35Her eyes cartoonishly wide, Molly picked up the emerald and blew off the stuffing. Her first thought was I’m rich! She jumped to her feet, letting out a whoop of joy and pumping her fist in the air. Then she felt like an i***t, and a selfish one at that…though it was true that ten percent of whatever that whopping stone sold for was going to be more money than she had ever had in her life.
She jammed the emerald in her jeans pocket and ran down the hallway, looking for Antoinette. She sensed danger all of a sudden, as though someone was going to jump out of one of the empty rooms and tackle her to the floor and go through her pockets. She laughed weakly, thinking of Frodo carrying the Ring with half the world on his tail.
Molly made it downstairs and into the courtyard without seeing a
