones. "It's a little like mine, too," Beth said thoughtfully, stretching out her fingers and looking from her engagement ring to the one in the window.
"Shall we go in?" I suggested.
Inside was much more of a workshop than anything else, with tools, scraps of metal, glittering filings on battered wooden benches. After a few moments, a grey-haired man appeared, and smiled at us in welcome. "Please, feel free to look around, and if you have any questions I'd love to talk about the designs and techniques."
"Actually we were looking at the silver ring in the window," Beth ventured. "Do you have any others in the same sort of style? It's for a very special occasion..."
The craftsman looked up with a slightly startled expression. "Actually I've not long finished one very like that, but in gold."
He walked over to the far corner of the workshop, kneeling to turn the dials on an old-fashioned safe. The door opened with a slight squeak, and he reached inside to take out a small object. "The box is antique," he explained, holding it carefully in his fingers, opening the lid to reveal the contents.
"Oh, wow..." Sarah gasped softly. As he'd said, the ring was similar in style to the one we'd seen, but the gold had an almost pinkish tint, matching the dark red stones cut into squares and set into the outer face of the band. "The design owes something to Anglo-Saxon techniques," the jeweller explained. "They would put stamped gold behind the stones to reflect the light."
"Are those rubies?" Beth breathed.
"Indeed. And the colour of the metal comes from adding a percentage of Welsh gold to the alloy."
He raised one eyebrow. "The Royal Family have it in their rings, you know."
Sarah reached out to touch the band with the tip of a finger. "It's beautiful."
"Try it," the jeweller offered.
Sarah glanced at Beth. "You do it?"
Beth seemed not to breathe as she slid the ring from the velvet encasing it, then lifted Sarah's left hand, slipping the ring carefully onto her finger. "Oh, it fits perfectly."
Sarah was visibly close to tears as she turned her hand this way and that in the light. "Tim...?"
