I shove everything else away in my bag. “You’ll think it’s silly,” I tell him.
“Silly?” He raises an eyebrow. “If that’s a bag of white powder, then maybe so, yes.”
I laugh. Then I tip the crystals out into my palm. His poker face is good, but his jaw tightens.
“I keep them for luck,” I tell him. “Stupid maybe, but I love them.” I hold the little red stone up to the light. “This is garnet.”
“From Rajasthan, I imagine,” he says. He takes it from my fingers. “They mine most of the gemstone grade quality there.”
My belly flutters. “You know about crystals?”
He holds out his hand and I offer him another, the green one. “Malachite,” he tells me. “They have the most incredible vase made out
of malachite at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It’s really very impressive.”
“Have you bee
