Osburt Laytham was a favourite of James I. Under His Majesty’s charter, Osburt sailed to the Indies, and on his return with untold wealth as well as a valued treaty, he was rewarded with first a knighthood and then a baronetcy and the estate he renamed Fayerweather.
Sir Osburt had brought with him an exotic bride, a black-haired, sloe-eyed beauty who was dowered with a fortune in jewels. Among those jewels was a ruby the size of her fist. This ruby had been given the name Flame of Diabul, because when held up to the light, there appeared to be a fire burning within its depths.
Over the span of centuries, the fortune of the Laythams gradually shrank, until all that was left was Fayerweather and the Flame, and the legend that if ever the ruby passed out of Laytham hands, a dire fate would
